okay, i’ll be honest: that’s ridiculous. shawols are working hard to help out all of the members in every way that they can right now. they’re streaming both taemin’s song and jonghyun’s song for lee hi, but focused more on taemin’s which is understandable. they’re also doing their part to juggle live streaming or watching every variety and radio show that taemin has appeared on, along with new episodes of descendants of the sun for onew. they’re also working hard to continue purchasing physical copies of taemin’s album despite it being out of stock in a lot of places, and to both up his music video views and vote for him on music shows. people need to understand: the way that a song does digitally isn’t completely linked to fandom. yes, fandom is important but how the public reacts / takes to the song and longevity is just as important, as is hype. sm is terrible at hyping shinee for some reason, and they honestly dropped the ball with taemin’s song, just like they did with jonghyun’s last album. the advantage that lee hi’s song has over everything else at the moment? she’s from yg and the public “trust” yg. it’s biased and sad but true. sm artists are popular but still have a stigma attached to them because people tend to view idols as less capable of making “legitimately” good songs, and sm’s always promoted their idols are, you know, idols. there’s nothing wrong at all with being an idol but apparently the public think that there is. yg, on the other hand, has always promoted his idols as “artists” and the public eats that up so their songs tend to do better digitally. take that and add on all the media hype yg has done not only about lee hi’s comeback but jonghyun’s song for her doing so well digitally and people are gonna keep on checking it out. at this point, yes, there are going to be shawols streaming it to support jonghyun but the greater percentage is regular non-idol fan listeners. with taemin’s song specifically: people like it but, as already mentioned, the public has a massive bias against sm artists and it’s even worse toward their male artists, and male idol groups in general (with the exception of a few). a comment that was made on a netizenbuzz article about the new season of produce 101 probably being focused on a boy group is proof of that: “but why would boys watch a bunch of other boys singing and dancing when it’s not even hip hop…, tsk tsk sigh”. the public (especially males, who focus on female idols because it’s deemed alright while it’s considered to be “weird” for guys to stan other male idols) basically makes guys feel awkward if they’re a fan of male groups that perform more upbeat or experimental pop songs. this is a sad fact as well. shinee are able to break past this usually (because they do the most consistently well digitally after big bang and exo, along with beast) but people apparently still have a stigma against them as soloists, especially taemin, which is unfair.anyway, i’ve seen a lot of comments like this in the last day and i honestly don’t like the implication that fans are trying hard for or favoring a release from one of the members over another. it’s a hurtful thought and it’s not positive for fandom. (i also wanna point out that it’s unfair to some fans because we’re not all able to take time to do everything required to support a comeback. people have jobs, families, school, etc. and if they even do something like watch the music video a few times a day that should be enough. it makes me sad when people try to guilt others for not “doing enough” when they’re doing what they can.) it causes bickering and i’ve seen bickering which kind of bums me out? because all of the members are doing so well in their respective areas right now. taemin has the best selling album physically of the year so far and he broke a record in solo artist sales plus his album is getting praised both domestically and physically. onew is in a drama that’s not only the top one at the moment in south korea, but is gaining tens of millions of viewers in china / around the world that has osts eating up the digital charts, and people acclaiming his acting. minho has another drama coming up and the announcement of his casting was positive rather than negative like it used to be in the past, and three movies. key is making his stage!play debut / finally doing solo endorsements / working on more costuming and fashion related projects, and jonghyun is getting praised not only for his compositions / lyric writing but for his personality which is a feat because netizens used to say really rude things about him in the past. and that’s just individual activities. it doesn’t count everything linked to shinee as a group (including them selling out their entire japanese tour, including two dome dates) and how they’re still rising despite almost being eight years.this got a little off topic but i’ve been feeling a lot the last few hours, lmao. i’ll just end this with: shawols are doing what they can and they’re doing well. not everything can be won or done perfectly, but the fact that they’re trying as hard as they can should be acknowledged. shinee are also working very hard, both individually and as a group, and we should support them equally / in every way we can rather than trying to point fingers or pit them against each other. so, let’s not only continue trying to stream both taemin’s song but jonghyun’s for lee hi. let’s watch onew’s drama, tune in for key’s return as mc on m!countdown tomorrow, and do what we can to show support for his play and for minho’s acting despite it being a bit harder to do so. be happy! support and don’t fight! love the group!
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