Kpop Behind | All the Stories Behind Kpop Stars

SEVENTEEN enjoyed great popularity with its new song "Don't Wanna Cry" in May. But, as you may know, there was a plagiarism controversy over the song. The song's chorus sounded like that of "Something just like this", a song released by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay last February, and it was suspected that SEVENTEEN copied the song. However, Pledis, home to the k-pop boy group denied plagiarism charges at that time. By the way, Sony ATV Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing, which are managing the copyright of "Something just like this" later made a claim, and Pledis agreed to share the copyright of "Don't Wanna Cry" with The Chainsmokers and Coldplay. It doesn't mean Pledis admitted that SEVENTEEN has copied The Chainsmokers & Coldplay's song, though. Pledis said "Even though we still believe that SEVENTEEN's song is an original creation, we decided to share the copyright of the song becau...

EXO made a successful comeback. The boy group released its new song "Ko Ko Bop" on July 21 and has been maintaining the top spot on a variety of music charts. By the way, you know, EXO recently became embroiled in unexpected plagiarism charges. Some of BTS fans are insisting that the music video of "Ko Ko Bop" is similar to BTS' music videos, claiming that EXO certainly copied BTS' music videos of "I Need U" and "Run". The pictures below show how EXO's music video is similar to BTS' music videos. Well, what do you think? It's true that the scenes look similar. Then, do you think EXO really copied BTS' music videos? No, never. A variety of different music videos include such scenes, while BTS is not the first idol group who filmed such scenes. In addition, "Ko Ko Bop" is a song which is totally different from "I Need U" and "Run". The songs are different genres of music and contai...

On June 30, a Korean media outlet reported that there is a plagiarism controversy over G-Dragon's song "Middle Fingers-Up" which is included in his recent album. According to the report, many netizens are doubting the originality of the song, while it seems like GD copied Kyle's "iSpy"(feat. Lil Yachty). The media outlet also insisted that the two songs have same codes and it seems to be a fact that GD and the other 2 co-composers copied the melody line of "iSpy". Well, listen to the songs first. Do you think the two songs are similar? No, not at all. I'm not a composer but I've been working as a k-pop journalist for years. No, the songs are not similar, and GD never copied the song. Actually, the Korean media outlet which reported about the plagiarism controversy for the first time is Sports World. Do you know Kim Yongho? He is a journalist who was accused by YG Entertainment of spreading false information. Not all the infor...

BTS revealed the poster on August 29, but some of their fans noticed that it is too similar to the red poster above and told BTS' agency something's wrong. The agency removed the poster 3 hours later. Well, the poster was produced by subcontracting, and it was the outsourcing partner of BTS' agency who took charge of the poster's design.

On January 15, 2015, a new kpop girl group GFriend released its debut ablum . Well, it seems that the group made a successful debut anyway because its song 'Glass Bead' is quite popular among kpop fans. However, the new girl group is faced with an unexpected difficulty because there is much debate over the originality of 'Glass Bead' among netizens. The Netizens are insisting that GFriend plagiarized Girls' Generation's hit 'Into the New World'. Ok, let's compare and contrast 'Glass Bead' and 'Into the New World' through the video below. A netizen titled the video "Into the New Bead." "So, what do you think? It seems that no one can deny that the two songs sound alike. But, I can't say that GFriend copied Girls' Generation's song, either. A complicated story, huh? Well, in the world of kpop, we usually call this kind of thing "reference." When kpop idol groups are preparing for th...