Born Pink
The essence of Blackpink: a hip-hop-driven album blending various genres to express confidence and self-esteem.
Born Pink is the second studio album by Blackpink, released on September 16, 2022, through YG Entertainment and Interscope Records. It marked the group's first full-length record since The Album in 2020 and their final release under Interscope. Production was handled by various producers including Teddy Park, 24, Freddy Wexler, Nohc, and Paro. Blackpink conceived Born Pink as "the essence" of the group, taking inspiration from hip-hop and combining various genres.
The album's English-heavy sound draws mostly from pop, hip-hop, rock, and EDM, with melodies characterized by more uptempo production than its predecessor. Lyrically, it discusses themes of love, self-confidence, self-encouragement, dealing with fame and detractors, and more. Members Jisoo and Rosé co-wrote the fourth track "Yeah Yeah Yeah". The album was supported by two singles, both of which reached number one on the Billboard Global 200: "Pink Venom" and "Shut Down".
To promote the album, Blackpink embarked on the Born Pink World Tour beginning in October, which broke the record for the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Blackpink
- Language
- English, Korean
- Released
- September 16, 2022
- Recorded
- 2020–2022
- Studio
- The Black Label (Seoul)
- Genre
- Pop
- hip-hop
- rock
- EDM
- Length
- 24:34
- Producer
- Teddy Park; 24; Freddy Wexler; Nohc; Paro
Lore & Background
The world of Born Pink is built on the group's confidence and self-esteem for being born different, as stated by YG Entertainment. Rosé described the album as trying to express "the essence of Blackpink" while keeping their original identity and trying new things. The album's title "portrays Blackpink's confidence and self-esteem for being born different" according to their label. Jennie explained that "Pink Venom" was chosen to represent Blackpink's identity because "pink" and "venom" have contradicting images, reminiscent of the group.
Lisa shared that when the group first heard the demo of "Shut Down" in the studio, they exchanged looks and knew it had to be the title track, describing it as "distinctly Blackpink". The album's eight-song track list was released on September 7, 2022, and it was revealed that both Jisoo and Rosé helped write "Yeah Yeah Yeah". The album was released on September 16 alongside the music video for "Shut Down".
Reader's Guide
The Born Pink era begins with the release of "Pink Venom" on August 19, 2022, a hip-hop based track blending traditional Korean instruments with EDM, pop-rap, and Middle Eastern influences. The album itself is twenty-four minutes long and consists of 8 songs, with three tracks labelled explicit. It features genres including hip-hop, pop, disco, ballad, alt-pop, pop-rock, stadium rock, punk, EDM, bubblegum pop, and classical interludes. The first half of the album contains lyrics showing the group's "extremely confident" and "untouchable exteriors", while the second half reveals insecurities in "emotionally charged" ballads.
The uptempo, "English heavy" album was described as "faster" and "shinier" than The Album. The second single "Shut Down" peaked at number three on the Circle Digital Chart and at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was met with mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its stronger production and more personal lyrics, but criticisms for its lack of innovation and musical development. Commercially, it has been certified double million by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), gold by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ), and silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
According to the IFPI, the album was the eighth best-selling album worldwide across all formats in 2022, and the seventh best-selling album in pure sales.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pink Venom | Teddy Park, Danny Chung, Teddy P., 24, R.Tee, Ido | 3:06 |
| 2 | Shut Down | Teddy P., Chung, Vince, 24 | 2:55 |
| 3 | Typa Girl | Bekuh Boom, Boom, Dominsuk | 2:59 |
| 4 | Yeah Yeah Yeah | VVN, Kush, Jisoo, Rosé, R.Tee, Ido | 2:58 |
| 5 | Hard to Love (Rosé solo) | Freddy Wexler, Bianca Atterberry, Max Wolfgang, Teddy P., Wexler, Atterberry, 24, R.Tee | 2:42 |
| 6 | The Happiest Girl | Teddy Sinclair, Willy Sinclair, Paro, T. Sinclair, W. Sinclair, 24 | 3:42 |
| 7 | Tally | Nat Dunn, David Phelan, Alex Oriet, Brian Lee, Soraya LaPread, Dunn, Phelan, Oriet, Lee, LaPread, 24 | 3:04 |
| 8 | Ready for Love | Teddy P., VVN, 24, Kush, Boom | 3:04 |
| Total length | 24:34 | ||
Did You Know?
- Born Pink became the first album by a female group to reach number one on the Billboard 200 since Danity Kane in 2008.
- The album sold 2.2 million copies in less than two days, making it the best-selling album by a female act in South Korea and the first to surpass two million sales.
- Blackpink performed 'Pink Venom' at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, marking their American awards show debut and making them the first female K-pop group in history to do so.
- Record producer Ryan Tedder wrote songs with Jennie and Rosé for the album, but none made the final tracklist; one of those tracks, 'The Girls', was later released as the official soundtrack to Blackpink: The Game on August 23, 2023.
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