The Visionary Work of SHINee’s Taemin

Never Gonna Dance Again/ SM Entertainment

Weeks before Taemin left for his mandatory military enlistment in 2021, the idol held a last dance.

The dance was originally conceptualized as a photo shoot for GQ Magazine. But over the final days before Taemin left, his last dance also became a moving, conceptual retrospective of his time as a member of SHINee and the boundaries he pushed as a soloist. First, there was the release of SHINee’s latest Japanese album “Superstar”. In between the recording and filming for the video, Taemin participated in a photo shoot for the group’s Season’s Greeting release. But he prepared something darker than any previous album for his final solo release. 

“ADVICE”, the third mini-album, was released on May 18, 2021. The album pulled together the androgynous aesthetics Taemin had cultivated since his second album “PRESS IT”, but what it showed best was a willingness to shock us. “I wanted to do a lot of things I haven’t tried in this album,” he said before the album’s release. “I tried to give an experimental feeling from styling such as hair extensions and accessories.” The title track is confrontational: “The more you try to trap me, the more I’ll go off the rails,” he warns in the chorus. “If you want to see the end, push my buttons.” 

“ADVICE” was a statement album. After spending thirteen years in the public eye, Taemin was firmly in control of his career. “Everything is explained with the first line. ‘My way no matter what anyone says,’” he told GQ the week of the album’s release. “Many people try to project their perspectives onto others and give advice. If you chase after other people’s advice, you eventually become the same as them. ‘Advice’ is like a message to those people.”

Yet to truly understand the importance of “ADVICE”, we should roll back to autumn 2020 when the singer made the risky decision to release “Never Gonna Dance Again” . The album bucked the trends of K-Pop and was Taemin’s first step in becoming the artist he dreamed of. “It’s my journey for finding my new self,” he said in an interview before the album’s release. “And it’s about a new beginning.” 

Two years after its release, “Never Gonna Dance Again stands as one of the most creatively ambitious albums released this decade. Not coincidentally, this was the first album Taemin was given complete control over. 

Taemin’s image was carefully cultivated when he first debuted as a soloist in 2014. Sure, there was a lead single called “Danger” but there was little about 19-year old Taemin that felt provocative. Instead, he seemed to still be finding his footing as an artist – and he still felt like a kid. 

The song that holds up the best is “Pretty Boy” written by SHINee member Jonghyun. “Because the song’s title is ‘Pretty Boy’, many people thought it must be a cute song. But there was absolutely no content like that in the song,” Jonghyun said on Blue Night. “I talked to Taemin and asked him, ‘What do you want to tell everyone [about yourself]?” The song Jonghyun wrote came from the stories Taemin told him about being an idol and how people perceived him. 

“I may always seem pretty/ I may always seem good,” he sings in the chorus but he breaks your misperceptions in the next line. “But that’s all part of your imagination.” Instead, Jonghyun writes, “Why is being sensitive the opposite of being a man?” 

Taemin has inhabited the theme of “Pretty Boy” since its release. He deployed an androgynous style in the video for “MOVE” in 2016, which would soon become a signature look for the singer. Occasionally the comments about his feminine or androgynous appearance would get to him, as he told Jonghyun on Blue Night. “Pay it no mind,” Jonghyun advised him and eventually Taemin absorbed that energy.

Over the next six years, Taemin became a superstar, a true force inside K-Pop who is known to push boundaries. His music explores provocative themes: an emerging sexuality and a curiosity for sin simmer in his best tracks. Yet in 2020, Taemin still didn’t feel like the music was his own creation. “Back then I felt more like an observer, kind of just seeing how things kind of come together,” he said when he asked about his involvement in previous albums. 

Taemin felt that his third album, “Never Gonna Dance Again” , was his opportunity to prove himself as an artist. “I was very nervous. This is not the kind of music you can listen to while relaxing,” he admitted on THE STAGE before the album’s release “Criminal”, the lead single, was the darkest single he’d ever released. He continued, “People may say it’s scary or repulsive, confusing or difficult to understand.” The song’s performance opens with Taemin’s hands bound, an idea that the singer came up with himself. As he slips off the binds, “Criminal” kicks into high gear. “Destroy me more,” he demands as he stares straight into the camera. The performance Taemin envisioned, ironically, felt more dangerous than anything he’d created before – including his debut single of the same name.

“Never Gonna Dance Again” was an act of rebellion against people's expectations of the idol. When he titled the album, he thought, “I’m never gonna dance again in this style that people expect me to.” Instead, he chose to resist the labels placed on him. “I just want to be remembered as Taemin,” he said simply. :”K-Pop idol: Those are general terms. But I want to be more than those things.”

Taemin traveled to Paris to film the video for the album’s pre-release single “2 Kids”. With his freshly dyed blonde hair and chic wardrobe, Taemin looked less like an idol and instead like a local. The video was simple, especially for K-Pop standards. Taemin would dance solo through the streets of Paris, at times appearing to wrestle with himself – and his past. They filmed throughout the night and Taemin’s choreography, which was mostly improved, felt autobiographical. 

“I think while I was writing these lyrics, I was thinking not necessarily about my experience with love but it was more about when I was younger,” he remembered. “Thinking about the conflicts that I had with other people and using that as the inspiration for the lyrics for this.”

”We were just two kids, young and dumb/ Young, dumb and clumsy hearts/ Hold them close on this sad day,” Taemin sings as he looks back on his youth. The song is a letter to himself, full of compassion, understanding and forgiveness for who he used to be. “We will have to live through the time,” he sings on the final lines, “and be forgotten.”

The therapeutic lyrics of “2 Kids” felt particularly wrenching before Taemin’s enlistment. Taemin never attributed the song to his relationship with the SHINee members, but it is easy to imagine. He’s known Onew, Jonghyun, Key and Minho since he was thirteen. He grew up with them and experienced a life very few of us ever will understand – with them by his side. When they returned with “The Story of Light” in 2018, following the loss of Jonghyun, they were resolute to stay together and honor their friend’s  legacy. They understood what a privilege it is to still have one another. Later that year when Onew, Key and Minho began their enlistments, it was Taemin who carried the legacy of SHINee in their absence. 

When the time finally came for Taemin to leave for his enlistment, he was one of the top soloists in K-Pop. “ADVICE” set first day records for Taemin, and SHINee comeback album “Don’t Call Me” was certified platinum. “Thank you for loving me this far,” Taemin wrote in his farewell letter. “I felt lonely looking back at the time that has passed since I am living a life that is different from others. But in the end, I am living life while receiving lots of love.”

On the morning of May 31, 2021, Minho accompanied Taemin to send him off to the military. This was an act of repayment for Taemin sending Minho off two years prior, and one that Minho was proud to do. Before Taemin left, Minho snapped a selfie and posted it on Instagram with a promise, “I’ll always be on your side.”