It has been almost 2 years since BLACKPINK had their last comeback, with Lovesick Girls having been dropped in October 2020. Blinks have been completely starved of new music from the group for what seemed like eternity but finally, YG Entertainment's resident girl group has made their long-awaited return with their second album "Born Pink". With the insane amount of hype that has built for this release, will the quartet meet expectations or fall short trying? Without further ado, let's check out their latest title track Pink Venom.
Meaning: It is not easy to figure out the meaning of Pink Venom and it is only after listening to main rapper Jennie's explanation in a video I found that I actually understand what's going on. This is a song promoting the group's charisma and power, evident in the pre-choruses where the members sing about being "a flower with venom" and "[bringing] pain". In the bridge, the girls also challenge their presumed haters to "provoke [them] if [they] like" because "[they] can't handle it", further adding to this theme of power. In a way, Pink Venom could be seen as BLACKPINK's returning anthem after their long hiatus, although this idea might not be so clear upon first listen.
MV: In line with the song's theme, Pink Venom's MV places heavy emphasis on showcasing the group to be as powerful as possible. Most of the MV revolves around individual shots of the girls, focusing entirely on the girls' visuals and playing up their charisma. Interestingly, the quartet is thematically bisected as rappers Jennie and Lisa give off a far tougher vibe while vocalists Rose and Jisoo are portrayed as far more dreamy. For instance, the MV's opening shot sees Jisoo plucking a traditional Korean instrument known as the geomungo and weaving the music into the song's opening instrumental. This sets the stage for the rest of her solo sequences, which, when coupled with her styling choices (see Styling), are all very ethereal. Likewise, Rose's solo shots fit the same bill. There's much less going on as compared to the rappers' shots and it blends very well with her lines in the song, which are nicely contrasted to the fiercer and faster rap portions.
The otherworldly vibe from this opening shot is just unreal.
As you would expect, the rappers' shots are far more dynamic and lively, which plays into the fierce vibe they're trying to project. Jennie struts down a red carpet in front of a giant monster truck that just crashed through a wall and together with Lisa, the pair groove in a set piece reminiscent of a club exterior. This is interspersed with shots of the rappers flexing in sports cars and it's quite clear that the tone of these particular scenes are much more vibrant than the vocal scenes.
Overall, you can tell YG spent a lot on this MV because the set pieces look expensive and everything is shot really nicely. That said, I find many of the set pieces to actually be very similar to many sets from other K-Pop MVs. You would think that for something YG put so much money the set pieces would look different so I find this really interesting. I guess it's to be expected though, as reusing set pieces is not uncommon in the K-Pop industry.
Styling: BLACKPINK have always been girl crush queens and has been reflected in their styling for all almost all their MVs. Pink Venom is no exception as the girls are given outfits befitting the tone of the song and personally, I really like the styling in this MV. As with most K-Pop MVs, we get the usual dance and visual outfits, all of which really encapsulate the feel of the song as well as the vibe that the individual members were going for. The group dons 3 different dance outfits throughout the MV, all of which we only get to see during chorus dance sequences and are very hip and fresh. 2 of these outfits are mostly colour-coded, one being black and the other being a mix of white-beige while the last one is far more chaotic, being a mishmash of loud and bright colours with different styles for each member.
The dance outfits are great but where the styling really shines is when it comes to the members' solo shots. I mentioned in the previous segment that the vocalists and rappers had very different vibes in the MV, and this translates to their individual outfits as well. The rappers are dressed in fits that would be considered more badass, with Jennie decked in a red see-through leopard print dress and huge platform heels in her first solo scene. During their rap portion, we see Lisa and Jennie dressed like hip-hop dancers, perfectly in line with the tone of the song. This is in stark contrast to our vocalists Rose and Lisa, who are simply ethereal in this MV. The dresses they're in are absolutely beautiful and really accentuate their visuals.
Absolute visual queen (I think you can figure out my BLACKPINK bias by now).
Song: If someone asked me what a BLACKPINK song was supposed to sound like, Pink Venom is what I would make them listen to. With some exceptions like Lovesick Girls or As If It's Your Last, many of BLACKPINK's titles follow the same formula and arrangement, having very strong beats with rap verses peppered here and there, before ultimately culminating in a loud "pots and pans" ending. This is exactly the case for Pink Venom, albeit leaning a little more into hip-hop territory (as proclaimed by the members themselves).
Now, if you know my taste in music, you'll know I tend to dislike songs where the chorus either has no singing at all or sounds like the members are talking over an instrumental. Unfortunately, Pink Venom falls into the second category and I find the chorus atrocious. It is boring, repetitive and just not something I would want to listen to over and over again. I have nothing against the members themselves but I really did not want to hear "this that pink venom" or "taste that pink venom" over 20 times throughout the song. It got really annoying after a while and just wasn't my cup of tea. YG had a really good thing going with Lovesick Girls and BLACKPINK was really on form with that last title but man, what a disappointment Pink Venom turned out to be.
Line distribution: As a four-member group, it is safe to assume that BLACKPINK would have fairer line distributions than larger groups, both in terms of the number of lines each member gets as well as with relevance to the genre of the song. This is the case for Pink Venom, as everyone gets a number of lines befitting their position in the group as well as the overall vibe of the song.
As we see from the image above, main rapper Jennie leads the quartet with almost 34.7% and lead rapper Lisa comes in close behind at a little over 30.9%. Between the pair, they share over half of the entire song to themselves, which is usually cause for concern but it actually makes a lot of sense. As a hip-hop song, Pink Venom is very rap-heavy and this extends to the chorus as well. Since Jennie and Lisa are the only ones who actually have chorus lines, they were bound to end up with most of the lines in the song so this is acceptable.
Moreover, even though Rose and Jisoo don't have that many lines, with almost 17.9% and slightly over 16.5% respectively, they shine with what they're given and they really showcase their power vocals in the pre-choruses and bridge. Since the rap is the main focus of the song, it's fine that our vocalists have fewer lines and even then, they still give their best. If only all K-Pop groups could have such fair line distributions.
Final thoughts: I don't think it would be out of the realm of possibility to call BLACKPINK's comeback one of the most-awaited K-Pop girl group releases of all time, especially after such an unnecessarily long hiatus. While the song is certainly not my speed, there are bound to be many out there who will wax lyrical about it and simply enjoy that one of the foremost 3rd generation girl groups out there has finally made their return.
Coming after the excellent Lovesick Girls, Pink Venom is not what I hoped for but nevertheless, I'm just glad that BLACKPINK have resurfaced from the YG dungeon and like many others, I hope that they can continue to release more music in future, lest they disappear from the face of the industry. Thanks for reading.
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