K-Pop Group Admits Ripping Off The Chainsmokers & Coldplay

The sweet and sappy production of The Chainsmokers is by and large the key to their lucrative commercial success. Their simplistic chord progression formula was even the topic of a discussion and breakdown by a keen-eared teen back in April.

 

 

How EVERY Chainsmokers song is written: pic.twitter.com/KbxxJov2bP

— John (@JohnnyFass) April 16, 2017

It goes without saying that the Chainsmokers have nailed a certain radio-friendly sound that is catchy at best, and repetitive at worst. K-Pop group Seventeen seemed to have wanted a taste of that chart-topping glory, because they are currently under fire on social media for what many are claiming plagiarism. The song in question is Seventeen’s biggest hit to date, “Don’t Wanna Cry,” that bares an undeniable similarity to the Chainsmokers/Coldplay collab “Something Just Like This.”

The record is a virtual copy-and-paste of the Chainsmokers hit, with a heightened pitch sprinkled in. The publishing company of the k-pop band, Pledis Entertainment decided to get ahead of the scandal in full on damage control by adding the Chainsmokers and Coldplay to the track’s ASCAP, in short, adding them to the copyright. Pledis also released the following statement:

 

“We received inquiries about the similarity of some of the melodies between the songs from the two publishing parties. We are asserting that ‘Don’t Wanna Cry’ is an independently created song but we were worried that the artists would suffer a great amount of stress if it came to legal disputes and that their image might adversely be affected regardless of the truth. Because of the listed reasons above, we decided to grant/acknowledge a piece of copyright to them.”

They concluded the statement by saying,

“In fact, if you check the list of copyright holders to this song, the names of the artists who participated remain the same. We would like to apologize to all the artists and fans who were worried and concerned due to the company’s decision.”

No official word from The Chainsmokers has been shared as of yet, but stay tuned for updates.