People are coming to IU’s defence amidst the recent plagiarism allegations. Mystic Story president Jo Young Chul, who produced IU’s albums, slammed the complaint against the soloist. In addition to that, the composer behind the solo artist’s hit “Boo” defended the song’s composition.
Mystic Story Boss Hits Back At IU Plagiarism Claims
Mystic Story president Jo Young Chul released a statement regarding IU’s recent plagiarism accusations. Jo, who is also a music producer, pointed out that the plagiarism claims have no clear basis.
“While I’ve monitored all the songs that continue to claim plagiarism on YouTube and were recently accused, I was unable to discover any suspicion of plagiarism,” Jo wrote.
“Just because you’ve taken one part of a song and think there’s a song that has a similar melody or chord progression to it does not make that plagiarism. This is not my personal opinion as this is the court precedent,” Jo added. “The parts of the songs being accused do not even have the same melody or chord progression.”
Jo Young Chul added that “the copyright dispute is basically an issue between copyright holders.”
“I question whether a third party has the right to make accusations, and they must be held legally responsible if this is [an attempt of] malicious defamation,” he stated.
‘Boo’ Composer Explains How IU Was The Only Inspiration For His Song
The Mystic Story president is not the only one defending IU. Han Sang Won is the composer behind the hit “Boo”. He explained in an Instagram post how IU herself inspired the song.
“After seeing IU, who was a young student at the time, I thought of ‘a dance track about a bright and cute love story.’ I first created the key lyric ‘You’re my boo,’ inspired by the word ‘boo,’ and the hook’s ‘image melody,’ and then made the song by implementing the arrangement method and common beat of “’80s female dance-pop,'” Han wrote.
Han further pointed out that the melody in “Boo” was “borrowed” from another IU track.
“The melody of the chorus lyric ‘You’re my boo’ is borrowed from IU’s other song ‘Merry Christmas Ahead,’” Han wrote.
“I believe this is the biggest reason why this song received so much love, to the point where this part was left and remade into a rap song by Geeks,” he added.
Han Song Won went on to explain the influences of the song and then challenged the complainant.
“What was the intention of the person who accused IU when I, the composer of ‘boo,’ am right here?” he wrote. “I am ready whenever to discuss with ‘the composer who wrote the song’ who claims plagiarism regarding my song, so if you are that song’s ‘composer,’ please contact me.”
Korean Citizen Files Plagiarism Complaint Against IU
On May 10, a Korean citizen filed a lawsuit alleging that IU plagiarized the works of other artists. The suit claimed that the “Blueming” singer had plagiarized a total of six songs. Since then, IU’s agency EDAM Entertainment has denied the allegations and the company is planning to pursue legal action.
Songwriter Lee Min Soo, who wrote “The Red Shoes” and “Good Day”, explained that he didn’t reference other songs. “BBIBBI” composer Lee Jong Hoon also pointed out that the artists of the plagiarized songs are the only ones who can make plagiarism allegations.
