What is it that makes a hit K-pop song?
It's a question many have posed but no one has ever come up with a satisfactory answer.
In order to find out the answer we went straight to the source: the composers. We spoke to Erik Lewander (f(x) - Rum Pum Pum Pum, Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy) and Caesar and Loui (Super Junior-M - Swing, VIXX - Hyde) who are all from Swedish publishing company The Kennel. We also had the chance to talk to Anna, Nermin and Ronny from Dsign Music (Girls' Generation - Genie, Jonghyun - Crazy) as well as the fantastic Will Simms (Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy, EXO - Wolf).
We also caught up with Jakob Dorof, a Seoul based music journalist who writes about K-pop for a living. He's interviewed a number of idols including SHINee and 4Minute and also has a very in-depth blog which tackles the history of K-pop song-by-song called K-Pendium.
Did we manage to answer to this question? You'll have to listen and find out.
The two songs featured in this episode are Between Night N Music and Are You Ready? by B.I.G. If you like them, check out their official Twitter and you can also buy their music on iTunes.
More details here: http://beyondhallyu.com/podcasts/bh-podcast-4-what-makes-a-k-pop-hit/
