how to read music credits - KOMCA, Album notes, Genius and Wikipedia - a thread
to start off with please be aware that there are 3 separate categories of participation in music, producers, lyricists and composers come together in order to make a song and are credited accordingly
the producer makes the instrumental, the beat of the song so strip all the singing from a song and the underlying beat is what the producer has made. but usually producers also compose as well simply because producing is an overarching, guiding role.
the composers make the melodies so /how/ the song is being sung, those are the melodies and what the composers are responsible for. usually the composers are also the lyricists, so they write the lyrics AND how its sung simultaneously. but sometimes just one or the other
now onto how these are credited. KOMCA is a songwriting copyright association that credits LYRICS and COMPOSITION as well as Arrangement, you will not find out who produced the song from KOMCA, because they do not register production credits
if you go onto KOMCA you will find two categories, people will be credited under C (standing for, you guessed it, composition) or A (lyrics) theres also a third category for AR (arrangement) but we dont usually see those credits on BTS songs so its not very relevant
arranging is basically the order of the song say which is the first verse, when is the hook etc. important to note that KOMCA does not credit in order of participation! the album credits on the other hand, which we will get into now, do credit that way!
here are the album credits for Autumn Leaves, SUGA as lead producer, Slow rabbit second, these two are OUTSIDE the brackets and thats how you know they're the producers. INSIDE the brackets we find the composers and lyricists in order of participation
btw ive seen some curiosity about the Chorus credits that you'll find Jungkook in for a lot of songs. a Chorus credit is basically a credit for your voice being used almost as an instrument in a song, the way you would sample a vocal. whether it be to stack harmonies or
to add contrast, usually a producer will pull you aside and just have you record a BUNCH of adlibs, singing on the fly and then use that in the song whatever way sounds the best. Jungkook is obviously really good at giving the producers what they're looking for. moving on!
let me show you how KOMCA and the album notes will credit on the same song. here are the KOMCA credits for Your Eyes Tell, they denote Jungkooks participations on the lyrics and composing
here are the album credits for Your Eyes Tell, we find out Gustav Mared and UTA are the producers. as said before the producers are outside of the brackets () and all of the composers and lyricists are inside
in all honesty the album credits and KOMCA are the ONLY places you should look for song credits in my opinion. preferably the album credits since they actually lay out ALL of the roles and the participation order. You can however also look on Wikipedia
this is because Wikipedia uses album credits as the source, but because people can go in and change these sometimes its incorrect. so its always better to double check with the official album credits
you can see the same credits for Your Eyes Tell and Autumn Leaves as is shown in the album credits. on Wikipedia the categories are Writers and Producers, so its easier to tell which is which. Writers is short for songwriters, as songwriters is the name for the people who
compose and write lyrics, so again composers and lyricists are lumped together here.

for some reason a lot of people also use Genius for credits, im not sure why but either way be aware that they also just gives you the credits for writers (comp and lyrics) not the producers
you might've noticed that the producer is almost always also in the writing credits, thats not unusual because again producing is a guiding role so most choices in the composition and lyrics go through them first / they also contribute in that aspect. it usually does not go
the other way though, so not common for all the composers and lyricists to have had involvement in the production (the beat) of the song.

i think those the most important things to know
as someone with family in the industry and a lot of respect for the different work that goes into these roles i think its really important that if we're going to be engaging in conversation about music that we get them correct! so hopefully this thread was helpful in that aspect
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