K-pop band Blackpink: a global phenomenon

Since forming in 2016, the South Korean quartet has been breaking records. Blackpink is the most followed girl group on Spotify; they are the most subscribed music group on YouTube – just to name two of their Guinness World Records.

And after becoming the first female K-pop band to perform at Coachella in 2019, the band once again made festival history this year by becoming the first Asian and female band to headline the event.

Founded in 1999, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is one of the largest festivals in the world and features a three-day schedule that runs two weekends in a row.

The festival’s main attraction is held on the main stage on Saturday night – a highlight that obviously attracts the festival-going crowd.

Billions of clicks on YouTube

Blackpink’s 2018 TV appearances could have marked a bumpy start in North America, as critics noted that their choreography wasn’t in sync and the singers seemed a bit listless. But that didn’t affect their career at all, as nowadays televised events no longer determine a band’s success.

That same year, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” became the first song by a female K-pop band to reach over one billion views on YouTube.

The Blackpink channel on the video platform now has more subscribers than Justin Bieber’s. The K-pop stars’ channel has nearly 87 million subscribers.

The video for “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” now has two billion views, while another Korean-language hit single “Kill This Love” has also reached 1.7 billion views.

Behind Blackpink – as well as boy band BTS – is South Korean entertainment group YG Entertainment. YG designs bands’ careers by selecting talent and assembling bands. Artists are trained intensely for years. All aspects of band marketing are strategically planned down to the last detail, including idols’ private lives.

A thirst-provoking release strategy

Rather than releasing albums in quick succession and saturating fans with new material, the marketing strategy has been to build their expectations through scarcity.

A Japan-only Blackpink album released in 2018 was followed by the international debut in 2020 with “The Album” – four years after the band’s founding.

“Born Pink”, the second album for an international audience, was released last year.

When the release of “The Album” was delayed in 2020, fans protested against the entertainment agency, using the hashtag #NO_More_Lies_YG.

Despite the protests, the strategy of creating artificial scarcity seems to be working well. Singles recorded in collaboration with stars such as Lady Gaga or Selena Gomez also contributed to boost its success.

Blackpink didn’t disappear from public view during their creative musical breaks. Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé are considered fashion icons; they sit front row at Fashion Week and act as ambassadors for luxury brands like Chanel and Prada.

Of course, they keep their fans updated on everything on their social media channels. Each of the four singers have their own Instagram accounts. Altogether, along with Blackpink’s official account, they have nearly 370 million followers.

This fan community has its own official name: Blink, a combination of the first and last letters of the band’s name. Blinks are particularly active on Twitter and other social media platforms, and have been known to flood those sites with love and support for the group that continues to break one record after another.

James Corden touched on Blackpink’s long list of records when the girl group appeared on their latest edition of “Carpool Karaoke,” which aired between their two historic headlining sets at Coachella. The show included renditions of their hits, but also random record-breaking attempts, such as the fastest assembly of a Mr. Potatohead or the most claps in one minute. All failed.

This article was originally written in German.