Who is Yang Hyun-suk? The outwardly revealed profile is simple. He is the founder of YG Entertainment, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, and debuted in 1992 with Seo Taiji and Boys, a "dancer" who instantly upended the domestic music market. Is that all there is? Recently, news spread that 69 performance videos by YG artists recorded a combined 7 billion views, drawing attention. At the center of that stands Yang. Hyun. Suk. YG. YG's chief producer's professional world was carefully observed under a microscope.
In fact, it is now difficult for even top-tier artists' music videos to surpass 100 million views. Yet the 69 YG performance videos totaling 7 billion views were reportedly all planned and produced directly by Chief Producer Yang, with choreography composition and video editing handled 100% by him. He is, in short, a born dancer and successful planner combined with a triathlon champion.
Yang, known in the industry for not compromising even an inch on artists' stages and work quality, gives a sense of how intense that work must have been. It is certain that Yang's quiet toil in the studio, working tirelessly without publicizing it, resulted in the 69 videos and 7 billion views.
About 10 years before Blackpink's debut, when Yang read the trend that YouTube would become the main platform of the global music market, he created a new content form: the performance video. He showed foresight in using YouTube for artist marketing, and based on the experience gained there Blackpink actively promoted themselves on a YouTube basis even before debut. The result is as everyone knows.
He incurred costs ranging from several tens of millions of won to over hundreds of millions of won for a single work. In the early days, there was resistance from internal management. Nevertheless, Chief Producer Yang self-produced Blackpink's choreography videos and performance videos and targeted YouTube as the main platform. Unlike conventional music industry practices or other agency strategies, YG minimized appearances on terrestrial music shows to about once a week while focusing on improving stage completeness and pursuing an upscale strategy.
At that time, terrestrial music shows were blocking YouTube streaming to protect their own content, so YG created its own IP content and targeted YouTube. Yang's new challenge yielded astonishing results. Currently, Blackpink's How You Like That performance video has 2 billion views, and Lisa's solo song "MONEY" has achieved 1.2 billion views. Most of Blackpink's choreography and performance videos also range between 300 million and 500 million views.
One more notable point is that the second-year debutant group BABYMONSTER, which followed Blackpink, also shows remarkable momentum on YouTube. Recently, BABYMONSTER's performance video SHEESH has 230 million views, I LIKE THAT has 240 million views, drip has 200 million views, and WE GO UP has 190 million views, and most of their performance videos are approaching 100 million views. Considering Blackpink's counts accumulated over 10 years, BABYMONSTER's performance video counts in their second year are likely to record even higher numbers as years go by.
It is hard for the general public to imagine that a founder of a corporation, who is said to own stocks worth several hundred billion won, still directly handles various professional programs and personally looks after his artists. People tend to assume he would live more comfortably now.
According to YG officials, Chief Producer Yang mostly devoted himself to producing quietly behind the scenes rather than drawing public attention with flashy performances. For decades he attended YG trainee monthly evaluations without fail, pointing out trainees' shortcomings in detail and fostering their growth. Also, the mixing and mastering work for the countless works YG released over the past 30 years are products of a system that only reach the public after passing the strict final inspection of Chief Producer Yang.
Owing to a long relationship with Chief Producer Yang, during a brief check-in call with him over the last holiday I lightly asked some questions that have been included again in this microscope analysis.
This year marks YG's 30th anniversary, Big Bang's 20th and Blackpink's 10th. Asked whether there was any special secret to the success of YG-style K-pop groups such as Big Bang and Blackpink, Yang smiled and opened with a rhetorical question, saying "Isn't it synergy?"
"Where in the world does anyone succeed on their own? Singers do well, and when the production that quietly works behind them supports them well, good results come out."
His message and production philosophy is that powerful synergy emerges when singers, producers and production create a great harmony. So what does Chief Producer Yang see as the factors behind K-pop's success?
"The foundation of K-pop's growth is ultimately music combined with performance. Even looking at the largest music market now, the United States, there are almost no idol singers who dance and sing at the same time. In my memory, the Backstreet Boys, who debuted in 1995, and NSYNC, who debuted in 1997, were the last. K-pop production is now an insurmountable realm that no country in the world can follow. Technical skills can be somewhat caught up over time through large-scale capital and hiring technicians, but the creative area is a field that is hard to challenge with capital and effort alone."
Yang added, "Not only Big Bang and Blackpink but also famous artists from other companies have led the K-pop market well, so my only remaining task and ambition is to nurture rookie junior artists well so they can use the highways and runways that predecessors have paved to run faster and fly higher."
Finally, with a short parting line, "Do it until you can...try until the end," he encapsulated YG's long 30-year history and the future that will continue even longer.
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