#i mean. you can bc duh theyre all gonna look and sound similar bc they share resources

[sanstropfremir]

Hey! I hops life has been treating you well! And warning for a long and convoluted ask incoming (which is pretty par for the course for me). I’ve been going down a Yunho (U-Know Yunho to be precise lol) rabbit hole and I’m curious how you think he compares to other male SM solo artists especially Taemin (though I think it would be interesting to compare all SM solo artists like BOA or Taeyeon and Hyoyeon for the purpose of this ask im just thinking about the dudes). Cause I feel like him, Taemin, and Kai all fall on different ends of the same spectrum that’s distinct from some of the other SM solos like the other Exos (except I might add Baekhyun in there but I’m just not familiar enough with him) as they tend to tackle that darker sexier sound. I’ve been thinking about how when people say a male solo artists is making taemin lite music it’s usually actually closer to Yunho’s more recent stuff. Like taemin has kind of become short hand for dark male solo concept especially if it’s on the sexier or high concept side when that’s not always an accurate comparison. I’ve seen this especially with Wonho which is really interesting to me cause in my mind he falls way more on the Yunho end of the spectrum than Taemin (by like a long shot). And this could also be cause the kpop circles I run in are way less familiar with Yunho to make that comparison in the first place, I was just wondering if others like you that knew Yunho would agree with me. I also found it interesting that Taemin went solo before Yunho even though TVXQ are the older group so I wonder he affected Yunho’s music at all. Cause Yunho kind of seems like a more, I don’t want to say masculine, definitely more of a player, conventionally sexy foil to taemin’s more unhinged (satanic?? Fantasy? Horror-adjacent? I can’t really describe it accurately but I mean TVXQ has down their share of that too) sensual side and I can’t tell if it’s cause of the age difference between them, their group concepts (I mean TVXQ are the grown men of the kpop industry in my mind and I have no doubt they play a role in inspiring any “manly” or mature concept and Yunho’s concepts seems to follow pretty closely to TVXQ’s image in a way that Taemin doesn’t at all with Shinee), or their own artist personas and careers- taemin has always been viewed as the “feminine” one and you’ve talked a lot about how he’s both rejected and embraced that image overtime in his career. And to further complicate this I don’t really know where to put Kai between them cause he has the more overt sex appeal in Mmmh, and in his image over all, that Yunho has but also is more sensual and softer (subtle?) dance style that seems closer to taemin (or at least taemin’s image I’ll be the first to admit that my understanding of him as an artists doesnt always align with his actual output and the expectations I project on him) so I guess he goes in the middle. But peaches does really stand out as a sort of softer lighter storybook concept (which I love cause I feel like we don’t see traditional concepts that are more feel good) so that kind of throws a wrench into my theory and I guess thats what I get for treating artists’ output as a monolith and for comparing them😅. This ask is getting very very long and I’m late for class so I won’t continue but I did have some idea about where Xiumin’s recent comeback fits into this roster of artists but I’ll save that for another day lol. As always thanks for your input and I hope this makes at least some sense to you!

i stopped photo editing to answer this lmao bc i think this a very interesting question/thought experiment etc etc

firstly, most people will make the taemin comparison for male soloist because he is significantly more well known as a soloist, and part of that is that he's famous for being a soloist; an extension of which is the disparity between his solo work and his group work. now there are two points i want to fork off into from here:

-> the first is that it's a flawed comparison to place yunho, taemin, and kai on a spectrum because they're not derivatives of each other in the way that a spectrum would imply; what they all are is derivatives of rain. every dance-based male soloist is, via some lineage, a descendant of rain, whether it's through the skills line (taemin) or the 'masculinity' line (yunho) or a mix (kai). baekhyun doesn't factor in here because he's almost purely rnb based and therefore a kangta derivative.

-> the second is that it is valid for people to be making that comparison to taemin because most younger idols are going to be using him as reference, and because a lot of these younger idols are following his method of creating a separate solo persona from their group. yunho does not have that distinction. he is quite literally the face of tvxq, and therefore inextricably bound to the group's identity because there are literally only two of them. if they were, for example, still a five member group, he might have had more a chance to diversify himself a bit, but that's a bygone point because we don't live in that world. the reason tvxq made it through the split and maintained being an extremely successful group is very likely because of yunho's singlehanded determination. obviously changmin does care about the group, but as we've seen with his solo work, he's much more of a musical chameleon; he's more focused on dabbling in widely different genres that interest him. yunho's solo music however, is pretty consistent in sound and also not all that surprising of a leap from who he is in tvxq. so by that observation, i would say there isn't actually a difference between uknow yunho and uknow the soloist. his artistic identity is tvxq, in a way that he can't separate, unlike how taemin can separate from shinee. and following that point through, no younger soloist can really be compared to him because his history and group image are so integral to what he does. that's why there's like a negative number of young idols that every attempt to cover a yunho song, bc the vibes of something like follow or thank u would OBLITERATE anyone under the age of 30.

if you were to look at just aesthetics and music styles, sure on the surface there are some younger idols that unintentionally skew more towards some of the stuff that yunho has done, but in the end that's because they're all under the rain umbrella.

[sunkissedpages]

dude i- am so fucking sorry i literally SUCK. sorry i never answered you but i was literally drowning in school and mental health and my own tears and then i broke my wrist like 2 weeks ago so i never really got around to answer your question about my dream! buckle up, it’s a long one (that’s what she said (i’m so sorry.. i hate me too)) aNyWaY so we were in the airport all of the sudden and like we lost our baggage and everything but we got on our flight to la anyway and then there was this 1/?

child and it kept screaming and crying and when we landed i kicked it down the stairs and it just laid there on the ground and everyone thought it was dead and everyone’s just starring at me and u slowly backed out like “idk this bitch” but the child was alive and everything was fine. so after a while we got to the hotel and we wanted to nap and i got this call from cody asking if we would be down to meet up with him and kelsey (we said yes obviously) so we went to their place ‘n i fell asleep on their couch and you and cody drew all over my face and put it on instagram ‘n shit. later noel came over and we just talked and we started to talk about avengers and we geeked about it and noel was like “yo kaili, that tom holland as ur homescreen?” and u were like “it’s not what it looks like pls don’t tell my gf” and cody nonchalantly “we just filmed with him, wanted to come around later, wanna meet him?” duh. and they were asking us about our luggage and shit so we told them we lost it they gave us all their new merch like EVERYTHING and we were like “sick” so we got all mushy and u just looked at me going “remember when u gave me that hoodie and surprised me?” and on cue we all went “SUGAR GAY” and it was such a lovely time and we filmed some stuff did some podcast shit and then we met with tom holland and the tmg boys and it was a DREAM tom looked so good and we were all drunk and told stories and giggling and it was such a GOOD TIME AH. so after a while we said our goodbyes to tom and he gave me his number telling me to text him for breakfast the next day and noel was like let’s crash at my place tonight so we all went to his and we watched hsm 2 and aleena went on this whole ass rant how chad said he didn’t dance nor sing but did it all the way since the first movie and then i woke up again )): but i had a similar dream not too long ago and ugh! those are the best dreams. but can we talk ab the fact that i have my own tag on here? it makes me soft oh and recently i saw something and i was like “i needa text kaili!” but then i remember i’m ur cody anon and u don’t know who i am lol but when u reblogged that post with the pfp for ur cody and noel bff and u said “me and my cody anon” bro i still think ab it to this day. and my ocd is super bad as well but i hope ur on christmas break soon/already? and you get all the love u deserve? and ur happy? and doing good? i love u dude. BTW can we talk ab chili??? THEYRE THE CUTEST AND i would die for them! ok i think that’s it (sorry if you got some asks like 7 times but idk if tumblr actually sent them the first time bc it’s being a bitch rn and i probably forgot to say something after the first time writing these so im sorry )): ahhh i’m going insane) bye now and love u lots -cody

yoooo i’ve been wondering where you’ve been bro!! YOU BROKE YOUR WRIST??? are you good?? and YOU KICKED A CHILD DOWN THE STAIRS IN YOUR DREAM??? HELLO?? what am i gonna do with you omg... oh also i was on the phone with my gf when you sent the asks and i read the part about the tom holland stuff and “please don’t tell my gf” to her and she was like “like i don’t already know” which i mean... true. but wow that sounds like such a great dream :’) (the ones with me always do ahaha (kidding)). also i did see chili and i can confirm that i would also die for him!!!

i just got off on christmas break on friday!! i had my last exam that morning ugh but then i got to drive home and then fly out the next day to see morgyn :)) i’m doing aight overall, the past semster has been admittedly pretty rough but i’m optimistic about the next, and i’m super glad to be on Christmas break!!! i hope you’re doing well also and i just wanted to lyk that i’ve also had ocd for a few years now and i know how much it fucking sucks so if you ever want to talk about it w someone i’m here xx

-noel