Netizens launch a campaign to urge CN BLUE's 'I'm a Loner' composer to leave music industry

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Plagiarism has again emerged as a hot issue in the Korean music scene after star composer Kim Do-hun was accused of plagiarizing a song by an indie band.

Netizens accuse Kim of having copied parts of the song “Blue Bird” by indie band Ynot for his song “I’m a loner,” which he composed for the indie band CNBLUE. To support their claims, they have uploaded text and clips of the two songs to the Web.

Meanwhile, a group of netizens has started gathering signatures for an online petition urging Kim to leave the music industry because, they say, he has built his career with plagiarized songs.

“Kim wrote a song titled ‘Lie’ for Gavy NJ and it was pretty much the same as Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Brave,’” a person with the screen name Rasmus wrote on the site Agora, a major online debate forum operated by local search engine Daum. “There were also similarities between Kim’s ‘8282’ [sung by Davichi] and Mika’s ‘Happy Ending.’ The list goes on.”

Rasmus launched the signature campaign against Kim. As of yesterday morning, 3,181 netizens had signed on.

Another of Kim’s songs, “Can’t Forget” sung by Kim Jong-kook, is said to have an introduction that is similar to that of Usher’s “Love in This Club.”

Kim refuted the allegations in a statement issued earlier this week.

“There are so many similar songs because they all belong to the same genre,” the statement said.

Kim began his career in 1995 and since then has composed songs for many of the nation’s A-list singers, including Lee Hyo-ri, Lee Seung-ki, SES, SG Wannabe, Big Mama and Fly to the Sky.

In his statement, Kim also implored netizens to stop making assumptions about his work.

The debate over whether Kim plagiarized has become heated, with celebrities chiming in to either denounce or defend him. Singer Shin Hae-chul, who is known for his catty comments, did not hesitate to snipe at Kim, saying that if Kim is proven innocent he will retire from the music industry.

Singer Jin Joo wrote on her home page that the Korean music industry is “a dirty world where plagiarism is a sure-fire way to become a star.”

In fact, the local music industry has been damaged by a raft of plagiarism scandals in past years, but there is no organization to deal with these claims. Until 1998, the now-defunct Performance Ethics Committee handled plagiarism cases, but the organization set to replace it, the Korea Media Rating Board, is no longer responsible for these issues.

Source: JoongAng Daily

Comments

[honeydice.livejournal.com]

Plagiarism is so common that I don't even want to care anymore. True, being a composer, plagiarizing is a harsh mistake. But what, deciding for them that they should leave music industry? Who are they to do so? Which line of my comment did you get the idea that I believe that only good music gets attention?

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

Murder is so common I don't even want to care anymore.

Good attitude there.

Oops I can't read. Sorry!

Let me address another wtf with your comment then:

If they're good enough, jolly well make their own true great music.

Umm they are, and people are ripping them off, that's the point.

And people that plagiarize should leave the music industry. There's enough talent, we don't need idiots making music.

[honeydice.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I wouldn't care about something I can't do anything about, there's no point to that. 'They' I meant the netizens, not Ynot, sorry if that confused you.

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

That's a sad outlook to have then. There is a point to caring about things that seem out of your control. If nobody cared we would still be stuck with no rights for women and a bunch of other shit we take for granted in our society.

God dammit my reading comprehension today is shit.

Though that still makes no sense. Are you saying only people that make music are able to criticize this dude? I don't get what netizens making music has anything to do with this whole situation.

[honeydice.livejournal.com]

At my age, I haven't really thought that far. Probably in future, I would consider caring more, thanks for that anyway.

Are we able to criticize him? I'm not a composer, I know I wouldn't have any say in what Loner's composer composes. I wouldn't want to criticize something from someone, when I don't even have any knowledge of it. The point I'm trying to emphasize in my comments is that why are they just complaining, complaining and complaining? Why are they sticking their head into this? I don't get it.

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

Oooooookay.

Yes we are. Even if we don't make our own music we're able to criticize him for doing something wrong. There's a lot of shady business going on in k-pop and there's nothing wrong with bitching about it.

[honeydice.livejournal.com]

I don't know for others, I can't do that. Well I guess for you and many others it seems to be an alright thing though. Seems like I'm the minority here but I'll stick to what I believe :) Need to turn in now, goodnight~

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

I guess I would say it's like movie reviewers. Like Ebert and Roeper. They review movies well all the time and they don't necessarily direct movies or act in them. I can eat something and find it poorly made without having to be a master chef. I can listen to a song and find it pointless and shabby if it's just about some guy 'getting money and hoes' without being a singer. You don't have to have an extensive knowledge of composing to know that plagiarism is wrong and that you should com up with your own sound or at least give credit where it is due. I guess when people see something wrong with their society when they especially care about image, are tired of being given the image that Korea can't come up with their own musical styles without ripping off someone else's. Which is why I think they're making a fuss.

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

You know... I think the point when people believe there isn't anything you can do about something is the point where you've already lost to the thing you think you can't do anything about. (though if you mean life events like people dying naturally or accidents/mistakes I see what you mean) People drink and drive and text and drive all the time and I'm pretty doubtful that it'll ever fully go away but I don't think it means that people should stop running campaigns on informing on the danger of doing so. I agree with you that it's silly to pick only one guy out of the countless numbers of people who plagiarize songs but I can kind of see the standpoint the knetizens are coming from of just being sick enough of it to want to weed it out or something.