The popular Korean girl group aespa has swept the younger generation with its avant-garde metaverse concept. They debuted during the pandemic in 2020 and reached an unprecedented level of popularity at the end of last year (2024).
Sweeping the “MAMA” and “MMA (Melon Music Award)” awards for Best MV, Best Female Group, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Artist of the Year.
They are also the only girl group to win four major awards at the MMA awards ceremony. They will return with a new single “Dirty Work” at the end of the month, and recently released a dance version of the single trailer.
The cool clip was released less than 24 hours ago, and the number of clicks exceeded 8 million, which is an amazing achievement. It is worth mentioning that they also beat NewJeans to become Apple’s latest partner.
This Monday (9th), Apple Korea officially released the MV of “Dirty Work”, which was shot entirely with iPhone 16 Pro. The movie-like light and shadow and lens movement were all shot by Apple phones, and the cool movie effects are amazing.
Following the collaboration with international director Park Chan-wook on the short film “Spring Dream” in 2022 and the MV “ETA” with NewJeanss in 2023, this is the third time that Apple has collaborated with Korean creators from an artistic perspective for promotion.
Last year (2024), Apple used iPhone 14 Pro to shoot the MV “ETA” for NewJeans, which won four awards at the “One Show 2024” advertising festival held in New York, USA, and was used as a global advertisement. The bunny ears symbolizing NewJeans were added to the Apple logo, which caused heated discussions.
As the lawsuit between NewJeans and the agency continued to ferment, this year (2025), Apple switched to the aespa camp. Unexpectedly, the captain Karina was involved in controversy due to her dressing problem not long ago, and her popularity plummeted, causing Korean netizens to bluntly say “After PRADA, Apple’s curse is here”, “Apple became popular after collaborating with several people”, “I wanted to avoid NewJeans, but came to aespa”, etc.
Karina, known as the “humanoid AI,” was embroiled in controversy two weeks ago over a photo taken during the election. The reason was that she wore a jacket with a digital symbol and posted a message with a rose emoji.
She was questioned for hinting at the meaning of the “rose election” symbolizing the by-election. The next day, the agency stepped in to save the situation. Karina has apologized twice so far and has been criticized for “low political sensitivity” due to various details.
In addition, Karina is also a PRADA brand ambassador, but PRADA spokespeople have had problems one after another, especially Kim Soo-hyun, who was involved in a storm due to emotional problems at the beginning of the year and was terminated in less than three months.
Last month, she officially broke up with Japan’s “advertising queen” Nagano Mei, who had worked with her for five years, because the latter was involved in an extramarital affair, which once again confirmed the joke of netizens that “the tears are PRADA PRADA’s”.
As for Apple’s choice to avoid NewJeans, in addition to not releasing new works since the war with the company, the court recently issued a latest judgment, ruling that the members must pay 1 billion won (about NT$23 million) in liquidated damages “each time” and “per person” for conducting activities without the permission of their company ADOR.
Although it is a temporary punishment, it is actually almost equivalent to NewJeans being banned in disguise, so it is better not to touch this controversial object.
In fact, during the period when NewJeans and the company were fighting each other, there were constant endorsement disputes. The artists bypassed the company and contacted the brand through ADOR’s agent, and the two parties signed directly.
According to Korean media reports, Omega, Korean jewelry brands, etc. bypassed ADOR and accidentally involved the “financial sponsor” in the conflict between the company and the artists.