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| Members of K-pop act BLACKPINK pose during an online press conference, Friday. Courtesy of YG Entertainment |
BLACKPINK seeks to show its identity through 'Pink Venom'
By Dong Sun-hwa
After taking a break for nearly two years, K-pop bigwig BLACKPINK has returned with a new song, "Pink Venom," which plays up the group's two contrasting images: loveliness and fatality.
During an online press conference held Friday, member Jennie revealed that "Pink Venom" encapsulates BLACKPINK's identity as a multifaceted group. The tune ― which is part of the quartet's second full-length album, "Born Pink," which will drop on Sept. 16 ― hit multiple streaming platforms at 1 p.m., Friday (KST).
"Since our debut in 2016, we have frequently said our contrasting images are our charm," Jennie told reporters. "And we think 'Pink Venom' clearly shows them."
According to Jisoo, "Pink Venom" is a powerful hip-hop track sprinkled with sounds of the geomungo, a traditional Korean plucked zither.
"There are many good tunes in our upcoming studio album, but we wanted to unveil 'Pink Venom' first," Lisa explained. "I think people will have higher expectations of our album once they hear 'Pink Venom.'"
Rose elaborated, "When I heard the song for the first time, I felt it had a new sound that we have never used before … I want to showcase our performance to people as soon as possible."
Describing "Pink Venom" as "conceptual," Jisoo added that its music video offers a bunch of different aesthetics.
"All of us tried new hairstyles and makeup to wow our fans," she said.
According to BLACKPINK's management company, YG Entertainment, it made "the largest-ever investment" to film the music video, which incorporates some traditional elements by featuring a geomungo and an ancient sundial. The clip has already exceeded 100 million views on YouTube as of 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, only about 29 hours after its release, which is the fastest among music videos of any K-pop girl group.
This is not the only musical feat that BLACKPINK has achieved recently. Its upcoming album, "Born Pink," already racked up more than 1.5 million pre-orders as of Thursday. And following its release, BLACKPINK is poised to kick off a world tour, performing in front of 1.5 million audience members. The group had its last world tour, "IN YOUR AREA," in 2019.
"Since we are starting a new world tour after a long time, we spent much time thinking about how we can reveal our unexplored sides without ditching our original style," Jennie said. "For the upcoming concerts, we will perform many of our new songs while giving a spin to the performances that we showed before."
The members closed the session by talking about the goals they want to attain in the days ahead.
"It will be great if our fans love our new songs," Rose said. "If we can break our previous records and make some new accomplishments, that would be great too because that means our fans are also fond of our fresh releases."
Jisoo added, "I hope our followers can enjoy our music together for a long time to come."
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