[Translation] 한겨레21 (Our Nation 21) - This group who is ‘acknowledged musically’

Personally, the male idol group that I pay most attention to is SHINee.
At first, I thought of them like any other boyband no different. The lyrics for their debut song “Noona is so pretty’ was too ‘itchy’ and it was because it was too open/blunt. However, after watching their music performances, interviews, lives and finally listening to their album, things changed. The melodies that weren’t typical of Korean pop left a deep impression in me especially the transition from to , and the album EP that they released in 2009 was also an album I enjoyed listening to. (The song Jojo, that was closer in feeling to London boys than the Petshop boys, is my favourite.)

Currently, one of the aspect of public support that Korea is giving to the Idols is ‘encouraging their growth’. This type of sentiments are shown clearly by users in their late 20s, or in short, fandoms where their actual age has a big gap with the age of the idols. Female users, especially, has such tendencies. Of course, it is pointless to relate it to maternal instincts. It is interesting how simply giving emotional support related to ‘healthily growing idols’ changes to having a ‘fan’s mind’ (or the other way). In many different meanings, SHINee is currently the idol in korea that is growing at the fastest rate.

However, there exists another axis of public support (not fandom) for SHINee called ‘musical acknowledgement’. Among people who know how to select the quality of music, SHINee are looked upon favourably. Of course it is due to the execution of musicality, and so, by just listening to and , you can verify that. Moreover, they give the impression that they are making considerable efforts to maintain the consistency of their albums. This is a scene that we couldn’t see in the 1990s with the 1st generation Korean idols.

If we look at idols from a different viewpoint now, that is completely due to the strategies of the Entertainment company and the attitude changes of the Idol groups. SHINee, especially, are the preview of a next generation of Idols, and we should examine how SM Entertainment’s attitude (During broadcast, SHINee ever said “We are here to meet for ‘work’” half jokingly and half seriously.) is different from YG Entertainment who position Big Bang and 2NE1 as ‘Artists’ (Company image that the singers are guaranteed autonomy) or JYP Entertainment who wins over fans with 2PM, 2AM family fence (Instead of president, they call ‘Jinyoung hyung’). More than anything else, SHINee shows that they know exactly what meaning each interview, reality or variety program carries, and they occupy a considerably different position from existing Idol groups.

Even so, SHINee reconfirmed a fact that in the current Korean pop scene, the sound that doesn't have the characteristic of korean pop wouldn't be welcomed by the public. How SHINee execute/completes their music is a result of not an emotional approach, but technical approach, that is based clearly on electronica and sync-pop that is part of the new wave genre. From that angle (along with f(x)), their limited popularity demands for a widespread examination of Korean pop and Korean sensitivity. In Korean pop, how should we sort out the global and local’s concept? Personally, and also musically, this is the reason why I have continuous interest about SHINee.

Original Source: Public Culture Critic - Cha Woo Jin

Later Source: Bestiz

Translation credits: lala_land@soompi