Netizens Hit Back At “Nonsense” Accusations Of aespa’s Mood Sampler Plagiarizing LE SSERAFIM

Netizens have come to the defense of girl group aespa after accusations of their latest teaser “plagiarizing” LE SSERAFIM.

The members of aespa | @aespa_official/Twitter

Recently, the group released the mood sampler for their upcoming release Drama, the “Scene” version. The video contains narrations from the members and exudes “apocalyptic vibes.”

Your browser does not support video.| @aespa_official/Twitter Your browser does not support video.| @aespa_official/Twitter Your browser does not support video.| @aespa_official/Twitter 

When the video was shared, on both X and the Korean forum theqoo, a few netizens shared their belief that they saw a lot of resemblances between aespa’s video and that of LE SSERAFIM.

they saw themselves being on svt's moodboard so they took a revenge by putting on that lesserafim wig https://t.co/A0BFB2GS7Z

— ًً (@hyein1stfan) October 29, 2023

they said do you think I’m fragile https://t.co/GOg77gETL8

— , (@isatadano) October 29, 2023

ANTIFRAGILE? https://t.co/cJTBoOyfOM

— shouq (@_shouqshouq) October 29, 2023

Yet, while most of the tweets didn’t get much engagement and the Korean comments were met with angry responses that there was no link, the discourse led to fans defending aespa from the accusations on social media.

In particular, when one large account shared the teaser…

aespa releases the mood sampler 'Drama' The Scene. pic.twitter.com/1D56XZEXW0

— Kpop Charts (@kchartsmaster) October 29, 2023

Netizens quickly made sure to fill the comments with support for the members and the video. While many shut down the accusations and the “HYBE stans,” many pointed out that the concept aespa was following is something commonly seen with SM artists.

They pointed out that if there are similarities to any artist, it’s fellow SM Entertainment group f(x), along with other groups from the company.

“Aespa is copying ….” Tried it because sm has been doing apocalyptic and darker theme concepts like this since the beginning of time f(x) was doing this first if anything sm groups are the blueprint for kpop they built the foundation y’all need to take that somewhere else. https://t.co/wMAzF7lxeG

— y2c (@poplanguage) October 29, 2023

hybe stans are hilarious. sm BEEN doing run down warehouses and monologues for cbs… like this is very much giving f(x) https://t.co/aM1DoHUk1k

— very busy (@anovacow) October 29, 2023

“this is so hybe coded” ummm it’s actually sm coded like bffr https://t.co/YXgQbiGy3m pic.twitter.com/ma6pXeN0qO

— ‎‏ً (@wntrult) October 29, 2023

qrts saying aespa copied le sserafims concept meanwhile the f(x) red light teaser dropped 9 years ago and even had the burning book reference, so who copied who? https://t.co/fQK3rfcgEI pic.twitter.com/hXNFJsUKC6

— (@ameliajpg) October 29, 2023

"hybe coded" bruh this is literally a mixture of 28 reasons, Stamp on it, red light, catch me if you can and electric kiss https://t.co/H20XL0R7eU

— ???? ???? ???? ???? Mention before DM!! | CHILL KILL! (@weseulbarebears) October 30, 2023

Specifically, they compared the vibes to f(x)’s track “Red Light.”

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They also generally defended SM groups, with many pointing out that the artists always get accusations.

The kop industry is literally unfair to SM artists. Sm artists makes trend and then their junior follows it but then other kpopy stans will still run their mouths and be saying the silliest things. You can't accuse an original to be a copy from your favs who's actually the copy https://t.co/K5XDo9oMiH

— tyrina (@Stephaniel3804) October 29, 2023

With so many K-Pop groups overlapping with genres, more accusations have arisen. Yet, many aespa fans want to show that the group is following their own identity created by the members but also their SM Entertainment sunbaes.