Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Four songwriters (Audrey Armacost, Aidan Rodriguez, Adam Gokcebay, Michael Campanelli) have sued NewJeans, ADOR, and HYBE, alleging that they plagiarized the song “How Sweet” from a demo they sent them back in 2024.
The Thursday (May 7) lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard, lodges copyright infringement claims against NewJeans’ label ADOR, its parent company HYBE and performers Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Hyein and Danielle.
According to the lawsuit, songwriter Audrey Armacost was sent an instrumental track by her publisher in January 2024 and invited to submit topline lyrics and melody for consideration by NewJeans. Armacost convened with three other writers — Aidan Rodriguez, Adam Gokcebay and Michael Campanelli — and together, they say they wrote and recorded “One of a Kind” over that instrumental.
The four writers say they sent “One of a Kind” along to NewJeans, but were told it was not selected. Yet when “How Sweet” was released four months later, the lawsuit claims the song’s first verse was “quantitatively and qualitatively similar” to the first verse in “One of a Kind.”
“Both works are in 4/4 meter and the key of B flat minor,” reads the legal complaint. “And both works contain a topline that includes an approximately eight-bar, 31-note melodic sequence consisting of four series.”
As a result of the lawsuit, they hope to get a cut of the royalties.
Armacost, Rodriguez, Gokcebay and Campanelli allege HYBE, ADOR, the NewJeans members, and a host of other collaborators and distributors violated their rights by failing to license the “One of a Kind” demo. Through the lawsuit, the four songwriters are seeking a cut of the royalties from the “great commercial success” of “How Sweet.”
“Plaintiffs, as joint authors and co-owners of the composition of ‘How Sweet,’ are entitled to their pro rata share of the profits that defendants have each gained from the exploitation of ‘How Sweet,’” the complaint reads.
Anyway, ADOR and BANA responded to the lawsuit with a denial.
On May 9 KST, ADOR officially responded by stating, “Upon checking with BANA (Beasts And Natives Alike), who were responsible for composing and producing this song, their position is that there was no plagiarism involved. ADOR and the [NewJeans] members plan to respond to the lawsuit in accordance with BANA’s stance [on the allegations].”
Honestly, this story didn’t initially even register with me because I thought it was outlets reposting/resurfacing a story from 2024 about the same release, but that one was about “Bubble Gum“.
Regardless, I still feel the same way about trying to litigate soundalikes now as I did then, though the wrinkle is always whether they did receive the demo and proceeded to rip it off completely or left a paper trail admitting to doing it. Obviously since we don’t have the demo, it’s hard for us to judge. However, unless it’s 1-to-1, then almost by default I hope these lawsuits fail just because the discourse over it in any context is insufferable and just generally damaging to music at large.
