Will the Yoo Heeyeol plagiarism controversy , now affecting Lee Mujin, end the vocalist tradition in KPop once for all?

    On the brink of the vocalist restoration on Sep 18, the Yooheeyeol plagiarism controversy has flashed.


    Yoo Heeyeol supposedly plagiarizing Ryuichi Sakamoto's music has led him to end the Yooheeyeol show, and his reputation was hurt.


    Now, Lee Mujin's signature song, Traffic Light, is said to be a close copy of sekai no owari's Dragon Night


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    (most of the recent remarks are from Koreans).


    Since Lee Mujin's subsequent songs tended to be quite lackluster, I think it will be the last of him.


    Angry K-netizens are now advancing to attack a certain figure who used to own Edam Entertainment until recently.


    IU's red shoes was suspected of plagiarism for a long time, and someday as well, but now BbiBbi is suspected




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    And now Celebrity is also suspected


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    These clips were made a long time before this controversy.


    Bbibbi is IU's first contribution of KPop


    Celebrity is IU's first Melon yearly #1


    If they are cut off, Lee Jieun's reputation is significantly hurt


    It seems the gods of Kpop still have some intention to revive KPop and stop the Strange Creature from strangling it with her bare hands.


    Unlike Yoo heeyeol or Lee Mujin, IU did NOT compose these songs. However, Lee Hyori's career as a singer ended when she was revealed to sing a song which had been plagiarized; Lee Hyori mostly acted as a celebrity and show figure from that point.


    This appears to have an effect on Lee Jieun who is not revealing her concert plans even though the date is approaching, and if the controversy gets big she will cancel the concert and won't come back for a few years, ending her long grip on KPop. Her fall basically means the end of the vocalist tradition, once for all, in Korea.


    KPop was truly a huge movement, and it seems the Gods of KPop have mercy on a billion KPop fans.


    It is like after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington's horse suddenly got crazy, falls over the Duke and killing him. His death basically would have meant the end of 7th Coalition, even after this victory, and Napoleon gets off to fight another day. Something like that actually happened in history; at the end of the Japanese invasion of Korea on 1598, Yi Sunsin, the chief admiral against the Japanese and the person most responsible for thwarting the invasion, was hit by a stray bullet and died. His death enabled the Japanese Navy to escape, and return with a huge vengeance in 1876.

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    Edited once, last by WhyKnock ().

    I don't think Bbi Bbi and Celebrity are similar enough to the other songs to be considered plagiarism.. However Red Shoes took me by surprise, it actually sounded pretty similar :wow:. Not sure what'll happen here, but I only think a case for plagiarism could be made for Red Shoes.

    I think JYP actually went to court for "Someday" plagiarism after Dream High ended, I don't remember the outcome though.


    I remember when "Red Shoes" controversy happened when the song first released, I remember Bang Sihyuk defending the song producer at the time. It sounds really similar but you can hear how the producer changes just a few note progression in each line to avoid direct copy.


    "Bbi bbi" and "celebrity" are a stretch, though I'm surprised no one has pointed out before how the bridge in celebrity is a straight chainsmokers ripoff lol.

    Quote from WhyKnock

    Angry K-netizens are now advancing to attack a certain figure who used to own Edam Entertainment until recently.

    Are you referring to yourself?


    In any case, K-nutcases can try, but even if proven true, I betting that the Teflon Idol of K-pop, will surf that wave as easy as Ah-puh as well.


    Frankly even YHY, since Sakamoto himself waved it off, it is just the media making a big deal out of it.

    And timing of his exiting Sketchbook.

    He will retain immense influence behind the scenes, heck technically he is the boss of YJS and of course Samchon of IU.


    Lee Mujin might be in trouble though, probably does not have the deep network needed to surf troubled waters. BPM is shrouded in mystery.


    Plagiarism is not easy to establish, because many sounds are common patterns in genres. Kpopalypse does a decent job of analysis.

    But then for public perception, substance is unnecessary, suspicion is enough. And that is where I am betting that the Korean public will not go against IU in general.

    When it comes to trust worthiness, she scores very high in surveys.

    Quote from pchromo4

    I think JYP actually went to court for "Someday" plagiarism after Dream High ended, I don't remember the outcome though.


    I remember when "Red Shoes" controversy happened when the song first released, I remember Bang Sihyuk defending the song producer at the time. It sounds really similar but you can hear how the producer changes just a few note progression in each line to avoid direct copy.


    "Bbi bbi" and "celebrity" are a stretch, though I'm surprised no one has pointed out before how the bridge in celebrity is a straight chainsmokers ripoff lol.

    Outcome - the original song was also copied from some other songs or something like that so the case was dismissed and Lee Jieun now sings it on her concerts


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    (Sung after she learned about Goo Hara's death.)


    Mr. Bang is not alien to plagiarism


    Park Jiyoon's song "I have fallen in to love", composed by Mr. Bang

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    Sheena Easton's Morning Train (It made to #1 at the billboards hot 100 back then)

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    I won't comment on the others. Often it gets settled off the courts, and since Lee Jieun had remade Lee Sangeun's "Secret Garden" in 2017, there might be a way to shmooze Saugeun who sang the supposed original of Celebrity.



    Having seen what happened to Kim Sunho and now Nam Joohyuk (although YG appears to be depending him well so far), anything can happen in KPop.

    Quote from WhyKnock

    I won't comment on the others. Often it gets settled off the courts, and since Lee Jieun had remade Lee Sangeun's "Secret Garden" in 2017, there might be a way to shmooze Saugeun who sang the supposed original of Celebrity.



    Having seen what happened to Kim Sunho and now Nam Joohyuk (although YG appears to be depending him well so far), anything can happen in KPop.

    Red shoes is years old now, if nothing came of it and she was nowhere near the icon she is now.. I don't think anything is going to happen with such amateurish similarities.


    Lots of songs "sound alike", but they have prove exact patterns of melodies to be plagiarism and that rarely happens.


    Try this

    Okay, so I’ll do another blog about plagiarism, sampling and genre similarity as long as you all promise to STFU about it.
    Ever since I wrote a blog recently about IU’s plagairism accusations and melodic plagiarism in general, I’ve been bombarded with people asking the following:…
    kpopalypse.com


    If she did not need to take back the Britney Sampling in the Producers 23 or back off on Zeze, these farfetched allegations are not going to do anything.


    Still the intention for such people is to be a nuisance, they will continue.

    I would be surprised if the judges at Melon, GDA would not have verified such basic things before they award songs.

    Quote from desdesdes

    This. There are some pretty popular chord progression that just works. A 2 songs using that same chord progression doesn't mean that one of them is plagiarizing the other one...


    If only people learn music theory...

    :pepefacepalm:

    Music theory or not, the entire future of Kpop is in stake.


    This is the final chance to stop IU's re-domination of KPop.


    After the knockouts of Yoo Heeyeol and Lee Mujin, I think the antis will assemble on IU, and will raise the logic raised by the clips I posted above.


    If they win, KPop survives and will have another chance to rise up. I will spare my words on what will happen if they lose.

    Quote from desdesdes

    This. There are some pretty popular chord progression that just works. A 2 songs using that same chord progression doesn't mean that one of them is plagiarizing the other one...


    If only people learn music theory...

    :pepefacepalm:

    Music Theory... You are in the wrong thread.

    WhyKnock does only Conspiracy Theory.


    Look at him projecting YHY dismissed plagiarism, Mujin's yet unproved plagiarism into a revolution where K-pop antis will arise and depose the Evil Queen etc.

    Quote from desdesdes

    This. There are some pretty popular chord progression that just works. A 2 songs using that same chord progression doesn't mean that one of them is plagiarizing the other one...


    If only people learn music theory...

    :pepefacepalm:

    On the subject, I always wondered how producers/songwriters can check to avoid plagiarism.


    Is there technology which can compare their compositions against millions and millions of musical pieces from all over the world and tell them the degree of similarity?

    I know there are such software for thesis and doctoral papers. But is there one for music?


    Even that is possible only if the music has been digitised. Otherwise they can only rely on their own memories -which can get unreliable.


    Wonder what is the practice in any music industry for such issues?

    Machine learning is a thing right now and if you know the Shazam app (a song-finder app) then there could be similar thing that could be used. But idk what's used in industry standard

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