What is the identity of the famous lyricist who appeared like a comet?
SBS'I want to know it' aired on the 8th highlighted the absurd practices of the K-pop industry: ghosts of K-pop-'Who made the hit song?'
In April, hip-hop group 45RPM member Lee Hyun-bae died. DJ DOC Lee Haneul, who is also the younger brother of Lee Haneul, fell in deep sorrow at his death. In addition, he made a big wave in the disclosure that it was not members Kim Chang-ryul and Jung Jae-yong, but his younger brother, Lee Hyun-bae, who worked on numerous songs after DJ DOC's 4th album through his SNS.
And in March, just before Lee Haneul's revelation, an article accusing the absurdity of the K-pop production industry was posted on SNS and attracted attention. According to the accusation, the director of a famous lyricist academy, considered to be the appointment of new lyricists, has been named as a co-lyricist for the works of the graduates, and is also taking ownership of copyright.
In addition, they claimed that the lyrics of the students were assembled and modified without permission for the production of the songs requested by the famous agency, and that the lyrics fee provided by the agency was not paid for them.
Due to this article, some lyric writing academies have announced that they are not related. Then, an academy appeared to acknowledge and apologize for some facts. What apologized was Director Kim, a famous lyricist who wrote over 400 K-pop songs.
The rookie lyricists, who were said to have been damaged by him, said that even for songs written with 100% of their own ideas, Director Kim posted his name on credits and shared the copyright shares with the actual lyricists. However, Director Kim denied this, saying, "I have never put a name on a song that I did not participate in." And he admitted only some suspicions, saying, "I would like to have even one person on board, so I admit that I have worked with your drafts without prior permission."
Reporters who participated in about 10 to 15 songs each, and said that the rights were deprived of director Kim, showed that the average participation rate in lyrics was 77%, but their copyright share was only 4.5%. In addition, in the case of joint work, a certificate of equity stake, which requires a co-worker's signature, is required, but the informants said that they have never received an explanation or consent of the stake from Director Kim, and that they have never seen a certificate of stake.
In response, one informant said, "Thanks to me, you are writing lyrics and writing lyrics, this is an opportunity cost, and I did business so that I can do that, so think that you provide the cost." Guessed. Regarding Director Kim's logic that the stake was divided by one-N in order to prevent unnecessary disputes, industry officials pointed out that there is an unusual aspect.
Why did the new lyricists remain silent despite such absurd treatment? In response, the informants said, "Everything was not consensual and notified. It is a structure in which you cannot raise a question. If you do not see the head of the academy, the lyrics cannot be displayed. Therefore, if you raise a problem, you must leave the academy and the right to write lyrics will be granted. "Some of the graduates couldn't endure that and went out to the academy, but Director Kim made a pretense of'I'm going to kill it. I'm not going to work in the industry again'."
About the lyrics fee paid every time a song is requested by a large agency and written lyrics, Director Kim insisted that "we do not receive the original lyrics fee." However, when media coverage began, he acknowledged the existence of the lyric writing fee and paid the lyric writing fee. In response, Director Kim said, "I did not pay the lyrics fee I received from SM for the past 5 years to my team's students and writers, and I had it. Something is not real. I thought I should correct the wrong thing." Explained.
During the interview, I heard the story of S, where the lyrics were adopted several times for a famous idol group song from a large agency. About S, the informants said, "The name exists, but the substance is unclear. He is a ghostly lyricist."
A ghostly lyricist with two names: S and Kim Soo-hee. He suddenly appeared one day, and it turned out that he mainly worked on the songs of the popular idol EXO. And all of the songs he worked on attracted attention as Director Kim was named as co-lyricist.
And Director Kim talked about S in a number of ways, such as "a person working together from the beginning, a friend living in a foreign country, a friend at a chocolate workshop." There were suspicions about S that he was a secret lyricist and that he was related to the A&R team (a department that plans the entire album according to the singer's concept).
Accordingly, in the case of officials and the agency, in-house employees used to write lyrics before, but recently, they completely excluded it and told the story that it was thorough.
However, the interview team got a picture of the collection chapter containing the conversation between Director Kim and someone. This was the conversation between Director Kim and Choi, the A&R team leader of the group's agency where S wrote the song. And in their conversation, the name of S, a ghostly lyricist, appeared.
When they showed their conversation to industry officials, they speculated that "they seem to have made a ghost lyricist. Choi's wife seems to have used a stage name because it is likely to be revealed." In addition, he added, "There is a content that Choi himself wrote the lyrics. There seems to be a possibility that the A&R team leader wrote the lyrics himself."
There are a total of 15 songs written by ghostly lyricist S and director Kim. Why is it a problem for agency officials to participate in lyric writing? In this regard, officials pointed out that there is a problem with the lyrics being adopted in an unfair situation, saying, "You have to go through a fair process. JYP CEO Park Jin-young is also adopted through blind testing and voting."
Choi, who spoke with Director Kim, was the A&R team leader in charge of EXO, BoA, and Kangta. This is the A&R team leader who is in charge of the artist of the song written by S. An official said to Choi, "I'm almost one of the leading leaders in the agency. There is only one boss on the top as the unit leader." It's a structure that can't go up."
In addition, through a dialogue between Director Kim and Mr. Choi, they said, "Because my lyrics are this, I haven't told you in advance to choose them." Choi chooses the lyrics he wrote without going through fair competition, or previews the lyrics sent by Director Kim. He noted that there is a possibility that he may have intervened in the final choice.
The rookie lyricists said, "It's a song we've all worked on. Probably hundreds of other academies have received requests," and "It feels like I've been interviewed by putting the documents in the place where the candidates have already passed."
Regarding the fact that the official was named S under the pseudonym S and co-written with Director Kim, "There may be areas where I am reluctant to hear that I participated because I am the decision-maker. So, the head of the academy was named as a co-lyricist and proceeded with it. I think it seems," he analyzed.
Similar things have happened before. Earlier, a controversy arose when the representative of the agency of the girl group IZone posted the name of his wife who did not participate in the song on the copyright holder. Accordingly, the representative took part in the song work, but said that he was greedy for failing to preserve the dignity of the producer, and gave up the copyrights of all eight songs registered under his wife's name, ending the controversy.
And when the production crew estimated how much the ghost lyricist's profit would be, it was shocked that it was revealed that a bonus of at least tens of thousands of won and up to hundreds of millions of won was created.
Accordingly, the production crew tried to meet Choi and Director Kim to hear their position. Unlike Choi, who can't be reached, Director Kim expressed his stance that he would respond in writing, saying thanks for giving him the opportunity to object. When asked about the distribution of shares between the ghost lyricist and the rookie lyricist, Director Kim said, "The ghost lyricist S is the wife of Choi, who leads the A&R team of a large agency. It is clear that she participated in the lyrics, but she never once participated in the lyrics. I have never asked Choi for lyrics through,” he argued.
Industry insiders pointed out that there was a problem, saying, "If your wife wanted to do that, you should have gone through a fair process. First, it's EXO. My husband is a song from the group in charge, but this is a little different," he pointed out. And during the interview process, it was revealed that the staff of the agency in the past participated in the songs of Girls' Generation and Taeyeon, and the corresponding staff was their A&R staff. In particular, he registered with the Copyright Association under his mother's name instead of his own,It turns out that if the song is profitable by registering the copyright under the two names, both copyright holders are still earning profits.
The production team also requested the agency to confirm the facts about S. In response, the agency said, “I have recently found out that it is Mr. Choi's wife, and that he has deprived him of the position of unit leader and decided to punish him.” In addition, the case 6 years ago was elaborated that it was concluded with the retirement of the person concerned, without being clearly disclosed.
In the broadcast that day, the informants said, "The artist and the fans are also victims. I think fans will be upset a lot because the artist is mentioned because it is related to negative things in the production of the album. I'm sorry." I want you to know that there was only this way to find it.”
On Thursday, Director Kim made his stance once again as proof of the contents. He said, "The ghost lyricist S has never posted credits or took shares without participating in the song. Because it is a family of A&R staff, it was only a private work," he said. "Requested by the agency where S's spouse works," he said. It is true that many of the songs S participated in are true, but there was no illegal transaction or unfair thing."
Accordingly, the broadcast said that it would be difficult to hold legal responsibility for the work of Kim Won-jang and the agency staff, but it was obviously unethical because it took private interests by stealing fair opportunities from numerous inquirers.
And it wasn't just the lyricist who suffered this unfair thing. Drama music director Park Seong-il said, "A proposal came to the younger students who are becoming disciples. I'll connect you with a famous director. Instead, he said that co-composing is a condition. There are people who publish 600 songs a year, but the machine won't be able to do that, too. "I said. He said, "They have an immediate livelihood and have no power. Because of that, it is a strange structure that can only be taken away even though you know it."
[ When I was watching a movie, I heard that my song was put in the trash. It was deliberately done to create my own library,” he said, referring to the absurd practices of the industry.
The informants revealed that the rights to the song were deprived of the management company executives, major professors, and representatives of the management company, and that they did not receive a proper case. And there were over fifty composers who claimed these damages, creating regret. In particular, they both mentioned one fact first. And because they could be identified as a tip, they asked not to disclose what kind of damage they suffered or what kind of song they made, creating a regret.
The representative of the drama OST production company said, "Some composers personally suggest that if you let them participate in the drama OST song, they will give you half of the copyright. When I asked what was going on, many people said it was a business and said that it was a business." He said he frequently offers transactions with him. In response, the CEO added, "I felt bitter about whether I should do this. But composers who make such a suggestion will not be able to think that they are wrong."
Composer Kim In-young filed a lawsuit six years ago that the company took the copyright of over 2,000 songs. He lived a life like a machine for producing songs for five years, and all the music credits said that the name of the music director, the representative of the agency, was raised. "He hid us like coast lighters. We worked more than 10 hours a day for 5 years, and our wages were 800,000 won per month, which was frozen for 5 years," he explained.
At that time, the company asked 30 composers belonging to the agency to replace the name registered with the copyright association with the company name, and the songs they made belonged to the company permanently. Accordingly, composers including Kim In-young sued the company's representative for infringement of the moral rights of the author. When the problem arose, the copyright could be returned, but due to insufficient evidence for the alleged copyright infringement, it is known that the company's representative and Yingam were not charged.
Accordingly, law officials regretted, "As we judge only by legal standards, there is an ambiguous part about creation. To confirm who the actual right holder is, evidence must be presented, but it is difficult to present evidence as time passes."
Is there any way to protect their rights? The Copyright Association recently established a Copyright Dispute Commission and wished it would be helpful to those who suffered unjust things. In addition, the proposal of a partial amendment to the copyright law made us look forward to a slightly different future.
Finally, the informants say to those who are going through something similar to them, "Don't be scared. They can never hurt you. They'll keep you out of business. It's ridiculous. Trust your abilities a little more." I was asked to draw attention.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jeong)