Controversy Arose Over Korean Girl Group NewJeans Categorizing Their Album As J-pop

NewJeans held their first fanmeeting “Bunnies Camp 2024” at Tokyo Dome, Japan on the 26th and 27th of July and attracted 90,000 audiences. In particular, the cover stage of member Hanni became a hot topic as it gained nearly 4 million views on YouTube within only 6 days. 

Despite the group’s successful fanmeeting event, many netizens still expressed disappointment. It is because the latest album NewJeans released before entering Tokyo Dome was categorized as J-pop, not K-pop. On July 3rd, it was confirmed that NewJeans’s Japan debut album “Supernatural” is classified as J-pop even on Korean major music streaming sites, such as Naver Vibe, Apple Music, etc.

In fact, the genre of the album or song is determined according to the request of the singer’s agency or the music distributor. In other words, NewJeans’s album was categorized as J-pop by ADOR. There have been Korean singers who categorized their songs or albums released in Japan as J-pop. However, it only happens when the lyrics are mostly only in Japanese.

The title song “Supernatural” and the b-side track “Right Now” in NewJeans’s album actually contain Korean lyrics. Although there are Japanese and English lyrics, Korean lyrics still account for a large proportion. In addition, the music video of “Right Now” even shows the members texting in Korean. Therefore, it’s still like a music video of a Korean singer singing a Korean song.

When ADOR introduced “Supernatural”, they only stated, “It’s a new jack swing style song with nostalgic sensibility and the members’ soft vocals”, without any mention of the J-pop genre. Therefore, many pointed out that the album, including the songs, should have been registered as K-pop, rather than J-pop.

A pop music critic said, “Since this is the group’s debut album in Japan, I believe they categorized it as J-pop to target the Japanese music market. However, I think they have lowered their value too much”, adding “It’s not like NewJeans doesn’t have a global fandom, including fans in Korea. There’s no need to categorize the song with Korean lyrics as J-pop”.

Another critic commented, “It’s the issue of the managing company, not the singer”, adding “Although Japan is the world’s second-largest music market and a place where NewJeans can immediately gain profits, such as their fanmeeting at Tokyo Dome, the company seems to lack consideration for the status of K-pop and Korean fans”.

Professor Seo Kyung-deok of Sungshin Women’s University said, “No matter how popular NewJeans is in the world, they’re still a girl group representing Korea”, adding “In that sense, they should promote K-pop. Categorizing the album as J-pop can mislead fans in other countries”.

An insider in the entertainment industry said, “Basically, songs containing Korean are often categorized as K-pop. Even if a K-pop group sings an English song, it’s still marked as a K-pop genre. As such, there is no reason for NewJeans to classify their album as J-pop”, pointing out BTS’s song “Dynamite” as an example.

In this regard, ADOR said, “‘Supernatural’ was released as a Japanese album for the group’s Japanese activities. We decided to distribute it globally to make it easier for fans to listen to access”, adding “In an environment where music distribution is diversified and content is spreading rapidly with the development of media, we believe that it is meaningless to distinguish between the genres of J-pop and K-pop.”