Netizens Accuse Lee Chaeyeon Of Copying SHINee Key’s “Gasoline” Designs

Netizens comment on the compiled design comparisons.

WM Entertainment announced mid-September that Lee Chaeyeon would be making her long-awaited solo debut with a mini-album, HUSH RUSH on October 12.

Lee Chaeyeon | @official_LCY/Twitter

Since the announcement, her company has steadily released teaser images, giving fans their first glimpse at Lee Chaeyeon’s solo debut concept.

| @official_LCY/Twitter

As more teaser images were released, suspicions were raised about similarities between HUSH RUSH‘s concept and product designs and SHINee Key‘s designs for his second studio album, Gasoline, which was released in August of this year.

A netizen on a popular Korean online forum made a post compiling the comparisons, and in less than an hour, the post had over 45,000 views and 795 comments.

| @official_LCY/Twitter

Netizens first noticed similarities between the font used for HUSH RUSH‘s product teaser photo and Gasoline‘s teaser poster, as well as the color combination of purple and green.

Lee Chaeyeon’s “HUSH RUSH” product design teaser | @official_LCY/Twitter
SHINee Key’s “Gasoline” product concept photo | @SHINee/Twitter

It was also noted that the layouts of their teaser posters had similarities.

Lee Chaeyeon’s “HUSH RUSH” Vampire version teaser | @official_LCY/Twitter
SHINee Key’s “Gasoline” VHS version teaser | @SHINee/Twitter

Netizens pointed out a connection between the layout of the text used for Lee Chaeyeon’s HUSH RUSH tracklist teaser and Key’s Gasoline tracklist teaser and the lightning bolt background.

“HUSH RUSH” tracklist | @official_LCY/Twitter
“Gasoline” tracklist | SM Entertainment

The lightning bolt design was seen in HUSH RUSH‘s “Air- KiT” design as well, appearing similar to a different design from Key’s Gasoline.

“HUSH RUSH” design | theqoo
“Gasoline” design | theqoo

In Lee Chaeyeon’s concept trailer, there is a scene with a cloud-filled, eerie night sky, with a full moon and bats flying over a mansion. Text in the corner mimicked the look of an old home video.

“HUSH RUSH” concept trailer | theqoo

In Key’s Gasoline album jacket, Key is seen standing in front of a castle with a full moon behind it and bats flying around. The text in the corner of the album jacket photo also appeared to be that of an old home video.

“Gasoline” album jacket photo | theqoo

The final similarity was the design of the CD, which both feature a heart.

“HUSH RUSH” CD design | theqoo
“Gasoline” CD design | theqoo

After viewing the list of comparisons, netizens reacted to the similarities.

Netizen comments | theqoo
  • Ah first I thought it was a similar concept, but after seeing the heart illustration on the C.D., I thought this is going too far…
  • Even though we can overlook other things, the C.D. is too similar.
  • So annoying…we’ve been waiting for this first solo album for years..what is the company doing.
  • It looks the same to me? It looks like the same album just a different version…
  • What is going on…
  • This is plagiarism. They need to make it all over again. 
Source: theqoo

SHINee

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