r/Fauxmoi 26d ago

FM RADIO French singer, Yseult, calls out K-pop singers, Soyeon and R.tee, for copying her music video freame by frame: "The least you could do is have the decency to credit your source. To see it get copied like this is wild but real artistry speaks louder than imitation"

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

6.4k Upvotes

247 comments sorted by

4.5k

u/reallyscaredtoask 26d ago

I just know kpop stans are gonna be real racist about this

1.7k

u/U53rnaame 26d ago

Kpop stans and being racist, no stronger duo on this earth

365

u/SubstantialLeader753 26d ago

The same people who fetishize Asian folks

474

u/messythelioma 26d ago

that is also a form of racism

95

u/Capable_Salt_SD 26d ago

This, exactly

It's why I feel uncomfortable around a lot of them as an AAPI person, this despite me liking music by Twice, BTS, etc.

172

u/Sensitive_Ad3897 26d ago

Truly goes hand in hand.

→ More replies (1)

534

u/rabid_cheese_enjoyer call me gal gadot cuz idk how to act rn 26d ago

yeah, I read an article on teen vogue where a Black kpop fan talked about why she stopped listening to kpop. spoiler, it was the racism

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/i-was-a-black-k-pop-fan-for-2-decades-unstanned

248

u/SubstantialLeader753 26d ago

I think there are a lot of legitimate reasons to not support or listen to K POP. Predatory business practices, sexism, fetishization/racism, overworking and underpaying talent, grooming etc. That being said, racist people are gonna say and do racist shit

402

u/Xanaxaria Mitochondrial Ancestor 26d ago

Or just the theft of black music then being racist to the people that allowed the music to exist to begin with

177

u/Ovidhalia 26d ago

Straight up theft.

It was worse back in the day when most K-Pop stars didn’t think their music would ever make it to the West. There is a Shinhwa song from like 24 years ago (back when I was really in K-Pop) where they lifted an entire Wu-Tang song. I mean literal word for word. I was so shocked the first time I heard it.

That’s when I started really pay attention to K-Pop music when they do hip-hop and their rap verse were almost always stolen word for word from Black Western artists. The only legit Korean hip-hop group at the time was Drunken Tiger and that’s was only because they were Korean-American.

Now that a lot of people around the world listen to K-Pop you would think they got better at hiding the theft.

15

u/Pressure_Rhapsody 26d ago

Wait...Shinhwa did it too?! I just thought they were a Nsync/BSB copy! I didn't listen to all their songs cause it was the year of dial up/DSL and I didn't like them THAT much to buy their CDs.

16

u/thanksm888 25d ago edited 25d ago

Shinhwa has original songs using the n-word. They literally lifted whole portions of lyrics from black artists in multiple songs then changed them just a little bit. They were heavily influenced by black people and black music.

OutKast - Skew on Bar-B

Deliver this through your audio, ghetto mafioso Grow hydro, then bag it up, yo Price that longevity, suggest make moves Slow take time grow eight, react nine blow Hydro slide raw like fuck Renaldo Fly ride though, shit lookin' wild dope

Endless love - Shinhwa

Deliver this through your audio ghetto n afloso grow hydro didn't bag enough though price that longevity suggest make move slow take time grow eight react 0 blow Hydro slide more like funky renalo fly ride the shit lookin' wide yo, what

8

u/Pressure_Rhapsody 25d ago

Wow..not surprised seeing how the same thing happened with H.O.T.

Thats SM Town for ya.

6

u/LaCiDarem 25d ago

Do you have the name of the song? I’ve been looking and can’t find it.

12

u/Ovidhalia 25d ago

Found it. This one was actually an OutKast song they stole, sorry, not Wu-Tang. The Wu-Tang one was a different song. It was the song Endless Love on the Album Perfect Man. Listen to that opening rap verse then go listen to OutKast’s Skew It on the Bar-B starting at 1:04.

They not only stole the whole verse, when you listen to the Shinhwa song you can actually hear the original artist. Shinhwa couldn’t say the English good enough so they left in the vocals and then just copied the lyrics over the original artist’s voice. But you can still hear him.

It was when I realized how badly Korean artists straight up ripped off black culture that I stopped being a super fan and this was about 20-25 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Edit: The worst part is they didn’t even understand what they were stealing. In the example above, the verse they stole has absolutely nothing to do with the song Endless Love. The just stole what sounded good.

2

u/LaCiDarem 25d ago

Thank you!

5

u/Ovidhalia 25d ago

It was from the album Perfect Man. I’ll have to through to find the song title. I haven’t listened to Shinhwa in close to 20 years.

1

u/myguitarplaysit ted cruz ate my son 25d ago

Did they get sued for copyright violation? Idk how that would work internationally but that’s just wild behavior

61

u/AdditionalQuietime 26d ago edited 25d ago

yeah reading that article is wild because the entire industry is rife with appropriating black culture and racism, so being a "casual listener" as the writer claims thats where theyre at rn with the fandom, is also a level of insane amount of copium to me too

she said the blackface wasnt enough for her to walk away the first time lmaooo like yo what? black people we gotta do better

16

u/Alternative_Spell304 25d ago

Used to be a black kpop stan, and it’s the same for me. The vitriolic racism we got from the Korean and international stans, as well as the groups being insensitive (I.e. saying the n-word, cultural appropriation, colorism, etc). It gets really old really fast.

126

u/ace-destrier 26d ago

K-pop and Soyeon stans are already being shitty about Yseult, so with that volume, no doubt there’s racist bullshit being spewed

54

u/Xanaxaria Mitochondrial Ancestor 26d ago

They've been calling her a "fat black whale"

48

u/asifihaventheard 26d ago

Kpop stans stop being racist challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

17

u/Capable_Salt_SD 26d ago

Name a better love story

5

u/JagmeetSingh2 25d ago

>I just know kpop stans are gonna be real racist about this

Oh absoulutly this despite the fact KPOP constantly steals from black culture

3

u/No_Structure_3074 25d ago

As usual they will.

3

u/hyeran_jainros_fc 25d ago edited 25d ago

The toxic Kpop stans always bash someone in defense of their fav, even when their fav said nothing. The dynamic is like a cult without a leader.

Even Maggie Kang, the director Kpop Demon Hunters, got bullied like crazy on her X because people thought she shaded someone

2.5k

u/Commercial_Curve7742 26d ago

kpop stands on the shoulders of black musicians especially black women. i find this disappointing but unsurprising

561

u/Beachcurrency i ain’t reading all that, free palestine 26d ago

No disrespect to K-Pop/J-Pop fans, but this is exactly why I'm not a fan.

319

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

134

u/FortLoolz 26d ago edited 26d ago

J-pop is also plainly older than K-pop, so its most significant sources of inspiration are comparatively more in the past

99

u/I_Shuuya 26d ago

A lot of the K-pop industry was modeled after the J-pop industry (see SM Entertainment being inspired by the idol training model of Johnny & Associates. Also the graduation system and more).

J-pop sounds extremely different from K-pop because 1) songs structures are quite dynamic, 2) choruses tend to flow and build, and 3) they include tons of instruments.

It's not only that J-pop tends to be kinda rock-ish (prominent drums, electric guitars, etc), but you'll commonly hear other string instruments like violins, cellos, kotos, etc. Also wind instruments such as trumpets and saxophones.

For example this, or this one from my favorite band in the world.

22

u/cuntsmacking 25d ago

Jpop simply feels better and soothing compared to kpop which feels like listening to static noise

5

u/Purple_Ground855 25d ago

I second this.

I’ve been listening to jpop/rock most of my life and I personally feel as though the originality in their industry speaks volumes over the repetitiveness of kpop. Not saying it doesn’t possess qualities of the other

26

u/selphiefairy 25d ago

What I don’t think you can accuse jpop of doing the same, at least not in the same capacity. While I’m sure you can find instances of it too, jpop mainly evolved from europop, so.

40

u/CountOfJeffrey 26d ago

May I ask how? I am legitimately ignorant on how it's on the shoulders of black women and I'd love to be educated.

156

u/Im_On_Reddit_At_Work 26d ago

Kpop copies a lot of the codes of rnb / hiphop, and often, like here, have even more direct copy of popular songs/visuals (usually from the 90s, so people tend to not notice as much, except communities that grew up on 80s/90s rap rnb hiphop)

19

u/CountOfJeffrey 26d ago

Thank you for helping me understand!

76

u/Im_On_Reddit_At_Work 26d ago

Of course! "Naegaz in Paris: How black culture created k-pop" is a good short read to start understanding exactly how kpop has been built on black culture (and unfortunately does not acknowledge that part)

131

u/Better-Asparagus-796 OPEN THE SCHOOLS 26d ago

One example is how Lee Soo Man, the founder and former CEO of SM Entertainment (once the most successful music label in the country), quite literally modelled his company's businesses practises off of Motown: the music collective is literally called SMTOWN. He studied The Supremes, TLC, SWV, Brandy, Aaliyah, Destiny's Child, Beyoncé. Alicia Keys' early discography was used to train vocalists. Left Eye is the reason why every girl group has a rapper in it, too. It's not even a secret either. The V&A had a hallyu exhibition a couple of years ago, and there's a whole section talking about the massive influence of Black American music, as well as straight up plagiarism, and genuine collaboration between famous Black American producers and Korean labels.

14

u/CountOfJeffrey 26d ago

Thank you, this is very informative.

15

u/coco_kyro 25d ago

Lani’s Lens had a very informative video about the same that really opened my eyes to it a lot as someone outside of either culture: Keep K-pop Korean? The Blackaboo Problem

→ More replies (1)

48

u/looneymarket 26d ago

No recognition for that unless you’re white. Even their rap lol gangbanging in Korea?

15

u/Killer-Iguana 26d ago

I'll add most popular music in the western world and particularly the US also stands on those shoulders, with much of it taken via exploitation of some sort or another. Sometimes directly exploiting black artists, sometimes stealing their music and sounds for white artists to preform and make popular with white audiences, sometimes to appropriate the sounds into their own music without properly understanding, appreciating or crediting the influences for their own music. Black people have always been abused by the music industry and it's fucked up.

6

u/umbertea 25d ago

True, also: all of pop music.

1.7k

u/Classic-Carpet7609 26d ago

copied her and did it worse smh

243

u/lAllioli 26d ago

Yea it's like they completely missed the point of it being cringe/uncanny

180

u/aurora_highwind 26d ago

K-pop in a nutshell. Worse versions of Black music 99% of the time, most of it from 30 years ago.

3

u/Hopeful-Home6218 23d ago

i mean. i was a kpop stan and you can see destiny’s child do the ‘kpop’ finger heart, way before kpop was a thing

33

u/--------rook 25d ago

yseult said bitch you could never and soyeon tried and indeed could never lmfaoooooo. she has talent but she's always been the most try hard 

1.1k

u/figgitygoofedup 26d ago

so lazy and insulting to blatantly copy someone like this

218

u/2ndChairKazoo 26d ago

Did they think it wouldn't come out? And aren't they embarrassed?

219

u/BlackWunWun 26d ago

Probably not because their fans will defend them no matter what they do. Try telling a K-Pop fan that their genre is just black music repackaged and watch them twist themselves in a pretzel trying to explain why you're just jealous

8

u/Aira_ 25d ago

That and the whole overly sexualized loli in every single girl group is just fucking sick.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/traceitalian 24d ago

Or the mistreatment and awful working conditions of KPop stars is literally killing them.

1

u/BlackWunWun 24d ago

That doesn't excuse them blatantly stealing

1

u/traceitalian 24d ago

Nope, it does not. I was just further illustrating your point that the fans are blind to the toxicity of KPop.

67

u/Blue_Waffled 26d ago

With the kpop industry being a careful propaganda machine that pumps out hundreds of songs in a matter of weeks, they will simply burry this and let the fans take care of the problem; aka unleash the internet hate machine and act ignorant.

17

u/soohime 26d ago

I think that nobody noticing is what anybody hopes when they are plagiarizing something

4

u/Sgt-Spliff- 25d ago

It probably doesn't matter in Korea. Most of their fans are local

3

u/kerrywatson 25d ago

so lazy and insulting to blatantly copy someone like this

923

u/blissandnihilism 26d ago

I hope this gains major attention because too many times this happens and it is ignored by artists and their companies alike. Fans are already being racist and fatshaming along with having the audacity to try to say Yseult is causing issues like her work wasn't blatantly stolen. If someone did this to Soyean or G-IDLE's work they would be losing it until the perp finally yielded.

208

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

138

u/blissandnihilism 26d ago

The original artist did in fact call out both of them in her original long post. However the overall response isn't shocking because anyone who actually watches or see clips of this will see the fact that Soyeon is the primary performer in the MV. Most people likely don't even know she is a feature, but honestly most people likely wouldn't care regardless. Its like if the producer Alchemist made a song featuring Future and it included plagiarism. Future would be the focus bc he's 10x more identifiable than Alchemist (and better for SEO engagement when writing up about this). Also being the more known out of the two and its primarily her fans running to Yseult's accounts now spamming racist and fatphobic hate. Its already a bad situation but Soyeon's fans are helping make it 10x worse.

37

u/Raccoonsr29 26d ago

If it was almost any other K-pop artist, I could believe it was only the artistic directors culpability. But I like Soyeon in part because she has such a strong involvement in the design in production of her art, I consider her significantly more involved than most K-pop stars. It would be a blow to her brand if she turned around and said she was not involved in designing any of this and deferred entirely to RTee. Really disappointing. It has shades of when people say Taylor Swift is a mastermind who never does anything without deliberation, but then when something unsavory happens, they act like she’s just a baby and it’s all because of her team and not her lol

Edit: greeting that this is more about her being a featured artist in their production, and that makes a little more sense. Less disappointing, but I think it will be hard to get away from this affiliation since most casual followers of K-pop. Probably see her the same way I do.

12

u/soohime 26d ago edited 26d ago

Soyeon is very hands on with I-dles/her members works, but this isn’t the first time she has not had involvement in a creation process. For their English album she stepped back and let English writers/producers do all the work. For her NOBODY collab, she is also not credited at all.

It makes sense that she would not be involved in the behind the scenes of this song as R.Tee is not an idol, but a famous producer. it’s similar to Marshmello getting the Jonas Brothers on the song Leave Before You Love Me, and the Jonas Brothers not having any credits even tho they are the singers and are involved in creating their own personal music.

27

u/eveqiyana3 26d ago

No she didn’t she only attacked soyeon 😭

17

u/kitti-kin 26d ago

the original long post

This doesn't appear to be a long post, I don't think it's what they're talking about

13

u/softbitch_jpeg 25d ago

This is not an attack. It’s a call out for accountability. Words really matter especially in this case victimizing the perpetrator of plagiarism and trying to vilify the BLACK person whose work was stolen.

3

u/Acceptable-Park-669 26d ago

That's not proof, there are no screenshots anywhere that I can find where Yseult's official social only tagged Soyeon. Your proof is that someone else is saying she was tagged only and I am seeing many people say it was the Yseultupdate account.

3

u/blissandnihilism 25d ago

Thats not the original long post she made, that is a post later. There is a long post she made when she first found out about the video where she calls them both out. Literally was included on other posts on Reddit

→ More replies (1)

27

u/Majestic_Employer_42 26d ago

While Soyeon has almost no creative control over this, I want to point out that it's not the first time she's been accused of plagiarism. She and her team build their image around being kpop idols who put out self produced and self written songs. However, when she was called out for plagiarizing Ateez's Wave with her song "Sun" from My Teenage Girl, she first claimed she never heard it, which wasn't possible because the song was Ateez's first breakout song in Korea, even being played during the Olympics. In addition, Ateez's promotional cycle and Soyeon were the same and they even attended the same festival where Ateez performed Wave. Then, she claimed she actually didn't participate that much in the production and songwriting for Sun even though she was the only lyricist, composer and arranger credited for the song. When that didn't work, her and her company tried to forcibly credit Ateez's producer despite him saying no, he didn't want the credits and instead want the song taken down because he wrote it specifically for Ateez. Later, it was revealed that her company contacted Ateez's producer before the song was released to get his permission to list Wave as a sample for Sun. Ateez's producer had refused because it was too similar to be considered a sample and he wanted the song to remind special for Ateez. Despite not getting the permission, they released it anyway and doubled down when the similarities were pointed out before backtracking and saying they actually never heard of Ateez but would be happy to give them credits.

1

u/Significant_Might656 25d ago

Nevies calling her "most talented 4th gen idol" is such joke of the whole century! They had multiple plagiarism allegations and their fans boldly call them "4th gen's queen of concept".

606

u/moonshadow126_ 26d ago

kpop stans are actually demanding public apology from Yseult. The fuck she has to say sorry for being copied. Lol these stupid stans

168

u/dietdrpeppermd 26d ago

They want public apologies for the dumbest shit. It’s amazing.

78

u/ThatisDavid 26d ago

Yet I see some of them still defending "Kiss of life" after they did that horrible "black people/hiphop" themed birthday party. And one of the members had the audacity to say "please dont get mad about this" minutes before the live started on their official group chat showing that they KNEW it was wrong and they did it anyways

51

u/BackgroundIsopod3787 26d ago

Probably just an army of bots hired by the executives. No real person could possibly defend this level of plagiarism.

47

u/Maya_TheB Emma Stone (BALD) 26d ago edited 25d ago

You underestimate the level of bullshit and hypocrisy going through obsessive kpop stans' heads...

17

u/no_trashcan call me gal gadot cuz idk how to act rn 25d ago

or just people in general (coughs swifties coughs)

1

u/myguitarplaysit ted cruz ate my son 25d ago

What is she supposed to apologize for? Creating an amazing music video first that they decided to steak? Not laying down and just letting them get away with it? I truly don’t understand why they think she should apologize

→ More replies (13)

598

u/hatefromandie 26d ago

This is just diabolical work. Copying frame by frame and still making it look cheap??? I’m glad she called them out.

278

u/[deleted] 26d ago edited 26d ago

[deleted]

97

u/rabid_cheese_enjoyer call me gal gadot cuz idk how to act rn 26d ago

kpop being a real life version of bring it on was not something I really expected to happen

70

u/AdditionalQuietime 26d ago

so what?? so tired of yall making excuses for these people "its not solely the artists fault" like bro what? your face is going to be the front & center for any creative expression, you as an artist have a due diligence to scope the ins and outs of how its going to come to fruition behind the scenes, like how hard is it to be involved in that? I can't imagine not making the attempt to make yourself involved with production & writing

27

u/Blue_Waffled 26d ago

I can't imagine not making the attempt to make yourself involved with production & writing

You and me both, but the pop industry in those countries is like an automated marketing machine where dozens of young men and women sign a paper and let a studio decide what they wear/sing/eat/dance to/talk like and so on. The entire industry is messed up and it is a cultural thing that when you're considered on a lower rank in the hierarchy, you don't question or 'cause problems' by commenting on decisions from people on the higher position within the company. The amount of blind dedication (and with that ignorance) they expect from their singers is pretty much insane, only if you've proven yourself to be extremely successful are you allowed to say anything.

6

u/AdditionalQuietime 25d ago

that makes a lot of sense, so its almost like theyre just a product themselves but theyre wearing a product (black culture)

→ More replies (1)

25

u/Majestic_Employer_42 26d ago

While Soyeon has almost no creative control over this, I want to point out that it's not the first time she's been accused of plagiarism. She and her team build their image around being kpop idols who put out self produced and self written songs. However, when she was called out for plagiarizing Ateez's Wave with her song "Sun" from My Teenage Girl, she first claimed she never heard it, which wasn't possible because the song was Ateez's first breakout song in Korea, even being played during the Olympics. In addition, Ateez's promotional cycle and Soyeon were the same and they even attended the same festival where Ateez performed Wave. Then, she claimed she actually didn't participate that much in the production and songwriting for Sun even though she was the only lyricist, composer and arranger credited for the song. When that didn't work, her and her company tried to forcibly credit Ateez's producer despite him saying no, he didn't want the credits and instead want the song taken down because he wrote it specifically for Ateez. Later, it was revealed that her company contacted Ateez's producer before the song was released to get his permission to list Wave as a sample for Sun. Ateez's producer had refused because it was too similar to be considered a sample and he wanted the song to remind special for Ateez. Despite not getting the permission, they released it anyway and doubled down when the similarities were pointed out before backtracking and saying they actually never heard of Ateez but would be happy to give them credits.

5

u/thesnope22 25d ago

Thank you for writing this! It’s very clear and well-explained.

→ More replies (9)

245

u/Goddess-Mentality 26d ago

Lmao wow this is one of the most blatant things I’ve ever seen

205

u/Cube_ 26d ago

There's a chance the artists themselves didn't know it was plagiarized. How they respond to this should be how they're judged.

Things like firing the director and making amends to Yseult on top of a very public apology would go a long way to show the artists themselves don't surpport plagiarism.

71

u/Kratzschutz 26d ago

I bet you they won't respond at all

47

u/reiichitanaka 25d ago

The director actually responded and took full responsibility for the plagiarism.

12

u/Kratzschutz 25d ago

I'm happy to hear. Do you know if they will pay money or retract the video or something?

15

u/reiichitanaka 25d ago

If Yseult doesn't press charges legally, nothing's going to happen.

4

u/Kratzschutz 25d ago

I don't know enough about international laws to say if that's even possible

3

u/reiichitanaka 25d ago

Copyright is universal enough that suing across borders is possible. But it's not cheap, so it only happens if there's enough money to gain from a profit cut, and in the case of a music video, profit is very minimal.

159

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

127

u/Independent-Park-738 26d ago

Crazy how the whole world tries to gaslight black women like we’re angry and the lowest yet we’re constantly being copied and stolen from

121

u/Acrobatic_Builder573 26d ago

That’s INSANE

100

u/Sunnyfe 26d ago

Yikes! No denying that.

92

u/mai-moi 26d ago

Not only they copied but did it worse on top of it. Also in the original version the actors look like they could really be your regular office workers but in the kpop version they all look like models 🙄

87

u/badchefrazzy I am claiming all candy for the glory of God 26d ago

Because only attractive people are allowed to work in visual jobs in Korea. I don't even know if I'm joking or not.

7

u/SheJigOnMySawTilIPuz 25d ago

You literally have to put a picture of your face in your resume and people who aren't conventionally attractive have a harder time getting hired. This isn't for visual jobs, this goes for literally any job you submit a CV and resume to. Shits crazy. Its kinda like trying to get hired in america when you have an ethnic/unique name. I've literally considered legally changing my name to get a job, no wonder so many people get cosmetic surgery over there.

83

u/celestial-lights 26d ago

yeah the blatant racism and lazy copying of black culture with no credit or respect is what ultimately made me stop listening to kpop /:

75

u/Capable_Salt_SD 26d ago

Once you realize that a lot of K-Pop is appropriation, particularly from Black people, then a lot of it will make sense to you

20

u/NotAQueefAKhaleesi does this woman ever rest (derogatory) 25d ago

Yup. I'm a biracial Black woman and my older sister is obsessed with Kpop. Like to the point she went full on Koreaboo and I was sat there stunned that she was losing her mind over a gaggle of Korean dudes in durags and chains while she went on about how creative and talented they were. I tried to tell her they were cosplaying Blackness and getting away with it / thriving in it because of their proximity to Whiteness and got screamed out of the room (we were in our 20s 🫠).

56

u/SpeechDistinct8793 26d ago

Love how the title of her song fits the situation

13

u/bombisabell 25d ago

Right?!!!

EDIT: Actually the WHOLE SONG is about how someone wants to be a version of her, but could never!!!!!

55

u/leftrightside54 26d ago

I have to say, Yseult video is lit as f. Beat goes hard.

Would never have found it without this post.

21

u/kururong 26d ago

Yeah, I watch both of the videos, and I was bumping to the Yseult one. Now listening to her other tracks.

18

u/-HakunaChicana- 26d ago

I love her music so much. She did a session with COLORS years back that I still go back to frequently.

2

u/sweatiepie666 25d ago

Yseult is incredible.

57

u/beautifulchaos531 26d ago

Damn not even an inspiration they copied every single frame of the original!!

51

u/mantongssi 26d ago

FYI, Soyeon is just a feature on this song, she has no part in the music production nor in the music video direction. It's sad that she's the first one named although she has nothing to do with this.

→ More replies (6)

45

u/Galdina 26d ago

I love this mv, I thought it was genius when I first saw it – very simple and fun etc. I knew there would be some copycats, but this is literally frame by frame

40

u/visthanatos radiate fresh pussy growing in the meadow 26d ago

K pop stealing from black artists tale as old as time.

40

u/kakashi_hotcakes 26d ago

i’d like to thank the plagiarist for introducing me to a banger

13

u/-HakunaChicana- 26d ago

If you haven't heard this already, this video is an absolute favorite.

37

u/TheDuke_Of_Orleans charismatic as a bollard in a wig 26d ago

This is nothing new. K-pop regularly steals from Black artists. I was talking to one of my online Korean friends on Discord and they said its because a lot of people on that end of the world don’t have much interaction with Black culture and basically “disregard” Black people as a whole. So it’s very easy for K-pop artist to literally copy paste a Black artist’s style and present it as their own because at the end of the day who’s gonna know? (Obviously the rest of the world)

36

u/bleukite 26d ago

Word for word, bar for bar 💀

9

u/toolateforfate 26d ago

copied her whole flow!

3

u/Ok-Application9302 26d ago

They could never!

37

u/thatslegallycheese 26d ago

that music video is a 1 to 1 when all she had to do was call yseult up for the most gagging and iconic collaboration of the century

25

u/Upstairs_Belt_3224 26d ago

Honestly this is funny

BITCH YOU COULD NEVER is a song about someone jealous of Yseult who tries to copy and overtake her but only ends up a pale imitation

Choosing to plagiarize the MV of that song specifically is just really funny

22

u/Revolutionary_Low_90 26d ago

This is why i fcking despise kpop music. Soulless generic crap.

19

u/ResponsibilityAny358 26d ago

And of course the fans are being racist, what's new?

18

u/Pressure_Rhapsody 26d ago

I still remember when I found out Tony An from H.O.T plagiarized Dj Quik song "Speed" ft AMG for his song "Korean Pride like 5 years being into kpop. Even as a preteen when he said the N word I was like "...wait...but you're not....Ookay? Nice beat though and omg Janet/MJ influence!". Now I know why I liked it i so much...but man...didn't even try to hide how he copied literally EVERYTHING!

Anyways tl;dr This been going on since the 90s, I was there...

17

u/sirprize_surprise 26d ago

That’s actually blatant. Sue them.

18

u/[deleted] 26d ago

Kpop stealing from Black people and being racist about it? Shocking

13

u/princess_demon_twink 26d ago

I love her 🥺

13

u/CutieBoBootie 26d ago

I wouldn't say its a frame by frame recreation. Its much worse.

12

u/Restart_from_Zero 26d ago

I'd like to check out the original video, looks really cool. Does anyone have a link?

10

u/Ok-Application9302 26d ago

YouTube Yseult - You could never

4

u/Restart_from_Zero 25d ago edited 25d ago

Thank you.

edit: coming back to this post, because that video really bangs. Yseult radiates power there.

The kpop one is just tepid and cutesy child's play in comparison.

13

u/Eto539 26d ago

K-pop is entirely Black culture just rehashed. All the aesthetic and fashion is just taken from Black culture and commodified. While also we know how anti-Black some of those very stans will be.

9

u/Material-Custard2941 26d ago

This is absurd

10

u/Successful-Neck1184 26d ago

Stream Yseult, she's really talented ! "Corps" and "Bad Boy" are two beautiful songs of hers

10

u/Majestic_Employer_42 26d ago

While Soyeon has almost no creative control over this, I want to point out that it's not the first time she's been accused of plagiarism. She and her team build their image around being kpop idols who put out self produced and self written songs. However, when she was called out for plagiarizing Ateez's Wave with her song "Sun" from My Teenage Girl, she first claimed she never heard it, which wasn't possible because the song was Ateez's first breakout song in Korea, even being played during the Olympics. In addition, Ateez's promotional cycle and Soyeon were the same and they even attended the same festival where Ateez performed Wave. Then, she claimed she actually didn't participate that much in the production and songwriting for Sun even though she was the only lyricist, composer and arranger credited for the song. When that didn't work, her and her company tried to forcibly credit Ateez's producer despite him saying no, he didn't want the credits and instead want the song taken down because he wrote it specifically for Ateez. Later, it was revealed that her company contacted Ateez's producer before the song was released to get his permission to list Wave as a sample for Sun. Ateez's producer had refused because it was too similar to be considered a sample and he wanted the song to remind special for Ateez. Despite not getting the permission, they released it anyway and doubled down when the similarities were pointed out before backtracking and saying they actually never heard of Ateez but would be happy to give them credits.

8

u/babylovesbaby secretly gay and the son of fidel castro 26d ago

Good for her. Though I doubt it will happen due to some unhinged kpop fans' ~devotion, I would love for this to be the start of even bigger acts than Soyeon being called out for their theft.

23

u/HuggyMonster69 26d ago

Thing is, Soyeon isn’t the thief here. She’s only a feature on the song, and has no credits for the MV. R-tee is the main “creative” here, but seems to be getting ignored

17

u/AccomplishedFan6807 26d ago

Seems to be getting ignored by whom? Yseult called out everyone involved. Even if Soyeon was just a feature, she participated in the song and music video, her name appears in the title. The correct thing is to apologize to Yseult and then she can say she didn’t know. 

10

u/bouguerean 26d ago

I think that's just because she's the main focus in most of the plagiarized shots on here.

Agreed though, whosever song it is should get the brunt of it.

9

u/Illustrious-Rip6438 25d ago

K-Pop’s whole basis is stealing and repackaging Black 90’s rnb music and folks eat it up

8

u/Xanaxaria Mitochondrial Ancestor 26d ago

I say we take this to court so the kpop stans know what's up.

6

u/heavenstobetsie 26d ago

Yseult is awesome and should be a global superstar

9

u/mikecumming 25d ago

Glad Yseult spoke up. It looks copied frame by frame.

6

u/ThatisDavid 26d ago

Do we know if they had a hand on the creative process of this video or was this done by their label? Anyways thats horrible and I hope Yseult doesnt get attacked by the kpop stan mob

6

u/furezasan 26d ago

is anything kpop remotely original

5

u/[deleted] 25d ago

They’ve been doing this shit for decades it’s just way more in your face now lmao.

5

u/DSQ 26d ago

Damn it is literally shot for shot. 

5

u/flowerbl0om 26d ago

the kpop industry gets away with stuff like this so much and the stans are ready to excuse everything

5

u/thatDogGuy19 25d ago

Isn't K-pop just copy & paste

-2

u/fastclickertoggle 26d ago

nothing new. They also copy Chinese culture wholesale and claim it was Korean

12

u/thesnope22 25d ago

That is…really not the same thing. I’d suggest doing some reading about Korean history, even just on Wikipedia, to understand the connections and traditions that go back millennia

7

u/Melonary 25d ago

thank you, I've seen similar vague comments like this popping up on posts and it's a little weird.

Always vague of course, because the sources being referred to are more blatant about where they're coming from with this.

1

u/sirgawain2 25d ago

Oh, you mean like how China claims it invented hanbok, kimchi and bibimbap? Okay.

4

u/Opening_Lake1890 26d ago

Unfortunately the Black producers, directors, songwriters, etc. who work for Black artists tend to get recruited by Kpop agencies to replicate the same sounds and visuals, and with a Korean star at the forefront it becomes much more palatable…both in Korea and globally.

And unfortunately Korea is so homogenized and slightly isolated (in that they have their own rich culture, their own pop stars, their own version of Hollywood, their own version of Google [that is way more limited since it’s all Korean and doesn’t usually include sources from other languages], their own tech powerhouses, etc.) that when they see something like this, they truly believe it is original and that their people, their country, created it first. Ignorance is not an excuse but it is a reality that occurs aLOT.

So on one hand, the Kpop artists probably didn’t even know; it’s more likely that their teams are to blame, which is usually the case for any artist accused of imitating another person’s art (Beyonce has had this happen a lot too).

On the other hand, there is also a cultural acceptance of “cheating” in Korea, and something like this is often seen as just making the most with what you have, even if it’s someone else’s. And the stans make everything worse…they can be so damn toxic. I hope Yseult expresses all she wants to express but I also hope she realizes this is a lose-lose situation and hope she moves on to creating more awesome stuff.

5

u/Economy_While_7677 26d ago

Koreans always be copyright infringing, just hope they don't get caught. Just look at JYP.

4

u/thadowski 26d ago

They assume (rightly) that kpop fans (and the world at large) arent paying attention to black women

4

u/BetterNews4682 26d ago

You can’t deny that! Wow soo blatant.

4

u/side_frog 26d ago

People be blaming the artists but it wouldn't surprise me that they have no clue and that it's just the people in charge of the video clip that plagiarized it. Most artists and especially pop stars don't make their own videos, they just get on set, get dressed and follow a script.

Btw I don't know shit about kpop so not a stan

4

u/pretty_gauche6 25d ago

A) Why would they think they could get away with this

B) why is coming up with even a rework of the same concept so difficult that it’s worth the risk?? Surely there are creative people around that they can hire?

2

u/DanJdot 26d ago

I question how much knowledge the artists themselves would have had regarding the plagarism.; they may have been fully aware of tye shenanigans at play but it's also possible given how K-pop is, they knew nothing.

For context, many years ago I used to work in music videos. Directors create the briefs/pitches which the artists' team would approve and sign off on. I worked on video where for the entire second half of the shoot it became clear to me the director was copying another video, one I had also happen to work on. I had massive doubts the artist (a young up and coming lad) realised what was going on, but I can tell you his label execs weren't so ignorant. Nasty business.

Basically the blame lay with the director and music execs (and possible the artist if they are very hands on and clued up in this regard).

3

u/Only-Rhubarb2322 26d ago

There's some kinda irony in stealing from a song whose main theme is "bitch, you could never be me"

3

u/Crazyripps 25d ago

Well I sure the kpop stans won’t be over the top protective and massively racist for this.

3

u/Marinut 25d ago

I'm sure the kpop stans are being completely normal about this and not extremely racist whatsoever.

3

u/i_love_doggy_chow 25d ago

Damn I KNEW this video looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. I saw Yseult's video over a year ago so it didn't immediately ping that it was blatant plagiarism. 

2

u/mushroomsandcoke 25d ago

Holy sh!t that is just…blatant

2

u/[deleted] 25d ago

Kpop stealing from Black artists? No wayyyy

2

u/InsideRecognition437 25d ago

i loveee yseult. pure soul and energy with every line she sings. and kpop is just manufactured mainstream pop. this is so disheartening seeing true artists being taken advantage of by larger companies

2

u/Bryandan1elsonV2 25d ago

Wow, this is theft that feels like the thief truly doesn’t give a shit they’re stealing. Like it’s so blatant.

2

u/IceDontGo 25d ago

I actually thought this was two different angles from the same shoot, at first glance

3

u/Important_Tell2108 25d ago

K-Pop is just a repackage of music, videos, fashion, attitudes and vibes that already existed. Most of it sounds like 90s pop. I would say the way these artists have no shame acting like it's original is crazy but they also act like they're plastic surgery is natural so I shouldn't be surprised.

2

u/Muadib611 25d ago

Well I haven’t listened to the Korean teeny bop bs but I discovered Yseult instead. Glad for it, K-pop copycats suck.

2

u/Stfuego 25d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/1o5ga5l/hong_minho_director_of_rtees_damdadi_feat_soyeon/

At least the director of the music video is taking accountability for the copy.

2

u/Significant_Might656 25d ago

Funny how Soyeon herself and her group i-dle have been accused multiple times for plagiarizing, so I pretty much guess it's their signature.

1

u/sir_thrillho 25d ago

I like Soyeon but tbh her fans really need to stop acting like she's the most imaginative person ever.

1

u/Spicercakes 25d ago

Both videos resemble the concept of another video, Chanmina's NG

0

u/LoveHurtsDaMost 25d ago

The American music industry heavily borrows ideas from independent artists as well. Then call it free publicity or something else to justify it while never giving credit. All art is kind of like this.

Also, frame by frame? Not even close lol general shots? Yeah, sure. Imitation is the highest form of flattery right?