Title: BLACKPINK (or BLΛƆKPIИK, aka the "biggest girl group in the world", "biggest K-pop girl band on the planet", and "K-pop Queens")
Members:
Jisoo Kim (aka Jisoo-unni, Miss Korea)
Jennie Kim (aka Human Chanel, YG Secret Weapon) and happens to be a Kiwi! #NewZealand represent
Roseanne “Rosé” Chaeyoung Park (aka Guitar Girl, Vocal Goddess) and happens to be from Downunder! #Australia represent
Lalisa/Pranpriya “Lisa” Manoban (aka Thai Princess, Dance Machine) and happens to be Thai!
Scale of Notoriety: 4.5/5
With the sheer number of awards BlackPink have under their belt (most notably, three People's Choice Awards, a Teen Choice Award, and an MTV Video Music Award), even people outside of the K-pop sphere have found their way to their music, winning people over with not just their beauty but dynamic personalities and overflowing talent. True to form, their most recent song "How You Like That" (2020) broke three and set two Guinness World Records, and in 2019 BlackPink became the first female K-pop group ever to play at Coachella.
Scale of Influence: 4/5
On the whole, BlackPink has made a huge impact both commercially and in ways of social change. In addition to their many achievements in music and their status as global ambassadors for different luxury brands, BlackPink has also helped lives through their contributions to charity, and have called for action on climate change, leading them to be formally appointed official advocates for United Nations Climate Change Conference in Seoul as of 2021.
Target Status: Active in Seoul, South Korea
KPOP Girl Power Debut: August 8th, 2016
BlackPink is a multinational group!
Jisoo: January 3, 1995 born in South Korea
Jennie: January 16, 1996 born in South Korea and studied in New Zealand
Rosé: February 11, 1997 born in New Zealand and raised in Australia
Lisa: March 27, 1997 born in Thailand
Background:
Managed by YG Entertainment (the same YG which brought us Psy and Big Bang), the formation of BlackPink started when the company called for tryouts as far back as 2010, aiming for a new girl group’s debut by 2012. The group at the time was also originally supposed to feature nine members, but the debut was eventually pushed back to 2016, leaving the line-up with BlackPink’s four members.
Jennie, the first member to be revealed, became a trainee after she moved back to South Korea from New Zealand. Pre-debut, she appeared in other YG artists’ work, most notably starring alongside Big Bang’s G-Dragon in his “That XX” music video and being featured in his song “Black”.
Lisa, next to be revealed, made her mark for not only being the only one out of the 4000 applicants in Thailand to make it past YG’s 2010 auditions but also for being YG’s first foreign trainee. Pre-debut, her most notable cameo was in Big Bang’s Taeyang’s “Ringa Linga” music video in 2013.
The third to be revealed was Jisoo. A trainee since 2011, she had appeared in several advertisements and music videos pre-debut, and made a cameo in a 2015 K-drama called “The Producers”.
Lastly, rounding out the group, Rosé moved to Seoul to become a trainee after she ranked first out of 700 applicants in Australia during YG’s 2012 audition. She was notably featured in G-Dragon’s song “Without You”, pre-debut.
Almost immediately after BlackPink’s debut, the group garnered much public attention for their distinct concept and for being the first major YG girl group to debut since 2NE1. Their first single “Square One” broke records when both songs on the album, “Boombayah” and “Whistle”, took the top two spots on Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, being the fastest act and the third Korean artist since Psy and Big Bang to do so. Their following singles saw even more success internationally, and the group have only grown in popularity ever since, becoming the most-followed girl group on Spotify, the most-followed K-pop group account on Instagram, and the most-subscribed music group, female act, and Asian act on YouTube.
Genetic Make-up:
BlackPink is a multinational representation of the Korean-diaspora and Kpop influence across Asia! Jisoo was born and raised in South Korea. Jennie moved to New Zealand from eight years of age before moving back to South Korea. Rosé, born in New Zealand, was raised in Australia since she was seven, and Lisa is Thai, born and raised.
Strengths
Language Skills - All the members can speak at least three languages! All four are fluent in Korean and Japanese, and three out of four members are fluent in English (though their non-English speaker, Jisoo, has grown more and more comfortable speaking it over the years). In addition to these languages, Lisa is fluent in Thai, and she and Jisoo also know some basic Chinese.
Style Versatility - Living up to their name, a contributing factor to BlackPink popularity is their duality in their concepts, blending in their femininity and beautiful singing voices with hard-hitting rap verses and a sharp sense of fashion.
Tenacity - The pushed back debut led the girls to train for an extra four years. Their hard work paid off, however, as BlackPink is currently the highest selling K-pop girl group in mainstream media.
Weaknesses
Lack of Content - Can you believe BlackPink only has 9 songs at the moment? Well if you don't count collabs with Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga. While it hasn’t stopped them from reaching the top, new fans looking to do a deep dive into music might find they have a limited discography to sample from. So I guess, quality over quantity?
Special Talents:
Along with their musical talent and stage presence, the members individually all have their own hidden talents. Not only can Jisoo and Rosé sing, but they both can play musical instruments - Jisoo can play the drums, Rosé can play the guitar, and they both can play the piano. Outside of music, Jennie is known to be the best cook among the four and stands out as the group’s main fashion icon, while Lisa is known to be the best K-pop dancer of her generation and is the most followed female K-Pop artist on Instagram.
Nadya Labiba is an Indonesian-Australian currently in her fourth year of Journalism and Languages and Cultures at University of Technology Sydney. Aside from interning at Captain Bagrat, Nadya is an avid community volunteer and a published contributor at Central News.
Instagram @nadrlabiba
Bevin Liu is an ABC (Australian-born Chinese) in every sense of the word. Thinking that her life was set on a law degree, she is now going into the third year of her undergraduate degree in Journalism and International Studies (Majoring in China). On top of occasionally dropping into Captain Bagrats, she is working as a journalist for a regional newspaper, as the planning editor for Central News and trying to balance it with her new responsibilities as a member of UTS’s Academic Board. She would dabble in her love for animals and strange things through the university’s Cat Society and StartUp Link in her spare time.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bevin-liu/