Opinion / Why K-pop sensation Blackpink’s Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé are the new Spice Girls – who could have believed the world’s biggest girl group would come from South Korea?
Blackpink’s The Album is topping charts worldwide, documentary Light Up the Sky is No 1 on Netflix, and the girl group members are ambassadors for Chanel, Celine, YSL and Dior – why does this sound so familiar?
Without even looking at the stats, it was clear that British pop sensation Spice Girls were the biggest girl band the world had ever seen. From pop music to politics, it was a Spice World, and we were just living in it.
Fast forward 20-something-years since Spice mania, and there’s a whiff of girl power in the air again. This time, however, it’s four girls from South Korea (OK, not technically, but we’ll get back to that) that are taking over the world.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a group of feisty young girls break away from their territory and go global, and it’s certainly the first time we’ve seen it coming from South Korea – or East Asia at all. The fact that Blackpink isn’t an American band from a reality show makes this moment in time even more memorable.
Indeed, there have been plenty of girl bands since the worldwide reign of the Spice Girls. But the likes of The Pussycat Dolls, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony simply haven’t had the same long-lasting impact both musically and culturally. So far, Blackpink is ticking all the boxes that made the Spice Girls both a musical and cultural phenomenon.
