Roy Kim Responds to Plagiarism Accusation

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

Singer-songwriter Roy Kim has denied accusations of plagiarism surrounding his hit debut single “BOM BOM BOM.”



Kim’s promoter CJ E&M released a statement on Tuesday, saying that the young singer did not copy Acoustic Rain’s song “Love is Canon,” responding to fast-growing and heated controversy over the tune released in April.

The statement explained that Kim composed the song with Bae Kyeong-young, while Jung Ji-chan and Kim Sung-yoon co-arranged the song, and that all four had never heard of Acoustic Rain and “Love is Canon” prior to creating the song.

It also said that “BOM BOM BOM” was registered with the Korea Music Copyright Association on April 22 while the ukulele version of “Love is Canon,” the tune being compared to Kim’s tune, was registered on May 15, effectively proving that the two songs are unrelated.

Regarding claims that the beginning to “BOM BOM BOM” is similar to the original version of “Love is Canon,” CJ said it had experts deem there was no plagiarism involved.

This is not the first time the tune has been accused of being a copy of “Love is Canon.” It was first stirred up in May but was overshadowed by claims that Kim plagiarized A-Ha’s “Take On Me” and Korean veteran singer Kim Kwang-seok’s “Where the Wind Blows” (translated title).

Then during his concert in Seoul last Saturday, Roy Kim sang a new self-written song and stated that it was his original tune, addressing previous accusations that it was similar to a song by band Busker Busker member Jang Bum-joon. (details here)

This brought light to the topic of Kim and plagiarism and led to the reigniting of the controversy over “BOM BOM BOM.”

Now another one of his tunes are also being accused of plagiarism: a video on YouTube (watch here) compares Kim’s tune “Passing By” to Singaporean singer Corrinne May’s tune “Beautiful Seed.”

Kim, 20, gained much popularity as the winner of Mnet’s popular talent show “Superstar K 4,” and placed both “Bom Bom Bom” and “Love Love Love,” the latter from his studio release, at top of music charts.

source: 10asia

linked the songs if anyone wants to compare
what do you think omona?

Comments

[devilsatin.livejournal.com]

he's a thief

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Both artists are thieves (though legally 'cause original piece is from 17th century)

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

hahah best <3

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

I mostly think Roy Kim is suffering from Pretty Girl syndrome. I've noticed that on most reality competition shows that are based on voting, if most of the voting public are teenage girls, the really attractive and pretty young women don't go very far. If you're kind of awkward or weird and pretty, they love you, but if you're mostly "normal" and really self-confident and gorgeous... rarely last the first three weeks unless they're just so talented they blow everyone else out of the water.

I don't think people would be rushing to prove him as a plagiarist if he weren't so, y'know. Perfect. (Rich, tall, good looking, smart, talented, etc. etc.)

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

No... people would be rushing regardless to prove him as a plagiarist if he were a, you know, plagiarist.

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

I've encountered a lot of artists who have songs that sound very similar to other songs (one of the funniest instances is that there's a My Chemical Romance song that is similar to the second ending song from the Chobits anime), but I never hear anything about plagiarism (unless it's straight out 100% plagiarism and not people getting upset over similar songs) unless the "plagiarist" is extremely popular or well known.

If he were actually a plagiarist he would've been charged legally by now. He's just a beginner composer and it's obvious what genres and styles of music he draws his inspiration from.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

Well you don't hear about plagiarists that aren't popular or well known because like you said, they're not popular or well known. Not as many people are interested. But being popular and well-known is different from being perfect as you described Roy Kim.

This issue popped up already in May when Bom Bom Bom was first released. But he was never charged and he's still not charged because hello, his agency is CJ, really the biggest agency for anything and everything. And the artist CJ and Roy Kim are fighting against is an indie singer who has no money or fans to defend himself with.

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

While I didn't talk about it specifically, I did have in mind many of the other public opinion problems Roy Kim has had when I described people seeing him as "perfect". (I don't actually think he is, but he's one of those people that on paper has everything going for him.) He had negative feedback because he gave his SSK4 winnings to charity since he doesn't need the money. People are finding ridiculous stuff to find wrong with him. The fact that his debut songs are similar to other songs is just, like. Netizen fuel.

Has the original artist said anything? If he's actually in the right about being cheated out of money for song rights he shouldn't need fans to defend himself. I've only ever seen Netizens stirring up stuff about it, not any of the the artists he's reportedly plagiarizing.

If Roy Kim has a flaw it's because he's still an immature composer (dude just turned 20). He hasn't learned how to distance himself from his inspirations completely yet, but being too similar your inspirations is different from the legal definition of plagiarism. If he didn't have so much of a critical spotlight on him nobody would blink about it. If he was just an indie singer-songwriter people wouldn't really care, or they'd just discount him for not being original enough.

I do like Roy Kim and his aesthetic, and from everything I've seen and heard from him I honestly doubt that he would ever knowingly plagiarize something. But, like the Chobits theme song, sometimes things you've listened/read/watched/anything creative you've partaken in, seeps into your subconscious and can come out again sometimes more whole than other times. It's why most writers never read fanfiction for their series, on the off-chance they unknowingly write something that a fan came up with.

I'm getting off the internet for the night so this is basically my parting comment.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any negative feedback about him giving his winning to the charity, if anything there's negative feedback now because it seems that the donation hasn't been made yet.

Acoustic Rain has posted on his blog in May that he's "not making any statements Roy Kim plagiarized or not but does want to let his audience know to upload all your music on YouTube." I'm assuming he didn't want to create a stir since he wouldn't win anything good fighting against a big company, but that's just my guess. A-Ha is a foreign group and I don't know if they even know about the controversy. Kim Kwang Seok passed away years ago.

There's a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism, I agree. But I feel like we can't use his age and skills to pass off the issue; he's still making money off the song, being new doesn't excuse it.

And honestly, I don't want to argue with anyone and I think I'm the last person to decide what's plagiarism and what's not. Only thing I had a problem with your comment was that you seem to write off this deal with just bunch of jealous netizens getting up on Roy Kim because he's "perfect." A lot of people do that, putting down Korean netizens for being angry and pitchfork-y about everything, but netizens are a large group of different people with different interest. It ticks me off that Omonians, who are netizens themselves, always seems to dismiss what netizens say about their favorite celebrities.

[rougepoison.livejournal.com]

You have me curious at the MCR/Chobits song. Which one are you referring to?

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

Oh god. My sister is the big MCR fan and I overheard it while she was playing music. I kept thinking it really sounded a lot like something and then I finally realized what it reminded me of. Ughh. *looks it up*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSr9k0peUew Demolition Lovers on their first album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgV0fch__0 Ningyo Hime
http://www.lyricsondemand.com/c/chobitslyrics/ningyohimeenglishlyrics.html

The lyrical content is also pretty similar.

(Though looking up the dates, unless one of them was pre-released, the two songs were released at almost the exact same time. Ningyo Hime was the second ending theme and premiered on the show in early July 2002, and that MCR album was released late July. But my much more of a music nerd sister agreed that they were very similar when I recognized the similarity. If I remember correctly she said they have the same chord progression? Along with the similar lyrics.)

(Let's see how many times I can similar in one comment!)

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

You do realize that both songs are basically just modern copies of Johan Pachelbel's Canon (made somewhere late 17th century). There is a good reason why Acoustic Rain's song is even named as Love is Canon.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm not declaring who's a plagiarist and who's not. I'm a big fan of Pachelbel myself.

Only thing I'm stating in the comment was a response to charlotterhys who seems to say that netizens are only after Roy because he seems normal and perfect, and that's not really the reason. Some netizens genuinely believe Roy plagiarized, and it's got nothing to do with his personality or persona he's had on TV.

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Idc much for this plagiarism thing cause i dont follow roy kim but i do agree about what you said about soemone being too perfect.

You want a celeb to be talented and pretty and stuff but still have that certain quirk to then that grounds them or makes them relatable. If someone is too perfect and flawless, everybody would be like "dang, let's take this bish down"

Which is why Lee Seunggi's heodang side is so perfect for his image.

[a-perfect-shade.livejournal.com]

holy shit it sounds a lot like love is canon. but this is also a ukelele version and one commenter is saying the dude posted the ukelele ver. after bom bom bom came out just to spur comparisons.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

I am so uninterested in who copied who. Korea has too many haters.

[annhh.livejournal.com]

idk there's a lot of songs with that similar sound I guess this one is the nearest (ukulele and all). honestly I've heard the same chorus in some old japanese song, which I thought he had followed. can't recall what it was as it was in japanese. this indie is not the first.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Both songs are just legally stealing from Pachelbel's Canon (made few hundred years ago).

[yumematsu.livejournal.com]

WORD

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. That video is a thing of beauty.

(Thankfully I was never a cellist so I am free to love that song and all of its musical children.)

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

Acoustic Rain kinda said when releasing their song last year that it's based on Pachelbel's Canon... idk about Roy Kim though

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

I thought chords overlap often, especially with guitars, no? Otherwise that Birdplane's song-skit about 4-chord song is a giant declaration of plagiarism at all the songs that have the same four chords. The issue with Roy Kim is the melody, which is pretty damn similar with Acoustic Rain's song.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

The melody line is also from Pachelbel's canon though.

[bonnieng.livejournal.com]

This video is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

[guitarchic11292.livejournal.com]

lol, so this is why Bom Bom Bom sounded so familiar upon first listen. Been hearing Pachelbel all my life without even realizing.

[22by7.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[burger.livejournal.com]

lol word tbh. I've always loved this video :')

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

honestly i wouldn't surprised if it wasn't a plagiarizing anything, but like jyp just used the most common chords ion the world that are overly used by everyone else.

which reminds me:

[janri.livejournal.com]

That reminded me of this:

[janri.livejournal.com]

Balls. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVRcbc5_WoI

[bubble-monkey9.livejournal.com]

idk it could be plagiarism or it could mean that he's just a really run of the mill songwriter. none of these songs are that unique/distinctive. it could just be a coincidence.

[janri.livejournal.com]

#teamroy

[love-allure.livejournal.com]

Now another one of his tunes are also being accused of plagiarism: a video on YouTube (watch here) compares Kim’s tune “Passing By” to Singaporean singer Corrinne May’s tune “Beautiful Seed.”

this one is more damning in my opinion.

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

mte

[song-jihyuk.livejournal.com]

idc i like the song

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

You have to be kidding me. The songs aren't similar, there are a ton of Korean indie songs that are similar, please. The Acoustic Rain guy basically trolled Kim with the Ukulele version.

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so too. The original version has barely any similarities at all and they're in the melody of the singing, which is predictable and has been done to death before.

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

The ukelele version sounds similar but not the original. It sounds like he played the ukelele version to point out the similarities, of which there are barely none in the original!
And comparing it to Take On Me...the only similarities are the four chord progression. Otherwise the comparison is laughable! There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SIMILAR BETWEEN THE SONGS. Where did the plagiarism claims come from? The melodies aren't similar, the speed isn't similar, there's just nothing.
And there's just the tiniest hint in the Kim Kwangseok song, though it's mostly in the singer's voice; not even the melodies are the same. It's like saying all indie songs with male singers sound the same.
Passing By however does sound a lot like Corrinne May's song though, which is more worrying, especially as I love the song. It still has enough differences (the chorus for one) to sound like inspiration, but it doesn't stop it from being too similar. :(