YG Entertainment has been in the news quite a lot recently, most especially with the talks surrounding BLACKPINK’s contract renewal. However, Korean social media users have found something new to talk about.
On September 28, 2023, SoundJungle, a music production company affiliated with YG Entertainment, posted a ‘call for submissions’ post, most specifically, a “Title Track Lead” for a “7-member debuting girl group.” The post also included references from other artists and their songs like Dua Lipa (New Rules), Jeon So Mi (XOXO and Dumb Dumb), and RIIZE, and specifically mentioned that the BPM should be “identical to RIIZE’s ‘Get A Guitar.’”
SoundJungle listed down the kind of track they were looking for, which had the following characteristics:
1 A song in the pop style
2 A song where the bass is the centerpiece or at least a major point of attraction. If the bass isn’t central, the song’s main appeal should come from the instrumentation.
3 The chorus should be simple and easily hummed by everyone.
4 The BPM should be similar to RIIZE’s ‘Get A Guitar’
5 Preferably a hip-hop-oriented track, but it should have a dance break and parts where the main vocal stands out.
They also added that “concepts that match well with a golf course are also welcome.”
At first, social media users were quick to assume that YG Entertainment was looking for a debut track for the girl group BABY MONSTER. HAE, the mind behind SoundJungle, was said to have participated in the production for BABY MONSTER’s pre-debut release, “Dream.”
However, it had been earlier speculated that BABY MONSTER’s debut may be postponed to later this year or even to next year. The girl group was set to debut in September of this year, but no moves were made from YG Entertainment regarding this.
The outsourcing of songs for different artists has always been an unspoken practice in the K-Pop industry. Some notable times where this happened were when EXO released their track “Tempo” when NCT U released “Boss, ”and when NCT 127 released “Kick It.”
Big companies such as SM Entertainment are also known for curating music they buy from producers for their artists, as a way to plan out their artists’ comebacks and releases.
While this may seem too common a practice in the industry, it can also be deemed as disadvantageous to the ones selling their work to companies. Why?
For starters, in the end product, these producers will only take a small percentage of the overall sales of the songs they make and sell, as other people will eventually be involved in the mastering and finalization of the track. Another is that these producers may not even be given proper credit for their work.
Though this may seem to be quite obvious, it’s still good to make others aware of this practice and how it affects people in the music industry as a whole.
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