Objectively, what went wrong with Born Pink

Before defensive blinks or miserable antis come in, the album is doing good. Two top 3 hits in SK, 2 #1s on Spotify Global, already the biggest streaming WEEK for girl groups this year in 1 day...clearly 3rd gen is alive and well and those wishing for their downfall are going to have to wait for another day. In fact, blinks would probably be in full celebration mode by now...if Blackpink hadn't barely grown from TA

Here is why:

1. Both Shut Down and Pink Venom are much stronger than HYLT and LSG on Spotify, but the bsides are noticeably weaker. Let's be honest, blinks love a good hard hitting Teddy beat drop "fuck the haters" or "we are better than you." But where are those songs on BP? Even SD is monotonous. Instead we have inexplicable solo song, mid tempo Bebe Rexha reject, a boring ballad, and an outdated demo that leaked 2 years ago. I bet it took them no more than 3 days to record and put this album together. Blinks like their bangers- these songs are a cute listen but no one is going to stream on repeat

2. Asia is no longer stanning. The Japan results are tragic. Their SEA fan base said no thank you (compared to TA). China bars are mute on how much they are buying because they know they can't and won't outdo Karina and Wonyoung's bars. They are not #1 in Korea and will never top After Like without promotions. The Japan and Korea neglect, lack of bangers, the unequal treatment pissing off their rampant solo stans, and the hard western pandering with the b-sides and promotions are having their effect. TA was heavily carried by Asian blinks in contrast

3. The promo was terrible

Someone said Seulgi's teaser made more noise than the entire Born Pink promotional period and blinks bullied them into deleting the tweet but it was true. The lack of effort from YG and Blackpink themselves to an extent on this album is surprising even for them...but considering the highway robbery going on with concert tickets and how blinks are still buying I doubt they really care as they will still get that $$$

4. Collabs DO matter, blinks

The garbage that was BYW pulled 5M...because Cardi was on it. Ice Cream as a pre release with Selena boosted streams as well. Born Pink is Blackpink all on their own.

All this being said, people calling this a flop are lying and anyone who says this is "just okay for a kpop group" has not checked on kpop this year

They waited for 2 years and they only have new 8 songs. One of them was old, most of the others rejected demos that western stars didn't want.

This shows that music is an afterthought for them. They can get the records with the same Teddy songs without an effort.

The mv was even less effort with the recycled scenes.

If the sales aren't good, then it's not a flop but a mediocre comeback for BP.

Actually I expected them to pull much higher streams for their bsides considering bsides from THE ALBUM pulled much higher numbers. I think pink venom ruined most of the hype tho, they should have just released pink venom on July and let it marinate for a while like they did with hylt and then released born pink on September. Releases being too close to each other affected shutdowns numbers quite a lot.