Source: V Live
Enthralling, comforting, invigorating, exhilarating—music is different things for different people. Music carries with it meanings and feelings buried within people’s hearts, things that need to be said and those which demand to be heard.
More than just a collection of melodies and harmonies, music plays a particularly crucial role in society’s cultural aspects. Additionally, a significant factor behind the world’s economic value is attributed mainly to music. For this very reason, music companies and labels have gone out of their way to both create and cultivate songs and pieces of all forms: be it lyrical, contemporary, or classical.
Therefore, it’s good to note the uproar caused by the Korean pop industry worldwide, spearheaded by Big Hit Music Company (formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, a subsidiary of HYBE Corporation), among other music businesses. With the staggering global impact of its artists such as BTS (Bangtan Boys) and TXT (Tomorrow X Together), Big Hit only continues to change hearts and reshape perspectives one song at a time.
Established back in 2005, Big Hit has since undergone several developments—all of which have contributed to what it is today. After signing the vocal trio 8Eight in 2007 and a joint management contract with JYP Entertainment over boy group 2AM in 2010, CEO Bang Si-Hyuk recruited Kim Namjoon, more popularly known as RM, as the first member of BTS. This group will eventually smash records and conquers the music industry on a global level.
BTS, consisting of 7 members, namely RM, Jin, Suga, Jimin, V, Jungkook, and J-Hope, debuted in 2013 with the album 2 Cool 4 Skool. Bang Si-Hyuk said that BTS would be for the youth “a hero who can lend them a shoulder to lean on, even without speaking a single word.” To that end, the album featured several songs which were aggressively masculine and rough around the edges with fierce visuals and tones, but which spoke of sensitive and meaningful topics such as prejudice and what it means to follow one’s heart and dreams. Remarkably youthful in nature, the album became the first of many to engender the group’s eventual success.
The Big Hit Music Company is home to other bands as well, such as soloist Lee Hyun and boy band TXT. Youth and its intricacies, emotional distress and agonies, and uplifting aspects are common themes and concepts in the songs and music under the company. Deeply personal and moving, the artists’ discography under Big Hit has been the cause for much good change in the image of K-pop.
Big Hit has one slogan: “Music & Artist for Healing,” and it is one that company religiously advocates. Its organizational structure currently focuses on three areas: “labels, solutions, and platform” in an effort to live up to its mission of giving people comfort and emotion through music and artists.
At the end of the day, this just shows that as far as the Big Hit Company goes, it takes its social responsibility seriously to nurture artistry and make an effort to affirm that music and human connection and value go together—and that’s why it’s as big a name as it is today.
Sources:
https://mus.acrofan.com/article_sub3.php?number=255999
https://variety.com/2021/music/news/big-hit-entertainment-name-change-hybe-bts-1234927961/
