HYBE’s Bang Si-hyuk on the creation of BTS: “I didn’t want them to be false idols”
HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk has opened up about how he formed K-pop boy band BTS and how that has developed his approach for new groups.
In a new interview with The New Yorker, K-pop music executive and HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk spoke about how he formed BTS. Discussing the formation of the boyband, Bang shared that he initially “didn’t really believe in K-pop”, touching on the act’s original conception as a hip-hop crew.
However, he added that he had changed his mind after studying the genre’s strong fandom culture. He noted the success of “tightly synchronised choreography” and “close and frequent, fan communication” among popular acts, which guided his formation of the group.
Bang also spoke about getting BTS to prioritise fan interactions on social media over TV appearances, describing his strategy as “trying to figure out the most fandom-friendly thing to do and then taking it to the extreme”.
“I didn’t want them to be false idols,” Bang said, speaking about the personal themes and struggles BTS address in their lyrics. “I wanted to create a BTS that could become a close friend,” he added.
Bang later spoke about HYBE’s expansion with new labels and groups in South Korea, as well as the US and Latin America, and how his approach has evolved for global markets. “We don’t apply our methodologies uniformly in each region, but we don’t follow the practices of each region blindly, either,” he said.
“Music delivers a very strong experience and emotions in an instant of listening. But we want to make it so that it can be part of a much longer and more sustained type of content consumption,” Bang added, saying that he has been studying the psychology behind games in the next step of developing his business strategy.
“I’ve read books about gamification and why people are addicted to games,” he said, sharing plans to develop games featuring alter-egos of HYBE’s artists, as well as AI-generated digital singers. “The expandability of nonhuman artists is unlimited.”
In related news, NewJeans member Hanni has confirmed that she will be attending an upcoming national audit on workplace harassment in the entertainment industry as a reference witness.
This comes two months after the singer alleged that the manager of a fellow HYBE group had instructed them to “ignore her” amid ex-ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin’s feud with the parent company.
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Gladys Yeo
NME
