Are the members of BLACKPINK making a statement with disjointed and weird music video for "Jump"?

Dear Gossips,

Finally. BLACKPINK is back in your area. They kicked off the Deadline world tour last weekend in Seoul, and just in time for their two shows in LA this weekend, they dropped the new single, “Jump” which is part of the concert set list so fans have already been hearing it in person and in footage shared online, but we now have the official track and the video.

And… it’s a club banger.

I’m not a club kid so I won’t be bumping and sweating to this on the dance floor but it definitely works on the treadmill and the release is timed well for the back half of summer, when everyone gets a little more desperate, a little more messy, clinging to time as the fun clock starts running down to September.

There has been some criticism floating around about BLACKPINK’s comeback – that they’re touring without a new album, which means that their group catalogue remains relatively light in comparison to other acts who’ve been around just as long; that they’re going through the motions because they’re more committed to their respective solo efforts; that their choreography and synchronicity doesn’t seem to be as tight as it could be on stage.

It's hard to separate legitimate feedback from the fan war drama that is so toxic in K-pop. As a Blink myself, I admit that I’ve been worried about the tour, whether or not there was enough time for them to pull it together, and also enough material to justify the ticket price (I’m going on July 22 in Toronto).

Most of that went away last weekend though when I was watching the streams on social media – because Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé looked so happy to be back together, to be performing together, to be having fun together. And seeing them in the “Jump” video reignited all my enthusiasm because it turns out that their energy on stage matches the energy of the song, and how they’re now presenting themselves.

That issue about the choreo on tour and how coordinated they are? There’s actually not that much choreo in the video and it seems intentional that they’re not coordinating their moves. Because BLACKPINK in 2025 is now four main characters. Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosie have each had success in their solo efforts – as a group they succeeded beyond any female K-pop act before them. And with all four of them being able to break out on their own and not flop, that too is an exceptional and rare achievement.

So do they need to adhere to the so-called standards of a genre that they’ve already soared beyond? The whole vibe of “Jump” might be a statement from BLACKPINK to assert that they’ve already done the K-pop precision choreo and slick execution thing in the early part of their career and that they now have the flex to be able to go in and out as individual artists and group members on their own terms.

The “Jump” video, directed by Dave Meyers, is a whole different aesthetic for them. It’s disjointed and at times weird, some might say verging on obscene, with the mouth and the split face and the ear shots. “Disjointed” and “weird” and “obscene”, these are not words typically associated with K-pop. Don’t get it twisted though, they still look insanely good, the styling is crazy, I’ve already noted two hairstyles I’ll be ripping off. But the point is, they’re not trying to coordinate and there’s big IDAF energy, especially with Lisa and Jennie’s verse:

“Are you not еntertained? (No)
I ain't gotta explain (No)
I'm with all of my sistеrs (Ah)
Got 'em going insane, yeah (Yeah)
You know we on a mission (Yeah)
All gas, no brakes, yeah (Woo, woo, woo)
Breaking out of the system
Breaking out of this cage, yeah”

Also there’s some comedy here. I cracked up during the scene when the halmoni and haraboji are seen headbanging closeup on camera: