Gaon Chart K-Pop Award
Wonder Girls' groupReuters

Gaon Chart Music Awards 2018, the annual award show that is also known as the Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards, will be held at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul on February 14, 2018.

This year, the organisers of the award ceremony, Korea Music Content Industry Association (KMCIA), are planning to bring in some significant changes in the event.

A representative of KMCIA revealed that they are planning to focus on the people behind the production of albums, including the industry executives, and not the artists or the songs.

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"Rather than a measure of the popularity of artists or songs, the Gaon Chart is a tool that performs a statistical analysis of the music industry. [Therefore,] the Gaon Chart Music Awards will focus less on spectacular stages and performances. Instead, we will focus on the process of music production and the role of producers, telling the story of the many industry professionals who must collaborate to foster an artist or to release a single album," the source said.

The representative also said they have renamed the Producer of the Year award to Album Production of the Year award this year.

"Instead of simply honouring the head of the record label that produced an album, we have changed the award so that it can be presented to everyone who participated in the album's production, including the artist, the composer, and the production staff. Just like the Grammy Awards in the United States, the Album of the Year award will be presented not only to the artist but also to the entire production staff, in order to put a spotlight on just how many people must work together to give birth to a single album," Soompi quoted the source.

Meanwhile, the organisers are also planning to introduce a new format of filming Gaon Chart Music Awards this year. According to the representative, all the presenters and the winners will get an uninterrupted moment in the stage.

"We will be working hard on our filming to ensure that the presenter and winner in every award category receive the audience's full attention and applause. We will be getting rid of any unnecessary camera footage, and we will strive to make sure that each moment of the ceremony can receive the audience's respect," the source explained.