Top K-Pop Producers

 Top K-Pop Producers

     I've only been a K-Pop Stan for a little over a year, so I'm still a little new to the K-Pop industry and the entire culture and machine of it all. But what I do know is what I hear. If it's catchy (as the industry likes to call an earworm) and well produced, I will be drawn to it. I come from Hip-Hop and like Hip-Hop, the beat is the backbone in K-Pop. It all starts with a dope beat, and I have compiled 4 playlists compiled of complete discographies of proven hit-makers.

J.Y. Park "The Asiansoul"

     J.Y. Park "The Asiansoul" is the most obvious first choice for me because he is a legacy producer, producing since the 1990s on his own tracks and then moving on to girl and boy groups and other artists under his label, JYP Entertainment. I'm a TWICE stan so that's another reason I made a playlist for his entire production discography. I wanted to see how far he'd come since producing Mnet Song of the Year 2017, "Signal" to SOTY 2018, "What Is Love?" to this year's "More & More", and "I Can't Stop Me". Also his "When We Disco" duet with Sunmi is something of a revelation and a fantastic throwback to his old school music genres like Disco, Funk, & Swing.

Teddy Park

     Teddy Park was one of my first producers I noticed when I started listening to my first girl group I was ever a fan of, BLACKPINK. From "Boombayah" to "As If It's Your Last" to "Don't Know What To Do" to "Lovesick Girls", he has a very distinct electropop club sound with splashes of dancehall & Moombahton that is just incredibly danceable and infectious. As a keen music admirer and observer, I went back to his earlier groups he produced (2NE1 & BIG BANG) and found out the sound is eerily similar, some would even say repetitive from group to group (BLACKPINK for instance just sounds like 2NE1 2.0). Nonetheless, most of his most iconic tracks for the groups (and some solo artists) I mentioned are legendary in the library of K-Pop songs ("Bang Bang Bang", "I Don't Care", "Ddu-du Ddu-du").

  

Pdogg

     Pdogg is the in house producer for Big Hit Labels and one of the most prolific Korean music producers with over 200 tracks on KOMCA (Korean Music Copyright Association). Chances are if it's a huge BTS hit, then it was produced by Pdogg. Most of my favorite title songs/singles come from his production ("Mic Drop, DNA, Boy with Luv", etc.) and you can see in the over 120 song playlist below that he sort of turned a corner with "I Need U", which was coincidentally when BTS got their first music program award on SBS The Show, Mnet M!Countdown, KBS Music Bank, and MBC Show Champion. It's also nice to hear his sound for other artists like IZ, TXT, GFRIEND, and the Halsey Suga Interlude, as well.

Woo Min Lee "collapsedone" 

     "collapsedone" is a name I see a lot in the credits of my favorite TWICE songs. So when I sought out the biggest TWICE hits (like "Knock Knock" "What Is Love" or "Feel Special"), of course I see his name attached to them all. One of the coolest things about this YouTube Playlist project I've been doing, is discovering all the other groups and artists these producers have collaborated with and becoming fans of these songs as well and watching the MVs and the surprise of knowing "oh he made that track I listen to all the time" is fantastic fun!

Black Eyed Pilseung

     Black Eyed Pilseung formed in 2014 of Rado (Song Joo-young) and Choi Kyu-sung. Before coming together the duo worked individually with Shinsadong Tiger, producing classic retro nu-disco hits like T-ara's "Roly Poly", Hyuna's "Bubble Pop, or Apinks "My My" or "Hush". This is the producing duo that I'm most proud to feature, as they have a sort of retro yet timeless quality in their production. Not necessarily conforming to the musical trends of a given year, but at the same time sounding incredibly relevant. Again, I looked to my favorite TWICE songs ("Like OOH-AHH", "Cheer Up", "TT", "Likey", & "Fancy") and my favorite GOT7 song, "If I Do", and I factored out the common denominator and it was the remarkably distinctive production of Black Eyed Pilseung. Sure enough their tracks for Sistar, TEEN TOP, MissA, Apink, etc. were all standout gems and I was happy to discover them.