Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
G-Friend is being connected with all types of exciting plagiarism nowadays, so this seems as relevant a time as any to rundown most of the major accusations being spread around.
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Before we get started, let’s recap the ready reference articles for plagiarism-related issues.
- Introduction To Plagiarism
- Plagiarism Explained More Due To Bitching
- Plagiarism Explained Even More To End My Suffering (Didn’t Work)
These links might be helpful if you’ve never read anything that I’ve written about plagiarism before.
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G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #1: G-Friend’s “Glass Bead” Sounds Like SNSD’s “Into The New World”
It’s true that the two songs do sound alike, especially in the chorus. I noticed this straight away, as did many others, to the point where G-Friend themselves even commented and basically said “well we’re still young so this is our only opportunity to rip SNSD off before we age past the material“. However, sounding alike and plagiarism aren’t the same thing.
Blues, jazz, reggae, and country music all literally couldn’t even exist without “soundalikes”. All music sounds pretty much the same — if it didn’t, you probably wouldn’t like it. That’s because people process music relative to other music that they’re already heard. Really innovative things happen in the pop sphere very rarely — most shit sounds like other shit, and you can get just about any song and find another one that sounds similar.
Things really do need to sound exactly the same to a large degree for there to be a case here, not just “gosh that seems similar”, but many K-pop fans can’t tell the difference between “similar” and “identical” because tone-deafness is an incredibly common thing. It’s not K-pop fans’ fault if they have trouble discerning pitch accurately, but maybe they shouldn’t go around acting like they know stuff for sure that they don’t, lest they be made an example of by contemptuous snarky K-pop bloggers.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #2: G-Friend’s “Trust” Sounds Like SNSD’s “Complete”
What, you’re saying that all disgusting K-pop album filler ballads sound the same? Gee, someone stop the presses.
I’ve been saying that these worthless filler ballads all sound the fucking same for years. K-pop’s terrible ballads are not plagiarism but rather just shitty music. Mind you, I’m happy to pretend that it’s all plagiarism if it gets a few of these awful songs banned off the face of the planet.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #3: G-Friend’s “Navillera” Looks Like Oh My Girl’s “Liar Liar”
Speaking of liars, this accusation comes courtesy of a hilariously biased-in-tone article from Koreaboo, a trashy website who aren’t afraid of engaging in a bit of actual plagiarism of their own. The logic would go that it takes one to know one, but the article hilariously suggests that G-Friend’s real roller skates are plagiarizing Oh My Girl’s fake rollerskates. I swear I’m not making this up, this is a real article that suggests not more than one girl group is ever allowed to wear roller skates, ever, without being legitimately accused of plagiarism. If we’re going to go down this route, I think no girl groups should wear underwear because SNSD wore underwear once. Seems fair.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #4: G-Friend’s “Navillera” Tennis Clothing Looks Like Other Tennis Clothing
Already debunked by the clothes manufacturers themselves, so no need to repeat it all here except to say that imagine a world where wearing clothing was copyrightable. You wouldn’t be allowed to wear anything at all, because a while back someone else also wore it.
It scares me that netizens who comment on K-pop articles and who think stuff like this is actually an issue may one day become important people in society making actual decisions that affect others. Humanity is in a bad place.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #5: A Pink Or Some Shit … Fuck If I Know
Fuck, K-pop fans are dickheads. Every K-pop girl logo ever has a heart in it or some bullshit. Also, budding brides, don’t hold flowers while posing for photos, you’re plagiarising A Pink! Also, remember that only A Pink can wear white dresses! Don’t wear black ones either, you’re probably plagiarising Rainbow!
Probably safest to just not get married, girls.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #6: G-Friend’s “Navillera” Intro Sounds Like Infinite’s “The Chaser” Intro
An intro to an older K-pop song was great so G-Friend’s agency decided to do something very similar to it so they could also sound awesome? Good! They’re learning by others’ good examples. That’s how music evolves into a more awesome thing over time, by people getting what was cool and mimicking it, slightly changing it as they go. Not plagiarism, but evolution, which of course bothers netizens who are not very evolved creatures and thus jealous that biology has left them behind.
G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #7: G-Friend’s “Compass” Sounds Like f(x)’s “Airplane”
They’re copying the sound of f(x) album tracks too? Thank fuck for that, as f(x) are one of the only groups in K-pop who actually have some decent fucking album tracks. Let’s support G-Friend’s copycat mission all the way!
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G-Friend Plagiarism Accusation #666: Umji’s Look Is Plagiarizing Bruce Dickinson
This accusation comes direct from KPOPALYPSE and is therefore PURE UNADULTERATED TRUFAX.
It seems that Umji has completely plagiarised the image of one of the world’s greatest heavy metal singers, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. Clearly this face style, long flowing locks, and undeniable good looks are plagiarised. Can you even tell who is who in these pictures?
It’s not just the physical appearance — the iconic dance moves are similar. People wonder why G-Friend are so good at dance, it’s because they learned from watching Iron Maiden videos over and over in their dorms.
Who can deny the similarity? Clearly, Iron Maiden should sue G-Friend’s agency.
To top it all off, both Umji and Bruce are well-versed in INCREDIBLY SKILLED AND CONVINCING LIPSYNCING.
Clearly KPOPALYPSE has identified the only plagiarism controversy in G-Friend that really matters.
You’re welcome!
