By Gloria Alcántara, 12th Grade

This year’s Coachella. Everyone was bored and ready to go home. The scorching California sun was making people sweat buckets. Wallets were drained due to the $16 strawberry lemonades being sold. The glitter makeup was starting to wear off. Bad Bunny delivered, but it just was not a summer without you anymore. Frank Ocean did not even show up. The line-up of artists that showed up did not deliver at all. Everything seemed lost…until the night fell on day 2 of Coachella. Pink lights adorned the sky. Four silhouettes could be seen from the main stage as they began to deliver the most iconic headlining performance ever given in the History of Coachella. Suddenly, the left kidney that the audience sold in order to go to Coachella started to make sense. At that very moment, a voice rang into the pinkish sky.

“Let me hear you f*cking scream!”

Jennifer Kim heard the people and knew exactly what to do.

The Four members of BLACKPINK—Kim Ji-soo, Jennie Kim, Roseanne Park, Lalisa Manobal—hit the stage on April 15th in Coachella to act as headliners for the night. And let me tell you, the locals were left with their mouths open. Mother Jennie Ruby Rose revived the standard of rap in this generation with her verses and forever claimed her title as the global it girl. Jisoo’s ethereal solo performance shut down the “talentless visual” accusations and blew the audience away with her vocals. Rosé “The Golden Voice” Park gave us the first relevant New Zealand representation in media for the first time in a really long time, reminding everybody who is the main vocalist. And last but certainly not least, Lisa just did it again, constantly raising the bar for us all and doing it flawlessly. They broke their shackles from YG entertainment and showed them what they are really capable of if given the opportunity to. They were not underestimated by non-K-Pop fans but K-Pop stans alike, as their Born Pink Tour showcases have received nothing but criticism for being bad dancers on stage. But if there is one thing that BLACKPINK knows how to do, it is shut them down. And shut them down they did indeed.

The majority of BLACKPINK’s loudest tunes have a martial air, with rapid-fire rum-pum-pums and boom-boom-booms and jagged synchronization. When combined with genuine pyrotechnics, lightning strike photographs, and numerous rounds of explosions, the tracks, notably first-half favorites How You Like That (from 2020’s The Album), with its turbo-charged snake charmer groove, and Pretty Savage, served as plain basic hype. With one resounding “BLACKPINK in your area!” for BOOMBAYAH, the band re-captured the audience’s wandering attention for a more relaxed but still glittering second half, often with no dancers for the girls alone. Their smiles were constant, and their gestures to supporters came naturally to seasoned experts.

After I told you all of this, you might be wondering: Wow, how can I get to know these girls even more? How can I become a stan? Will I ever get into their area? Well, I would be more than glad to answer these questions for you. Referred to as the “biggest girl group in the world”, BLACKPINK is the most successful Korean girl group internationally. The “Monster Rookies” entered the scene in 2016, and exploded since then. Their song video “Ddu-Du Du-Du” was the first by a Korean group to surpass one billion and two billion views on YouTube, and it is now the most-watched. This success has earned them numerous awards, including the Golden Disc Awards’ and Seoul Music Awards’ New Artist of the Year Award, the MAMA Award for Best Female Group in 2020 and 2022, the first MTV Video Music Award won by a Korean girl group, the first Brit Award nomination for a Korean girl group, and recognition as the first female Korean group on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia and Time’s 2022 Entertainer of the Year.

As a Blink since 2017, it is more than a blessing to get to witness this group grow the way they have. Once again, BLACKPINK is breaking records like they always do, becoming the first K-pop group to headline such an event as Coachella. Not only that in fact, but the first Asian Act ever to achieve this accomplishment. And such an act brought in a wide audience to the event, with a whooping 125k attending the show. Whether you like BLACKPINK or not, the girls represented an Asian moment of fame, acknowledgment of the genre, and a fantastic portrayal of emotion conveyed via their presence—reflecting Korean culture and symbolically embracing both its past and future. As Korean flags were raised at the show, the way K-Pop is viewed in the media is definitely having a turn-around at this point, with only good things coming from it.

References:

Dolan, L., Scott, F. S., & Rosado, A. (2023, April 18). Blackpink headline Coachella in Korean hanboks. CNN. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/blackpink-coachella-2023-hanboks-lotw/index.html

Horton, A. (2023, April 16). Blackpink at Coachella review – high-octane stream of pop bangers. The Guardian. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/apr/16/blackpink-coachella-review

Landsberg, T. (2023, April 21). K-pop band Blackpink: A global phenomenon – DW – 04/21/2023. DW. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.dw.com/en/k-pop-band-blackpink-a-global-phenomenon/a-65388906