Final word on "Fraud"

Don’t panic if you see the Joost blog’s disappearing. I’m deleting them because I want to clean up this forum a bit. its starting to look messy and angry. LOL.

but here’s the final, long winded detail about this whole situation.

ok here’s the deal. I have to get working on my upcoming interview with Echostream for my radio show, and I want to get back to real Gackt news, so I’m going to put this puppy to rest.

When it comes to Joost Maglev, most will conceed that he’s got a knack at writing and singing.

however... no matter how you puppy dog face, sugar coat it... the songs are Gackt’s songs with MINOR tweeking to TRY sound different.. but they are so obviously tweeked Gackt songs.

You can actually sing along to his song with Gackt’s lyrics, even if you’re hearing the Joost version for the first time. That’s how identical the songs are.

They are Gackt’s songs even down to the way he sings them. Especially the Emu ~for my dears~, Dybbuk and Black stone rip offs.

his "fans" can also say that Caramel was so "obviously" a spoof of Vanilla.

However - he did not say "this is a parody", he did not mention Gackt, or even use Gackt’s name as a way to search for his material, which Gackt supposedly inspired. In fact, when I went to his official site before starting this campaign, Gackt was not mentioned.

I searched his youtube vids looking for a mention. Nada. You can say it was as obvious as you want.

Many Weird Al parodys are obvious... however... He credits the song he’s parodying and thanks the artist who performed the original song.

And he is known for parodying music. As far as I know, Joost is not. So he needs to take that extra step to say "This is a parody of Gackt’s vanilla."

Some of his fans also say... "he’s a new recording artist. he’s trying to find his footing, and he’s just using these songs as a stepping stone."

Fine, ok, It would be one thing if he said "These songs are tweeked versions of songs Gackt wrote... I want to showcase my band’s talents and my lyrics and vocals. However, credit goes to Gackt for the composition that we just reworked a bit."

however he’s claiming that these are HIS compositions... and SELLING THEM on his official website. Before this all happened, no where in his official site did he mention Gackt in the bios for each album he was selling or even list him as an "inspiration." it wasn’t till recently that he started doing that.

not to mention, he’s obviously found his footing. he knows he like J-rock, he knows he likes Gackt’s sound.... you can emulate that kind of genre and do a song in that "Style" without making it a carbon copy of another artist.

You can still make it your own. If he did that... Gackt fans would have a TOTALLY different opinion of him. Cause like I said... many of us conceed that he’s got a good voice, and some of his lyrics are pretty decent.

And if he hadn’t yet found his footing, he shouldn’t be putting the CD’s up for sale!!
However, what makes me sad is... there are many people (I know this is hard to believe) who do not know Gackt...

so when he omits the "this is a parody of Gackt’s Vanilla", "Thanks to Gackt’s Dybbuk that inspired this song", he’s doing a major injustice to the man he supposedly admires so much that every song sounds exactly like his... Its a perfect opportunity to get new fans into Gackt. They’d see "Parody of Gackt’s Vanilla" and 9 out of 10, they’d go and look up Gackt’s Vanilla to hear what the original is like.

in his youtube video for Artemis (At least when I saw it, before this all happened), it was blatantly Dybbuk/Lu:na, yet there is no mention of Gackt, of Gackt-spiration in his description, and he did not use "Gackt" as a search tag. He ONLY mentions Gackt when someone "WTF, this is Dybbuk" ’ed him.

Every artist is inspired by another artist. And yes at times you will see a suggested hint of that inspiration in music. However, Inspriation and a hint of inspiration included in the song, is not the same as using almost the entire core of a song, and just changing a note or two, and the lyrics. That’s called stealing. no matter how you candy cane it up.

Gackt was inspired by many people. Yet his songs are all original. Someone cited there is a hint of U2 in one of his songs. Sure. There’s a Hint of it, but you can’t take that entire song, and play it note for note against the original U2 song, cause Gackt didn’t rip that song off. It was his original material, with his influences mixed in. Joosts songs are note for note Vanilla, Dybbuk, for my Dear, Black Stone.

Its not like he wrote his own notes, his own melodies, his own beats, then in one bar did a run that Chacha did in U+K. Its not like he wrote an entirely original song, then made a tounge and cheek reference to Papa lapped a pap lopped (More lovingly known as "Papa lapped a lap top")

these were note for note Gackt’s songs with minor tweeks. it didn’t seem like he was even hiding the fact that they were so blatantly Gackt. THAT’s the problem fans have.
That and the fact that he doesn’t even acknowledge that he understands where Gackt fans are coming from. He just thinks saying he’s an admirer of Gackt, is his key to innocence and that Gackt fans decided to suddenly attack him.

Why would Gackt fans attack him for no good reason? We welcome Gackt fans, and we love good music. Why would we pick on this particular person, who just happens to have "Gackt sounding music" (To put it lightly) to pick on? And 50 Gackt fans are all having the same delusion about this poor guy? Mass hysteria perhaps? come on.
One of my favorite books is "Marley and Me" by John Gorgan (notice how I just gave him credit? Wow that was hard.)

His book inspired me to write a book of my own about dogs. however, my story is not a book about a wild dog that no one could tame who changed my life forever. Its a book about dogs... but its more of an advice book based on experience as an owner and former Veterinary technician (nurse).

As you can see... I can be inspired by another artist... give them credit.. and still come up with my own material. Its the same genre, the same subject, but its not a rip off or "Carbon copy sound alike" of that artist’s work.

Perhaps HIS "fans" think we’re over reacting... HOWEVER... we are very protective of our artists, some of us artists ourselves.

Its hard enough getting J-Rock artists to acknowledge the fans outside of Japan... and when someone does something like this that could jeopardize things for all of us...

(Ending fan tribute videos, Closing down fanpages/blogs, not allowing coversongs to be created.. and getting fans outside of Japan acknowledged for the wrong reasons...)
yes we do tend to get a little "rabid." But its justified. we’re trying to support someone we admire, and tell them we’re doing what we can to protect the sweat, tears and love they put into the songs that "inspire" us.

I’ve written 4 letters, 2 to DEARS and 2 to Gackt himself. Many people I know also did the same.

So We’ve done what we can, and the Ball is in Gackt’s court now. If you have not written to him or Dears, feel free to go to http://Gackt.com and do so now.

the more letters they recieve, the better chance we have of our letters not getting lost in the frey.

When you go to http://Gackt.com , click on "Skip" cause the flash intro is wicked cool, but uh... long. Click on your desired language (like English), then in the top corner there is a link to "messages to Gackt" and "Contact us" (to get in touch with Dears.)
No matter which side of the street you’re on.

Joost’s or Gackt fans against Joost... remember to keep it civil and show Gackt fans in a positive light.

also... limit it to 2 letters to Gackt and Dears, or 1 letter to Gackt and Dears. There are a lot of us that are writing or already have written.

Whether they look into it, or say they don’t really care, no harm no foul... I’m still glad we brought it to their attention. Gackt deserves the chance to say how he feels his songs should be used.

The only thing I can say now is to Cite this:

Van Winkle’s success also brought legal and personal problems. "Ice Ice Baby" sampled the 1981 Queen and David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure" without permission, acknowledging credit or paying royalties; Ice even denied in an interview on MTV that the song was sampled, despite the tracks’ undeniable melodic similarities. There was no public court case over the issue, but the copyright holders of "Under Pressure" threatened suit and settled out of court with Ice for an undisclosed sum.
-Wikipedia.com - Vanilla Ice

Ice didn’t really use NEARLY as much of Under Pressure as Joost uses of Gackt’s music... just the sample baseline... and he had to pay out because he did not get permission, acknowledge, credit or pay royalties to the copyright holders.

Its the same situation. Joost denies the overt similarities, he did not credit Gackt or acknowledge him until this started to come about, and he obviously isn’t paying royalties because he feels this is all "his" music "Despite the undeniable melodic similarities."
If you want to review this further for yourself, here’s the important stuff.

The "Exposed" Video

Joost’s Artemis ... ... which is a "carbon copy" of DYBBUK and Lu:na

Joost’s Youtube page

Joost’s official website -

Read his discography page, where he gives song lists of the songs on each CD he’s SELLING (where he credits himself as the composer and makes no mention of Gackt despite this.... (see the 3 songs below) )

Sanguis Christi - (Emu ~for my Dear~ note for note!)
Artemis - (Very obviously Dybbuk and Lu:na)
Magic Lantern - (A Tweeked Mirror by Gackt)

Joost - vocal, drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, english lyrics, composition

hmm. Not seeing a mention of Gackt.

I do see this in his older works, "Snowflakes 2003"

Track 2 written by GacktAll instruments on track 2 by Gackt Job

I wonder if he paid royalties for using the song on Track 2. I have to pay royalties every time I PLAY a song on my station. Same with using an artist’s work on a CD that’s being put up for SALE.

I wonder if Gackt even KNOWS he used his music on this CD. I saw NOTHING about "used with permission". If I can’t play a song without paying royalties... you know he can’t sell a song without the same courtesy.

Like I said. Kid’s got a good ability to write, and he’s got a good voice. I’ll give him that. I can’t give him a pass on the use of Gackt’s music without proper credit.

he’d have a good career if he’d start composing music that is J-rock sounding, that fits into the genre of music that inspires him, but is not a Gackt tune just rearranged a bit to try to make it sound different enough.

So read the links I’ve offered, and draw your own conclusions.