LDH’s BALLISTIK BOYZ accused of copying BTS mainly through bullshit netizens made up

BALLISTIK BOYZ is an upcoming Japanese boy group from Japanese company LDH, and they will be consisting of seven members. This has led to people making comparisons to BTS, accusing LDH of basically copying K-pop.

It all started on Pann from Korean netizens, made its way to the Korean news, and eventually was published widely internationally as well (1/2).

The main accusations leveled were that they had similar concepts, similar amounts of rappers and vocalists, and that they were going to be called ‘Tado Sonyeondan’/BTZ to appear similar to ‘Bangtan Sonyeondan’/BTS. They further accused LDH of naming GENERATIONS after Girls’ Generation.

Okay right, the problem is that they are not called ‘Tado Sonyeondan’ … because that’s Korean and that would be a terrible idea in Japan, and they are not going to be nicknamed BTZ either. They’re going to be BALLISTIK BOYZ (like in katakana) or BALLIBO for short, and their most likely influence is DOBERMAN INFINITY, who had a similar member construction and debuted back in 2002. Regardless, HIRO (LDH President) has stated that the group will have rotational roles, so saying a certain number will sing or rap is inaccurate as well. Additionally, aside from GENERATIONS being a boy band and this being a reach anyway, it seems likely (IMO) they’re named after the song “Generation” by J Soul Brothers (the first generation). Above all, LDH has been doing this concept since like 1999, so it’s nothing new for them.

Look, I’m not gonna say K-pop has had no influence on Japan after its rise to prominence, as that’s only natural (let’s not get into the reverse because it’ll be endless). I also do think there’s definite influence here, and haters of LDH in Japan always say they’re too Korean (hey look, they’re nationalistic fuckheads too), but most of this plagiarism accusation is simply based on bullshit. The core of this matter without that bullshit boils down to two groups who do hip-hop/r&b from different countries. That’s it.

As I said with the whole AKB48/’Produce 48‘ thing, one shouldn’t trust the information netizens provide anyway, but especially when it’s netizens from one Asian country talking about another Asian country, as the people in those comments will undoubtedly be nationalist crazies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq-q2xArEa8