K-Pop

Is New Jeans facing the Lolita controversy head-on? Controversies related to “OMG” MV

Some details of New Jeans' music video for their comeback title track "OMG" are put on the cutting board.

On Dec 2nd, New Jeans released their first single album “OMG” along with the music video for the title track. The new song “OMG” contains a message about the “relationship” that New Jeans feels on an unfamiliar background.

“We talked about the strange distance, caution, and the unfamiliarity that coexists with the desire to get close to each other,” New Jeans’ agency ADOR said, “We focused on the narrative of relationship this time, following our previous work.”

“OMG” sold 480,000 copies on the first day alone, immediately reaching the top of Hanteo Chart’s daily chart on its release date.

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The music video for “OMG” recorded 5.87 million views in about 16 hours after its release. As the video received keen interest, Internet users started arguing over some specific scenes. One of them is the cookie scene at the end of the “OMG” music video.

The music video shows the members of New Jeans, who have lost their memories, recall their memories, and the video ends with a girl posting malicious comments about New Jeans on Twitter.

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The girl was typing “Am I the only one uncomfortable with these kinds of music videos? Idol music videos just need to show their faces and dances…”. In response, Min Ji, a New Jeans member who appears as a psychiatrist in the video, says, “Let’s go (to your hospital room),” and the music video ends.

Opinions are divided over the interpretation of “OMG” music video. Some claim New Jeans are poking at some female-dominated online communities. They pointed out that the tone of “Am I the only one uncomfortable with ***?” is commonly used on many female-dominated online communities, including Twitter, and that New Jeans are treating these people as “mental patients” and criticizing them indirectly.

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The interpretation surrounding “OMG” showed different reactions. Some male-dominated communities welcomed the criticism and expressed their support for New Jeans. On the other hand, on some female-dominated community, there is a rebuttal to whether it is right to use “mentally-ill people” as a criticism.

New Jeans’ concept has been controversial since their debut in July last year. Min Hee Jin, CEO of ADOR, who produces New Jeans, is accused of putting the “Lolita” concept on the underage members. In addition to the group’s concept, the lyrics of “Cookie” is also accused of sexual commercialization when all New Jeans members are still underage.

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Regarding the music video of “OMG,” ADOR explained, “Shin Woo Suk, director of the Dolphiner Films studio, was trying to express the relationship between New Jeans, their fandom Bunnies, and childhood innocence against the backdrop of a mental hospital.”

Source: Sports Kyunghyang

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