Blackpink review - K-pop juggernaut with world-beating attitude

[RandySF]

The four entertainers do not disappoint. From 2020’s The Album, Pretty Savage boasts a nagging motif and Korean-English raps, encapsulating the appeal of this most successful of girlbands: tough-girl “attitude”, but delivered with big, soaring choruses and sharp choreography. Every accusation that critics can level at pop – that it is mass-produced, that its cookie-cutter blandness feels unchallenging and repetitive – goes double for a lot of K-pop. But the very best of the genre (and Blackpink are huge for a reason) simply does away with everything musically boring. Soppy ballads are the very worst thing about pop. There are none here.

Tally, a banger from Born Pink, moves the attitude plot along significantly. “No one’s keeping tally, I do what I want with who I like,” sing Blackpink, boasting of their sexual freedom in a lyric liberally sprinkled with F-bombs. K-pop contracts are infamous for their restrictiveness, with trainees allegedly prevented from having relationships, and reportedly banned from fraternising with the opposite sex in the talent academies, allegedly until three years after their debut. Six years in, Blackpink are well clear of that clause (on paper at least), but tonight it feels as if they may still be singing this particular song from the heart.

Alternatively, they might just be very good at cosplaying a lot of swagger derived from US hip-hop and R&B. K-pop has long had huge issues with cultural appropriation that it has yet to satisfactorily resolve. Although not on a par, the band’s playful attempts at British accents tonight are pretty cringey too. You’re just grateful they don’t twerk.

For the uninitiated, there are introductions. Rosé – part-raised in Australia, her hair a pinky-blond colour – does a lot of the talking in between songs. Lisa, from Thailand, is one of Blackpink’s two rappers and seems to embody the Blackpink USP of sleek pugnaciousness a little more naturally than the others. The demure, enigmatic Jisoo draws particular affection from both the crowd and her bandmates, while rapper Jennie, who spent some years in New Zealand, handles more fan niceties. “Show me all your energy!” she asks.





https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/03/blackpink-o2-arena-london-review-born-pink-k-pop-juggernaut-with-world-beating-attitude

[Deep State Witch]

1. I think one of their videos

Was playing at the Korean BBQ place that we ate dinner at tonight. I made the comment to my husband that, if I didn't know better, I'd swear that it was Megan Thee Stallion or Cardi B instead of a K-Pop group.

[RandySF]

2. I think part of it is most of them grew up outside of Korea.