[News Figures] BTS 10th Anniversary... Producer 'Pidok' Who Shed 'Blood Sweat & Tears'

BTS 'Hit Song Machine'... Member 'RM' Recruited
Studied Vocal Music at University but Dropped Out, Pursued Music Career
Making Headlines with '40 Billion Won' High Salary

The group 'Bangtan Sonyeondan' (BTS) celebrated their 10th debut anniversary on the 13th. BTS entered the music scene with their debut single title track 'No More Dream' and swept rookie awards both domestically and internationally upon debut. They grew into a global idol group by topping the US Billboard charts (single chart 'Hot 100', album chart 'Billboard 200') and winning trophies at the American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, major US popular music award shows.

In the early days, BTS's songs were produced by producer 'Pdogg' (40, Kang Hyo-won) alongside Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of HYBE. The two wrote and composed most of the main title tracks and album songs from BTS's debut album through their third full-length album. They also handled the crucial overall album production. Pdogg participated in many BTS hit songs such as 'Spring Day,' 'Blood Sweat & Tears,' 'Boy With Luv,' and 'DNA.'

While Chairman Bang Si-hyuk is well known to the public, producer Pdogg has relatively less media exposure. The stage name Pdogg comes from combining 'P' from 'Producer' and 'Dogg' from rapper Snoop Dogg, whom he liked since childhood.

Producer Pidok. Photo by HYBE

Born in 1983 in Busan, Pdogg originally dreamed of becoming a teacher rather than a pop music producer. His parents wanted him to become a classical musician or a teacher. Pdogg started vocal training in elementary school, graduated from an arts high school, and entered a related university, but eventually dropped out, deciding that the education field was not a good fit for him.

In 2007, he uploaded songs he made to a composition community run by Bang Si-hyuk, and 2-3 of those songs were included in albums by singers Lim Jeong-hee and '8eight.' Later, he was scouted by Bang Si-hyuk and joined Big Hit Music (HYBE's former company name) as a senior producer, entering the pop music industry. He also introduced a high school rapper he met by chance to Chairman Bang, who joined BTS under the stage name RM.

Although Pdogg created songs with excellent sensibility and all BTS members debuted together, BTS initially struggled to establish a clear concept. Because of this, they had many concerns about what kind of music to create.

Group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) [Image source=Yonhap News]

In an interview with 'JoongAng Ilbo,' Pdogg said, "At that time, except for member Jin, all members were teenagers, so rather than focusing on a concept, we thought a lot about how to musically express the emotions felt in school life and the era as seen through the eyes of teenagers." After much deliberation, they released their first full-length album 'Dark & Wild,' but it did not receive much response. Regarding this, Pdogg confessed, "It was a period when we couldn't grasp the direction we should take with the music."

Eventually, Pdogg decided to move away from the hip-hop genre and incorporate pop elements to define their musical color. Subsequently, BTS released the 'Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa' (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life) album, which solidified their position as idols. In 2015, the title track 'I Need U' from 'Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa' Part 1 topped domestic music shows, and later that year, 'Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa' Part 2 became the first K-pop album to enter the US Billboard main album chart 'Billboard 200' at number 171, marking the beginning of BTS's soaring popularity.

As a result, Pdogg won the Best Producer Award in the professional category at the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards, the Best Composer Award in the professional category at the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards, and the KOMCA Copyright Award in the popular music category for lyrics and composition three years in a row (2018?2020).

Known as the hit song maker for BTS, Pdogg made headlines again in 2021 as a high-earning individual. According to HYBE's 2021 business report, Pdogg received a total of 40.077 billion KRW in 2020, including salary, bonuses, and gains from exercising stock options.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.