JYP's oftheblue Sets January 11 Debut After Unmasked Member Goes Viral

JYP Entertainment's first boy group under its SQU4D artist division, oftheblue, will debut on January 11 at 6 PM KST with the mini album out of the blue. SQU4D announced the date on its official social media at noon on the 12th, one day after the group dropped its pre-release single.

That single, "Balloon Human" (풍선인간), came out on the 11th. The members worked on it themselves, and it aims for the feeling of emptying your head at the end of a rough day and lying back on a cloud. In a livestream after the release, the members said it still did not feel real. They said they were excited and nervous to finally share music they had worked hard on, and promised "good music and a variety of sides" going forward.

A two-week pressing sale and a Seongsu pop-up

Promotion is front-loaded. From the 12th through the 25th, the limited first-press edition of the debut album is on sale at online music retailers in Korea and abroad. A pop-up store in Seoul's Seongsu-dong will sell merchandise built around the group logo and the slogan "EVERYTHING GOOD COMES OUT OF THE BLUE."

The early indicator to watch is how that two-week pre-order window performs, since it is the first hard sales number the group will post. The debut math is simple: a single, a pop-up, and a pre-order push all land inside two months of the release date. My prediction is that the pre-order total becomes the headline figure for the group before the album is even out.

On the fan side, the buzz is already about faces. A clip of one member appearing without his mask in real time spread on theqoo, and the reactions below show where the attention is landing.

What theqoo users said

1. 1

   This member is seriously good-looking too, wow.

2. 2

   He looks like Park Hyungsik.

3. 3

   The masked guy really does look great.

4. 4

   He looks even better next to guys who have no jawline these days.

5. 5

   His arms are so thin they look brittle, but he's in third year of middle school, so I'll give him a pass. He's my nephew...

6. 6

   He's going to be so popular.

7. 7

   He has a V and Keonho vibe.

8. 8

   They all looked like babies.

9. 9

   Apparently this guy is the visual.

10. 10

    For some reason I see Yeo Jingoo in him, though I can't place where else I've seen him, lol.