Taylor Swift accused of copying K-pop video amid Bad Blood row

Taylor Swift has been accused of copying a popular Korean girl group’s music video to make Bad Blood.

The singer’s VMA row with Nicki Minaj took an interesting turn on Tuesday when one of the rapper’s fans pointed out on Twitter the similarities between the videos for Bad Blood and 2NE1’s Come Back Home.

The spat between the two stars erupted when 32-year-old Nicki reacted angrily to Anaconda being snubbed by MTV for Video Of The Year, and appeared to take a swipe at 25-year-old Taylor who did get a nod. 

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Expectedly, their legions of Twitter followers immediately took sides and began firing broadsides, but one Nicki fan in particular — @chaelinfenty — went one further and accused Swift of plagiarism.

‘@NICKIMINAJ can we talk about how taylor’s video isn’t original and was copied from a group of four WOC, 2NE1,’ she wrote, posting an eye-opening series of stills from both videos, which when juxtaposed look like they came from the exact same storyboard.

The videos are completely different in plot; Taylor’s sees her play an OTT movie-style secret agent betrayed by Selena Gomez, who trains with a host of other celebs before facing off against Gomez again at the end.

Come Back Home on the other hand tells the story of a dystopian future in which people exist in Matrix-style virtual realities, which the group rebel against and attempt to destroy. 

But while the stories might not match, the overall futuristic feel and setting are very similar — and some of the individual scenes are practically carbon copies.

One particularly striking similar image sees both singers walking down a tunnel with a flare held aloft. Both videos culminate with a squad of armed girls slowly stalking towards the camera. 

While one is set in London and the other in an unnamed futuristic city, both videos open with an almost identical slow zoom on their respective cityscapes before passing through a window.

Swift’s Bad Blood was directed by Korean-born Joseph Kahn and stars a plethora of the singer’s famous friends including Jessica Alba, Gigi Hadad, Carla Delevingne, Zendaya, Lena Dunham, and Cindy Crawford.

When music website  published an article claiming it was ‘highly unlikely’ Kahn had not seen 2NE1’s video beforehand, he responded claiming he was unaware of the Korean video, and that he doesn’t even listen to K-pop.

‘All of the comparisons are common sci fi tropes — city, cars, helmets, body scans, flares — all recropped without context,’ he wrote in a letter to the site.

‘Furthermore recording screen grabs and accusing others of copying their groups is apparently a very common hobby of Kpop fans. If you view both videos, aside from the uncontextual limited screen grabs, you will quickly see they are completely different videos.’

Kahn is a hugely prolific music video director who has worked acts as diverse as Dr Dre, Mariah Carey, U2, The Black Eyed Peas, Lasy Gaga, Rob Zombie, Janet Jackson, The Chemical Brothers, Katy Perry, Muse, DMX, Moby, Willie Nelson and Enrique Iglesias. He also directed the recent Power/Rangers short starring James Van Der Beek.

When his Bad Blood video was released on May 17, it broke Vevo’s 24-hour viewing record after being played 20.7 million times, beating the record previously held by none other than Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda.

While the butt-baring vid did grab noms for best Hip Hop and Best Female Video in the shortlist announced this week, it was pipped by Bad Blood for the Video Of The Year category. 

This prompted the Trinidadian to unleash on Twitter, claiming: ‘If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year’.

Although she wasn’t specifically named in the tweet, Taylor wasted no time taking offence, 토토사이트 responding: ‘I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.’

Nicki was quick to deny that the tweet was aimed at her: ‘Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn’t say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this’, she wrote

But the Super Bass star made her feelings known by favoriting and retweeting her fans support — some of which clearly pointed the finger at Taylor.