Reports on Plagiarism Allegations Involving NewJeans and Mexico’s ‘Jeans’

It has belatedly come to light that girl group NewJeans was embroiled in controversy over allegedly copying the Mexican girl group Jeans.

Mexican newspaper El Siglo reported in January of last year that “NewJeans appears to have copied the local girl group Jeans (Grupo coreano New Jeans es una copia de las Jeans mexicanas? Surge teoría en redes).”

The outlet reported that “K-pop rookie girl group NewJeans appears to have been influenced by the Mexican girl group Jeans, which gained significant popularity in the 90s,” comparing and analyzing the similarities in visual concepts such as outfits and hairstyles between the two groups.

The outlet noted, “Not only are the two groups’ names similar, but there are also many similarities in their promotional images,” adding that “the claim that NewJeans was influenced by Jeans originated from discussions on Facebook (now Meta).”