[Factual Verification] Kingdom and Seventeen Under Fire for Cultural Appropriation

Boy band Kingdom [GF ENTERTAINMENT]

What sort of mistake does it take to destroy 70,000 album copies just weeks before their release?

For boy band Kingdom, it was the design of its album cover — which closely resembled the Qur’an, the religious text of Islam.

Moments after the boy band and its agency GF Entertainment revealed the album cover for Kingdom’s latest EP “History Of Kingdom: Part VII. Jahan” on Sept. 21, Kingdom fans and Muslim K-pop fans alike have raised concerns, asking that the album design be changed.

From left, boy band Kingdom’s original album cover for its seventh EP ″History Of Kingdom: Part. VII. Jahan,″ and the revised album cover announced by the agency after receiving criticism that the album cover closely resembled the Qur’an, the religious text of Islam. [GF ENTERTAINMENT]

It took just four days for the agency to apologize for the error and announce that they would throw away the 70,000 copies of already-printed albums and reprint them with a new design.

Around the same time, HYBE’s Pledis Entertainment, too, apologized and removed a teaser video by Seventeen, this time because the teaser received complaints from China.

K-pop seems to be growing with each blink of the eye, but why is it continuously a source of cultural controversy despite its popularity?

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BY CHO YONG-JUN, YOON SO-YEON [celeb.confirmed@joongang.co.kr]