So Cosmic Girls finally released their "Catch Me!" music video, and while many of us are happy that is finally got released (after two freaking weeks!) I see some SONEs specifically in the comments claiming that CG is copying SNSD's "You Think" concept.
Ring any bells?
With the upcoming generation of promising girl groups debuting, it's normal for people to draw comparisons to older groups in speculation of if the newest generation will be as good as the previous (or better.) And while this is normal, many people have been simply going to plagiarism route and claiming that every other girl group with a school girl concept or a 1990's sound is stealing from SNSD, and now Cosmic Girls are getting accused of copying SNSD's "You Think" because... well they're rookies and have done nothing to garner hate so pretty much every reason for hating them is stupid, and this is no exclusion.
This is just like whenever any new boy groups or girl group with a slightly tomboyish look debuts and the comments are filled with "So obviously copying Big Bang!" or "So obviously copying 2NE1!" Without realizing that Big Bang did not invent hip-hop concepts, not even in K-pop:
This 1TYM video is from 1998, eight years before Big Bang's debut.
Now it seems that any and every girl group is copying from SNSD. Sure SNSD had the 1990's sound, but guess what? SNSD didn't invent 1990's music. And girl groups had been using that particular sound well before SNSD was even famous.
The original music video wont link but this is a video S.E.S performing "Dreams Come True" back in 1998, nine years before the divine nine came into existence.
That's not to say certain girl groups wont acknowledge taking inspiration from SNSD. For instance GFriend around their debut stated that their debut song and choreography took inspiration from SNSD's "Into The New World". however it's safe to say that GFriend actually does have their own image and have built up a reputation for themselves way outside of "SNSD Wannabe's" and the same goes for A Pink and soon-to-rise Lovelyz and Oh My Girl.
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Cheng Xiao is my bias but Xuan Yi's smile is life.
And even if these girl groups were copycats of SNSD (and thank God they're not. K-pop doesn't need ten SNSDs) who could blame them? SNSD have achieved a status in the music scene that is damn near unattainable at this point due to dedicated SONEs and a decent international following. K-Pop is an over-saturated market, so the chances of actually making it big are slim to none. It's not about talent or even song quality, it's all based on the luck of rather he public feels the need to care about you. Now of course having talent and good songs can most definitely play apart in that, but they're not mandatory. The number one thing these companies are trying to do is to make these groups successful and cement their presence in the industry as stars. No girl group in Korea has done that better than SNSD so these companies are going to go where the money is at. It should be expected that groups are going to munch off of trends set by popular groups since when your popular in K-pop you're granted success (no matter how good or bad your song is.)
The school girl concept is so universal that trying to trademark it to a certain group is the same thing as TheFineBros trying to trademark reaction videos and get money whenever someone not under them makes a reaction video. SNSD didn't invent school girl concepts, they didn't invent the 1990's sound.
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But even that made more sense than trying to claim that any girl group that does a powerful, feminine and sexy concept is now copying SNSD. SNSD SURELY DID NOT invent that concept. And even then, the similarities are barely even there. They're all dressed in black? Okay but so did KARA, Rania, and AOA to name a few. Cheng Xiao has that bra armor thing on? So did Pocket Girls.The song is very in-your-face?So are most of 2NE1's better songs.
In the end your fave didn't invent anything. They were given a concept and they rolled with it. These types of concepts gain the public's attention and that's why they're doing it. Sure not every single group that debuts with a school girl concept is going to get super popular; not every group that tried a sexed up concept back in 2014 got popular either. But those were the trending concepts so they tried to become popular from it, and it worked really well for some. In the end, if you don't like certain concepts being so popular then maybe you shouldn't give so much attention to them.