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The girl group GFriend (provided by Source Music)

Gloves are off in a duel between two of K-Pop’s grandees.

The CEOs of K-Pop‘s duo of dominant entertainment companies have both produced albums for girl groups, Lee Soo-man working with Loona and Bang Si-hyuk working with GFriend. Both accomplished producers, Lee and Bang are staking their reputations on a showdown that’s stirring up South Korea’s music industry.

Lee Soo-man, CEO of SM Entertainment, produced Loona’s latest EP, known by the hashtag symbol (#), which dropped on Feb. 5. Loona is the first group not under the SM umbrella that Lee has produced. The SM CEO took an interest in the girl group after seeing a video of their cover of “Cherry Bomb,” a song originally performed by NCT 127, a boy band with SM.

GFriend unveiled its latest EP “Labyrinth” on Feb. 3, its first since the group’s label Source Music was acquired by Big Hit Entertainment. Alongside Big Hit veteran producers Adora and Frants, CEO Bang played a major role on the album, penning the lyrics for two of the tracks himself. Leading up to the release, GFriend posted a teaser video with a narrative arc that has Big Hit’s fingerprints all over it.

Lee Soo-man, CEO of SM Entertainment

Loona and GFriend share some similarities with other groups signed to the SM and Big Hit labels. Loona, for example, announced a new member each month (the group’s Korean name actually translates as “girl of the month”) until reaching its full complement of 12 members, who release tracks in four-member units. That concept is comparable to SM’s NCT, an umbrella group made up of various smaller units. GFriend has also advocated values similar to those of BTS, Big Hit’s breakout act. These similar concepts are now backed by producing wizards at these entertainment goliaths.

Collaborating with these superstar producers is having a synergy effect for the two groups, both enhancing their name recognition and boosting their ranking on the streaming charts. The partnership is bound to pique the interest of SM and Big Hit fans who might not otherwise be familiar with the two groups. A video about GFriend was uploaded to Big Hit’s official YouTube channel, putting them on the radar screen of BTS’ overseas fans, as evidenced by the lack of Korean in the comments section.

These albums are also breaking new ground on the streaming charts. Loona has already leapfrogged the record set last year by the album “X X,” which reached the top of the iTunes album charts in 26 countries. Its latest album has grabbed the top spot in 56 countries, including the US and the UK.

Bang Si-hyuk, CEO of Bit Hit Entertainment. (provided by Big Hit Entertainment)

GFriend has enjoyed similar success. Their latest album sold 53,162 copies last week (according to the Hanteo Chart), breaking the first-week sales records for “Fever Season” and all of their other previous releases. The album went to number one on iTunes albums charts in 13 countries.

Experts predicted that the different synergy effects of these collaborations will have a positive impact on K-Pop market growth. Lee Kyu-tak, a liberal arts professor at George Mason University Korea, said, “Compared with the past, more and more people are breaking away from large entertainment agencies to produce their records, and the concept of ‘exclusive house songwriters’ is becoming a thing of the past.”

“By cooperating under a system where the small agencies create music in line with their established nature while large agencies impart the ‘know-how,’ they can contribute to broadening the overseas fan base and ushering K-Pop to new qualitative heights,” Lee suggested.

By Shin Ji-min, staff reporters

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

Caption: The girl group GFriend (provided by Source Music)

Lee Soo-man, CEO of SM Entertainment

Bang Si-hyuk, CEO of Bit Hit Entertainment. (provided by Big Hit Entertainment)