The world is slowly becoming a fan of the K-pop industry and is enjoying the songs and music produced by the industry. Some artists worldwide try to get easy fame by copying the hit songs. While the original artist put a lot of hard work and time into creating music that is appreciated by their fans, others just take the short route to success and appreciation by simply copying the original work. Let’s look at some of these K-pop songs that are plagiarized by other artists around the world.
1. BTS - Fake Love
BTS released their song Fake Love in 2018. It was a massive hit in South Korea and around the world. This song becomes famous among the fans worldwide. Looking at the success of the song, some artists around the globe blatantly plagiarized this song. An Italian singer Seiell released a song in 2019 called “Scenne Nenne,” which sounded similar to Fake Love. After he was called out for this act, he denied this accusation. But “ARMY” kept raising their voices against this injustice and, the singer eventually pulled back his song.
2. SHINee – Ring Ding Dong
SHINee released their song Ring Ding Dong in 2009, and it was a significant hit. A Cambodian band called KH Stars released a song in 2010 with the same name Ring Ding Dong. Not only the name of the song but the lyrics were also translated from the original SHINee’s song, and they also copied the music.
3. PSY – Gangnam Style
Gangnam Style, released in 2012, was a worldwide hit. It was probably the first Korean song that gained so much popularity, and it opened the gates of possibility for the Korean music industry. The same year a Brazilian artist Latino released his version called “Despedida de Solteiro” of this popular song on his YouTube channel.
4. 2NE1 – I AM THE BEST
In 2011, 2NE1 released their iconic song I AM THE BEST. And in 2015, Dominican Republic singer Yameiry Infante Honoret, professionally known as La Materialista, diverted the music for her song Chipi Cha Cha. This song also has the same lyrics translated as the 2NE1 song. When asked why she copied the song, she said that since it is a few years old, it is not wrong to use it for her music.
5. VIXX – Dynamite
Dynamite, released in 2016, was a popular song, and it gained international popularity. Apart from popularity, it also caught the attention of artists from other countries who tried to copy the song. An Egyptian performer Reda Mandor used the instrumental of this song to create his song called “Ala Alah El Tasaheel.” His song was removed from YouTube, but is still available on different platforms. Apart from him, Turkish singer Kursun 2017 ripped off the instrumental of the original song to create his work.
6. Stray Kids – My Pace
Stray Kids released their song My Pace in 2018. An Indonesian group called C Boys released the song o.D (overdose) in 2019, which copied verses from this K-pop song of Stray Kids. This offended the fans of Stray Kids, and within a week of its release, it was pulled down from YouTube.
7. MAMAMOO – Hip
MAMAMOOs Hip was released in 2019. Ella Lee Lavah, a seventeen years old Israeli singer, released her song “Zot Ani,” which means That’s me, it became very popular. But the problem with the piece was that the music and the rap style of the song matched the song Hip by MAMAMOO. The MAMAMOOs fan raised objections about this, but nothing came out of it, and this song is still available on different platforms.
8. Stray Kids – Venom
Stray Kids released a song called Venom in 2019, and it was an electric song, loved by all. Adam Le Rogolows released the song “Demongorgon” in May of 2022. This song of Adam used the whole instrumental of the song Venom. He took down his song from YouTube and later uploaded a new version of the song.
9. BIGBANG – BAD BOY
BIGBANG released the song Bad Boy in 2012. The Filipino rapper Skusta Clee in 2016 released the song “Wag Ka Nang Magalit,” which was similar to the BIGBANGs Bad Boy in melody, music, and other aspects. After this, YG Entertainment issued a copyright declaration against Skusta Clee’s song’s YouTube video. After the claim, Skusta Clee from 2018 and onwards gave credit to YG Entertainment for his music. He changed the title of his song to “Cover of the BIGBANGs Bad Boy.”
10. Agust D – Daechwita
Ukrainian rapper Alllex Black released his new track called “10k” in 2020. The song was a copy of the 2015 song Daechwita by Agust D, also known as Suga of BTS. Big Hit Music, the label under which Agust D worked, claimed copyright against the rapper’s track as it was copied from their artist. After this claim, Black titled his track on YouTube as a cover of the original song Daechwita. But after some time, he deleted the video together from YouTube and uploaded a new video where he disrespected Suga or Agust D by tearing his picture. This action led to criticism of Black from the audience and music fraternity.
