Monster rookie New Jeans is back to the music scene with the pre-released track “Ditto,” which intrigues the audience with its mystery atmosphere.
In New Jeans‘ new song “Ditto”, the girls hum their immature but true feelings. They are not sure about what their crush was thinking, but they ask for a specific answer, and they secretly shared their feelings with their sweet words. Even if they feel like “walking through a maze” in their crush’ mind, they ask the person to “tell me the answer” that they have been waiting for. Like the end of “So say it ditto,” the answer they want in the end is a milestone for what they want.
The main characters in “Ditto” are the members after all. The fragment of the lyrics lingers vaguely, but their direction is set in only one place. Instead of imagining the boy liking them, the girls want to interact as they wish. Therefore, it is difficult to clearly state their hidden intentions. Everything is portrayed complicatedly, which makes it hard to understand. However, thanks to such mystery, the song and MV are eye-catching.
In both versions of the music video, there is a male protagonist who is the object of the girl’s love, but the focus is mainly on the members. The male protagonist only has scenes where he gave the camera a strange gaze for a very short time, and most of the scenes are the New Jeans members busy singing and dancing. The members on the camera carry the bright emotions of teenagers, just like the uniforms they wear. Their expressions are full of energy, and their bright smiles are carefree.
The old and rough image quality like those from the 80’s and 90’s emits a strange atmosphere. The video reminds viewers of the horror movie “School” and makes them look for the implied duality. In addition, the music video ends with the members gone, like they exist but also don’t. Many conclude this as the girls being a mystery or mirage of an unreachable being. This leaves room for interpretation once again what kind of worldview the song shares with the music video, which is introduced as “containing affection and excitement.”
Therefore, it is an important point that both the song and performance of “Ditto” should have a free attitude. New Jeans stepped into the realm of a mirage that did not clearly show any answer or intention. The more unpredictable or unclear the line is, the more attractive it gets. The song is described as “The cozy Choiir Pad sound and the classic Old School Drum Break added to the genre of Baltimore Club Dance Music to be reinterpreted with New Jeans’ own sensibility.” In short, it means the girls are adding a holy sensibility to the retro style.
New Jeans’ music is a sophisticated response from the Y2K era reproduced by Generation Z. The more the economy is in recession, the more the public wants to reverse its interest back to the past. This is why retro has been popular again under the name of “Newtro”. New Jeans is a group that has made use of these points well. A friendly but fresh territory. The freshness lies in the members themselves, who are all from Generation Z. This is why they gather more explosive responses in Korea than abroad. The music that the Korean public wants now is not a futuristic trend, but a sharing of nostalgia. In the same sense, the situation in which New Jeans and NCT Dream’s “Candy” are competing for #1 and #2 on the chart side by side can be understood in the same context.
Whether called by the times, New Jeans has established their core identity and redefined the forgotten concept. However, they are expected to maintain the current level, which is already difficult enough. Anyway, News Jeans has fully strengthened the public’s expectations for “OMG,” which will be released on January 2th next year, with “Ditto.” When their new song reaches No. 1 on the music charts, they will be an unstoppable girl group with the trend of the times.
Source: ize
