Mapping the Authenticity of K-pop: the reality of the Production Network vs. Fandom Interpretation

Abstract

This chapter investigates the K-pop production process through two complementary lenses: a data-driven network analysis of song credits and qualitative interviews with K-pop producers. Using Python and the Genius API to retrieve song credits, and Neo4j to generate network visualizations based on PageRank, the study maps the production networks of groups including BTS and Stray Kids to visualize who actually makes K-pop.

The findings reveal a significant gap between the reality of K-pop’s production process — a highly collaborative, internationalized system involving in-house producers, foreign songwriters, and song camps — and fans’ preferred narrative, which emphasizes idol involvement and Korean authorship as markers of authenticity. Drawing on interviews with three producers (Kebee, Jeon Dasol, and Alina Smith), the chapter shows how entertainment companies strategically frame idol participation to feed this narrative, while producers themselves navigate the tension between industry reality and fan fantasy.

The chapter argues that international fans who distance artists like BTS from K-pop’s collaborative production process are aligning authenticity with a “handcrafted” ideal — favoring in-house Korean producers over international collaborations. This preference reflects broader anxieties about K-pop losing its Korean cultural identity as the genre becomes increasingly globalized, and reveals how authenticity in K-pop functions less as a verifiable quality than as a negotiated, fan-maintained fantasy.