So we are officially a week into Blackpink’s Deadline era and its a good time to reflect on what the era has brought the group and its potential future.
The good: 1) deadline broke records for highest day one sales by a GG and highest 1st week sales by a GG finished the week at 1.78 million copies sold. Which is crazy because yg had to order more copies being made and backorders are just now being filled (literally got my email my album is being shipped today)
Putting in perspective since Born Pink in 22′ only ive, idle, lsfm, aespa, NJ, babymonster, twice, and now BP have had a 1million seller. With trending lower sales this is a very important barrier for GG’s to meet now.
2)its on track for 2 million sold quickly which only 3 other gg albums have ever done (aespa my world, NJ get up, and born pink (highest and only album over 3m)) which is just another crazy achievment for BP.
3)It also is 4th in 1st week spotify streams alltike (NJ get up in 3rd being the only non BP in top 4) which for a mini with only 4 new songs is an excellent result.
4) The MV reached over 3million likes and is only kpop group to do so in 26′ and first since Jump last year. Blackpink has always been known for their MV and youtube dominance and Go is another fantastic addition to their mv collection. The director who worked on jennie’s zen and its influence was very apparent here which is cool to see. The sets and outfits we’ve got glimpses of in the bts are awesome and at BP standards.
5) Album reviews have been very positive for this mini garnering some of their highest reviews from critics and is their highest rated on metacritic. Which is awesome to see especially with the TT and lead single being a new direction musically from them.
6) lastly the promotion. Whike there are many negatives i wanted to comment on the good first. The national museum of korea collaboration with BP is insane and if people haven’t seen it they need to. The audio visual stimulation as you listen to their songs is so cool especially with Go as you are the center of the whirlpool from the MV. Its been widely widely praised by knetz that have seen it.
They also did speaking guide tours for some of their favorite pieces in the museum which is very cool and just furthers BP emphasizing Korean culture in everything they do using their massive status to highlight instead of leech from or to promote themselves and they should be praised for this.
The Bad: 1) Timing: most of the songs were recorded months to a year ago with some ready for the tour but was delayed. The entire mini itself kept getting pushed back which has definitely impacted the outcome of the album. This mini should hsve came out leading up to the new tour and woukd hsve been fantastic in the set list and for free promotion of the mini.
2) scheduling: kind of a tangent from last point but its clear there were scheduling conflicts becuase of the girls individual schedules and solo work. Them all being in their own labels was also going to cause some friction, which is only further magnified by them being the biggest kpop soloists. Their successes and delays in releases messed up recording and shooting scheduling. A key point is the mini being delayed from November (after final recordings and MV already been shot) due to Rose’s grammy noms. She was on her grammy tour and release was pushed back till sfter that show.
Even more with her being gone to the UK for the Brits during launch week. And jisoo’s show coming out meaning shes doing press for that all week. Yg definitely needs to figure out how their going to manage scheduling and timing with the members and hopefully these kinks will be more worked out by next release
3)promotion: no music shows (not expected at BP’s level but at least a showcase show like they did for shutdown) no member events, no performsnce videos, not rven tiktoks or reels from the members. All there was was a failed 10min attempt at an ot4 insta live (which is hillarious if you haven’t seen the clips) after 3 years away and album being so delayed they really needed to uo their game in order to help the rollout.
YG didnt even get them on TTH or spend on any playlisting. Gen 5 groups getting better playlisting than the biggest gg is wild. And its definitely an area YG needs drastic improvement to grow with the times.
4) The mini itself: its clear thst there was a new music direction intended for them and theres more the enough material for a full album. Deadline style tracks fir 4-5 more songs could have been such a good cohesive return. Especially as a lot of these songs were recorded years ago. Champion being done at the end of 2024. The mini was delayed almost a full year and they have plans for a full album soon, so maybe some of these tracks were meant for that or songs were cut from the mini to save for the full. Either way 5 new songs in 3ish years is not it, and YG needs to do better especially as its clear teddy is too busy to focus on them and yhs was clamoring about the 50 new producers and writers they hired. Hell BM is getting a mini and a full album this year, that needs to be shown with BP.
5) Leaks: every song but jump was leaked months ahead of time to release. This absolutely affected perception of the songs on release and the hype. I still don’t understand how this even happened and why YG didn’t hsve a better handle on things. They producer snd record in house, which means leaks come from in house. As they hsve the smallest staff of the big 4 this needs to be fixed going forward.
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The mini contains 5 songs and here are my personal review of the tracks, don’t need to agree or even read just figured I’d add it to help with review of deadline era as a whole.
Jump: is a massive hit and is their longest running top 5 song on kcharts. If not for golden it would be their most pak’d song by a long shot. It also has the highest peaks for a kpop song in various countries chsrts which is very cool as it branched into a new genre that kpop doesn’t usually go to.
Go: is one of their best TT’s in a long time and its very cool all 4 members have credits on the song. It also has a bridge (thank you BP) which is amazing as kpop has seemed to forget bridges exist in the ever pursuit of a timtok trend. Their vocals and the jenlisa rap (the beat chsnge when jennie comes in is chefs kiss) are so well dont in this song and its going to make stadiums go bonkers live.
Me and my: this song is so so good and is definitely the pregame, hanging with friends, cruising type of song. Its also not surprisingly popping off on tiktok and in dance studios. Its such a fun song and if you don’t feel like dancing and put into a good mood while listening to it, definitely seek more fun things in life lol
Champion: is my personal favorite and you can definitely feel ejae’s influence on the song. This song is going to be amazing in co certs and is absolutely going to be abused on sport tiktok edits especially as we near end of nba/nhl/ March madness/ futball leagues, and obviously the world cup. If FIFA had their stuff together they’d be reaching out to make this the official song this summer, would be so perfect.
Fxxkboy: is such a rosie coded song, but I love the way they all sound on the song. Its emotional and yet still carying that blackpinkness that elevates it and helps them push boundaries as they are known to. I really love how all four members get to sing the “icy icy” verse on the song really adding layers to the meaning with their differing vocal tones.
Overall deadline was a great mini, and definitely shows theres more to come on a full album and the girls still know how to deliver. Once scheduling gets figured out and working with the new labels I can’t wait for what they have in store for us in the future. Thanks for reading.
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