While Korea’s major entertainment companies all have key girl groups competing in the 4th generation female idol lineup, YG Entertainment is losing momentum because it released music that went out of style for the girl group BabyMonster.

If HYBE has NewJeans following a unique concept (theme), gentle music, hitting the Y2K trend, Le Sserafim has a dynamic, individualistic sporty spirit, SM has a representative named aespa, which is commented as “more beautiful”. AI”, Starship possesses an equally strong “warrior”, IVE, with trendy girls and trendy music.

Faced with a variety of popular girl groups, the public expected YG to launch a new card, a BlackPink version 2.0, but what they received in return was an old formula, stuck in the past.

BabyMonster’s music and style are criticized as being a less invested version than BlackPink.

Industrial music is old

Teddy Park – the “music wizard” behind many hits from BlackPink, Big Bang, and 2NE1 has established his own label. He is responsible for producing YG’s new girl group. However, BabyMonster’s debut song titled Batter up still follows the same direction that Teddy has been doing for a long time, just less catchy.

Looking at BabyMonster’s music video makes many people think of their seniors from the same company – BlackPink, in the low-cost version and following the general YG formula: canned MV, each member has a scene, additional background. Integrate elements that show off boldness and grandeur with colorful outfits, fur coats, holding baseball bats, continuous scene transitions, and focusing on the singer’s expressions…

Formula-based music, canned MVs, showing off majestic backgrounds, bold and luxurious clothes are common things in YG. The debut MV of BabyMonster or BlackPink is no exception.

The opening song formula has the same structure, patching, rapping and moving to the chorus, the beat drops, the final part is sung in unison over a fast beat, showing off the choreography with the dancers pressed exactly into Batter . up. YG’s direction that many Kpop fans already know well because Teddy previously cooked up the formula to create hits How you like that, Ddu-Du Ddu-Du, Kill this love… for BlackPink.

Unfortunately for BabyMonster, BlackPink is still too hot. It’s obvious that girls are compared to their seniors.

BabyMonster initially had 7 girls, but the main Korean member – Ahyeon – considered the “trump card” was unable to debut due to health reasons. The company stated that Ahyeon has not left the group yet, but many sources said that this female rookie no longer has a chance to return to the BabyMonster lineup.

Ahyeon is considered the color of BabyMonster, just like Jennie’s presence in BlackPink. The loss of a key member weakens BabyMonster. Many viewers believe that the group’s debut song may not be better if Ahyeon is included, but at least it will gain more media attention.

BabyMonster members are considered talented, but many individuals have the same position and no identity, so it is difficult to create statues. Chiquita – the Thai member known as Lisa version two is probably the one who gets the most attention but is only popular in some Southeast Asian countries and has not been able to penetrate the Korean market.

Why doesn’t YG change?

After 4 days of release, Batter Up became the fastest Kpop group’s debut MV to reach 50 million views in 2023. The number of listens on the Spotify platform still fluctuates at nearly one million listens/day. On the YouTube chart, the MV debuted at number one in many countries such as Korea, Japan, Russia, Australia…

Although the charts in Korea are showing signs of a sharp decline in rankings, it cannot be denied that the group is still achieving good results in the international market compared to fourth generation groups.

It’s clear that YG’s formula from MV style to Teddy’s musical direction still creates a certain amount of interest but is not enough to compete with girl groups from HYBE, SM, Starship…

BabyMonster needs to change a lot in musical thinking and concept if they want to compete with other 4th generation girl groups.

Up to this point, this company has not made any move to promote BabyMonster’s new products on music shows or variety shows. Before that, the group did not open press conferences or showcases to interact with the audience. This confusing move was judged by netizens as YG being too confident. Right in BabyMonster’s introduction on Spotify, the group was introduced as “a game changer that will change the global music market”.

“Up until now, YG has had Big Bang, 2NE1, then BlackPink’s generation, YG’s music has been well received by the public, always climbing high on the charts so they think they can comfortably let the audience support them. without promotion. But with the current situation, Big Bang is no longer there, BlackPink is also confused about the future, preparing to leave, YG’s position is different from before, they will be ruined if they keep locking their ‘chickens’ in the cellar like that”, ” The four-hour generation groups that want to be loved by the public must also promote everywhere. The audience has many choices. YG still maintains the ideology that without promoting to climb the rankings, this group will be out of breath”… the audience left their comments.