A Study on the Correlation between Music and Narrative Structure of 4th Generation Female Idols in K-pop: Focusing on aespa and NewJeans

The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between music and narrative of K-pop idols from an integrated perspective. K-pop idols use various media to establish their own images and identities, especially showing the intimate relation between musical characteristics and narrative structures. Particularly 4th-generation K-pop female idols emphasizing the concept of ‘I’, and the methods of constructing the image and identity of ‘I’ differ even in the same generation. For this reason, this study selected aespa and New Jeans as the main subjects and done comparative analysis by musical elements such as melody, harmony, and tone, alongside narrative composition such as music videos and lyrics. The analysis revealed that aespa's music has heavy and dynamic qualities, such as the creation of tension through minor scales and implementing futuristic sounds through electronic timbre. In contrast, NewJeans’ music has light and stable qualities, including smooth harmonic transitions by modal interchange and the emulation of acoustic instruments or everyday sounds. Meanwhile, applying the theory of ‘liminality’ to analyze lyrics and music videos showed that aespa aims for a liminal composition by combining heavy music with female hero narratives set in a virtual world, while NewJeans pursues a liminoid composition by combining light music with fragmentary events from the real world. Furthermore, both groups demonstrated that character traits are expressed through melodic characteristics, the flow of events is conveyed through harmonic flow, and spatial imagery is represented through timbre. Through this way, this study proved that 4th generation K-pop female idols-particularly aespa and NewJeans-have constructed their own distinct images and identities by closely integrating musical characteristics with narrative structures.