Aimyon has recently been accused of plagiarising an old Nintendo Gameboy game, Medarot 2. There hasn’t been much response from her or her label Unborde but this scandal resulted in some odd editing during her appearance on Kanjani 8’s Kanjam where comments were muted during the song even though guests were visibly talking.
There are tons of articles and YouTube videos trying to see if her Marigold was really copied off Medarot 2. And among all the videos, this might be the easiest to understand. The first part of the video plays Aimyon’s Marigold, the middle part plays Medarot 2‘s BGM, and the last part overlaps both music together.
If you ask me if they are similar, I would say, yes they do sound similar but it’s hard to determine that she copied it off the game as it is still audibly different.
This accusation is reminescent of Coldplay’s case with Joe Satriani when the latter claimed that Coldplay’s Viva la Vida was a copy of his If I Could Fly. The case was eventually dismissed even though nobody knows why, but those 2 songs were definitely more similar than Aimyon’s Marigold with Medarot 2. For those interested in the Coldplay-Satriani case, you can listen to the YouTube video below.
One thing about Aimyon’s Marigold is that its chord progressions are typical of hit songs and if Aimyon has ever heard Medarot 2‘s BGM in her childhood years, that might just be another case of Mark Twain’s unconscious plagiarism. When Twain was confronted for plagiarising Oliver Wendell Holmes, he apologised to Holmes as he realised his thoughts were shaped by Holmes whom he respected so much and whose works he reads so much that the line between his own ideas and something he read became blurred. Twain then summarized Holmes’ reply to his apology that:
“… there was no crime in unconscious plagiarism; that I committed it everyday, that he committed it everyday, that every man alive on earth who writes or speaks commits it every day and not merely once or twice but every time he opens his mouth… there is nothing of our own in it except some slight change born of our temperament, character, environment, teachings and associations”
For me, I enjoy Marigold not just because of the melody but also the lyrics. So, it doesn’t really matter to me since I probably wouldn’t enjoy Medarot 2‘s BGM without the words.
