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| K-pop girl group New Jeans / Courtesy of Ador |
By Dong Sun-hwa
K-pop girl group New Jeans' management agency Ador refuted claims that the lyrics of the quintet's song, "Cookie," have sexual connotations.
The company released a statement on Saturday, just a few days after some online users claimed the word "cookie" in the lyrics refers to female genitalia, slamming the agency for having underage girls sing an inappropriate song.
Some of the lines are: "Looking at my cookie. The scent is different (Taste it). One bite will not be enough."
"Numerous doctors in English literature, interpreters and native speakers told us that 'cookie' is not widely used sexual slang," Ador said in a statement. "So the term itself cannot be a problem, although its interpretations can differ depending on people's subjective experiences. However, slang is not part of standard language that everyone should know about."
According to the label, the lyrics of "Cookie" liken baking cookies to burning CDs.
"The tune is an encapsulation of New Jeans' musical challenge," the company explained. "We tried to reveal the members' naturalness and freshness with its debut album, which offers four tracks: 'Attention,' 'Hype Boy,' 'Hurt' and 'Cookie.' We hope you banish all unnecessary doubts and see good intentions behind our content."
NewJeans is the first girl group launched by Ador, a label under Hybe that houses K-pop juggernaut BTS.
The five group members and their ages are: Minji (18), Hanni (18), Danielle (17), Haerin (16) and Hyein (14).
The act was formed by Min Hee-jin, the CEO of Ador who previously worked as a creative director at SM Entertainment and contributed to the success of big-name acts like f(x) and EXO.
New Jeans, which burst onto the K-pop scene on Aug. 1, rose to instant stardom with its debut album, with one of its lead singles, "Attention," topping Melon ― a major music streaming platform in Korea ― for more than two weeks. Its music video has hit more than 18 million views on YouTube as of Sunday afternoon.
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