NewJeans
photo: tenasia · cc by 3.0 ↗NewJeans debuted in 2022 as a South Korean girl group under ADOR, built around a deliberately unhurried, understated take on K-pop that traded maximalist choreography and processed belting for airy harmonies and mid-tempo groove. Creative director Min Hee-jin and producers 250 and Park Jin-su (FRNK) shaped a Y2K-leaning sound that critics have linked to UK garage, Baltimore club, and Jersey club rhythms layered over R&B songwriting and the first-generation K-pop records the era evokes. Songs like 'Attention,' 'Hype Boy,' and 'Ditto' turned the group into one of the fastest-charting acts in K-pop history.
NewJeans' blended, unshowy group harmonies and unhurried R&B-pop songwriting sit in a lineage critics trace to S.E.S. and the rest of the first generation of 1990s K-pop, whose sound leaned on contemporary American R&B rather than the maximalist vocal runs later idol groups adopted.
listen forCue up S.E.S.'s 'Dreams Come True' next to NewJeans' 'Attention' — both open with a hushed, layered vocal blend before the beat drops in, favoring warm group harmony over a single belted hook.
NewJeans' hushed, conversational vocal delivery over syncopated, midtempo grooves sits within the Y2K-era R&B palette — Aaliyah's records chief among it — that critics repeatedly cite as a touchstone for the group's sound.
listen forPlay Aaliyah's 'Are You That Somebody?' back to back with 'Hype Boy' — both ride a stuttering, syncopated beat under a breathy, almost-spoken vocal that never over-sings the hook.
Critics have repeatedly tied NewJeans' skittering, chopped-vocal rhythm tracks to UK garage, the genre Todd Edwards helped invent in the mid-1990s with his rapid-fire vocal-sample collage technique; NewJeans' catalog, especially the 'Get Up' EP, has been described as drawing on UK garage, Jersey club, and Baltimore club textures.
listen forListen to Todd Edwards' 'Saved My Life' next to NewJeans' 'ETA' — both stitch tiny vocal fragments into a bouncy, syncopated groove instead of a straight downbeat.