On August 24 KST, media outlet ‘Dispatch‘ published its findings after investigating the plagiarism accusations against BTS member Jungkook’s solo single “Seven“, originally raised by producer Yang Joon Young of Fin.K.L’s “Time of Mask“.
Earlier this week, the plagiarism allegations raised by Yang Joon Young were made public via multiple news outlet reports, piquing the interest of the masses. Yang claimed that while the two songs used different keys, they still used the same note/scale sequence within a 4-bar section.
The “problematic” section of “Seven”, according to Yang Joon Young, is between 00:55~01:03, with lyrics beginning with “You love when I jump right in. All of me I’m offering…”. In “Time of Mask”, the supposed similar section is between 00:52~01:10.
To confirm Yang Joon Young’s claims, ‘Dispatch’ experimented by transferring the music onto a blank music sheet. However, ‘Dispatch’ found that because “Seven” uses an Emaj scale while “Time of Mask” uses a B♭m, it is difficult to convert the two songs into a form with a completely matching key.
Still, ‘Dispatch’ proceeded to convert “Seven” into a C key, and “Time of Mask” into an Am key.
The media outlet concluded that there were no exactly overlapping components to the two songs, whether it involved key, chord progression, tempo, or the arrangement of notes.
One expert told ‘Dispatch’, “To consider the possibility of plagiarism, at least two overlapping components must be found, such as the melody and the chord progression are the same. In this case, there are no overlapping components to be found.”
Here are the two songs in question, which you can compare for yourselves.
