BLACKPINK is a super popular South Korean girl group that performs K-pop, EDM, and hip-hop music. In 2016, the group released their debut EP, Square One. There are four members in BLACKPINK: Jisoo, who is a vocalist; Jennie, who handles rap and vocals; Rosé, who is a dancer and a vocalist; and last but not least, Lisa, who raps, dances, and is a vocalist.
Their first Korean album was released in 2020, appropriately titled The Album. Black Pink collaborated with Selena Gomez on The Album, as well as Cardi B. It has sold more than a million copies, making them the first Korean girl group to release a record that sold a million copies. Furthermore, the videos for “Kill This Love” and “How You Like That” have both broken and set new records. The video for “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du,” a song that has become a worldwide earworm, has currently reached over 2 billion views on YouTube as of writing.
“Shut Down” became their next chart-topping song after the release of Blackpink’s second studio album, Born Pink, on Sept. 16, 2022. The album topped the Billboard 200 chart, making it the first Korean female act to achieve this feat since Danity Kane’s Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2008. In December, the group was also named Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year for 2022. In April 2023, Blackpink made history by becoming the first Korean act to headline Coachella, with fans dubbing the momentous event “Pinkchella.”
Power imbalances in a successful musical group will inevitably be a trendy topic of discussion. After all, there have been many famous examples of musical groups breaking up, with some members going on to have successful solo careers. You can see this in the rise of Beyoncé after leaving Destiny’s Child, in Camila Cabello surpassing Fifth Harmony, or in Paul McCartney’s best work after the Beatles ended. Thus, BLACKPINK should have an outlier, a leader, but does the group have a leader, and if so, which of the four members is it?
Who leads BLACKPINK?
BLACKPINK does not have an official leader. Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa all have diverse roles to play and do not stand out amongst one another, which is always a plus for a musical group. BLINKs, the name given to fans of the popular band, have unofficially designated Jisoo as the group’s leader if they have to choose one. It may be due to Jisoo’s age, since she is the oldest of all the members in the group at 27, whereas Jennie is just one year younger than her and Rosé and Lisa are just one year younger than Jennie.
There is no denying that BLACKPINK is making some great music, and their music videos are amazing. Let’s hope the group will stay together and continue to create hopelessly catchy music for the foreseeable future.