Female producers redefine K-pop’s creative blueprint

Fans of K-pop girl group BLACKPINK take pictures of cards with an image of the band's new EP "DEADLINE," at the listening zone of the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, Feb. 27. Reuters-Yonhap

By Pyo Kyung-min

• Published Mar 5, 2026 7:01 AM KST
• Updated Mar 10, 2026 2:05 PM KST

How women’s perspectives fuel K-pop’s emotional branding

International Women's Day arrives each March 8 with the usual flood of tributes. In K-pop, the more interesting story is what has been quietly changing the other 364 days of the year.

The industry's power structure was, for a long time, easy to describe. While men and women equally shared the spotlight on stage as idols, the creative and managerial authority behind the scenes largely remained in the hands of men.

For decades, the industry’s defining architects were figures such as SM Entertainment producer Lee Soo-man, JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young and YG Entertainment’s Yang Hyun-suk, later joined by HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk — producers whose creative direction and corporate leadership helped shape the modern K-pop system.

In recent years, however, that balance has begun to shift.

A growing number of women producers are stepping into roles that extend far beyond contributing songs or onstage choreography. Increasingly, they oversee narrative direction, overall aesthetics, branding and marketing strategy, shaping not only individual artists or groups but also the broader creative trajectory of the industry.

The change reflects a wider transformation in how K-pop itself is now produced.

Where the industry once revolved largely around music production and stage performance, today’s projects are built through a more complex combination of identity, visual branding and long-form storytelling.

In that environment, the producer is no longer simply a songwriter or arranger but often the architect of an entire cultural product, shaping not just the music, but also the entire emotional tone that defines an artist.

The growing visibility of women producers is closely tied to that evolution.

As K-pop has become increasingly driven by fandom culture — where emotional resonance and narrative world-building play a central role — the perspective of those designing an artist’s creative framework has gained new importance.

Women make up a large share of the genre’s global fan base, particularly among highly organized fandom communities that drive album sales, streaming numbers and concert attendance. Producers who can closely interpret those fans’ emotional and aesthetic sensibilities often hold a competitive advantage when developing new acts.

“Because a large portion of the fandom is comprised of young women, labels that understand those emotional and aesthetic codes tend to design concepts that resonate more naturally with those audiences,” an official at a local public relations company said on condition of anonymity.

“That is why women producers are gaining more visibility in the fandom-centric K-pop landscape.”

Few figures illustrate the sonic dimension of that shift more clearly than SM Entertainment songwriter and producer Kenzie.

Over more than two decades, she has helped shape the company’s musical identity with compositions known for their innovative arrangements and structural experimentation.

While the songwriter herself usually remains under the public radar, her catalog spans many of the label’s major artists, including SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT and RIIZE. Her reputation has become so firmly established that her name alone signals a distinctive musical style to fans and industry insiders alike.

In other cases, women have risen through strategic planning and organizational leadership.

Starship Entertainment Vice President Seo Hyun-joo has played a key role in shaping the rise of girl group IVE through a combination of creative direction and marketing strategy.

At JYP Entertainment, Lee Ji-young, head of the SQU4D division overseeing girl group NMIXX, has led one of the company’s most visible production systems while becoming the firm’s first woman to serve as an inside director.

Perhaps the most widely discussed figure is Min Hee-jin of Ooak Records, also known as the former chief executive of Ador, a HYBE subsidiary.

Known for the meticulous visual direction and branding she honed during her years at SM Entertainment, Min built the identity of girl group NewJeans through a tightly controlled aesthetic extending from music to imagery. The group’s debut in 2022 reshaped conversations around K-pop’s visual language, emphasizing a nostalgic, understated style that contrasted with the genre’s traditionally maximalist aesthetics.

Some women producers have also expanded their influence through entrepreneurship, launching companies and projects outside the traditional label structure.

Kim Young-sun, chief executive of GREAT M Entertainment and a former executive at FNC Entertainment, launched the hip-hop boy group 82MAJOR, securing investment from major industry players while expanding the group’s presence overseas. Kim Hye-im, CEO of Beat Interactive, has also broadened the audience for crossover music through the success of vocal group Forestella.

Then there is Cha Hae-ri, founder of Parastar Entertainment, an agency dedicated to artists with disabilities. Her approach reflects a production philosophy centered on tailored training and long-term artist development, creating opportunities for performers — including members of the hearing-impaired K-pop boy band Big Ocean — who have struggled to enter the highly standardized idol system.

By prioritizing inclusivity, Cha’s work illustrates how an empathetic leadership perspective can differentiate itself from rigid traditional models.

Industry watchers note that the rise of women producers has already begun to reshape creative approaches to K-pop projects.

Earlier generations of producers, mostly men, built the industry around musical direction and performance-driven spectacle, with agency-led production at its core. Within that system, creative decisions were largely dictated by labels and producers, with artists performing concepts designed from the top down.

“Historically, K-pop production was centered on content created by the agency and delivered to the audience,” an official from a midsized entertainment label, a woman in her 20s, told The Korea Times. “The focus was on polished performances and music, rather than building an ongoing dialogue with fans.”

As K-pop evolved into a global fandom-driven industry, however, that dynamic began to change. Fans increasingly expect not only music and performances but also a sense of emotional accessibility and participation in an artist’s world.

“Understanding how fans emotionally engage with an artist through aesthetics, storytelling or even visual themes has become a key part of production,” the official said.

“So what is happening now is not a replacement of earlier production models, but an expansion of the industry’s creative toolkit, mostly led by strong women producers in the industry.”

The K-pop system built by its early pioneers remains intact, but the people shaping it are gradually changing.

As the industry becomes more dependent on fan engagement, the role of the producer has expanded beyond music into the broader architecture of an artist’s identity.

Those who can connect those elements most effectively are increasingly shaping the industry’s direction — and many of them are now women.