K-Pop Star to Watch: NewJeans (2024)

This story is part ofBillboard‘sK-PopIssue.

“You got me looking for attention,” NewJeans sings on its debut single, “Attention.” And since the track’s July 2022 release, the quintet — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — has indeed dominated K-pop discourse. Its debut broke K-pop conventions: no teasers, no concept photos, no information revealed about the members’ identities. Three weeks after ADOR — the independent HYBE label founded by veteran creative director Min Hee Jin — shared that it would debut its first band, NewJeans arrived with “Attention.” Its debut EP, showcasing its fusion of retro, R&B and soft pop influences — laden with catchy choruses and soothing vocals — followed 10 days after. Less than a year later, the group has scored two Billboard Hot100 entries with “Ditto” and “OMG” (which peaked at Nos.82 and 74, respectively).

For nearly two decades, Min, ADOR’s executive producer/CEO and a former SM Entertainment executive, has delivered groundbreaking concepts for groups like Girls’ Generation, f(x), Red Velvet and EXO. NewJeans is no exception. “I simply play with people’s expectations,” Min says. “I imagine that I am the consumer and think about what would most surprise me.” Her groups’ concepts are informed by “industry and sociocultural trends,” with rollout strategies tailored to the members’ “individual personalities” and each group’s “musical characteristics.”

But breaking industry standards isn’t easy. “There are the so-called ‘standard business practices’ in the K-pop scene as well, things people like to stick to,” explains Min. “But what is standard practice nowadays would have been trying something new at first. Nothing is new forever. NewJeans’ promotions will keep evolving with time.”

NewJeans’ members can’t quite believe their own achievements so far. “There are so many people who have put so much of their work and time into our album and content,” Hanni says. “We would never [have] been able to achieve or release anything without the support and effort from everyone working with us and behind the scenes.” The band already has a close bond with its fans, the Bunnies, whom they regularly engage with online. “We always like to think of our fans as our close friends, and therefore, we wish to stay as closely connected as possible,” says Danielle. Minji calls the connection “a relationship where we mutually trust and rely on each other.”

Beyond its unique creative approach, NewJeans has foregone the standard K-pop practice of assigning each member a position, such as main vocal, main rapper, leader or maknae (the youngest of the group). Instead, its structure allows the members “to show their wide range of charms and talents” and “helped us adjust to the team faster with a collective sense of responsibility,” Minji says. Hanni agrees, explaining the structure allows NewJeans to “really challenge ourselves” and “push ourselves to always show something new.”

This year, NewJeans will become the first K-pop girl group to perform at Lollapalooza, following in the footsteps of fellow HYBE artist j-hope, who made history in 2022 as the first Korean artist to headline the festival. “It’s hard to believe that we will be performing on the same stage as so many artists that we’ve looked up to and enjoyed listening to since we were little,” Danielle says. Haerin is excited to share NewJeans’ performance with a diverse audience: “I want to enjoy, empathize with and feel the performances of so many other artists firsthand.”

And NewJeans is just getting started. Hyein is “looking forward to visiting new places and meeting new people this year.” More music is on the way, too. “It was actually yesterday that they finished recording for the new album that is scheduled to be released this summer,” Min told Billboard in early April. “I wanted to break the stereotype that only certain styles of music would be able to succeed in the so-called mainstream industry. In the albums going forward, NewJeans will continue to strive to present something new and unique to exceed the expectations of their fans. NewJeans members keep growing and growing, and we can’t wait to surprise the world again.”

LISTEN TO: “OMG,” “Ditto,” “Hype Boy,” “Attention”

This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue ofBillboard.