Why don’t Hybe let their 4th gen groups self-produce their music like Stray Kidz, Ateez?

  • Txt, Enhypen, Lsrfm and NewJeans help write lyrics but they don’t completely self produce music. Their songs don’t have raps too. Meanwhile Ateez, Stray Kids produce, write most of their songs and write their raps. Ateez, Stray Kidz succeed very fast thanks to their self produced music, should Hybe let their groups also self produce?

    They let Trainee A self produce so there’s no reason they can’t let the other ones do so.

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  • They're moving like sm, why taking risk when u can ask producers to produce hits? Hybe always make sure to involve members in the writing process but I'm not sure if they're capable of producing from scratch.

  • Contrary to popular belief, Ateez don't really self-produce. Look at their credits, they're involved creatively, but not self producing like Stray Kids. The rappers write their verses and have a heavier hand in some songs, but overall Edenary defines their sound and songs.


    this is going to be long so I will give a tl;dr at the end


    Stray Kids' 3RACHA are, contrary to what certain salty kpop fans like to believe, are talented and trained songwriters. They all had a strong interest in making their own music way before Stray Kids were conceptualised; Bang Chan was writing songs with Day6's YoungK as a trainee, Jisung wrote a lot of rap himself, and Changbin literally auditioned with a self-made track. So they took advantage of songwriting classes offered at JYPE to fully utilise their talent. Furthermore, Chan, as an old trainee, had a lot of experience organising teams for trainee showcases, it was well known among trainees that being on his team would guarantee good results for you. That's why he got to have a say in the lineup. And of course there was also the formation of 3RACHA: they began it without the company knowing, and uploaded like two songs a week; meaning when the formation of the boy group that would end up becoming Stray Kids was finalised, they had a body of work to prove that they're not just talented and have the knowledge (which was known to the company) but also that they're capable of efficiently functioning as a producing unit even under pressure.


    Moreover, from JYPE's side, Stray Kids were an experiment, the fact they became so big was not intentional. They were not given so much freedom because JYPE had a masterplan for them, they didn't, rather they saw something in them and decided they're interesting enough to give them a try: there was no way they wouldn't eventually gain a fandom large enough to be ultimately profitable, regardless of how big exactly they become. JYPE had literally nothing to lose and all to gain, especially when you consider they can also consider their experiences with SKZ for their future groups.


    Hybe's new groups are different. Like compare TXT's promo with Stray Kids': TXT were literally signed to Republic Records on the day of their debut, while stays had to beg JYPE for the same thing for 4 years before they understood SKZ are really big now. You see, Hybe has plans and visions about what market they need to target for all four groups you mentioned. The hierarchy between Hybe groups and the company is much more hierarchical and top-down than the one between Stray Kids and JYPE, where while the company is still the highest authority ultimately, they can only work with what the group provides and the members have a much, much bigger say in creative things than the Hybe groups. In that way this relationship reminds me a bit of those between some rock bands and their labels

    In Hybe's case, it feels like the company uses the members as vessels to carry out a plan.


    Of course Hybe lets idols be a little involved because it looks good and fans love being able to claim their fave is self produced even if their name is after a football team of producers. Probably the same reason they often don't separate composition and arrangement like all other companies do, but lump them together under the umbrella of "producing". But at the end of the day, they still play safe above everything and appeal to existing trends rather than hope the groups find their audience.


    And lastly, Hybe seems to be focused on finding the group to generate massive profits after bts, so it makes sense they would plan without considering the idols themselves too much. While Stray Kids, as I have mentioned before, were just an experiment for JYPE when they debuted.


    TL;DR:

    1. Stray Kids are trusted for a reason with their music: they have the talent, creativity, experience, ambition, and knowledge. This is simply not something you will find easily among trainees, and it's not shameful to admit.
    2. Stray Kids debuted because JYPE saw something in 3RACHA and the team Bang Chan debuted, and the company could only profit from debuting such an experiment. Hybe seems to plan groups in a way where their main focus is creating a team for a desired niche, and the members have adjust much more. Stray Kids' members are the ones with the main creative vision, have been from the very beginning, the role of the rest of the creatives at JYPE is to support and negotiate.
    3. Hybe seems to prefer playing very safe and staying in control and uses idols as vessels for their plan to target a niche. SKZ simply happened to appeal to a lot of people.
  • Maybe there is a reason. How do you know they can self produce anything anyone actually wants to listen to?

  • they're idols first, not every idol wants or knows how to produce good songs. Producers are a thing for a reason. But making your idols produce and write their own songs, just so their fans can boast about it is not it. I gotta say tho: shout out which Jake helped writing is the best song from the album, so if the result is good, I think hybe lets them.


  • Just because you can write lyrics doesn't mean you can create and produce a whole song.

  • They don't have the talent to do more than dance and you are asking for self-producing?

  • Bighit don’t wanna release trash just because the members wrote the songs. They make every member compete with the producers and lyricist. They choose the best suited ones no matter if it’s written/produced by a member or not. Quality over bragging rights. They also show improvement since they have been doing it since debut but only recently they started to get more credits on their album. I take that any day over a music what I don’t enjoy but written by group members.

    :pepe-shrug:

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