This feature has gradually shifted from a December to a November tradition, leaving more space for next month’s sprawling end-of-year countdowns. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at many of K-pop’s biggest agencies and offering my thoughts about how their 2022 went. Following SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment‘s evaluations, it’s time to dive into JYP Entertainment.
As usual, the thoughts are my own and aren’t privy to any insider information. The purpose of these articles is to determine how well K-pop agencies are serving their artists and fans. Because of the timing of this post, I’ll be including the last few weeks of 2021 as part of my analysis.
The Good
JYP Entertainment is home to many popular acts and most of those acts have maintained (or grown) their popularity in 2022 – especially overseas. Stray Kids have become one of the most successful groups of their generation and ITZY have deepened their international appeal. I was hesitant about the agency debuting two new acts this year, but both NMIXX and Xdinary Heroes seem to have found their respective fan bases pretty quickly.
As usual, the agency does a nice job promoting its acts. Not only do they receive frequent comebacks, but JYP often films multiple music videos for each album – especially in the case of Stray Kids. This allows for a fuller picture of their discography.
Though Twice’s commercial power isn’t as strong as it used to be (a natural consequence of being industry veterans), the quality of their output hasn’t flagged. Talk That Talk was one of the strongest efforts this year and the group has really settled into a comfortable groove. I’m not sure many casual fans expected every member to extend their contract with the agency, but good on JYP for retaining the entire group and breaking the famed “seven-year curse.”
Speaking of Twice, 2022 saw a long-overdue solo debut from Nayeon. I hope this bodes well for the future of other soloists from the agency. JYP hasn’t often leveraged the strength of their individual members. This offers a great chance to grow the brand.
The Bad
Spoiler alert: JYP Entertainment will not have a large presence on my upcoming “best of 2022” countdown. This is subjective, but their music quality has taken a sharp downturn this year.
If I were to sum up JYP’s 2022 in music, I’d use the word “novelty.” It feels as if the agency is placing concept before song and hitching their fortunes to gimmicky, meme-worthy songwriting filled with silly sound effects and repetitive sing-talky hooks. From ITZY’s Sneakers to NMIXX’s O.O/Dice to Stray Kids’ Maniac/Case 143 to Xdinary Heroes’ Happy Death Day/Hair Cut, the agency seems more intent on being clever than crafting songs that stand the test of time. It’s a worrying trend, and far from the agency’s peaks of 2018-19.
More and more, this music feels like blatant advertising. It’s as if it’s being cobbled together by a boardroom, with no real soul behind it. It’s chintzy. JYP has long loved the power of a repetitive earworm (think early Wonder Girls), but this new iteration of the approach lacks warmth. And in general, the digital charts seem to agree. ITZY’s Sneakers somehow found its way into the top ten, but other than that JYP has had a smaller presence than its competitors.
As far as debuts go, NMIXX and Xdinary Heroes exist more as concepts than actual groups. The “mixxpop” genre has proven polarizing, while Xdinary Heroes’ music hasn’t yet come across as authentic. Maybe these acts are just targeting a different audience. Whatever the case, I find much of their music borderline unlistenable. At best, these two have some serious growing pains to get through.
Speaking of debuts, will JYP ever debut the boy group that was formed on 2021’s competition show LOUD? The conceit of that series was to find a group who could debut “right away.” A year-and-a-half later and there seems to be no serious plan to get the ball rolling. This is a broken promise to fans.
While JYP found great success with NiziU in Japan last year, the group barely released any material in 2022. Sales are falling and it seems as if their popularity might have already peaked. There’s no reason to believe they couldn’t see a resurgence in 2023, but the agency has been awfully quiet on the NiziU front this year.
It feels like JYP Entertainment is trying to do to much and focusing on the wrong aspects of their artists. To me, their musical output has been the weakest of any of the “big four” agencies in 2022, and that’s something to be concerned about.
2022 Grade: D+
What I’d like to see in 2023:
- Get rid of the gimmicks and focus on the music. Maybe let JYP himself take the reigns of a few title tracks again?
- LOUD boy group debut
- More solo debuts
Previous years: 2021 // 2020 // 2019 // 2018 // 2017 // 2016
