The Gambling Issue that Never Really Went Away

Just like any other year, there was yet another gambling issue this year. This time it involved H.O.T. member Tony An and Shinhwa's Andy. Lee Soo Keun, Tak Jae Hoon, and Boom were also caught in the act.

They participated in illegal gambling involving sporting events such as the English Premier League. They gave their money to a broker and bet on who will win the game. Each bet involved roughly several thousand dollars. Andy and Boom received a fine of roughly $5,000 each, and Tony An is set for his first trial on the 6th.

Ailee's Nude Photos Leaked

The gambling issue went over more calmly than expected. That is, all thanks to Ailee's nude photos being leaked online. On November 11th, nude photos of Ailee made rounds on the Internet via online chatting applications. The photos showed a young-faced Ailee striking poses nude. Ailee dealt with the matter head on. According to her official position, Ailee took these pictures while she was in America as a camera test in response to receiving a model casting offer for a famous underwear company. It turns out she was only a college student at the time.

The photos were leaked, and Ailee is still looking for the person who leaked her photos in America. Despite all of this drama, Ailee attended the MelOn Music Awards, which took place a mere 3 days later on the 14th, and stood tall and proud at the event. Her fans lauded her for being so dignified.

Copied? Inspired? Genre-Similarity?

Plagiarism is a very common issue in the music industry, but it becomes a hot issue when famous or unpopular singers become involved. Roy Kim had it hard this year. In June Roy Kim's major hit song "Bom Bom Bom" was accused of plagiarism, and he received a lot of hate for it. That was about the time when Roy Kim was scheduled for approximately 50 interviews. Usually when these kinds of issue arise, celebrities are more than likely to stay below the radar, but Roy Kim finished all 50 interviews. Each time he answered the question "Did you really plagiarize?"

And then the baton was passed onto IU. IU's "The Red Shoes" was noted to be similar to Nektar's "Here's Us." IU claimed that it was only a similarity in sound because of the same genre. Her agency explained, "'The Red Shoes' is in the key of b flat minor, and the chord progression is b flat minor-bm7-cm7-cm6-f7sus4-f7. 'Here's Us' is a dominant scale chord progression with b flat major's one chord." They came back with a very thorough chord progression explanation to refute all plagiarism accusations.

Then it was Amoeba Culture's turn. Amoeba Culture sure had a rough year. First there was the dissing rap battle that went on with E-Sens, and then Dynamic Duo's Choiza was caught up in that relationship scandal. And then Primary of Amoeba Culture was accused of plagiarism. Caro Emerald, who Primary was accused of copying, gave their position via social networking sites and released various clips that seemed to be poking fun at Primary. The issue didn't die off as quickly as expected. To make matters worse, there was a professor in Korea that criticized the singer. Eventually he had no choice but to stop sales of the song written for MBC's "Infinite Challenge."

Crayon Pop's "Lonely Christmas" was said to be very similar to Japanese anime Lupin III's theme song, but the songwriter wrote it off as a genre similarity.