Process of K-pop group company productions

By Noelle Chin Jee Wei

13 OCTOBER 2020 - How K-POP works and how to be a part of it

K-POP has become more than just South Korean pop culture in recent years. Since 2015, at least one K-POP album has been trapped in our heads and in the top positions of the Billboard list for weeks. K-pop is becoming a worldwide sensation that is blowing people away, thanks to names such as BTS and EXO.

In addition to the entertainment appeal, which is what the average viewer gets from K-POP groups and musicians, in its depth lies another important ingredient to K-POP.

If you take a closer look at how Korean entertainment companies operate, the composition of each song, the strategy of each show, it is no wonder that K-POP consists of several composite components that together make up an industry of $5 billion.

How the K-POP industry approaches music production.

No K-POP album has been produced by a single person, unlike many Western artists who wear all hats from a composer, songwriter to artist, which you can think is also on a song-creating basis. Rather it is the diligent work of many lyricists, songwriters, and composers in cooperation.

For instance, thirty-six songwriters and fifteen producers from all over the world are credited with the hugely popular Girls' Generation song "I Got a Boy," which was released in 2013 and has since been celebrated by Time and Rolling Stone's.

Girls’ Generation ‘I Got a Boy’ | Source: Billboard

The practice of collaborating together with international producers to add a fresh sound to K-POP is not that unusual, and most of the top-rated songs were produced jointly with prominent overseas producers like Will.I.Am and Warren G, to name a few.

This is not necessarily accurate, though it might seem like all the producers' spots are reserved for world-famous producers and Grammy award winners only. Along with Western experience, several Korean agencies are searching for new sounds and freely partner with producers from diverse backgrounds.

Entering the K-POP industry as a music producer

From a perception of an outsider, it is unlikely to join the K-POP industry without close communication with one of the Korean labels, Nevertheless, Korean agencies usually run through multinational publishing firms that do the job of matching them with the right producers. Which helps the producers to gather a wide variety of demo samples to pick from.

While a large amount of intermediary work is covered by Western agencies, because of the language element, the whole process of dealing with a Western producer can take up to several

months or even years. Since many western music producers do not speak Korean, the lyrics need to be changed by Korean companies, and that is painstaking work itself.

In dealing with Korean music makers, the knowledge of how to compose a song that will be consistent with the Korean language would also be an absolute benefit. Although this will most certainly only be learned by direct experience, online advice is shared by some of the producers.

The holding of camps is another way that Korean music producers seek collaborators abroad. As K-POP was only starting to extend its reach to the world, this approach was only available to well-known entertainment companies like SM Entertainment.

This practice is available to more and more agencies of different sizes these days. Some camps also merge K-POP and J-POP to encourage music makers of both genres to practice songwriting.