“Lookup in the sky it’s a bird it’s a plane” or just BLACKPINK casually topping both Korean charts and international charts while also breaking sales and streaming records! If you don’t know who BLACKPINK are, they are a K-pop 4-member girl group based in South Korea.
Recently, they released their newest single, titled “How You Like That,” on June 26 after 14 months of no official Korean comeback. Their last Korean comeback, “Kill This Love,” received 55.4 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube, making it one of the biggest music video debuts in YouTube’s history at the time. The title track debuted at no. 41 on the Hot 100 chart and their “Kill This Love” EP debuted at no. 24 on Billboard 200, making them the first K-pop girl group to chart on both charts. Since the success of “Kill This Love,” BLACKPINK became the first Korean girl group to perform at Coachella and have collaborated with Lady Gaga on her latest album “CHROMATICA,” which earned the group their highest place on Billboard 100 at the time, landing them at no.33.
Credit to: Soompi.
L-R: Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé
Now BLACKPINK is back with their first pre-release of the year titled “How You Like That,” proving once again that the group can only go up from here. BLACKPINK was able to achieve 6,369,060 streams for “HYLT” in one day, making it the song with the most amount of streams for a Korean act on Spotify. They were able to reach no. 1 in 67 countries, including the U.S iTunes chart for the second time, resulting in them becoming the only girl group to chart in two consecutive decades. In the first 24 hours of the release, BLACKPINK achieved 86.3 million views, and now they are the only artist in history to surpass 80 million views for a music video in less than a day. Within a day, the “HYLT” music video received 5.8 million likes, making it the most liked video in 24 hours. They also now hold the record for being the only artist to achieve 100 million views in only 32 hours and 22 minutes. The music video currently has over 153 million views and over 10 million likes in only two days.
Credit to: @/ygofficialblink on Twitter
The music video itself showcases impressive stage design and costuming. Scenes contained lush gardens, floating umbrellas on fire, and giant Trojan horses showcasing that the scale of BLACKPINK music videos never disappoints.
Credit: BLACKPINK behind the scenes
Credit: BLACKPINK mv
BLACKPINK behind the scenes
The music video exuded bada** vibes, with the members each having a turn at being in the face of the camera and smugly singing the line “Look at you now look at me.” I could definitely feel the confidence oozing out of the girls the entire music video. Despite some of the sad lyrics implying a moment of being down, the overall message is clear in the music video: ‘You wasted your time putting me down, but I’m at a better place then you will ever be.’
A great moment in the music video is during Jisoo’s first scene, where she is seen sitting at a hole in the wall outlined in red. Fans realized that she had the seven deadly sins written all over her body, which are lust, envy, gluttony, pride, wrath, greed and sloth.
Credit to: Jisoo’s Weibo during the “HYLT” music video
Credit to: @/ amino_blink on Twitter
I perceive it as a message about being a group that has constantly been looked down on for their concept and image. This is a commentary on the way BLACKPINK is slut-shamed and seen as cocky for being a group of confident women. Like Jisoo’s scene in their music video “DDU-DU DDU-DU,” BP realizes that a lot of eyes are on them, and with support comes haters who are ready to witness their downfall. This scene is very brief in the mv, with the majority of the music video focusing on a more confident vibe. I think their lyrics and image in the mv are telling all their critics that people can try to put them down and mislabel them, but the downfall people are so eager to witness will never come. The theme of Victory and rising above the negativity is evident throughout the whole mv, it’s no wonder a statue of the Greek god Victory shows up in their mv multiple times and graces the cover of “HYLT”‘s album cover.
Credit: BLACKPINK’s album cover on Spotify
During the global press conference for “How You Like That,” Jennie talked about the type of message BLACKPINK hoped to convey through the lyrics.
What message do you want to send through the song?
JS: It might sound grand but through this song, we wanted to give a positive and hopeful message of not being intimidated/discouraged by any dark/difficult situation and have the strength to get back up and not lose confidence.
— 젠바 🙈💕 (@jendeukiebabo) June 26, 2020
The lyrics convey a message of overcoming a dark moment in your life and becoming the person you were meant to be. To show the people who made your life difficult or the people who stunted your growth and doubted you that you were able to gain confidence and strength.
BLACKPINK is a group that has proven that with each comeback, they can only go up. BLACKPINK promote music that pushes positive messages and are a group of down to earth women, so it’s no wonder that the girl group has gained so much love and support over the last four years. This is only the beginning, BLACKPINK plan to release another pre-release between July and August and an official album in September!
Featured Image Credit: Billboard
