JYP Park Jinyoung & HYBE Chairman Bang Sihyuk on You Quiz [English Subtitles]

Origins of the Name “Big Hit”

Before HYBE Chairman Bang Sihyuk started his own company, Big Hit, he was a producer at Park Jinyoung's company.

"At that time, Jinyoung treated me kindly. As the second-largest shareholder, we managed the company together. I thought I could succeed on my own, so I left," Bang said, with Park Jinyoung nodding in agreement.

"The nickname Jinyoung gave me was 'Hitman.' In the U.S., I often had to introduce Sihyuk when we were distributing our CD demos. His surname is Bang, but I felt like it didn’t leave much of an impact," Park Jinyoung explained.

So, Park Jinyoung told him to use something like "Sniper Hitman Bang."

"Sihyuk was so innocent back then, he did everything I told him to," Park Jinyoung added.

On the brink of bankruptcy with 150 billion won in debt, BTS was launched.

First, Yoo Jaesuk congratulated them on renewing contracts with all BTS members.

Bang PD said, "Artists like BTS have a lot of options. However, the fact that they chose to renew with us, with me as the head of management, and now as the head producing their albums, means that they acknowledge our history together and fully accept that we did a good job for BTS.

So now, I feel grateful and validated."

"Although we often talk as if only good things are happening, the truth is that most of the process is about coordination. So, when BTS said, 'Hyung, let's go again together,' those two weeks were the happiest period in my over 20 years of choosing a career in management. That was what a truly stress-free day felt like."

They also talked about how, in the early days of Big Hit, there wasn't much work, so the staff and artists would play tennis on Nintendo. The company was nearly broke.

"At that time, I met Jinyoung hyung. He got angry once and said, 'Over the past year, we've met 3 or 4 times, and I've been really worried about whether or not to say this. I thought you would solve it yourself. Why do you only talk about business when we meet? I want to talk about music. You're a musician.'"

Bang PD said he was shocked.

At that time, Big Hit was preparing for BTS.

The vice president asked, "Are you not confident?"

Bang PD said that although he had confidence in the members, the company had debts amounting to 150 billion won. With the advice of the VP's sister, who said that even if BTS failed, he would still have to pay the existing debt, he felt he was on a mission to not give up on the seven members, each with their own talents and skills.

BTS was a success from the start, winning rookie awards.

Bang PD disagreed when Yoo Jaesuk mentioned that BTS didn’t do very well in the beginning.

“That’s a nice narrative to say. It sounds like they struggled at first, went to America, and came back as a success, but that’s not true. They won all the rookie awards in their first year. They did well from the start."

In 2014, BTS went to KCON in LA, and even though they weren't the headliner, they were covered by The LA Times. "At that time, I felt like this was something very different, so I told the people at the company."

The staff felt Bang PD was getting ahead of himself and told him to "stay still."

Bang PD fought with company management to test the U.S market.

2015 was a major turning point for BTS when the album Hwayangyeonhwa became a huge hit. Bang PD was certain it was time to test the U.S. market and wanted to create music for it.

“We need to see the response from fans in the U.S.”

However, the company stopped him from interfering with management again. They felt that since a Korean-based K-pop song was doing well in Korea, they should focus on that, not the U.S. market.

“We fought a lot. I said I couldn’t give in more than twice, so that’s when we released ‘Fire.’”

Fire became a global hit.

“I also started to analyze the results and look at the Google search index. If we keep going with this trend, I think we can reach a similar level as singers like One Direction in their prime.”

Even BTS thought Bang PD was crazy to compare them to One Direction.

“What are you talking about? Why are we One Direction?”

“After that, it really felt like fate just dragged me along.”

“Let's use the strategy of famous for being famous.”

"We planned for the world tour after <Fire> came out. I made them to prepare about a year and a half in advance. In Korea, we don't actually prepare for a year and a half in advance. Let's use the strategy of famous for being famous. If you think about it carefully, there are cases like this, when we say someone is famous, but we don't know what they do or why they are famous, but everyone says that it's famous, like in Instagram. I've done this too, 'This is it.' We prepared that with American staff very early on."

"If we let the people in New York know about the reaction in South America, by the time we arrive in New York, the people in New York will be in an uproar even if they don't know what it is. I said we are going to do these things. The members were cooperative too, and I had some luck, so it happened."

The American tour was a big success and regular broadcasting stopped to broadcast the show.

"Once they made an impact, they started promoting around cities on radio and TV, so when they arrive in LA, it's like this. 'I don't know why BTS took off. Actually, I don't even know much about BTS."

But since they're famous, just like going to tourist attractions, people had to experience it to feel cool.

"In fact, at that time, a lot of actors, famous celebrities, and their children came to LA. And it blew up in social media."

That winter BTS received Billboard Top Social Artist Award.

Limitation of Scalability

"The two of you have said something about how Kpop is currently in crisis. I'd like to ask you why you said that." Yoo Jaesuk asked.

Bang PD said as the person in charge of HYBE, a company with investors, they can't talk like Kpop is going to fail right away, and that's not the case.

But, recently, there are indicators of decrease in the major markets.

"The basis of the crisis theory I am talking about is the very intense consumption from fandoms."

"It is a limitation of scalability.Because not everyone can love one artist that much. Some people listen to music when it comes on and say, 'Oh, that’s right, I liked that person.If a concert is coming, I should go'. There should be (kpop) consumers like this."

Bang PD went on to say that most artists have super fans and casual fans around them. But Kpop almost doesn't have this, it's really just super fans.

"We need to go further with a structure that can attract more lite fandoms from the periphery. All genres that were popular starting from niche disappeared because they couldn't go beyond the fandom that are deeply immersed."

Park Jinyoung added, "the biggest concern is, fundamentally, broadening. To expand the level of fans, we have been taking steps to do so. While the first step was Korean singers using Korean language. Now, singers of different nationalities and races mixed together to form a team."

"In Japan, we have Japanese artists,and in the U.S, artists sing in their own language, but we are now doing it using the same planning method and system that we have been using up to this point.Now we're starting to do it in the US. So this global audition."

JYP created an audition program that produced VCHA. Bang PD is working on the audition show Dream Academy.

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