The Kpop world has always been a hotbed of controversies with protective fans on the lookout for possible infractions against their idols. Fan wars are mostly fanned by allegations of plagiarism and one of the fandoms that have always been actively accusing and fending off allegations of copying concepts is the BTS ARMY.
As ARMY is known as one of the most powerful fandoms in the world, they are constantly kept busy deflecting allegations of infractions committed by BTS' creative team.
It can be recalled that when BTS released its logo for BTS and ARMY, MONSTA X's fandom Monbebes highlighted its similarities to the MONSTA X and Monbebe logo. Both logo designs adopted the inverted design concepts for the artists and the fandom.
The concept for BTS' Love Yourself, Answer, materials were also quite similar to SF9's 2018 comeback, Sensuous.
BTS' release of Young Forever in 2016 was also accused by Shawols of copying the concept of SHINEE's I'm Your Boy, released way back in 2014. Both releases made use of road trip concept with a VW van, a bonfire, and a hot air balloon.
Similarly, BTS also fielded allegations of copying the concept of BIGBANG's megahit, MADE, in 2015. Side by side comparisons of the videos showed similar shots and outfits of the members, particularly G-Dragon and V.
However, some of the most controversial allegations of plagiarism involved EXO after EXO-Ls accused BTS of copying the schoolboy concept popularized by EXO for Growl in 2013. It can be recalled that BTS similarly utilized the schoolboy concept while promoting Boy in Luv in 2014.
While ARMYs reasoned out that EXO did not have a monopoly on the schoolboy concept, fans found another incident of "copying" when BTS used black cloaks for the Fake Luv stage.The stage design and concept of the performance was criticized for copying the iconic stage design and costume from EXO's MV.
According to the report by All Kpop, ARMYs have often been hurling allegations at other groups for copying BTS, but the group also had its fair share of plagiarism allegations, as well. Most recently, ARMY's accused Italian rapper Seiell of copying BTS' Fake Love.
According to an article by Kpopmap, the fandom pointed out the similarity to the beat and urged Big Hit Entertainment to file copyright lawsuits against the foreign singer.However, when Seiell was asked about the issue, the singer made matters worse by allegedly calling BTS, "four Chinese idiots."
