Meet The Producers Behind K-Pop’s Greatest Hits

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BTS, Blackpink, Stray Kids, Twice, NewJeans … these K-Pop groups did not just come up with their catchy songs and memorable dance moves out of thin air.

Did you know that behind your favorite K-Pop artists, there are a handful of genius producers responsible for creating their biggest hits? And oftentimes, more than you know, some producers work with multiple groups which explains why certain groups share a certain sound.

It’s time to know where your K-Pop bangers came from. Here’s your Intro to K-Pop Producer 101!

First of all, what does a producer do?

When a K-Pop group wins an award, you’ll notice they often thank a “PD-nim”. In the world of K-Pop, this has two meanings. It can be the music producers who write, compose, arrange, or do all the above on their songs. But their roles aren’t limited to just that.

According to Berklee Online, a music producer’s role is to “assist an artist with their recording project, bringing their vision to fruition and guiding their sound along the way.” So, while most producers are actually in the studio working on music, the term can also expand to the people who guide the vision of what the group should be, from music to image to marketing direction.

It takes a whole village to create a successful K-Pop group, and a PD-nim is the chief. Here are several notable K-Pop producers responsible for today’s biggest K-Pop acts.

Bang Si Hyuk

One of the most well known producers as the man who shepherded BTS from a small agency group to the biggest K-Pop group in history.

Out of the group’s success, he managed to spin Big Hit Music into what is now called HYBE LABELS, a music label consisting of smaller agencies producing the biggest K-Pop acts of the moment. HYBE’s astronomical rise challenges the status quo in the K-Pop industry that was once dominated by the Big 3: SM, YG, and JYP.

In 2021, HYBE acquired Ithaca Holdings, Scooter Braun’s company which also houses Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

Through acquisitions and developments, HYBE LABELS is now home to groups like Seventeen, TWS, and fromis_9 (Pledis), ENHYPEN and ILLIT (Belift Lab), LE SSERAFIM (Source Music), NewJeans (ADOR), BOYNEXTDOOR (KOZ), as well as TXT and of course, the almighty BTS (the latter two being part of Big Hit Music).

Nearly all of these groups are chart toppers with massive fan bases both at home and abroad. No wonder the producer is credited as Hitman Bang in his artists’ music.

Pdogg

Another producer who is instrumental in BTS’ career is Kang Hyo Won a.k.a. Pdogg.

As the main producer of Big Hit Music, long before it transformed into HYBE, he had a hand in the discography of various artists such as 8Eight, Lim Jeong Hee, Jo Kwon (from 2AM) and of course, BTS.

From their debut album “2 Cool 4 Skool” to their last one before military enlistments, “Proof”, he’s been a constant presence who writes and composes songs for BTS. He also produced Jimin’s solo debut album, “FACE”, in addition to the albums of BTS’ labelmates TXT and ENHYPEN. If it ain’t broken, why fix it, right?

Kenzie

The hidden face behind SO SO many K-Pop hits, Kenzie - real name Kim Yeon Jung - is one of SM Entertainment’s longest-running producers and also its finest.

The 1976-born producer graduated from Berklee College of Music and was snatched up by SM soon after. Since then, she’s created music for generations of SM artists across different genres. These are merely a selection of her credits:

TVXQ: One, Balloons

Zhang Liyin: Timeless

Girls Generation: Into The New World, Chocolate Love, Forever 1

Super Junior: No Other, SPY, Devil, Lo Siento

SHINee: Real, Why So Serious?

f(x): La chA TA, Pinocchio, Hot Summer, Red Light

EXO: Obsession, Wolf, Overdose, Monster, First Snow

Red Velvet: Red Flavor, Peek A Boo, Power Up, Psycho, RBB

NCT127: Sticker, Kick It!

NCT Dream: Chewing Gum, We Young, We Go Up

Kyuhyun: At Gwanghwamun

Riize: Memories

Taeyeon: To X

Aespa: Supernova

From time to time, she also produced for non-SM artists and gave them major hits, like Nayeon of Twice’s solo debut “POP!”, Park Hyo Shin’s “Snow Flower” and several The Boyz’s albums.

LDN Noise

A close collaborator of Kenzie, LDN Noise is a British songwriter and producer duo consisting of Greg Bonnick and DJ Hayden Chapman.

Incorporating elements from UK garage, drum and bass, funk, EDM, and '90s house music, their distinctive sounds gave life to K-Pop bangers particularly from SM artists: Shinee’s “View”, Red Velvet’s “Dumb Dumb”, EXO’s “Monster”, and SuperM’s “Jopping”, just to name a few.

They also work outside of SM, having a hand in composing hits like Nayeon’s “POP!” with Kenzie and Nmixx’s “Love Me Like This.” So prominent are their contributions to K-Pop that Korea Times dubbed them the “hidden heroes” of K-Pop.

Min Hee Jin

Unlike the other musicians on this list, Min Hee Jin cut her teeth in the K-Pop industry as a creative designer at SM. There, she was in charge of providing art direction for album packaging, music videos, and the overall visual storytelling of every comeback.

A master of branding and visual arts, she is credited for influencing the way K-Pop industry conceptualizes an artist’s image through storytelling. Her works at SM are considered revolutionary to this day, particularly her concepts for Super Junior’s “Sorry Sorry” (2009) and f(x)’s “Pink Tape” (2013).

Min Hee Jin’s style is heavily influenced by Japanese media and a moody Americana aesthetic that evoke the innocence of youth.

Today, Min Hee Jin spearheads her own label ADOR under HYBE and oversees the phenomenal girl group NewJeans.

Working closely with music producer Lee Ho Young a.k.a. 250, she helps reinvent K-Pop for Gen Z with a fresh Y2K flair that echoes her stylistic touch at SM. So different from their contemporaries’ glamorous concepts, NewJeans debuted with a stripped down, everyday teenager image that proved to be a massive hit.

The NewJeans playbook is so groundbreaking that pretty much every new rookie, male and female, emulates the youthful, nostalgic vibe they popularized.

J.Y. Park “The Asian Soul”

Otherwise known as JYP, a.k.a. Park Jin Young.

Like Lee Soo Man with SM, Park Jin Young founded his namesake music label JYP Entertainment and put his stamp through his iconic producer tag, the “JYP” whisper appearing in most of the songs he composed. “It’s Raining”, “Tell Me”, “So Hot”, “Nobody”, “10 out of 10”, “Again and Again”, “Heartbeat”, “Good Girl Bad Girl”, “What Is Love?” – these are just a few of the hits he’s written and produced over the years.

He’s been there since the days of pioneering Generation 1 K-Pop idols like g.o.d. and Rain, the start of Hallyu wave with Generation 2’s Wonder Girls, 2PM, and Miss A, continuing K-Pop’s meteoric rise with Generation 3’s GOT7 and Twice, and the current generation with Itzy, Stray Kids and Nmixx… A true living legend of K-Pop.

Teddy Park

Once a musician himself, Teddy was part of early aughts hip hop group 1TYM. However, he’s more known as the longtime in-house producer of YG Entertainment who's written, arranged, and produced music for YG’s biggest artists: Seven, Big Bang, 2NE1, Lee Hi, and Blackpink.

“Fantastic Baby”, “I Don’t Care”, “I Am The Best”, “Eyes Nose Lips”, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du”, “Kill This Love”, “Pink Venom”... those are just a few hits he’s cooked up over the years. Teddy’s basically responsible for the YG sound, characterized by its strong hip hop and R&B flavors.

Teddy also oversaw most of the solo albums of Big Bang and Blackpink’s members. 3 out of 4 Blackpink members had Teddy as the main producer of their solo debuts: Jennie’s “Solo”, Rosé’s “On The Ground”, and Lisa’s “Lalisa”.

In 2016, he co-founded The Black Label with fellow YG producer Kush. Teddy is the majority shareholder of the company, now home to artists like Jeon Somi and Zion.T, as well as ex-YG artists like Taeyang of Big Bang and Rosé of Blackpink.

So now you know some of the most important producers behind your favorite K-Pop idols. Their feats often go unnoticed, but behind the scenes, they play such a huge part in growing K-Pop to what it is today.