Melanie Perez

Professor Meaker

ENGL 21001-S T/Th 5:00pm-6:15pm

March 4, 2025

K-pop’s New Formula: More Hype, Less Heart

During a goodbye toast celebration, I found myself discussing pop culture once again with a friend. We landed on the topic of K-pop, something I’ve spent almost half my life consuming, for him, a more recent fascination. When talking about a specific idol group, I asked if he felt connected to them, to which he replied “Does it matter? Do you feel connected to idols?”.

I glanced down at my Taeyong photocard in my phone case and Anton merchandise. To him, idols were just performers. Faces attached to catchy songs, billboards for brands. But to me, idols were meant to inspire, to create something more than virality. The conversations made me realize how much K-Pop’s priorities had shifted. While this isn’t any group’s fault specifically, the rise of NewJeans’ success, their management, and their current struggles reflected a deeper industry shift from artistry to aesthetics. With companies prioritizing brand deals, online trends, and viral marketing over musical depth and idol development, K-Pop risks losing the heart and identity that once made it a global phenomenon. 

Before New Jeans, there was Min Heejin, their creative director whose portfolio consisted of some of the most iconic K-Pop comebacks at S.M. Entertainment, such as F(x)’s Pink Tape and SHINee’s Odd comebacks. After leaving in 2018 she joined Big Hit Entertainment, now HYBE Labels, and became the CEO of ADOR, a subsidiary of the company. What once her original company supplied her legendary idols who marked the industry with their outstanding vocals and discography, she now oversaw the creation of an entire group. Her background in visuals and marketing, with the financial backing of K-Pop’s most successful company, highlighted a new approach to the creation of idols; prioritizing aesthetics over artistic evolution. NewJeans’ overnight success proved the power of her approach. Min Heejin crafted a visually captivating group, tapping into Y2K aesthetics that resonated with today’s fashion and digital culture among youths. However, her treatment of the group as an experiment in aesthetics rather than long-term musical evolutions raises concerns about the sustainability of this model. Unlike other groups whose comebacks contribute to a larger overarching narrative, NewJeans comebacks exist as isolated concepts that are disconnected from a larger artistic journey. Since resigning from her position, and leaving the group on their own, the group has gone on the record to give their label an ultimatum September last year stating “The ADOR that we want is an ADOR where the music production and company management are done by Min Hee-jin as the CEO.” (Chin). They showed a strong desire to be reunited with the person who shaped their brand, but does that signify a mentorship or simply brand dependence?

This seems all too familiar to the girls of the group LOONA, who, after various lawsuits, were able to break free from their company and seek out their past creative director, Jaden Jeong. Unlike Min Heejin, his approach still echoed past prioritization of storytelling, musical complexity, and individual idol development . While today he is the CEO of his own label, Modhaus Entertainment, his origins in the industry were that of A&R where he helped carefully select songs for the groups of S.M. Entertainment before embarking on a journey of creating LOONA as a part of Blockberry Creative. His elaborate debut concept, where each member had a solo album and could be arranged into endless subunits, set a new standard for artistry in K-pop as he explored various genres. While his vision was ultimately cut short by lack of funding, his dedication to LOONA was evident in his decision to reunite many of its members under his new label, not for marketability but for artistic continuation. New Jeans, rightfully so, wishes to be reunited with their creative director for similar reasons, but Min Heejin’s approach leans far more into branding than devotion to their sound and idol identities past adolescence. While LOONA’s struggle was about reclaiming their artistry, NewJeans’ dependency on their director suggests that their identity may have never been fully formed beyond their aesthetic, leaving audiences with little to latch onto outside of endless merch releases and promotions. Now as they attempt to rebrand as “NJZ”, ADOR has filed an injunction preventing them from pursuing independent activities “to ensure that they can continue their activities under our existing contractual agreement”, rather than “hinder the artists’ careers” (Ha). While their contract was never formally terminated, the company’s insistence in refusing to let them go independent lies on wanting to financially benefit from their brand deals rather than wanting to continue growing creatively alongside them.

With HYBE’s financial backing, Min Heejin perfected a system where fans give more money to the group than what they ever got in return artistically. With barely over ten songs, NewJeans has been tied to countless brand collaborations, ranging from Coke Zero and Calvin Klein to Takashi Murakami and even The Powerpuff Girls. Unlike older idol groups, NewJeans lacks a larger story or conceptual depth that would allow their music to evolve with each release. Instead, each comeback focuses on maintaining visual relevance to current trends, whether through challenges or aesthetic-driven visuals rather than musical complexity. Platforms like Tiktok encourage users to create endless short form content through memes and dance challenges to mere snippets of songs. NewJean’s hit song “Super Shy” “became TikTok’s 2023 song of the summer in Korea. The track lasts only 2 minutes 34 seconds, but it’s the longest song on the six-song mini-album “Get Up”” (Chen). With each new musical release, the number of songs per album declined and have become more minimal sonically, showing parallels to PinkPantheress’s sound. This reflects a broader industry trend where viral hits outweigh discography longevity.

As companies focus more on marketability and “newness” as the main focus, the overturn of idol groups has quickened. Agencies debut idols at younger ages, shortening training periods to keep up with demand. Variety show appearances, once a key method of connecting with fans, have decreased significantly pushing this new approach of only allowing idols to exist within a bubble: a controlled environment where everything is calculated and shared on their terms. Idols are no longer young people whose passion was music and have had life experience outside of fame. Now, in a post-BTS world, idols are children groomed for corporate profit, not artists developing their craft. NewJeans’ current battle for independence highlights the consequences of this system, where they’re being labeled as naive or ungrateful for wanting to take control of their careers. This reveals a disconnect where audiences were never given the chance to truly know them beyond their curated image. To the rest of the world, they are no different than the Supreme Logo slapped on everything, rather than fully realized artists. 

It’s unfortunate that legacy entertainment groups have felt the need to adhere to this new system to gain profit rather than embracing their uniqueness simply because she knew the weight of her financial backing. Since New Jeans debuted, there has since been an uptick in Y2K minimalist graphic design across photobooks throughout the industry, with other girl groups being called out for copying their “style” and older boy groups following right behind. A notable example was the girl group ILLIT, who Min Heejin directly accused them of “copying NewJeans in all areas of entertainment activities, including hair, makeup, costumes, choreography, photos, videos, and event appearances.” at a meeting to reclaim her position as CEO before ultimately resigning (Wickes). Even major labels are struggling to adapt to this changing landscape of music consumption driven by social media. If trends matter more than the development of individual styles and groups, where does this leave the unique fan culture of K-Pop?

Perhaps K-pop fandom culture has shifted from being idol-driven to more passive music consumption, where “stanning” a group is more about asserting a certain aesthetic through financially investing in countless pieces of merchandise. Lightsticks, photocard collections, and album unboxings, who wouldn’t want to partake in it? But it’s important to note that these external symbols of fandom have begun to overshadow deeper engagement with the idols and their discographies. In the past, K-pop fans were deeply invested in their idols through following their journeys, supporting their growth, and forging personal connections with them. But now, companies seem to have given up on nurturing long-term artistry, prioritizing immediate profit over longevity. 

As the industry continues to prioritize trends and viral moments over artistic depth, the question remains: If artistry and storytelling are lost, what happens to the essence of K-pop? If idols aren’t given the opportunity to expand on their skills and let their true personalities shine, how can they build authentic fan bases? The foundation of K-pop has always been built on skill, identity, and deep fan connections. Sure, newcomers might not care, but K-Pop veterans have since noticed. Without proper artistic development, the industry risks losing the very heart of what made it special.

Works Cited

Chen, Szu Yu. “Pop Songs Are Getting Shorter in the Era of Streaming and Tiktok – Washington Post.” Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2025, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/interactive/2024/shorter-songs-again/. 

Chin, Carmen. “Newjeans vs Hybe: A Comprehensive Timeline of Events.” NME, 19 Mar. 2025, www.nme.com/news/music/ador-hybe-feud-timeline-story-3754759. 

Ha, Sophie. “Music Industry Experts Discuss Whether Illit Is a Copy of Newjeans.” Allkpop, allkpop, 14 May 2024, www.allkpop.com/article/2024/05/music-industry-experts-discuss-whether-illit-is-a-copy-of-newjeans. 

Wickes, Hanna. “Illit and Newjeans Plagiarism Controversy, Explained.” J-14, 12 Nov. 2024, www.j-14.com/posts/illit-and-newjeans-plagiarism-controversy-explained/.