Controversy Over a Cool Visual Technique Being Ripped Off [Update]

There’s a first time for everything. And once something is pioneered, others move in and make it theirs. But is that a rip off? One band seems to say so.

Above, you can see a music video from the Australian group Clubfeet. The name of the song is “Everything You Wanted”, and it hit earlier this year. Below, you can see a music video from Japanese group Champagne. The song is “Forever Young”, and it was released last week.

Clubfeet’s official Twitter account is calling the “Forever Young” video a “Japanese rip-off”. And on the Champagne YouTube page, someone named Darcy Prendergast, who’s apparently from the “Everything You Wanted” video’s production company, wrote, “Champagne have blatantly ripped it [the Clubfeet video] off. Kindly watch the original and kindly dislike this horrible pop song to stop uncreative vampires sucking at the necks of those who truly strive to create innovative work to wow the world.”

Champagne is a relatively new band and is starting to play the major festivals in Japan and gain a following.

On YouTube, numerous Japanese commenters seem to agree that the group’s video is a copy, writing things like, “This is a total rip-off” and “How shameful”. It seems like Japanese YouTube commenters were first to notice this: a week ago, Japanese commenters were already saying that the Champagne video seemed like an “Everything You Wanted” knockoff. What’s more, Japanese sites like Rocket News are reporting how this video could be a copy.

While it’s not even a hundred percent sure that the Clubfeet video is the first to do this, all this begs the larger question: Yes, people copy styles and stories, but can you steal techniques? If that’s the case, then video games are filled with stolen and recycled techniques, whether that’s heads-up displays, health bars, and even contextual prompts. Perhaps, the technique in the “Everything You Wanted” is the style.

All that being said, if the Champagne music video director saw the “Everything You Wanted” video, it sure seems pretty tacky to use the same technique only a few months after Clubfeet! Uncreative, too.

Update: Champagne’s record company has apologized, adding that it is responsible for the video and not the band. The record company will stop using the video and stated, “We sincerely apologize to all fans supporting Clubfeet and [Champagne] for any worries and anxieties this matter may have been caused.”

Japanese rip-off of our Everything You Wanted video [@Clubfeet via ロケットニュース]

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