2NE1, Jung Jeong-dong’s aesthetic… ‘Good song’ keeps moving even when it stops

by times news cr

Solo concert after 10 years and 6 months… Properly reunited after 8 years of disbandment
Parade of hit songs including ‘Come Back Home’, ‘Fire’, ‘I Don’t Care’, and ‘Ugly’
“Performance with less structured comments and stage… “It looks like a rock star’s concert.”
A complete gathering of new and old YG family members including G-Dragon and Baby Monster.
New Jeans and Stray Kids also visited the audience… 12,000 people gathered for three days

ⓒNewsis

“In a way, we were a group that disappeared for a while, was a little stationary, just four months ago… .”

CL (Lee Chae-rin), the leader of the second-generation K-pop girl group 2NE1, which celebrated its 15th debut anniversary this year, held the ‘2024 2NE1 Concert’ held at the Olympic Hall in Seoul Olympic Park on the afternoon of the 6th. [웰컴 백(WELCOME BACK)] The moment ‘In Seoul’ was released, voices denying it rang out from all over the audience.

Actually, what CL says is correct, and what 2NE1 fandom ‘Blackjack’, who was holding a card stick (old 2NE1 light stick), is also correct. This is their first solo concert in 10 years and 6 months, and it is true that the team has not done much for 8 years since its disbandment, except for the full-length performance at Coachella in the U.S., which was an eventful event in April 2022.

However, for fans who were looking forward to a full comeback, it was a team that was always on the move. This is, in other words, ‘the aesthetics of stillness and movement.’ Starting with the youngest member Gong Min-ji’s birthday, the 2NE1 members gathered together at least once every year and shared intense thoughts and conversations even in situations that seemed to have stopped.

As Sandara Park’s words, “I worked as a solo artist, but I wanted to be together as a foursome” prove, the dramatic drama of life that would have been unstable alone was stabilized by joining together with the members and Blackjack. This was also proven by the ‘Come Back Home’ intro that opened the performance. Olympic Hall is also the location where 2NE1 held its first concert in August 2011.
Above all, 2NE1 showed how the return of the second-generation K-pop girl group, which created a large number of ‘good songs’ that people of all ages and genders can hum, can expand the territory of K-pop. A parade of hit songs continued throughout the performance, including ‘Fire’, ‘Clap Your Hands’, ‘Falling in Love’, ‘Missing You’, ‘It Hurts’, ‘I Want to Live’, ‘Lonely’, ‘I Love You’, and ‘I’m the Best’.

Juniors such as New Jeans, Ive, Twice, Baby Monster, Aespa, Stray Kids (SKZ), (G)I-DLE, Kiss of Life (Key Off), Boy Next Door (Bonekdo), Zico, and Treasure are willing to work hard despite their busy schedules. This is why we celebrated the 15th anniversary through a video message. Big musicians like IU, G-Dragon, and Pharrell Williams also showed respect to 2NE1 through videos.

CL, Park Bom, Sandara Park, and Minzy, who soon dispersed and settled back into the world of finite reality, each expressed their affection for the team, members, Blackjacks, and staff, and received support as much as they did.

CL, who also performed magnificent solo performances such as ‘Bad Girl’, was still a dignified leader who controlled the flow and context of the performance. Park Bom, who had gone through many ups and downs, tried to stay strong despite it, so Blackjack applauded her even more. The eldest sister, Sandara Park, who is in charge of the team’s visuals, still had a lot of tears and was cute, as expected from an extreme F (on the MBTI). Gong Minji, who had bruises all over her knees due to not sparing her body, danced and sang as if there was no tomorrow.

CL was overwhelmed, saying, “This year marks our 15th anniversary, and we started out as resolutions like ‘let’s do something to commemorate’ or ‘let’s just take a commemorative photo’, and now here we are standing in front of you all today.”
CL, who said it was all thanks to the fandom Blackjack and wanted to say thank you, said, “If there is something you really want to do, I and 2NE1 want to support you so that you can give it a try even though it may be a little scary and daunting.” He added, “As much as you gave me good energy today, I hope you pass away with twice as many good memories and a good mood.”

Minzy said, “While preparing for the concert, there were staff members who had been with us in the past. “So it was great to be able to meet you again, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your great help in enabling us to hold our first concert in 10 years.” At the same time, she was overwhelmed and said, “You know that I really love you so much, right?” Afterwards, the members formed a circle and wrapped around each other.

The success of 2NE1 members and YG Entertainment’s executive producer Yang Hyun-seok in the K-pop girl group industry is that they swept away the previous ‘girl group customs’. They differentiated themselves by prioritizing skills rather than looks and natural personality rather than artificial ones. The girl group system was not repeated or reproduced from a similar perspective.

What symbolized that was the performance of ‘Ugly’ and ‘It Can’t Be You’ on this day. These songs, which have an alternative rock sound created by a powerful live band, were sung freely by each of the four members without any special coordination of movements. The energy freely radiating from their unstructured appearance was reminiscent of a rocker, and it made me think that it was 2NE1. There are many reasons why 2NE is remembered, but there is no doubt that among them, ‘good songs’ keep moving. “Let’s Play More,” which replaced “Encore,” continued throughout the blackjack game.
Popular music critic Lim Hee-yoon, who watched the performance on the first day on the 4th, said, “What was most noticeable was that both the comments and stage manners seemed to be less structured (compared to recent idols),” adding, “So it looked like a rock star’s concert.” “In particular, Gong Minzy’s flexible and explosive choreography, sliding across the stage on her knees, headbanging, and moving around almost like a wild beast were special,” he said.

Critic Lim also said that he unexpectedly realized something while catching a glimpse of 2NE1’s representative songs for the first time in a long time. “It felt like I was getting a glimpse of one of many answers to the reason why band music is so popular these days.” “Compared to today’s idol music, which is divided into a form suitable for short forms or segmented choreography, 2NE1’s music has simple harmonic progressions, like rock band music, but has clear melody progressions and emotional lyrics,” he said. He added, “It made me look back on how well it captured the (somewhat) new wave sensibility that our pop music has maintained for a long time by adding cutting-edge electronic sounds and rap styles (at the time).”

After all, what is old is new. When we listen to good songs, we become unfamiliar and aroused.
2NE1’s concert was a hot topic in the K-pop industry. That’s why the audience is full of stars. In particular, the loyalty of the old and new YG family stood out. Big Bang’s G-Dragon, Daesung, Se7en, Gummy, Winner’s Song Min-ho and Jin-woo, etc. YG’s new girl group Baby Monster appeared as a guest and showed off their skills with ‘Shish’ and ‘Batter Up’, making it clear that they are the legitimate successor to 2NE1’s lineage. In particular, Baby Monster member Luca, who is known to be a 2NE1 fan, was very moved.

Popular K-pop groups such as New Jeans and Stray Kids also maintained their presence in the audience. Seonwoo Jung-ah and YB Yoon Do-hyun, who worked with YG, also visited the audience. Earlier, on another day, Jeon Hyun-moo and SHINee’s Key also supported the members. The two are representative rainbow members of the MBC TV entertainment show ‘I Live Alone’ in which Sandara Park appeared. This concert, which began on the 4th, attracted 12,000 people over three days.

2NE1 will begin an Asian tour of 15 concerts in 9 cities, starting with this Seoul concert. Move to Manila, Jakarta, Kobe, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, and Taipei. It is interesting to see whether the Seoul encore concert, which Sandara Park has been shouting out for all three days of this concert, will be confirmed. CL added, “(If we do it), it will have to be done in a larger concert hall.”

[서울=뉴시스]

2024-10-06 15:12:04

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