New K-pop girl group NewJeans drop a chill lil’ club jam, “Ditto”

New K-pop girl group on the block NewJeans’ has put out their fourth single “Ditto”. And don’t let the cute school girl image above, or the drab and melancholic tone of the start of the music video fool you. This right here is for the clubs.

“Ditto” is for the clubs, but there’s levels to it y’all. You can either go nuts to the song like you’re high on coke. Or you can slow whine. Or you can pussy pop and Mortal Kombat test the might of them knees. Or you can give a depressing lil’ side to side shuffle. Or you can just stand there and shake your ass. Today, “Ditto” has me shaking ass.

As I was listening to the song I was waiting for a drop or some switch to come in, but neither never did. And I really dig this as a production choice, because I didn’t expect it. Between this being a K-pop song and it having a touch of Baltimore club, it would have been really easy to have just dialled the chorus up to an 11 and gone crazy. But the simplicity and understated breeziness of “Ditto“ not only makes it stand out amongst K-pop releases which tend to be bigger and louder, but it gives the song charm.

Sometimes less is more.

I could not help but think of f(x) when I heard this song and also saw the music videos. “Ditto” looks and sounds like something the group would have done for 4 Walls. Some would say they already did with the album title track. f(x) really woulda fit so well in the landscape of K-pop and music today.

Oh well.

It’s unfortunate that K-pop fandoms and the business itself seems to be geared towards the bigger groups and not the rookies. Because the quality of title tracks and singles this year from the non big three rookie girl groups have wiped the floor with what Red Velvet, Girls’ Generation, GOT The Beat and Blackpink put out. Twice get a pass because “Talk that Talk” was a damn good song. But I do think we’re slowly starting to see things shift, as fans realise that the companies behind some of these bigger groups actually don’t know what to do with them musically. And that it makes more sense to widen your scope and just be open to good songs, regardless of which group is putting them out.