Para aquellos a quienes les tocó ir de pequeños a colegios religiosos, el auge del pop cristiano puede resultar desconcertante. Cualquiera diría que canciones como Alabaré, alabaré o Vamos a la casa del Señor ya encarnaban la refinación máxima de esta disciplina, con melodías pegajosas, letras machaconas y una fuerte resistencia a abandonar la cabeza del oyente que se somete a ellas. Pero el canon sigue abierto. El padre Jaime Salmoreno (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 45 años), cuyo nombre artístico combina los apellidos Salido Moreno, es el último grito en un género que vive un momento comercial extático. Hakuna Music Group –los predicadores del movimiento Hakuna, fundado por un sacerdote del Opus Dei– congregaron a 15.000 almas en su última actuación en el Palacio de Deportes de Madrid. Íñigo Quintero, también vinculado al Opus, sorprendió al colocar una canción de ambiguo mensaje evangélico en el número uno mundial de Spotify. Y los vallisoletanos Siloé llamaron la atención de nada menos que Coldplay, que compartió su música en redes.
Seventeen's Jeonghan and Joshua are debuting as a duo on October 19 — and hyping up the album with a joint Pinterest diary.
Pinterest
Jeonghan and Joshua from the boy band Seventeen are debuting as a duo.
To promote their much-hyped album, they've launched a visual diary on Pinterest.
The duo told Business Insider about their chemistry, their music — and their joint mood board.
Jeonghan and Joshua from the mega K-pop boy band Seventeen are offering fans a dream to lose themselves in and a mood board for shopping.
The two vocalists are debuting as a much-hyped unit, a spinoff of the 13-member band's activities. As of Monday, they'll be working under the name JxJ — releasing their album, "DREAMSCAPE," and hitting the road together for a concert tour in six Asian cities.
In the meantime, they've been populating not only their Instagrams, but also a sprawling visual diary on their joint Pinterest account.
It's an interesting choice, as far as K-pop goes — usually, teasers are limited to platforms like YouTube or the K-pop-centric social network, Weverse.
In a written interview with Business Insider, the duo described their interest in Pinterest as a means of introducing the "visual world," concept, and vibe of "DREAMSCAPE."
The mood boards and the buffet of photos they've posted for fans to feast on are also a "little gift" to their audience.
"JxJ Diary is a space we created to share the concept and vibe of the album more directly with fans before its release. We spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of content they would enjoy, and decided to launch our first-ever Pinterest channel featuring different sides of ourselves," the duo said.
The singers said they wanted to explore the concept of "dreams" with the posts on their joint account. They've curated a collection of photographs and behind-the-scenes moments, including everything from candid shots to sneak peeks of their album photoshoots.
"We hope fans will take inspiration from the album's imagery and vibe, and express it in their own ways," they added. "It would be really fun to see them create their own version of 'DREAMSCAPE' on Pinterest by collecting photos, experimenting with styling, and curating images that reflect their personal tastes."
The business around the boys
That invitation for fans taps into a K-pop fan economy in which an album is not only heard or watched but also worn, collected, decorated, and remade.
The two Seventeen members belong to a group whose fan base collects their photo cards, travels to their concerts, and goes all in on albums and merchandise. Seventeen's 2023 album, "FML," still holds the record for first-day sales for a K-pop album, with more than 6.4 million copies sold. The band's "NEW" tour from 2025 to 2026 saw them play 31 shows in stadiums across Asia and four US cities, drawing close to a million fans, in person and online.
JxJ now gives Seventeen's fandom something else to get invested in: Jeonghan and Joshua together, and the similarities in theirpersonal style.
Ayumi Nakajima, Pinterest's APAC head of content partnerships, told Business Insider the platform had seen a surge in interest in K-pop, making it prime territory for JxJ to establish a foothold.
Nakajima said that the collaboration with the duo's agency stemmed from the idea that K-pop fans connect with more than just the music. Pinterest gives fans a space to "explore the visual inspiration behind the artist's stories" and "save what resonates with them."
Pinterest has seen a strong surge in interest for all things Korea on the platform. Searches for "K-pop style" rose 19% globally year over year, while "K-beauty" searches rose 114%. In Japan, searches for "K-pop fan art" climbed 368%, while "trading card decoration" rose 77%.
"What visual experiences like the JxJ diary do is bring fans into an artist's creative world earlier, giving them more time to engage with the aesthetics, ideas and storytelling behind a release," Nakajima said.
"That early engagement can really shape fandom-led commerce, because fans aren't just showing up at the point of purchase," Nakajima added. "A look, a mood or a visual reference can spark interest weeks before someone decides what to wear to a concert, what beauty look to try, or what pieces they want to buy."
Chemistry
JxJ's album, "DREAMSCAPE," drops on October 19.
Pinterest
As for the boys behind the Pinterest board, they're prepped to serve up seven tracks spanning genres they're "exploring for the first time" on the new album. The duet songs, from early teasers of the music, involve experiments with house, synthpop, and dance rock. There are also two solo tracks — Joshua's punk rock offering, "Not Personal," and Jeonghan's dreamy bop, "Coloring."
"Seventeen has a certain energy when all 13 members are together, but we think the two of us have a different kind of chemistry when we are together," they told Business Insider. "Rather than trying to showcase something entirely new, we wanted to bring out our natural sides and individual charms as much as possible."
The album is also the product of "a lot of conversations" about the kind of art they each wanted to create.
"By sharing our ideas and the images we each had in mind, we were able to understand each other's tastes on a deeper level," the duo said.
They took a couple of trips together, too, which helped them "get to know each other better and shape a direction that felt uniquely ours."
"We also experimented with our vocals to show a new side of ourselves, so we hope fans will enjoy and support this album," they added.
"DREAMSCAPE" launches on October 19 at 6 p.m. Korea time.
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