Bang Si-hyuk, also known as “Hitman” Bang, is the Founder and CEO of Big Hit Entertainment.
Bang is also a songwriter and producer in his own right.
Bang Si-hyuk: Career beginnings and rise as a producer
Bang Si-hyuk’s career began at Seoul National University, where he began songwriting.
After meeting Park Jin-young, the two became a hit-making duo. In 1997, Park founded JYP Entertainment and Bang joined as a songwriter and producer, working on hits including boy band g.o.d.’s ‘Sky Blue Balloon’, singer Rain’s ‘Bad Boy’, as well as singer Baek Ji-young’s ‘Like Being Hit by A Bullet’ and ‘My Ear’s Candy’ and more.
Bang Si-hyuk: Big Hit and BTS success
In 2005, Bang Si-hyuk left JYP Entertainment and founded his own company, Big Hit Entertainment. Big Hit is best known as the home of K-pop boy group BTS, whose songs Bang also co-writes and produces.
In October 2020, Big Hit made its stock market debut, with shares opening at 270,000 South Korea Won (approximately $235) – double its initial public offering price of 135,000 South Korea Won ($117) per share. Bang Si-hyuk’s 36.6% stake is now worth 3.14 trillion South Korea won (approximately $2.8bn), reportedly making him the sixth richest person in Korea.
Bang featured in the 2020 edition of Variety’s Variety500, an annual index of the 500 most influential business leaders in the global media industry, and won Best Executive Producer of the Year at the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
Bang si-hyuk: personal philosophy
Bang Si-hyuk has spoken about the root causes of BTS’ popularity and how he has steered the group as a producer, but modestly attributes their success to luck.
He told Time: “I fundamentally believe BTS’ success in the US had a lot to do with luck. It wasn’t my brilliant strategy or BTS being such a perfect fit for the US market. It was rather that their message resonated with a certain demand, and through digital media it spread quickly. And BTS touched something that wasn’t being addressed in the US at the time, so American youths reacted, and that was proven through numbers.”
Bang has described himself as an “old-school producer”, adding: “I place a lot of importance on the quality of the album. So I led an album-focused production. With good music and communication, the sales can follow.”Music Business Worldwide