[★TRENDING] Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” MV director harshly responds to plagiarism allegations

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Koreaboo

The music video director of Taylor Swift‘s “Bad Blood” music video, Joseph Kahn, has responded to accusations that he allegedly copied scenes from 2NE1‘s 2014 hit’s video, “Come Back Home.”

Accusations were first raised during the Taylor Swift-Nicki Minaj Twitter spat on July 21st when the latter tweeted her disproval of the MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) not including her hit “Anaconda” as a nominee for this year’s Video of the Year award.

Hours after the accusation was made, Joseph Kahn replied on his Twitter with, “I don’t know what’s going on right now. I just make videos.”

Over 12 hours later, he tweets, “The fact none of you realize the flare-hallway sequence in BAD BLOOD is from ALIEN 3 disappoints me. Fincher FTW.”

He continues, “Just pointing out 2 of the 6 ‘skinny white girls’ walking with Taylor at the end of BAD BLOOD are black @Zendaya and @SerayahLove,” “Every white guy I know would give their left and right testicles for Rihanna,” “I just think all these race issues get better if we all have sex with a different race. Go have sex with a different race today,” and “Imma let you finish but when did Beyoncé stop counting as a beautiful black woman with curves?”

He then takes on the 2NE1 plagiarism accusation, writing, “Writer of JEZEBEL accused me of ripping off a Korean music video because I was ‘born in South Korea.’ WHAT THE FUCK. Really????” “If you hit me in the head with a bottle of kimchi I wouldn’t know a single Kpop song in the last 5 years. Too busy listening to ‘Anaconda,'” and “The Toxic conspiracists should fight the Kpop conspiracists for the right to conspiracist me. Hard to keep track. Go!”

In a response to another Twitter user responding to Joseph Kahn’s last tweet, they wrote, “Have any of these yahoos actually watched both videos? Or are they just lookin at the very specific non-contextual screen grabs?” to which the director responds, “Apparently this is just a hobby of Kpop fans. They screen grab, recrop, and accuse everyone of copying their groups.”

He then clarifies his Korea Time interview, “Original article about my ‘Korean roots.’ Author titled it ‘roots’ asking about my family, NOT in context to Kpop,” “Jezebel then lifted title and distorted as if [the] article was about Kpop. Super lame ‘journalism.'”

Jezebel the Muse had written, “In November, he spoke with the Korea Times about getting back to his ‘Korean roots,’ and that he ‘pay[s] full attention to what’s going on in my field, it’s my job.’ It seems highly unlikely that any storied, thorough music video director would have missed a high-profile video from arguably K-pop’s most celebrated girl groups.” (Read the full article by Jezebel here).

The director then comments on the alleged scenes that were plagiarized, “FYI: city, car, futuristic masks, body scanning. These are common SCI FI TROPES. Flare from Alien 3. Also, stop recropping to match shots,” and “I never thought I would actually be a victim of a @gawker hit and run piece lol. I’m officially famous.”

The original tweet that accused “Bad Blood” of plagiarizing “Come Back Home”:
https://twitter.com/chaelinfenty/status/623636848846458881/photo/1

Joseph Kahn then closes with, “You pay to do your art. You get paid to be famous and deal with the bullshit that comes with it,” and “Never a dull day in a pop video world.”

Both music videos have their own distinct storyline with “Bad Blood” featuring Taylor Swift as a secret agent betrayed by Selena Gomez, whom she eventually faces off against in the end.

On the other hand, “Come Back Home” tells the story of a future in which the people would rather live in a virtual reality than the real world. The members of 2NE1 band together to rebel against the virtual and fake world.

Korean-American Joseph Kahn is credited as the director of “Bad Blood.” He has been in the business for 15 years and has shot well-known music videos such as Destiny Child‘s “Jumpin Jumpin,” Backstreet Boys‘ “Backstreet’s Back,” and more.

Watch the two music videos below and make your own conclusion.

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