Three Mr.Mr’s! Who’s In The Right?

Officially Kmusic

March 4, 2014

Currently if I was to ask a random KPop fan the first thing they thought of when they heard the words “Mr.Mr‘ there is a good chance that the response would be something along the lines “Why thats Girls Generations latest comeback track“.

Well thats not the wrong response, if you do a Google or YouTube search for “Mr.Mr” right now the top returned search in both cases is Girls Generation related.

Unfortunately for Winning Insight Entertainment’s group Mr.Mr this is not a good thing. The group debuted back in 2012 with the song “Who’s That Girl” and while they do have a following of fans (fandom name is MISO) they of course do not have anywhere near the popularity of Girls Generation and their fandom SONE.

So for those who are following this so far, I can hear you say “But thats only 2 Mr.Mr’s“. Well again that would be correct and the third is where things get complicated and dip into controversy.

Mr.Mr released a digital single a couple days after Girls Generation released their title track and the name of the song was “Mr.Mr“.  Now while this does muddy the water, it isn’t that it’s unheard of for groups to release songs with their name as the title. Wassup did it for their debut track and  Boyfriend did it with theirs as well.

The problem lies in the meaning behind the lyrics.  A representative for Mr.Mr came forward after the release of the digital single and revealed some startling information.  The rep stated “The portion of netizens pointing out that MR.MR’s ‘Mr.Mr’ was dissing Girls’ Generation, who made a comeback with a song of the same name, is correct,“.  He also commented “Isn’t it a violation of ethics in the music industry to openly use an existing group’s name for content in a song? We deliberately put in that topic and the lyrical disses [of Girls’ Generation].”

If you look at the lyrics for Mr.Mr’s song some examples of apparent disses towards Girls Generation are,”How could you do that when I’m right here?“, “I must have looked small from your high perch.“, “If it was you, how would you feel?” and “If it was you, would you like it?“.

Girls Generation’s “Mr.Mr.” music video has over 5 million views on it already, in fact the teaser for the song almost has 5 million views itself.  So we can not argue with Girls Generations popularity.  And while Mr.Mr’s following can no where reach Girls Generations in popularity, the combined views on their official music videos does not even reach 1 million, they are still a young group and it probably seemed disheartening to realize what was going to happen to the brand they had been trying to make for themselves.

I should point out at this point that I in no way condone a diss track or think that it was the right thing for them to do.  Yet I can see their side of it.  Mr.Mr. are a struggling group in an industry that churns out new groups like a diary cow churns out milk and within the span of a couple of weeks a group who’s popularity is on a global scale has overshadowed all their hard work with the name of a song.

Some fans are calling into question the validity of the reps statement. Some are pointing out that it is possible that the contacted rep saw an opportunity to gain some publicity and decided that a track that originally had nothing to do with Girls Generation could actually be made to look like it did.

Whether the rep did speak the truth or not is moot!  The statement is circulating and fans are circling the wagons. Fans of Girls Generation are of course defending their idol from many different point of views. Some insist that it’s possible that Girls Generation were not aware of the group Mr.Mr or even that they did not consider the damage a track of the same name could do to the young group.  Some fans are being a little more aggressive saying Mr.Mr did not hold the monopoly on the name.

Fans of Mr.Mr. are defending their idols choice to release a diss track, citing the groups embarrassment at being ignored and as I previously mention that the chances that this is actually a diss song being highly unlikely since the time it takes to produce a song does not match the time frame Mr.Mr had to create it.

Also while I do not know what kind of ethically rules there are in the music industry, one would think that naming a song the same name as a group, that is not your own name, would not be a pratice that is smiled upon.  Another name or even spelling of the name for the song might have been a possibility, out of courtesy.

Personally I feel for Mr.Mr, regardless if the track was originally a diss track or not.  They have now been doubly slammed.  First by the unfortunate naming of the Girls Generation song and second by a label rep who did not think through what saying their song was a diss song.

Girls Generation will come out of this no worse for wear but Mr.Mr may not be so lucky.

I would also like to ask fans to consider this from the other side.  What if it had been a more popular group than Girls Generation who released a song with the same name as the girls.  Would you still be okay with it?  Would it be okay for Girls Generation to defend their name?

Before you jump on the bashing bandwagon, for either side, make sure you take time to consider all sides of the story, sometimes things are not as black and white as they seem.

Source: KPopStarz

Article by: Angelspatience

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