#5hineepop

[commajade]

been thinking abt this, and I'd like to hear ur thoughts (as well as ur korean mutuals/followers thoughts) if you'd like to share them on the average intl kpoppie vs korean pop culture 👀📝

bc i feel like a lot of intl fans don't really understand or know anything abt korean pop culture, despite heavily engaging with a crucial part of it 😔 like u saying how some of chungha's intl fans were trying to act like she was doing charity work or w/e by ft. on rain's song 😭

(btw i'm including myself in this too - i don't mean to sound like i think i'm special or anything!)

sorry it took so long to reply to this it's such a broad question! this isn't gonna be comprehensive at all but here's some things!

-people don't realize that variety shows and radio shows are where the real money is and are a bigger indicator of cultural impact than numbers. no one knows how small the korean entertainment industry is and how broadcasting companies work?

-lack of basic respect and interest in older generations of kpop when the coolest thing about kpop is seeing the genre evolve with the similarities so directly handed down through gens. when i got into kpop again in september 2020 i had been getting really into older korean music (like 60s-90s) first for about 2 years so i appreciate stuff very differently. also ties into the general lack of ability to tell which stars are actually famous and have cultural impact. chungha is successful but in terms of star power she is sooooo much lower than rain he was giving her career a huge boost.

-lack of respect for the artists they like??? these people train HARD for years and they're professionals i've talked to u before about how the whole "just some guy" line of thinking doesn't really work for kpop because people already reduce them to like influencers or streamers because of the 4th gen style of content

-people don't understand that south korea has a LOT of people but it's a tiny country with a historically racially homogenous demographic makeup and a shared unique language there are so many ways in which it is not comparable to the US with pop culture. when people say gp they mean like 70% of the entire population that knows about these musicians and has opinions on them (even if the opinion is "that song was meh" or "he's kinda ugly"). and cultural trends happen rapidly and permeate fast because of this like intl twt fans fighting over who started the second gen nostalgia kick of this year and it's literally what the south korean gp collectively decided to get back into. things just happen like that.

-also that korean people are much more steeped in music as a social activity than people in the US are? there's karaoke culture and radio show culture and variety show culture and talent show culture. if a kpop song is big literally everyone has heard it and seen it performed by other normal people in karaoke rooms or talent shows like including the choreo. koreans r a big fan of getting together and getting drunk and singing and dancing to dance pop. also there's like high school fancam culture where teenage girls gather around in classrooms between periods to watch whatever kpop performance fancam is popular at the time, with classics like junho our house kai tempo and move. also busking culture is like 60% kpop dance covers nowadays.

-korean songs have specific utility and dance pop is like fun music and ballads are "real music" and most koreans listen to more western music and ballads than kpop. but people still hear kpop everywhere in public.

-intl fans just have such an antagonistic relationship to "knetz" or "koreans" or "korean gp" when that's literally. everyone. they really wanna save their idols from koreans who can't appreciate them properly and it's deeply racist. things are shifting a little because of the newly expanded US market for kpop but it's still a fact that koreans know good music and good vocals and good dancing and that if a group can't do well in the domestic market they're never leaving the country.

-when intl fans think they know literally anything about korean politics and history.................. that's a whole other post

[1eos]

not to be mean but i feel like shinee are gonna go back to being flops w/out taemin 😭 like they're talking abt getting idea to 50 million views or whatever while minho and jinki are struggling to hit five million 😔 intl kpoppies do NOT care abt the rest of shinee like that lmfao

😗is it mean if its true? eye could see that like considering how shinee talked abt solo projects but these......’’’’’’’’’shawols’’’’’’’’’’’ are still making posts abt the industry being dead just bc taemin isnt there. yeah it really tells u how they feel abt the rest of the members. its sad bc eye still believe face deserved to go double platinum nd i would love it if minho got like any energy from sm but the shinee popularity disparity was sealed the moment taemin joined superm 😭😭😭

[kpoophell]

I was going thru ur TaeKai tag (as one does) and I'm curious on ur thoughts abt what it would've been like if they both debuted together from the beginning (like in EXO or smth) 👀? How do u think it would've affected their dynamic? I'm sorry if you've answered this before 😭 (and I LOVE ur blog sm 😍)

Gasp hello babe!!!!!! Truly all the cool kids are cruising the taekai tags these days and i’m LO V I NG it. Always wanna be reminded of old-ass taekai moments sobs. ooOoooooOoooo this is a fabulous question to ponder and i DEFINITELY haven’t chatted abt it here before~ thank you for posing it to me!

SO jongin and taemin trained together for a lot of years before their fates were decided, and iirc, jongin has talked about -as a trainee-- thinking that him and taem WOULD debut together. Given their close ages and similar training period/skill level this was a fair assumption to make. Taemin debuted bizarrely early and FAR less Developed as an idol than usual--- the boy could Not sing yet. It’s easy to imagine this being a bit of a surprise. I think their separation as trainees was ///hard/// on jongin on a couple levels that are important---- firstly because jongin’s a classic capricorn, the perception of having one of your inner circle Taken Away from you (or out of your life)??? Honestly devastating. And given what we know about how intensive training periods are, that’s ALSO a pretty fair assumption! They probably went from spending all day every day working towards the same goal of debuting, to taem being whisked away for shinee group practice on a different level, schedule, and to different goals. Secondly, jongin has ALWAYS seen taemin as an equal professionally-- they push and learn from one another constantly, and jongin is Not above some good old fashioned jealousy/envy irt the opportunity and creative license taem was given from a relatively young age! In public he’s all ‘no, i don’t want to steal your spotlight~ i’ll just be your pretty boy backup singer~~’ but in private he’s sending giant congratulatory flowers with the very unsubtle message ‘the next solo concert will be mine’. 

This context is important for thinking abt the ‘what if’ because it’s shaped a lot of their interactions and dynamics as we see them. The heart of their relationship is in this soulmate bullshit bond that endures--- weather they see each other every day, or they don’t see each other for months because they’re both running around on tour, comebacks, promotions, etc. There is a longing there, and a push-pull that i think has actually served them really well. They both want a sense of freedom and independence in a romantic relationship and this context has it basically built in. It gives them space within their dynamic AND a work-life divide that is so essential and part of the reason they’re fairly well adjusted. More on this later.

SO, given all that, i’ll just throw some things out that i could see happening if taem and jongin were to have debuted together. If jongin had been able to keep his person with him in exo, it probably would have taken him a bit longer to branch out and make connections with his other bandmates. There would probably be less of a needy, clingy vibe and we might see a pattern more like jongin’s behavior with ksoo. This gets to the importance of freedom and independence in rship that they both need, that would take a LOT more emotional intelligence and awareness to negotiate at that age, in that close-knit context, then i think they probably had. There might have been some stupid-loyal capricorn sacrifices or compromises there, or some internal conflict around need for security and commitment being actually more feasible. SM would have definitely played up their rship for fanservice, which probably would have only complicated that tension for them.

Artistically, shinee was an IDEAL place for taemin to grow and develop as an artist-- creative and lively and //secure//. I don’t think it’s possible to really overstate how important his hyungs were to his path, and it’s hard to know where he would be without them. Was shinee hurting for another vocalist after debut?? god no!!! Taem could have coasted on his dance skills and left it at that for a loooooong time, but he was incredibly driven to develop his skills and his solo career is proof of that drive. So-- in exo we could assume that he’d be a little farther along in his training by the time he debuted. Honestly i could see this resolving some of his drive- to have DESERVED to debut before his best friend, to DESERVE to stand on the stage next to his incredibly talented hyungs. In addition, this shift up in age of debut would mean that if we assume the same period between debut --> solo debut, he’d essentially be in a different era of his life by the time he undertook that-- mid twenties-- and more importantly, in a group that just does not take creative RISKS the same way shinee does, and at a moment when that group was enjoying too much success to consider scooping a member away, LET ALONE throwing the kind of money they threw at ‘ACE’ on a 180 degree, risky, solo debut. 

SO basically i think there would be good--- we’d get to see the full spectrum of their dynamic play out, rather than the tense bits and pieces we did. It’d save them some heartache, some guilt. But ultimately... it’s hard to mess with perfection (shinee, taem solo career) or beat the healthy independence plus long-term soulmate commitment we got. 

[jjongslight]

can u get pictures in ur asks yet?

I would like to report this person @5hineepop for harassing me with dick energy pics of Jinki. 

[1eos]

i don't remember if i ever posted it or not but i remember thinking WAYYYYY early into my shinee phase that shawols cling to shinee's ~superiority~ the exact same way armies cling to bts' numbers and that's just. not a good look lmfao and both blatantly ignore the fact that ~best~ is a place that is shared, AND that art is a conversation not a competition, AND that it is the nature of art for ur juniors to learn from u and build upon ur work and even *gasp* surpass u 😳

it truly reeks of insecurity bc if ure so sure your meow meows are so good why does it bother u when ppl think other groups are good (barring groups that deadass put out trash like b*g b*ng 😭😭😭) but its to the point where u can be like oh hey i like the way this person dances nd some shawol will come out of the woodwork nd be like ‘not as good as taemin 🤪’ ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHINEE ARE NOT GONNA FUCK U! its ok to kid its ok to jest but the moment ure attacking ppl just minding their business bc they don’t have their thumbs up shinee’s ass u have a problem. ppl are allowed to enjoy other groups nd hold them in a similar place in their heart as shinee 

[1eos]

ur posts reminded me of all the armies that got pressed in my inbox and called me racist bc someone else said they couldn't wait for bts to enlist and i agreed fksjfsjdsjfjskglfjkl

fellas is it racist to *checks my clipboard* accept nd look forward to another country’s customs? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 what kills me abt that ask is that they were saying ‘laughing abt asking asians to go to war’ like what planet are kpoppies on? idols arent fighting in a fucking war the mental illness is just out of control. nd ultimately this is another country’s custom that has nothing to do w ppl who arent korean citizens imo

[1eos]

MISS KENDREAAAAAA to cleanse the eyes and pallet (?) what are ur fav shots from Leo's MVs 👀👀👀👀

LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

[1eos]

swiv excuse me miss: top ten shinee performance's done like sm had their hand on the power breaker

AND U ARE CORRECT!!!! but u know what? tbh every song shinee performed for swciv they did that like the rent was due. im half convinced they had no hot water that whole tour their vibes were feral