Jason Tang

Album analysis

Plagiarism

When my teacher first suspected me of plagiarism, my heart started beating, my mind

was racing, and panic arose. “I didn’t do it!” was my first thought. But what if in an alternate

universe I had plagiarized and better yet was honored with it? In Yorushika’s third album

“Plagiarism”, the ​theme​ is about “stealing sound,” as featured in the concept-release trailer.

There are many ​allusions​ in this album because, after all, n-buna is a thief. The whole album

focuses on a songwriter that plagiarized other’s work thus, the title of the album: “Plagiarism”. If I

had to choose one album that can beat any other it has to be Plagiarism. The fact that

Yorushika was able to “plagiarise” and release such a wonderful album is mind-blowing and

respectable -- which is ​ironic​ because when you copy someone else’s work it's usually not

better than the original.

“Hirutonbi” is the first piece that displays ​Irony. ​The direct translation of the word is

“thieves who break into people's houses and steal stuff during the day”in Edo period language

thus comes “Daytime Thief”. It is kind of ironic because thieves usually steal at night where

there isn't that much attention, but the song is set to be attention grabbing with its bold drums

and loud guitars. The ​allusion ​of this piece comes from the​ ​unique guitar in this song sounding

similar to the one in Justin King's “Phunkdified” and you can find many similarities to their old

music in the lyrics and guitar play. Yorushika stated “It may be a melody. It may be a decorative

sound. It may be poetry. It may be chords, rhythm tracks, instrumental arrangements, or sound

preferences. Also, there may not have been anything stolen. You can find it from these songs.

The objective facts are plagiarism of all modern music.” This is true, the value of the song/art

doesn’t depend on the fact if it was plagiarized or not. Yorushika wanted to make it a point that
even if he plagiarized his song he still created a masterpiece that is loved by millions of people

and has created zero controversies.

“Don't you think it's sad? It's more silly than real prostitution. To stay alive, we throw

away our pride, choose themes to appeal to the masses, and put together pop melodies. Create

beautifully verbalized and easy-to-understand works. In this way, I sell myself to you in the form

of music.” This quote made me confused as it was in the description of “Prostitution”. The music

video of this song is bright and hectic, showing ​Imagery​ to the viewer of Yorushika selling

themselves to us. My initial thoughts were “wow, funky monster showing his dance moves” but

as you look deeper into the lyrics of the song, it is a conversation between the need or demand

of a popular song genre and the composer. People demand heartbreaking songs and the writer

is forced to write heartbreaking songs -- even though they can not relate. ​Ironic​ as it sounds,

Yorushika produced another masterpiece that is loved by the world by imitating what modern

music trends are doing, all coming back to the lbum’s main theme: plagiarism. The beginning of

the song sounds similar to Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack” and “The Stray Cat Shuffle” by The

Stray Cats.

Hiding behind a mask, the narrator in the music video thinks about plagiarism which he

thought his work was copying others, hence the name of the song “Thoughtcrime”. According to

Yorushika, "Thoughtcrime'' was devoted to the final years and the final poems of Ozaki Hosai,

but to others, it might seem like plagiarism as references to Hosai and similarities to different

songs happen again as it sounded similar to Purgatory “Garden’s Noir Memory” Sangatsu no

Phantasia “Ao Ni minasoko” and 3 other of yorushika’s old songs. These ​allusions​ however

were what made this song my favorite out of the whole album as it showed Yorushika’s growth

as an artist. The ​Imagery​ in the music video gave us a realistic view of the narrator. The video

is framed, exactly how a mask would restrict your vision, allowing us to walk in the shoes of the

narrator.
 I can resonate with yorushika’s theme, as someone who writes essays monthly. Once

you see a great sentence or a great work you'll try to copy it, remake it, twist and distort it then

classify it as your work. Whenever I realize this, I feel guilty. Once I see other’s works it

influences my work. Someday, I hope to be able to write something from my heart as great as

how Yorushika has helped me. Maybe it was deserved that I got caught plagiarizing, maybe it

wasn't. The content is ultimately the deciding factor as that is what Yorushika’s album is all

about.