BLACKPINK‘s Jennie recently faced accusations of plagiarism.
On January 24, Jennie released “Zen” before her solo album, Ruby. The track’s visuals were a change from her previous single, “Mantra,” earning praise from many.
These visuals are what led to accusations of plagiarizing XG‘s “Howling.” The similar imagery and editing were pointed out throughout both videos, along with similar accessories.
However, netizens quickly discovered and pointed out that “Zen” and “Howling” were both directed by Choi Gi Seok, who shared credits for the songs on Instagram.
While Jennie’s plagiarism was disproven, many still had issue with the concepts being so similar. In particular, they criticized Choi Gi Seok for allegedly reusing concepts with too many similarities in between different projects.
Ngl.. while watching zen i was constantly reminded of howling… and yeah cho gi seok is amazing and all and maybe thats his trademark but its just same concept for everything and its kinda tiring.. either he needs to broaden his horizon or we need more creative directors! https://t.co/vTKeTta7vb
— 💿♡ ₊⋆˖˚𐦍༘ ⊹｡˚‧🥂 (@lillyislifee) January 25, 2025
This has been my gripe with cho giseok for a while now 😵💫 he just rehashes the same ideas with different artists. A lot of the time it doesn’t even look good and comes across as tacky/kitschy. Both of those things aren’t bad, but they’re obviously not the intention. https://t.co/gGCawlmNAD
— ΔBDIEL 👁️ ARTMS in Dallas 8/27 (@LipOrbitch) January 26, 2025
choi gi-seok is so one note. i like his work but yeah. https://t.co/rl1mIDqUBS
— 𝖘𝖞𝖉 🎧📟⛓️ (@_SUSHIFREAK) January 26, 2025
this lowk a sign ppl should stop working with him cuz how come every single artist he works with gets plagiarism accusations of other artists he’s done work for https://t.co/HITe4XueqL
— dei ✰ is streaming ss501 (@haoangels) January 26, 2025
