Blackpink x Rolling Stone
Blackpink x Rolling Stone project officially kicked off two days after Rolling Stone released the first teaser announcing the project. The cover article titled ‘Blackpink: From Strangers to Sisters to Pop Supernovas’ finally dropped on Monday, May 23. Here’s a timeline, Twitter reactions and my personal commentary on the article. (Scroll down for my thoughts & commentary.)
Article’s TL:DR version
Excerpts from: Rolling Stone Magazine | Writer: Haeryun Kang | Photography: Peter Ashlee | Additional Photography: YG Entertainment
(p.s: Read the full article on Rolling Stone Magazine website. I only chose the parts that I thought was interesting. Some of the additional photos I used are from YGE because there were only a few shots from Rolling Stone. Layout graphics by yours truly.)
Here’s the TL:DR version of the article:
(Allow time for the images to load. Click on the next/previous arrow to load the images.)
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Timeline
23 May 2022 - Rolling Stone magazine dropped their June 2022 issue with Blackpink on the cover titled “Blackpink: From Strangers to Sisters to Pop Supernovas” along with the behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot on their Youtube channel.
They also announced the collector’s edition box set that is available to pre-order for $129 and digital covers, exclusive interviews, and more that will be released during the week. (I do wonder what this ‘more’ will entails.)
2.5 hours later, the hashtag #BLACKPINKxRollingStone trended alongside the topic “WELCOME BACK BLACKPINK” on Twitter. It kind of feels like a comeback (but it’s not. We’re still waiting on that).
Rolling Stone then started posting individual quotes from each members from the article on their Twitter.
12 hours later, Rolling Stone shared a TikTok video of the behind-the-scenes from their cover shoot on their account.
Other than some other additional tweets they put out, that’s pretty much wrapped the first day of #BLACKPINKxRollingStone week.
My thoughts
The Cover
Okay, honestly, I was surprised that the screenshots circulated earlier on Twitter was actually the cover of the magazine. I was definitely disappointed with the looks that they picked for the cover but wasn’t all that surprised to see another minimal set for their shoot. But still, this is the Rolling Stone we’re talking about. Even if we can’t compare it to the Billboard March 2019 cover shoot or the Vogue Korea March 2020 cover shoot since the background set ups are different, I was kind of expecting something like what they did for the Elle US October 2020 cover shoot (the article’s pretty good to if you want to read it). That shoot also used a plain background but the outfits were much better in my opinion. Individually, each outfit still feels fitting for each member and collectively, it looks cohesive as a group. Plus they each got 4 looks instead of 2-3 looks they got on this article. Also, for a supposedly big project that they’ve been promoting, they surely use so little photos for their cover article. I think other magazines use more photos in one article.
Blackpink for Elle US October 2020 | Photography by: Hee June Kim
Out of the four outfits, Jennie’s Jean Paul Gaultier outfit is probably the one that stood out the most to me. It looks unique and expensive and very fitting to her style. As for the rest, if they were going for a concept here, I need some sort of explanation of what the concept was because, honestly, I don’t really get it from the end result. The looks of the three other members feel a little like stepping back in time to their rookie days, before they were global ambassadors for the respective brands they’re currently representing. Or have I gotten used to seeing them in their current style that when they changed it up, I’m not really feeling it? Perhaps. In any case, that’s that on the cover. Moving on.
The Article
My first gut reaction after reading the article was, “Oh, that’s it? Well, alrighty then.” The article was not badly written, but there wasn’t much new information that we (the ‘we’ I’m talking about here are the fans who have been following the group for a while and not new fans) haven’t already know. It almost felt like this was Rolling Stone’s first meet with Blackpink and they just starting to get to know some basic things about the group and so they didn’t delve into deeper questions. You know, like when you meet someone for the first time, you still trying to figure this person out and wouldn’t necessarily ask them personal questions kind of thing. This article kind of feels like that to me.
Since there are going to be individual articles on each members, for this one, I’m going to focus on the group aspect and some of the things that the members talked about that aren’t mentioned on their individual articles (Some things are apparently quoted from their individual articles so it’ll make more sense to talk about it later in context).
First off, the descriptions used to introduce the group and the members are similar to other articles that have been published in the past. Maybe it’s hard to come up with new variations to introduce the origin of the group but still, I thought by now at least there will be a new way to introduce the four members in a more creative way (or maybe that’s too much of an ask from me).
The parts where they talked about their trainee days are also familiar. We’ve heard the stories mentioned on countless interviews before as well as on Blackpink’s vlog diaries on their Youtube channel. I thought this was a missed opportunity to asked other questions that have never been discussed before or maybe dig deeper to the answers that they gave. (Having said that, I’m also aware that there are probably certain restrictions to questions that the interviewer can ask to the group so maybe that’s one of the reason too? Idk) Although, it is nice to read how the four retelling some of the stories together in the interview.
Jennie’s part of the interview feels fresh. Most interviews in the past, I always felt that she’s more guarded and have a set of answers that she usually use when answering interview questions. Even she admitted it herself in “Light Up The Sky” when she said, “I always avoid interviews or any questions about me because I would rather not talk about myself.” because she’s pretty shy. But in this article, it feels like she’s opening up a little more in sharing her thoughts and opinions. And her answers feel more confident than how they normally were in the past.
For Lisa’s part of the interview, the most interesting parts for me are probably when she shared her struggle as a trainee, when she talked about fighting her own voice during the period between ‘As If It’s Your Last’ and ‘Ddu-du Ddu-du’, and when she talks about how she’s still finding her own identity in her music and see how much more she can grow as an artist (all these were later discussed again in her individual article).
Jisoo’s part of the interview revolve around what she’s been up to lately as well as touching a little bit on her solo plan (which will be later discussed more in her individual article). She also revealed one of the group’s never been shared schemes to get out of practice during their trainee days. One of the most memorable part for me is when she talked about mental health and how classes and therapy weren’t helpful to them. “We had the same problems, so it was better to talk to each other,” says Jisoo. It’s definitely true that sometimes family or close friends wouldn’t understand exactly what you’re going through since they never experienced the exact same thing. With Blackpink though, I think they’re in a unique position where the four of them have very similar lives, especially since they practically grew up and work together as a group. I think there are probably some things that only the four of them understand based on their shared experiences that even professional counselor wouldn’t be able to understand.
“When I recorded something for the first time, I was so excited. I didn’t know any better, so it was fun. I envy that now. Now, no matter how hard I try, a part of me is never satisfied.” —Rosé
This is definitely something that I can relate to. I think for me, this begins after I started college and entered the graphic design program. Before that, designing and creating art were fun and everything (this was the I-didn’t-know-any better period). But after I learned more and more things about graphic design, I became aware of all the do’s and don’ts and the good and the bad things about graphic design that it makes finalizing a design so hard. Even after finalizing a design and completed a project, I’d still find things that I feel I can improve on. Same thing with my photography. There’s always something I wish I could’ve done better, something to fix or something to change. It’s a never ending process. And I think this is something that every artists feel or experience every time they’re working on their crafts.
Reading how she felt about making music was fun but other than that, Rosé’s part of the interview in this article was probably the biggest disappointment for me. It almost felt like her part is somewhat weakly written compared to the rest. The stories shared about her are mostly stories from her trainee days that we already know from other interviews and the “Light Up The Sky” documentary. The mention of her recently recovered from Covid made my eyebrows raised (like do you really need to have that printed for the world to remember, honestly?). The lack of mentions of her solo achievements was noticeable. Not to mention the whole debacle of Rosé’s name description and how to pronounce it which immediately sent Blinks into a frenzy on Twitter (when I read they wrote “…Rosé (pronounced “Rosie”)” I literally scrunched my forehead and said, “Wait, what?” because that was something that I never heard in the fandom. Unless Rosé herself made a video corroborating that statement, I’m inclined to believe that that was a mistake).
More enjoyable parts of the interview includes when the four girls shared about what they’ve been up to lately, where they were sitting around in the waiting room (probably one of my favorite part) telling how they’ve devised scheme to skip practice in the past, their creative process on how they make music, a new insight into Teddy who’s usually more in the background, Jennie’s views on hip-hop, and when Lisa and Jennie talked about Blackpink’s longevity.
The ending of the article was the weakest part of the article for me. The quote from Rosé feels a little bit awkward and I honestly thought that this was a mistake. Later on I read the quote in Rosé’s individual article and it does makes more sense in context (still, they should’ve picked a better line to quote). But honestly, I would’ve ended the article with Jennie’s quote where she says Blackpink is a part of her family. That would’ve made a nicer ending (than being hungry and eating with the people that we love).
The Collector’s Edition Box Set
Looking at the mock-up image of the collector’s edition box set, I have to say that it feels like they adopted Korean’s way of selling magazines and albums. I don’t know who started this marketing tactic, but for me, I think the first time I found out about this whole multiple-version-covers-for-one-magazine-issue was years ago from Korean magazines who usually do it when idols are on the covers. I don’t think I ever saw this from a US magazine (or maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention because honestly, I have stopped buying US printed magazines for a while now). I have to admit that it is a pretty smart tactic to increase sales because when you have multiple covers, the possibility of fans buying more than just 1 copy will increase (i.e they’ll buy 1 copy with the group shot and 1 copy with their favorite member on the cover) thus increasing the total sales for the issue. Although I’m also aware that this means printing more magazines for the sake of one different spread, which is probably excessive, as well as owning multiple copies of the same issue for that matter.
Also, the box set seems to contain things that we would get when buying a Korean singers’ album, don’t you think? Although for $129, getting 5 copies of the 44-page magazine, “images you won’t find anywhere else” (their words, not mine), four premium photo prints, a sticker sheet, and perhaps a polaroid does seems a bit pricey for me. One question that I have about this 5 magazine copies is does each version contains different interviews (i.e Blackpink cover contain only the first interview, Jisoo’s cover only contain Jisoo’s interview, and so on) or the content of the magazines will be the same just with different covers (i.e The whole group and individual interviews will be printed on every single version, the only difference is the cover)? They do mentioned “and more” on the description, but after I checked the store page, no new information is added so I can only assume that you’re only getting what are pictured on the post. With that price, plus tax, plus shipping (plus another custom tax if you’re doing international shipping), the price point is a little high in my opinion.
And if I were to based my decision to buy this box set on this first interview, I would probably pass. Why? First, as much as it pained me to say this, the photoshoot isn’t that special. (Who else is tired seeing Blackpink in front of a plain background? Raise your hand). I’ve seen way better looks and better set designs from Blackpink previous shoots (as I discussed above and in my previous blog post). Second of all, like I said earlier, the interview itself feels very surface level, which is now confusing to me knowing that they’re trying to sell this as a collector’s edition box set because people who would buy this are probably mostly long-time fans, don’t you think? But the content released on this first day doesn’t really feels like it’s targeted towards long-time fans. Although an argument could be made that this is probably targeting newer fans, who haven’t been buying a lot of merch from Blackpink in the past. In that case, yes, this is probably a good fit for them.
Now I’m questioning who are Rolling Stone trying to target with this project? It’s kind of all over the place and feels a little like a money grab project to me to be honest (I’m sure to more senior Blinks who are very well aware on how YG has been pushing out more merch than new music these past few years, this kind of thing will not go unnoticed).
Also, a little OOT but I have to mention that I’ve been a fan of Korean singers’ album box sets. They’re always beautifully designed and packaged.
Twitter Reactions
Now that I’m done with my thought and comments, let’s move on to Blinks’ reactions on Twitter that day. With the announcement of the time the project’s going to drop one day prior, I’m pretty sure the majority of Blinks immediately went online at the time of the release (I know I did). The first thing I noticed along with the trending hashtag was how active my timeline was. I think lots of Blinks were definitely online and about half an hour later, tweets containing their thoughts and opinions on the article started rolling in on Twitter.
First off, this warning to other fandoms to not mess with Blinks that day since everybody was online was probably accurate. Also, I learned the term ‘Rationed’ for the first time from this Twitter thread (see slide 2 above for definition). Never knew that terminology before.
The initial reactions revolved around Blinks who enjoyed reading the whole article and felt like Blackpink is more vulnerable, mature and confident in this article, which I agree with to a certain point.
If we’re talking about vulnerability, I don’t think I necessarily agree with this point. I think both in the documentary and article, the girls showed similar vulnerability (and they still feel guarded at the same time to me) but the biggest difference is probably they do sound more confident and mature in this interview. Jisoo and Rosé have always been consistently open, honest and articulate with their answers during interviews. Jennie and Lisa who (imho) usually more reserved in their answers definitely are more open and confident this time around. I also think that since they’ve been away for so long and fans have been deprived of any official updates from them, it could played a factor on why this interview feels more special and vulnerable to those who have missed them most.
The discussion about which one is better—the ‘Light Up the Sky’ documentary vs the Rolling Stone article—naturally arose in the timeline. This thread above is one of the thread I found that kind of discussing it in an interesting way since the opinions are split (although in the end, I think all of them agree that both are good, it’s just they each have a preference on which one they enjoyed more).
For me personally, I enjoyed the documentary more than the article. I think the documentary was really well made, especially as an introduction piece of Blackpink to the mainstream audience who doesn’t necessarily know them. And prior to that documentary, I don’t think there was any official mainstream media that has covered them that in-depth (cmiiw). So during the time it was released, as an introduction piece to the general public, the content and the way it’s produced, it made sense. I feel like it’s a good piece. Plus, we got to see the girls in front of the camera, answering questions with their own words while hearing their tone of voice. We also see their expressions and their body language while they’re talking. I feel that creates more of a connection with the audience as well.
While in the article, I don’t necessarily feel those little nuances are being described well enough. Most of the quotes from the girls feels exactly just that, a quote. Plus, now that it’s been three years after the documentary was shot (I believe they started shooting it in 2019 and it was release in 2020, cmiiw), Blackpink as a group has grown so much in terms of their careers and popularity across the globe. And just because of that fact, I think that’s the reason why I was expecting more from this article. I wish they would’ve introduced a now more grown Blackpink instead of focusing so much on the trainee days and the origin of the group, which I feel took a big chunk of the article.
This thread above was one of the more interesting opinions/reactions I’ve read on Twitter about the article. I think it does provide a good perspective on Blackpink’s life as idols—individually and as a group.
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Twitter Reactions | Source: @rsiieflrtz, @witchrsp, @rxseinmyarea, @Nipplesstan.
One Blink commented that the article was written like a fanfic, which immediately made me laugh. I mean, the comment is not wrong. The choice of words does sound like something you’d read on a fanfic.
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Twitter Reactions | Source: @jnrubydiaries, @liliesarerosie_, @lipfeatblinkeu, @trsrzxblckpnk.
In the midst of Blinks busy discussing the article on Twitter, I often saw these kinds of tweets on the reply sections from struggling Blinks who couldn’t access the article since it is behind a paywall. “We’re too broke to read it” got me there. LOL. There are also others who asked what they’re all talking about since they didn’t know about the published article. Some asked where they can watch the documentary on. All these also tells me that there are quite a lot of new Blinks out there.
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Twitter Reactions | Source: @delightjens, @firejennie.
Other topic that quickly rose to the top tweet category was the fact that Jennie now does boxing, which she never mentioned before (we know she does pilates and yoga regularly, boxing is definitely new). So that’s a pretty exciting brand new information.
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Twitter Reactions | Source: @delightjens, @JAILSETTER, @FairlyJennn.
Since we’re on the topic of Jennie, Blinks also noticed that Rolling Stone didn’t post Jennie’s individual quote on their social media (all three members got their individual post hours after the article was released), even 20+ hours after the article was published. At first, Blinks thought maybe they’ll release it later during the day (I could tell people were patiently waiting based on the lack of tweets protesting about this). But since nothing happened, their next theory was maybe Jennie’s going to be the first one who’ll get her cover released, thus the missing individual post. But that didn’t happen either so some Blinks were pretty disappointed by this.
From a branding and consistency perspective, I have to say that Rolling Stone dropped the ball on this one. I don’t know if it was overlooked or a conscious decision (if it was a conscious decision, I really would like to know the reason why), but not giving each members the same set of deliverables is weird, especially in the world of fandom where you certainly don’t want to instigate things accidentally (fair treatment to all members in a group is a big thing in fandoms. If you haven’t known by now, believe it or not, fans do keep track of things, even little things). Plus there are only 4 members in Blackpink, so it shouldn’t be that hard to keep track right? There’s spreadsheet or checklist that could help with that, just saying (‘cause I too use spreadsheet to keep track of all these information).
Blackpink x Rolling Stone Twitter Reactions | Source: @kylericedesign.
One and a half hours later, Kyle Rice, the senior multimedia editor at Rolling Stone tweeted that OG Blinks have catching mistakes and sending them in the DMs, which I noticed too since I was monitoring Twitter at the time. When there’s a mistake or inaccuracy, Blinks were quick to point them out on tweets so it was pretty noticeable, especially when the topic and hashtag were trending on Twitter.
The first mistake that one Blink noticed was how the banner of the Rolling Stone facebook page cropped out Rosé out of the picture on the mobile version. Almost two hours later, it was fixed, reported by another Blink who was probably keeping an eye on it.
And then, a little bit of drama started to arise regarding Rosé’s part of the interview. I think right off the bat, Blinks collectively noticed the “Rosé (pronounced Rosie)” sentence that was mentioned in the article was a problem since it’s wildly inaccurate. Blinks started to tag Rolling Stone and the writer of the article, requesting them to correct it. At some point, the writer replied to one of the tweet addressing the issue and said, “Rosé’s nickname among friends is supposed to be Rose (pronounced ‘Rosie’) without the accent.”, which is still wrong because I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rosé addressed herself as Rose (pronounced ‘Rosie’). Blinks quickly replied and quote retweeted the tweet, explaining Rosé’s full name, stage name, and nickname in various different ways. It was hilarious and entertaining to read, honestly.
The whole pronunciation issue ended up being a slightly larger on-going issue since it wasn’t addressed immediately. Clout News Media even ended up writing an article about how upset fans are with this mistake. I think if the mispronunciation is the only thing that Blinks were upset about on Rosé’s part of the interview, the issue wouldn’t be as big as it was. But since there were other things that Blinks were disappointed about, it became one of the thing that Blinks were adamant to get fix. I mean, a name is pretty important for your introduction to the world. I’d probably wouldn’t be happy if somebody calls me by the wrong name.
And then Blinks whose favorite member is Rosé quickly pointed out the high number of mistakes the Rolling Stone made regarding Rosé, as well as the lack of mention of Rosé’s solo achievements. They also questioned why the interview revolved so much around her early years instead of her recent ones. Apparently, Blinks have the same thoughts as me regarding Rosé’s part of the interview. Also, I have to say, these Blinks who voiced their opinions and disappointment are very articulate and they do have some great points and questions that definitely could make the article better if they were taken into consideration during the planning or the actual interview. With Rosé’s individual article coming up, I do wonder if the Rolling Stone team will make adjustments to the upcoming article based on how Blinks reacted on today’s article.
“Whole week of content” Statement
Remember this tweet by Rolling Stone’s director of social media where he said “Whole week of content taking over the timeline”?
Recapping the first day, the actual “new” contents are:
The Rolling Stone Article: How Blackpink Went From Strangers to Sisters to Pop Supernovas
Behind-the-Scenes video of BLACKPINK Cover Shoot for Rolling Stone Magazine
Pre-order announcement for the Collector’s Edition Box Set
I’m not including the follow up tweets on their Twitter account and the TikTok video because both are just taken from the article and the Youtube video, so technically, they’re not new content (more like mirrored content). Seeing this, I think the next day’s new content is probably going to be the same thing, but for individual members. Unless they really prepared more new things, which I highly doubt at this point.
Although I’m still reserving my judgement at least until I see what day two is going to look like, I already felt that this project is probably going to be another one of those overpromised underdelivered project. Or maybe I just had too much expectation from one of the biggest brand in music. I mean it’s the Rolling Stone. The brand still means something big right? Or has it changed recently? (Somebody please let me know if it has changed).
Read Part 1: Blackpink x Rolling Stone Announcement here.
