On the same day BLACKPINK released their latest album BORN PINK and embarked on their world tour, the female K-Pop group released their newest single titled, ‘Shut Down’. This song is the second featured single from their second studio album and prior to its release, a teaser for the music video was released.
Something that fans noticed in the song’s trailer was that the music video will contain easter eggs that reference some of BLACKPINK’s past work. In case you’ve missed them, here are some of the easter eggs that can be found in BLACKPINK’s newest music video, ‘Shut Down’.
Easter eggs in BLACKPINK’s ‘Shut Down’ music video
BLACKPINK’s newest song went in a slightly different direction compared to their previous work. Rather than the dance-pop vibe, it seems more reminiscent of the R&B and rap genres. Just because their music style has changed, however, it doesn’t mean they have forgotten their roots as artists. This music video references plenty of the group’s previous releases and if you blink, you might have just missed it.
“BLACKPINK in your area”
The iconic BLACKPINK intro can be spotted throughout the music video, more specifically, the licence plate on the car at the near end of the video. The line was first uttered back in 2016 by Jisso in the song “BOOMBAYAH”, and since then, that line has stuck with the K-Pop group.
‘Sour Candy’ by Lady Gaga & ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’
In this scene, you can see a small banner at the corner with the words ‘mixed sour candy”. This is a nod to their collaboration with Lady Gaga in 2020. The K-Pop group was featured in the song ‘Sour Candy’, which was streamed over 284 million times on Spotify. But that’s not the only easter egg found in this scene alone.
On the screen projected, Jisoo wearing her pink wig in the music video ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’, which received 1.9 billion views on YouTube. The reason why this scene was selected in particular is perhaps because it was the most talked about scene in the music video.
Jisoo in ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ fell down intentionally as she walks in a middle of a crowd with their phones out. In an interview with Billboard, Jisoo said that she wanted to send a message that not all celebrities are perfect and will tend to make mistakes and that they want to “portray a scene which is interesting and meaningful”.
The neon alleyway with their iconic tracks
If you think this scene is overwhelming, then you’re in for a shock as this alleyway contains multiple references to their past work as artists. One easter egg that’s clearly noticeable is ‘BOOMBAYAH’, which is their most popular song from their 2016 debut album Square One.
Other signs found in this scene via different camera angles are signs that say ‘Lovesick’ (in reference to their song ‘Lovesick Girls‘), a banner that says ‘Kiss and Makeup’, in reference to their collaboration with Dua Lipa on the song with the same name, and ‘Whistle’, another debut single from the Square One album.
But out of all the references found in this scene, the most creative one by far is the small square banner next to ‘Boom Ba Yah’ which says ‘Crazy You’. This sign is a reference to their song ‘Crazy Over You’, which was released in 2020. The word ‘crazy’ is literally over the word ‘you’, which is a creative an interesting way to present this reference in the scene.
The music video for ‘Shut Down’ is pretty much an homage to their past work, so much so that there are too many references to count. You need to pause constantly and look carefully as you might accidentally miss something. It’s good considering the recent success BLACKPINK has received over the years; they want to remind fans of the journey they’ve been on in this three-minute music video and assure them that there is more to come hopefully in the future.
BLACKPINK is about to embark on their ‘BORN PINK’ world tour in October so now is the perfect time to buy tickets before they sell out.