Some thoughts on the NJZ announcement

A couple doubts I have about this is that the soft, tiktok-y gen-z sound and aesthetic they had with NewJeans (rightfully) played a huge part in their success. Not only was it so easy to listen to, its stark contrast to the loud girlboss music that had plagued the industry since blackpink made it stand out so much more.

I feel like it was such a perfect alignment - one that can’t be recreated because of how perfect that sound was for the algorithm and the industry it came into. Even if they come up with something fantastically new once again (which I’m kind of skeptical about because it looks aespa / xg coded), something that they pride themselves on, I highly doubt it having the same receptivity from social media.

Korea especially, they eat that school youth nostalgic concept and imagery up so much. But I guess that’s why I’m me and MHJ is MHJ, having led about 4 of the best artistic kpop groups ever. Though I think she’s keeping her involvement a secret, saving it for when she thinks she’ll win.

Secondly, on a much more major and serious note, I can’t believe their lawyers let them include the part where they say the name NJZ is a reference to NewJeans in the article. That’s such an obvious and easy infringement that I feel like they should have just kept using the name NewJeans - if you’re going to purposely walk into the trademark, you may as well do it with a good name