Opinion: It's okay to acknowledge similarities in K-pop

There's often this taboo or stigma associated with acknowledging similarities in K-pop. Stans often want to think of their favorites as unique and one of a kind — visually, musically, and artistically.

That's understandable, of course, because they ARE unique and one of a kind. However, they're also human beings, so it's okay to acknowledge their humanness. They will be inspired by what's trendy in their industry and line of work, whether it's fashion, choreography, or sound. They will feed off each other's energy and creativity. And yes, this includes companies, producers, composers, songwriters, choreographers, makeup artists, hairstylists, and stylists. Art has always been collaborative even if indirectly so. The spirit of competition gives us this illusion that it's a constant battle to one-up each other, but in reality, that's not the case.

Example: In hip hop, flow and lyricism became much more complex and elevated through the years thanks to those who pioneered the genre and revolutionized it, introducing new techniques and styles. It would be oblivious and almost negligent to say today's great rappers weren't inspired by the legends who came before them. Even if it's not direct, the influence is still there.

This is not to undermine the individual's work. It's simply to acknowledge the nature of music — that it's inherently and continuously a work in progress. You may disagree, but that's a philosophical debate for a different time. I respect varying opinions.

Plagiarism is a different story, and I'm sure that's where all of us would agree to draw the line. Keep in mind, though, that it's very easy to subconsciously pick something up and accidentally passing it off as your own; the mind works in mysterious ways.

I say this not to be controversial or to get a hit thread, but to share my own perspective after experiencing culture shock when I found out how taboo it is to discuss similarities in K-pop. If anything, it's just to inspire solidarity regarding an issue that I see often.

Quote from tetetete

No 👎

Okay, fine. I still have a lot of respect for you and value how great of a contributor you are to the forum. I trust your overall judgment.

Quote from icyruios

I feel it's because of KPOP fans mentality.

They are so quick to want to have groups being 'inspired by their faves' to make their faves seem like the gods of KPOP, and also quick to cancel anyone that is not their faves if there is just a single bit of similarity.

And this has grown to be worse in recent years. Back then many groups have similar concepts like for example Sistar/Girls Day/AOA all have sexy concepts but you dont see the fandoms going and fighting each other about copying or whatever. Whereas now you see stupid things like 'XXXX wants to be the next BlackPink' nonsense.

KPOP fans treat KPOP like competition more than music

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As someone who loves music, even before I got into K-pop, I would often see artists in hip hop and rock openly discussing where they got their sound from and which artists influenced them. We don't get this in K-pop for obvious reasons, but since it's still music, it's definitely going to be inspired by something that came before it.

That's just how it is. I just wish K-pop stans would leave the rivalries and the competition aside for a bit and remember that it's okay to embrace how music evolves over time. That would bring so much more appreciation and unity for this art form that we all love.

Quote from ISaidISaid

It’s such a contrary thing as well to now acknowledge it, pop music by it’s very nature relies on POPULAR tropes.

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

As icy mentioned above, Kpop is all about competition. Even the industry itself promotes competition by having contests almost every day of the week (6 music shows!!) plus like a million different award shows at the end of the year. The Korean music scene is a tiny fraction of the US, but there are at least a dozen different charts that are updated in realtime, daily, weekly, monthly and/or annually. You have like 10 charts for digitals (Gaon, Flo, Melon, Genie, Bugs, Vibe, Soribada, Spotify Korea, Youtube Korea, Instiz) and 2 charts for album sales. It's insane. Meanwhile, in the US, the only charts i know of are Billboard and Spotify.

The labels probably welcome fandom fighting and rivalries because they know it encourages fans to spend more to help their faves win more.

Under this environment, any statement that gives "power" or "clout" to a rival idol or group will definitely trigger overzealous fans.

Going to respond to both of you at once.

Similarities in music are normalized, respected, and even encouraged in other genres.

I definitely agree the K-pop industry itself is to blame for such divisive and overly competitive behavior among fandoms, but it doesn't have to be this way. It may be difficult, but sometimes all it takes is a bit of a reminder to bring us back to our senses. We don't have to resent each other for trivial matters even if the system inspires this behavior. If we would just acknowledge similarities are bound to happen as with all music genres, it could be the new norm.

For one, I'd like to see more collaborations. There's just so much potential waiting to be unlocked, which sadly, we won't get to see due to the way things are.

Quote from selfmate

to someone who has only been around kpop for like 3 years...was it the same before this in the first gen? second gen?

or was there a shift towards more competition and more competitiveness?

one can obviously say that the kpop pie overall is growing but for kpop companies keeping up the competitiveness means more loyal fans no? it's more of an "us v them" attitude right?

my company, my members my favs are better than yours and would never steep as low as to copy or even get inspired by xyz? for idols are perfectionists not in reality but marketed as such??? as in the idols that are marketed to be perfected and can thus do no wrong?

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The competitive spirit (which is good in healthy doses) has existed even as far back as first gen. Album sales and the music show wins were always priorities.

The Internet just made things more intense with how easy it is to bolster sales and streams. Not to mention how easy it is for stans to keep track of numbers, which probably makes them feel more involved in the process.

And yes, I'm sure the companies don't have much incentive to reduce this competitiveness, but I think we have the moral obligation to detach from that as fans. It's a worthy reminder.