In “I can’t believe people actually made this a thing” news, 2NE1‘s fandom has successfully managed to leverage Nicki Minaj‘s important message about how black and white artists are treated differently by awards shows to frivolously accuse Taylor Swift of copying “Come Back Home” with her music video “Bad Blood“.
Why? Because of a compilation of stills, which we all know is a flawless method to determine plagiarism:
@NICKIMINAJ can we talk about how taylor's video isn't original and was copied from a group of four WOC, 2NE1 pic.twitter.com/LPtJzBHvAD
— tay (@chaelinfenty) July 21, 2015
How can you go wrong with stills? That’s how we knew Boram broke Hwayoung‘s umbrella after all!!!
Because the Minaj/Swift issue is a big deal, and because Swift acted like a tone-deaf dipshit, now the Western media is all over Swift in a “who gives a fuck but really we need pageviews” moment, and so they’re now writing anything they can that’s negative about Swift and have taken to “debating” whether or not Swift jacked 2NE1’s “Come Back Home” concept for herself.
JUST ASKING QUESTIONS BRO AND ALSO PLEASE CLICK OUR ADVERTISERS WHILE YOU’RE READING
Speaking of that, so did she jack it (and yes, click here too)?
No, no she did not. Like it’s not even remotely close.
Joseph Kahn, who directed “Bad Blood”, rebutted the claims on Twitter.
Writer of JEZEBEL accused me of ripping off a Korean music video because I was "born in South Korea." WHAT THE FUCK. Really????
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 22, 2015
Original article about my "Korean roots." Author titled it "roots" asking about my family, NOT in context to Kpop. http://t.co/nlyOYjVMnK
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 23, 2015
Jezebel then lifted title and distorted as if article was about Kpop. Super lame "journalism."
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 23, 2015
The most important thing is to read the responses to him, where you realize this is not just a promotional campaign by Blackjacks to troll to get 2NE1 out there, which would’ve actually been admirable as a plot. Rather, they actually believe Kahn plagiarized and a lot of them give further credence to that fact because he’s Korean, which is totally not a fucked up assumption to make about an Asian.
@spencenicholson Apparently this is just a hobby of Kpop fans. They screen grab, recrop, and accuse everyone of copying their groups.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 23, 2015
@spencenicholson @billboard They accused me of obviously copying Koreans because I must follow Kpop since I was born in Korea. No shit.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 23, 2015
Anyway, the one common theme in both music videos is that they’re both generic sci-fi lite crap lazily stirred together because a music video has limited time, but even in that realm they aren’t remotely close to the same.
“Bad Blood” is an upbeat futuristic action movie mixed with kung-fu nostalgia and ripping off a tribute to a ton of movies, and it borrowed far more from flicks like the ‘The Fifth Element‘ than anything K-pop. “Come Back Home” has a much darker feel and paints a futuristic hellscape filled with robotic, depressed people that are in need of revolutionaries. So unless you believe 2NE1 invented cyberpunk, just stop.
There is an upside to this though.
FYI: city, car, futuristic masks, body scanning. These are common SCI FI TROPES. Flare from Alien 3. Also, stop recropping to match shots.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) July 23, 2015
Accusing Khan of the serious artistic crime of plagiarism has led to the admission that “Bad Blood” is nothing more than a derivative, simplistic sci-fi tropefest. And in that general sense, yes, it’s similar to “Come Back Home”, cause they’re both a compilation of ripping off shit that the sci-fi genre made cliche decades ago.
Also, this nonsense helps support my case that K-pop fans are the worst.