5+ K-Pop Groups Who Were Plagiarized By Other Artists

These groups had their music, cover art, and more copied.

From their music to their album art, every K-Pop group works tirelessly to stand out in the entertainment world with unique, quality content. This is just one of the many reasons why fans have zero tolerance for plagiarism. Here are 5+ groups who have had their work copied by other artists.

1. BTS

As the world’s most popular K-Pop group, it’s no surprise that BTS have been plagiarized many times by other artists. Most recently, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter named Lyta was accused of copying parts of BTS’s “Boy With Luv” music video for his “Hold Me Down” MV.

| Big Hit Entertainment/Youtube.com
| Naira Marley/Youtube.com
| Naira Marley/Youtube.com

In the past, the art for J-Hope‘s HOPE WORLD mixtape cover was plagiarized several times, including by Tissue for Tissue World. 

| Big Hit Entertainment/SoundCloud

Another instance of plagiarism happened when Italian singer Seiell released his song “Scenne Nennè”, which sounds nearly identical to BTS‘s “Fake Love”. Japanese media later reported that Seiell claimed to not know who BTS was prior to releasing his song.

2. GOT7

Like BTS, parts of a GOT7 music video were plagiarized in Lyta’s “Hold Me Down” MV. According to fans, the similarities between Lyta’s MV and GOT7’s “Just Right” MV are far too similar to be coincidental.

In fact, some parts of “Hold Me Down” MV match “Just Right” MV shot for shot.

3. SHINee

G-EGG, a Japanese-Korean J-Pop group, came under fire this month for the similarities between their  “I Don’t Care” MV and SHINee‘s “Our Page” MV.

| G-EGG/Youtube
| SM Town/Youtube.com

Like SHINee, G-EGG’s members stood on a platform surrounded by lightbulbs while wearing pastel suits as the light colors change throughout the music video.

| G-EGG/Youtube

Shawols felt that the music videos’ similarities are too close to be a case of great minds thinking alike, and they have requested that SHINee’s agency, SM Entertainment, take action.

| SM Entertainment

4. IZ*ONE

Earlier this year, netizens accused Vietnamese girl group SGO48 of plagiarizing  IZ*ONE‘s teaser photos from 2019.

Like IZ*ONE, SGO48 is wearing pastel colors against a backdrop of flowers. Netizens argued that SGO48’s styling, poses, palette, and concept were uncomfortably similar to IZ*ONE’s album Bloom*Iz. 

5. NCT 127, ASTRO, and Stray Kids

Indonesian boy group C’BOYS found themselves in hot water when they released their song “o.D (Overdose)”. Fans were quick to point out that the intro copies NCT 127‘s “Cherry Bomb”, the verses copy Stray Kids‘ “My Pace”, and the choruses are straight out of ASTRO‘s “All Night”.

Additionally, the outro of “o.D” sounds exactly like BTS’s “Fake Love”.