Lost in Translation: How I stumbled upon BLACKPINK and became a Lovestick Gril
BLACKPINK is my absolute favorite group, they are the group that I follow the most actively.
But how did I find them? Actually, quite early on, I would say. I think it was either between their debut album and Kill This Love or after Kill This Love.
I discovered them back then because I was a fan of the TV series Lucifer and enjoyed watching edits related to it. And in one of those edits featuring the character Mazekeen, their debut song BOOMBAYAH was used in the background.
I liked that song, and thus, I had found a group that would accompany me in the years to come, even though I didn't know it at the time.
Since then, I have eagerly awaited each new release and enjoyed their music very much. For a long, long time, they were the only K-pop group I listened to, as I primarily listened to Western music, especially German music.
I did try with other groups, and although I found some good songs among them, none of them truly captivated me.
From that point on, I was always actively involved, from Loveisick Girls to How You Like That, to Pink Venom and Shut Down, I stayed up to date and looked forward to each release.
Now that we're talking about all these song titles, let's address some silly mistakes I made due to my barely existing ability to understand and translate the English language properly, without even questioning it.
Let's start with "Whistle," which, for some reason, I pronounced as "Whitelist" back then, and now, for a very long time, I've been asking myself why? Especially when you think about it, it doesn't make any sense and doesn't match the song. And next, we have "Lovesick Girls," which I called "Lovestick Grils," and honestly, for a long time, I wondered what that title actually meant until I realized that I was the silly one in this whole situation. Where did such things come from? As I said, my nonexistent English skills and maybe because I don't have K-pop enthusiast friends who could have corrected me on that. But well, now I know better.
Now, let's talk a bit about the members. For example, it took me ages to remember who is who. I got their names relatively quickly. After all, 3 out of 4 are names that are very common in the West. So, it was easy to remember Jisoo with the only Korean stage name, although in Jennie's case, it's also her real name, which made it easy to remember her in the group.
Jisoo was also the first member I referred to as my bias simply because I could relate to her the most at that time. Mainly because she seemed to have a bunch of Pikachu stuff, and I'm a big Pokemon fan. Secondly, she was also not good at English, and somehow that comforted me a little back then.
Eventually, I finally got the names right, I could match them to the members. There was a time when I was surprised to find out that Jennie's name was not a stage name but her real name. But I was still new to the whole Korean theme back then and had to familiarize myself to understand that Western names also exist in South Korea.
Since we're already talking about Jennie, let's talk about the rap in BLACKPINK, or rather, who does the rapping in BLACKPINK. I'm well aware that it's Lisa and Jennie, but for quite a while, I thought it was only Lisa. And even today, when I hear BLACKPINK and the word "rap," Lisa still comes to mind first, and then Jennie.