Jack's new MV criticized for violence and plagiarism

Jack's MV was criticized for having many violent scenes. Photo: NVCC

On the evening of July 19, Jack's hiatus due to the scandal involving his ex-girlfriend Thien An ended. The male singer officially released a new music product called Lonely Star. The MV Hien reached 2.5 million views after 13 hours of release. This product is quite new compared to Jack's previous MVs.

However, Lonely Star is facing many controversies because the music is similar to Blinding Lights, while the content is similar to the scene in the movie Million Dollar Heist.

Music similar to Blinding Lights by The Weeknd

This product is again composed by Jack. The song belongs to the electronic music genre with a pounding bass, full of synth-pop, popular in Europe and America in the 1970s and 1980s. With the new song, Jack maintains the typical handling of previous songs. Jack performs Lonely Star with a natural voice, a slightly strange timbre, without embellishment and a way of singing that is often commented as a bit cheesy.

The visual part of the MV was invested in and directed by Vietnamese-American director Adrian Nguyen. In the MV, Jack transforms into a super thief Jack Junior, who comes from a gang of antique robbers. He often robs the rich to give to the poor.

Jack Junior has many expressions and acts crazy despite being chased by the police. The character intentionally leaves many traces to make the police chase.

Overall, this is a product that brings a new image to Jack, both in music and style. However, as soon as it was released, the product was embroiled in plagiarism controversy.

The first scene when Jack Junior robbed a bank, then put on a mask and ran away with a bag of money was commented by the audience to be similar to the plot in the famous Spanish movie Money Heist.

Then, the scene of Jack driving in a crazy state reminds viewers of the Joker character.

Jack Junior's crazy, destructive image is also said to resemble The Weeknd in the Blinding Lights MV. Since the teaser was released, Lonely Star's music has been compared to Blinding Lights. When the official version of the MV was released, the controversy exploded even more.

Even under The Weeknd's MV Blinding Lights, there are currently many Vietnamese comments related to Jack. Many viewers said they decided to listen to Blinding Lights again after watching Jack's MV Ngôi sao cô đơn.

"Have you bought the copyright of Blinding Light and copied its entire beat like that?", "The music, MV, and acting style are similar", "The driving scene is very similar to Blinding Light by The Weekend", "Both the visuals and music remind me of The Weeknd. Some other scenes are similar to Joker", viewers commented.

In addition, the chorus of Lonely Star is said to be similar to Phat Ho's Co Tham Khong Ve.

However, from the beginning of the MV, Jack's team said that the MV was inspired by famous products. "The MV is inspired by famous works. All characters, settings and organizations are fictional," the team announced.

MV promotes violence?

In addition to the plagiarism issue, the MV also faced other controversies related to its content. Specifically, Jack's character had many crazy scenes, smashing cars and other people's property, using weapons and opposing the authorities, which made many viewers unhappy. The male singer announced that this was a fictional product, but viewers thought that the images in Lonely Star were promoting violent behavior.

Artist manager Thế Anh expressed: “Jack returned after the scandal but it seems like the MV is promoting violent behavior with the image of a young man stealing, hiding weapons in his car, brazenly fighting with a stick, and destroying other people's property. The character even wears a specialized mask to use pepper spray in the middle of the street and challenges the government by holding a gun to fight back against the police force.”

Many social media accounts have similar views.

Audience member Vu Duy Thanh commented: “The negative MV can cause young audiences to be infected with bad thoughts such as robbing banks and destroying cars.” Audience member Trang Nguyen agreed: “The video is violent, hysterical, disregards the law, and uses illegal weapons.”

Other viewers expressed: "Why hasn't this MV been punished for violence with guns?", "The MV is offensive, violent, criminal, and has a bad influence on young people. Please take the MV down.", "Is this MV too violent?".

Previously, Son Tung's MV There's No One At All faced a boycott from the audience and the media due to its negative content. Son Tung had to remove the MV and was fined 70 million VND by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In addition, because it was Jack's first product after the controversy, Lonely Star was also criticized by the audience. The MV's comment section had many comments related to the scandal.

In August 2021, Thien An - Jack's co-star in many music videos - announced that she had her first daughter with the male singer. Thien An said she gave birth to her first daughter in April 2021 but broke up with her boyfriend 20 days later. According to the photo model, while she was pregnant, her boyfriend cheated on her and had two children.

After that, Jack admitted to having a child with Thien An and apologized. The singer of "Song Gio" has been inactive since then.

According to Zing