New Jeans weighs in on the ‘J-pop group’ controversy “BTS English songs = K-pop” VS “KJ classification is meaningless”


The group New Jeans was caught up in an unexpected ‘J-pop group’ controversy. As debate continues over this, loud voices expressing regret are raised.

According to Ten Asia coverage on the 5th, the Japanese debut album 'Supernatural', released on the 21st of last month, was classified as 'J-pop' on major music sites such as Apple Music and Vibe. It was confirmed that this classification was made at the request of Adore, New Jeans' agency.

New Jeans weighs in on the ‘J-pop group’ controversy “BTS English songs = K-pop” VS “KJ classification is meaningless”
A number of fans are continuing to debate the fact that New Jeans' new album, which is considered one of the representative K-pop groups, has been classified as J-pop.

Fans expressing disappointment pointed out that even though the album was released for the purpose of debuting in Japan, it was an original album and a high proportion of each song was in Korean. At the same time, it was recalled that BTS' 'Dynamite', a group with all lyrics in English, was classified as K-pop.

Although it is nominally a Japanese debut album, considering that the music source is serviced around the world, it is pointed out that being classified as J-pop is an action that weakens the group's identity as a K-pop group. Even though the status of K-pop has increased, if unfamiliar people encounter New Genes' new song, there is a high risk of misunderstanding it as Japanese music. The argument is that it is unfortunate when viewed from the perspective of cultural sovereignty and the improvement of the K-pop brand.

New Jeans weighs in on the ‘J-pop group’ controversy “BTS English songs = K-pop” VS “KJ classification is meaningless”
On the other hand, as national boundaries are blurring and genre distinctions are meaningless in the music market, some say that J-pop classification is not a big problem. New Genes claims that the purpose of releasing the album was to target the Japanese market, and that they used a localization strategy of labeling it as J-pop to make it successful. Localization is usually chosen as the most efficient strategy when exporting. They just categorized it into J-pop according to their goals and targets, and that in itself is not a problem.

New Jeans' agency Adore also refuted in the same vein. Adore said, "It was released as a Japanese album for Japanese music promotions, and we chose global distribution to allow more fans to easily access it. In an environment where distribution is diversified and content spreads quickly due to the development of media, J-pop and K-pop “I think it is meaningless to distinguish between genres,” he said.

New Jeans weighs in on the ‘J-pop group’ controversy “BTS English songs = K-pop” VS “KJ classification is meaningless”
New Jeans weighs in on the ‘J-pop group’ controversy “BTS English songs = K-pop” VS “KJ classification is meaningless”
However, the music industry is also expressing disappointment over this. An official said, “I think it should be classified as K-pop in all aspects, including members, music, and style.” He added, “Excluding Hani, all four members of New Jeans are Korean or of Korean descent, and in terms of music and style, they are from the 90s. “I thought the Korean music industry had a lot to do with the K-pop of the 90s and was developed through New Genes’ music, style, and music videos in line with current trends, but it’s a shame that it’s labeled as J-pop,” he said.

Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr
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