the definitive thread on how to read BTS’ music credits (album notes, KOMCA, soundcloud etc)

to start off with there are 3 separate main 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)

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. all are laid out in order of participation

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, KOMCA and Soundcloud 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. 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 and in album credits. you don’t know if they did one or the other or both unless clarified by themselves.

for some reason a lot of people also use Genius for credits, im not sure why but either way be aware that they just give you the credits for writers (composition and lyrics) not the producers

Soundcloud looks almost the exact same way the official album notes do, you’ll see the Produced By: X and then the composers/lyricists within the brackets ()

here are examples of Abyss and Moonchilds credits. BUMZU as producer, composers/lyricists in the brackets. Moonchild with Joon as lead producer and composer/lyricist, Hiss Noise as his second.

when mixtapes are dropped, since they do not have physical album notes, Bighit drop us a download file of the album (since its free) and within in that download you’ll find the credits for every song. here’s how you download as a google file.

and then the credits are read just the same as we’ve gone through! honestly how you read them might seem very obvious to some but then once comeback comes around we run into the same problems of people misinterpreting them time after time. hopefully this thread helps!

also 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. they're somewhat disparate roles

i think those the most important things to know, hopefully everyone can keep this thread as a useful resource. I wouldn’t mind it being shared around when needed!