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.

why am i watching their couples therapy at 6:30 in the morning

sprinkle in your sugar, girl you whip the cream 🍦

are you a good girl? by tvxq! 🤝 get the party started by p!nk

changmin apparel endorsement

some songs deserve to have been found at a different time of life... like sometimes its exactly what u needed & its great & a kind of nostalgic tenderness to look back on but other times its just this song is too good to be associated with THAT

we need wonder girls on killing voice btw

in an alternate universe where they didn't split, what subunits do you think sm would've given tvxq? i wonder if homin / jyj units would've still happened or if they'd do something like suju kry with the main vocals. or maybe they just go "damn here" and give yunjae a duet

sm doesn't seem to like giving actual 'subunits' to their <five member groups, so i don't think jyj would have happened, but we'd probably still have gotten solo careers (eventually) from the four that have them, and probably i think a couple of duets, but they wouldn't have extensive promo periods/albums attached to them. probably yunjae and maybe changmin jaejoong? they might have also done a yunho junsu dance type one as well. but to be honest i do actually think the split was for the best, bc had they all had continued under sm we would not have gotten all that excellent angry music out of 2011-2014, AND we probably would not have gotten any of junsu's iconic songs either.

"we are best friends" omg really

they got changmin w his tits out to promote tvxq 😭

Every Month of 2023!

Tagged by my eri @xiaojuun & my addy @hohowonho thank you, beloveds 🥰

rules: link your favorite and/or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love!

I actually started editing for the first time this year, and when I went back and looked, I was surprised that it's already almost been a year. I still feel so new at it, but it's quickly become one of my favorite hobbies. In 2023, I made a lot of new friends and edited even more photos. I added a few new groups to the bex favorites line up and rediscovered my love for others. But overall, it's been fun rotting away on this hellsite with all of you this year, and I'm so grateful for everyone this place has brought into my life! I love you all so, so much 💜 without further ado, here are my favorite & most popular edits for each month:

JANUARY

my first ever kpop edit, and while it's neither popular (ty to the 2 people who interacted with it) nor my favorite (I just made it purple instead of red), it does, in fact, exist 🫣: Chanyeol for Purple Pearl Magazine, January 2023

FEBRUARY

most popular: Baekhyun for W Korea, March 2023 | favorite: Baekhyun's Hands in the W Korea shoot

MARCH

most popular, favorite & only March edit: Dokyeom in Milan (the first time)

APRIL

most popular: Dokyeom — Fallen, Misfit, Lost Teasers | favorite: SVT Hip Hop Unit — Fight for My Life Teasers

MAY

most popular: SHINee's 15th Anniversary Post | favorites: Countdown to Baekhyun's Birthday — Delight + The rest of the Baekhyun birthday series: City Lights, Self-Titled Japanese Mini Album, Bambi, Birthday Post

JUNE

most popular: Haechan's Birthday Post | favorite: Taeil's Birthday Post

JULY

most popular & favorite: EXO — Cream Soda Teaser Images, Pt. 2 (the colors on these will always be one of my favorite things)

AUGUST

I went on vacation and was overall very busy in August, so no edits that month. I feel like I more than made up for it by editing sooo many things in Sept, Oct & Dec.

SEPTEMBER

most popular: NCT 127 — ‘Fact Check’ Exhibit & Storage Ver. Teasers | favorites: NCT 2023 — Golden Age Teasers for Taeil, Haechan & Kun

OCTOBER

most popular: WayV — ‘No One But You + INVINCIBLE (极限)’ Track Video Images | favorite: Chanyeol — Digital Single ‘그래도 돼 (Good Enough)’ Teaser Image #2

I could've picked like 4 favorites but I stopped myself 😅 I edited so many things in Oct. SVT, WayV, 127, Chanyeol, Dokyeom. Everything was happening all at once.

NOVEMBER

most popular, favorite & only November edit: EXO — 2024 Season's Greetings

DECEMBER

most popular (of all time): Seventeen — 2024 Season's Greetings | favorites: Xiaojun — Marine Turtle Teasers + TVXQ — 20&2 Teasers #4

Tagging: @baekslight @bethereforme @byunbaekhyunie @lee-minhoe @jeonwon-wonwoo @goblinvern @wifehwa @yeonbins @pinktaeyeon @tipannies @snug-gyu @jftk @dinoboos @kangyeosaang @haechannabelle @monwillica @ambivartence @honeydewtual @awek-s @sunghanbin @ashisland @possession1981 @jwooyoung @kimjiwoong @yeofi @master-tonberry @donghyuckkies @crazy-form @ajusnice @moonsua @neonsbian @97-liners @jentlemahae @yunogf @db2k @onmywayv @okaysign @seokmingming @talksaxy @fadedinmysong