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Who’s the most universally loved male idol ?


Ori

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Mark Lee is a good contender! He isn't unlikable in any way. TVXQ boys too. Maybe Onew before his scandal...

 

I'm curious about Taemin. It was a completely different story when he first went solo. Wonder if the people who hated him have changed their hearts or gone quiet.

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3 hours ago, marin karin said:Mark Lee is a good contender! He isn't unlikable in any way. TVXQ boys too. Maybe Onew before his scandal...

 

I'm curious about Taemin. It was a completely different story when he first went solo. Wonder if the people who hated him have changed their hearts or gone quiet.

Not sure since Yoochun (JYJ but you see what I mean) had his scandal and what happened with Yunho...

I forgot about Onew ! Tbh I don’t remember hate during Taemin solo debut back then but it was a long time ago so I probably forgot 

2 hours ago, rosienator said:

i don’t really listen to nct much anymore but i follow mark on instagram and like watching his fancams. he’s very talented. he seems like a sincere person too.

He’s such a sweetheart, probably my favorite male idol in 3rd gen with Seventeen Seungkwan. Talented and very hardworking. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Nana686 said:

I would add heechul too he's still known and loved all across generations 

I wouldn’t mention him since he had a lot of haters for not being conventionally masculine in Korea. And among Ifans he still has his haters for dating Momo.

38 minutes ago, felidae said:

Hmmmm do kyungsoo?

I agree. He’s really liked by the GP.

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loved by idols or loved by kpop fans/gp? other than the ones mentioned, which i agree with, i see kai being loved a lot by idols! even the gp as well since his attitude is generally pretty bubbly and they find that cute. i would even say shinee is probably the most well liked group, with a honorable mention to key considering how many idol friends he had during 2nd gen and continues to make now. seems like he uses his authority figure for good reasons like making other idols feel comfortable in his presence.

for gp… i would want to say btob’s sungjae. he’s in the military rn, so there’s not really any news regarding him, but prior to that, he’s known to be a very good variety star, very polite and respectful, and his singing and acting skills just make him even more likable. bonus points for visuals, lmao. 

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32 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

loved by idols or loved by kpop fans/gp? other than the ones mentioned, which i agree with, i see kai being loved a lot by idols! even the gp as well since his attitude is generally pretty bubbly and they find that cute. i would even say shinee is probably the most well liked group, with a honorable mention to key considering how many idol friends he had during 2nd gen and continues to make now. seems like he uses his authority figure for good reasons like making other idols feel comfortable in his presence.

for gp… i would want to say btob’s sungjae. he’s in the military rn, so there’s not really any news regarding him, but prior to that, he’s known to be a very good variety star, very polite and respectful, and his singing and acting skills just make him even more likable. bonus points for visuals, lmao. 

Loved by the GP/Kpop fans. Kai has a lot of haters sadly in the Kpop fandom but he’s called the idol of idol. SHINee is really loved I agree.
Sungjae was/is an It boy, his popularity back in 2015 was insane.

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from what I've observed from a few year majority of the casual exo listeners, gp and non fans seems to praise kyungsoo especially for his talents, so in my humble opinion i would like to believe he is up there too.

 

though saying this is making me worried cause i lowkey feel like i may jinx it 

 

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@Orianeand @marin karin

It's interesting that you guys brought up Taemin. When I saw him being mentioned in the OP and by other users in the replies, I was unsure :unsure::unsure:. I neither agreed nor disagreed. Its like 50/50 imo. He may be well-respected and well-liked nowadays but it was the complete opposite in the past especially around 2012-2015. The hate towards him was massive but very unfair, stupid, messy and unwarranted.

Spoiler

From what I remember when I first got into kpop, Taemin got unfairly hated for getting more lines which ppl accused him of stealing lines from other members (Jonghyun, Onew and Key) when he actually earned it due to his improvement which was his own accord and effort. Its like they don't want him to develop and progress. They want him to stay like before as background vocal with only 2-3 lines per song for eternity when he actually expressed desire to sing and get more lines since he earned and worked hard for it.

Then there's the IMS2  which alot of kpop stans back then; non-shawols and shawols(except Taemin biased fans) alike were against him appearing and thought he'd fail and mess up. They claimed he didn't deserve nor qualify to perform on such show. There was even a poll on akp forum back then where most users voted against him appearing as they claimed he's not prepared/qualified. Shawols were hating on him and said he didn't deserve to appear before Onew. But when he performed there, it went smoothly and quite successfully. Even the vocal analysis did a review and thought he did fine/well, proving the haters wrong.

But the hate didn't stop there. He still got hated in the following year because ppl claimed he stole the main vocal roles from Jonghyun and Onew in SHINee's 2013 cbs and albums. The claim was ridiculous and a reach imo because in later/future cbs, Jonghyun and Onew went back to having more lines than him. Plus starting in 2013, SHINee especially Jonghyun in particular had more say and control over music direction and line distribution which is a testament of how much producing, composition and song-writing credits Jonghyun had and he mentioned they discussed amongst themselves over line distribution. Based on this, I'm sure he and Onew  and other members have discussed and were okay with giving Taemin more lines even if it means more than theirs, plus, their close relationship with Taemin showed there's no animosity or any ill feelings. If you truly followed and knew Jonghyun's personality, he loved Taemin more than himself (which was especially apparent when Taemin made his solo debut, Jonghyun had tears of happiness and became an emotional mess like prouda mother seeing her son grew up). 2013 also couldn't come at a better time as this was around the time when Taemin's improvement became significant and very noticeable so it was like SHINee wanted to show off that they have another vocalist emerging, so they gave this opportunity to Taemin to showcase what he got.

And then comes the solo debut, which was probably like the straw that broke the camel's back to these haters. Alot of ppl were hating and against it including shawols (except Taemin fans and supporters, nonfans and casual fans that believed he can do it as well as some nice Onew and Jonghyun's stans who were supportive towards him). Some other jealous SM stans also joined in the bandwagon hate e.g. exo-ls, sones, cassies, elfs, meus, etc. Because Taemin was the first Korean SM idol (from group) to make his solo debut which caught alot of attention both positively and negatively but unfortunately alot were vocal in their negative reaction towards it. Alot of intl kpop stans threw unwarranted hate, slander, and acted like they wanna boycott his solo. On twitter alot of twts questioning why him, why not Onew or Jonghyun first and some even went as far as writing essays about why Taemin didn't deserve it. They took it so seriously like their lives depended it, so ridiculous. After his debut song and mv was released, there were people who were amazed and wowed by it but still the hate was still there judging by the negative comments on YT asking for Jonghyun, Onew, Luna, etc. solos instead and they even slandered and nitpicked Taemin's singing and claimed his improvement was a hoax. Also, Jaejoong/JYJ stans accused him of copying Jaejoong which was the dumbest exaggerated claim I've seen.

Among other things, there was also the bodyhaming towards Taemin's skinny body. I believe he was like 19-21 at the time when boys his age haven't properly developed yet body and built-wise. People dragged and shamed his body with toxic remarks like "eww", "yuck", "disgusting", "unmanly" "nsfw" or vomit gif thrown at his pics. Opinions of  unattractiveness  when it comes to him was widely popular bandwagon hate back then. While fatshaming was frowned upon among intl community, people got away easily with skinny-shaming (Yoona was another victim of this type of hate and she was shamed for not having enough volume on her chest). Unlike these days where body positivity which all body types are accepted.

Taemin was also a victim of unfortunate styling and fansite's whitewashed pics. Not only awful outfits but also make-up. Sometimes they caked him with thick layers of powder/foundation/bb cream which made him looked like a mannequin or kabuki/chinese theater actor. So he was an easy target by haters especially when they dragged his unflattering pics and unfairly accused him with exaggerated/false ps/botox accusations and made the nastiest comparison to MJ, Park Bom, Donatello V., Cher, etc. and everybody with sheep mentality believed it and joined the bandwagon. The bashing thread was full of these remarks of how they're degrading his appearances and presence. It was simply toxic, disrespectful, triggering and he was treated as a laughing stock. People also made up rumors about him sleeping around with girls overseas while on tour and accused him of being fake for the cuteness/maknae image. Not to mention ppl were homophobic and called him girly, girl, gay, etc. ( those days when gay was thrown in a negative way ) only due his pretty/feminine face when he was younger.

For someone who's rep is clean, professional, never a deadweight to his group and pretty much scandal-free, especially as he's always minding his own business, he's one of the male idols that got the most unwarranted and irrational hate. I still don't get why there was so much toxicity. it was like high school bullies targeting him for no reason.

It wasn't until his 1st solo cb, I believe when he dropped this teaser + Drip Drop, PYN, Soldier, it was like a surprising and an unexpected revelation. Alot of ppl were impressed and amazed. The hate started to lessen around this time. I guess all the hate before unfazed him and the more hate there was, the more it made him stronger, I guess. More and more people stopped hating. People started to take him seriously and thought he's not playing around and that he's legit talented. He worked hard and proved his worthiness and finally earned the respect and acknowledgement. More appreciation towards him were pouring in. Suddenly almost everyone wanted their faves to "pull a Taemin" , to collab with him, etc. And then the next year came Move and the rest is history. Suddenly, he became the blueprint and changing the game for male dance soloists.

There's still some hate and mocking towards him nowadays but mostly its just pettiness and insecure jobless ppl on twitter reaching but still isn't as bad as it was in the past.

So as you can see the hate was mostly unwarranted and irrational and shawols failed at protecting him especially the ones that have double standards and members like Onew, Jonghyun and Key were put on pedestal while Taemin and Minho treated as inferiors. Taemin is the maknae, so he was undervalued and not as respected as much as the older members and was almost hated like Yeri during those days where people nitpicked and tried to find reasons to hate. Minho was another victim where people always dragged and mocked his singing, rapping, and acting (I could write another rant of the unwarranted hate that Minho got but I'll just stop here. Maybe another time) . This was back then when it was very toxic, things are probably better now or at least I hope the fandom grew up. 2nd gen stans were toxic and not any better than kpop stans these days unlike what they claimed as "peaceful" era especially not with the sones vs blackjacks, sistar stans vs gsd stans, cassies vs vips, the "black ocean" , etc.

If this thread was made like 5 years ago, nobody would mentioned Taemin here. If any SHINee member that would fit this category the most back then, it would be Onew until his scandal in late summer 2017, which hurt his rep and image quite alot.

edit: I mean yeah I guess I can see why alot of people here mentioned Taemin based the observation nowadays which is pretty much a 180 degree change from the past. Back then it was completely different. But now he's like is one of the most well-liked male idols, the blueprint for male kpop soloist, widely admired by the whole industry with massive of idols/celebs fans

, praised and received accolades by music critics and professionals. The difference between then and now is huge like night and day.

Edited by Youahaen
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15 minutes ago, Youahaen said:

@Orianeand @marin karin

It's interesting that you guys brought up Taemin. When I saw him being mentioned in the OP and by other users in the replies, I was unsure :unsure::unsure:. I neither agreed nor disagreed. Its like 50/50 imo. He may be well-respected and well-liked nowadays but it was the complete opposite in the past especially around 2012-2015. The hate towards him was massive but very unfair, stupid, messy and unwarranted.

  Reveal hidden contents

From what I remember when I first got into kpop, Taemin got unfairly hated for getting more lines which ppl accused him of stealing lines from other members (Jonghyun, Onew and Key) when he actually earned it due to his improvement which was his own accord and effort. Its like they don't want him to develop and progress. They want him to stay like before as background vocal with only 2-3 lines per song for eternity when he actually expressed desire to sing and get more lines since he earned and worked hard for it.

Then there's the IMS2  which alot of kpop stans back then; non-shawols and shawols(except Taemin biased fans) alike were against him appearing and thought he'd failed and mess up. They claimed he didn't deserve nor qualify to perform on such show. There was even a poll on akp forum back then where most users voted against him appearing as they claimed he's not prepared/qualified. Shawols were hating on him and said he didn't deserve to appear before Onew. But when he performed there, it went smoothly and quite successfully. Even the vocal analysis did a review and thought he did fine/well proving the haters wrong.

But the hate didn't stop there. He still got hated in the following year because ppl claimed he stole the main vocal roles from Jonghyun and Onew in SHINee's 2013 cbs and albums. The claim was ridiculous and a reach imo because in later/future cbs, Jonghyun and Onew went back to having more lines than him. Plus starting in 2013, SHINee especially Jonghyun in particular had more say and control over music direction and line distribution which is a testament of how much producing, composition and song-writing credits Jonghyun had and he mentioned they discussed amongst themselves over line distribution. Based on this, I'm sure he and Onew  and other members have discussed and were okay with giving Taemin more lines even if it means more than theirs, plus, their close relationship with Taemin showed there's no animosity or any ill feelings. If you truly followed and knew Jonghyun's personality, he loved Taemin more than himself (which was especially apparent when Taemin made his solo debut, Jonghyun had tears of happiness and became an emotional mess like prouda mother seeing her son grew up). 2013 also couldn't come at a better time as this was around the time when Taemin's improvement became significant and very noticeable so it was like SHINee wanted to show off that they have another vocalist emerging, so they gave this opportunity to Taemin to showcase what he got.

And then comes the solo debut, which was probably like the straw that broke the camel's back to these haters. Alot of ppl were hating and against it including shawols (except Taemin fans and supporters, nonfans and casual fans that believed he can do it as well as some nice Onew and Jonghyun's stans who were supportive towards him). Some other jealous SM stans also joined in the bandwagon hate e.g. exo-ls, sones, cassies, elfs, meus, etc. Because Taemin was the first Korean SM idol (from group) to make his solo debut which caught alot of attention both positively and negatively but unfortunately alot were vocal in their negative reaction towards it. Alot of intl kpop stans threw unwarranted hate, slander, and acted like they wanna boycott his solo. On twitter alot of twts questioning why him, why not Onew or Jonghyun first and some even went as far as writing essays about why Taemin didn't deserved it. They took it so seriously like their lives depended it, so ridiculous. After his debut song and mv was released, there were people who were amazed and wowed by it but still the hate was still there judging by the negative comments on YT asking for Jonghyun, Onew, Luna, etc. solos instead and they even slandered and nitpicked Taemin's singing and claimed his improvement was a hoax. Also, Jaejoong/JYJ stans accused him of copying Jaejoong which was the dumbest exaggerated claim I've seen.

Among other things, there was also the bodyhaming towards Taemin's skinny body. I believe he was like 19-21 at the time when boys his age haven't properly developed yet body and built-wise. People dragged and shamed his body with toxic remarks like "eww", "yuck", "disgusting", "unmanly" "nsfw" or vomit gif thrown at his pics. Opinions of  unattractiveness  when it comes to him was widely popular banwagon hate back then. While fatshaming was frowned upon among intl community, people got away easily with skinny-shaming (Yoona was another victim of this type of hate and she was shamed for not having enough volume on her chest). Unlike these days where body positivity which all body types are accepted.

Taemin was also a victim of unfortunate styling and fansite's whitewashed pics. Not only awful outfits but also make-up. Sometimes they caked him with thick layers of powder/foundation/bb cream which made him looked like a mannequin or kabuki/chinese theater actor. So he was an easy target by haters especially when they dragged his unflattering pics and unfairly accused him with exaggerated/false ps/botox accusations and made the nastiest comparison to MJ, Park Bom, Donatello V., Cher, etc. and everybody with sheep mentality believed it and joined the bandwagon. The bashing thread was full of these remarks of how they're degrading his appearances and presence. It was simply toxic, disrespectful, triggering and he was treated as a laughing stock. People also made up rumors about him sleeping around with girls overseas while on tour and accused him of being fake for the cuteness/maknae image. Not to mention ppl were homophobic and called him girly, girl, gay, etc. ( those days when gay was thrown in a negative way ) only due his pretty/feminine face when he was younger.

For someone who's rep is clean, professional, never a deadweight to his group and pretty much scandal-free, especially as he's always minding his own business, he's one of the male idols that got the most unwarranted and irrational hate. I still don't get why there was so much toxicity. it was like high school bullies targeting him for no reason.

It wasn't until his 1st solo cb, I believe when he dropped this teaser + Drip Drop, PYN, Soldier, it was like a surprising and an unexpected revelation. Alot of ppl were impressed and amazed. The hate started to lessen around this time. I guess all the hate before unfazed him and the more hate there was, the more it made him stronger, I guess. More and more people stopped hating. People started to take him seriously and thought he's not playing around and that he's legit talented. He worked hard and proved his worthiness and finally earned the respect and acknowledgement. More appreciation towards him were pouring in. Suddenly almost everyone wanted their faves to "pull a Taemin" , to collab with him, etc. And then the next year came Move and the rest is history.

There's still some hate and mocking towards him nowadays but mostly its just pettiness and insecure jobless ppl on twitter reaching but still isn't as bad as it was in the past.

So as you can see the hate was mostly unwarranted and irrational and shawols failed at protecting him especially the ones that have double standards and put members like Onew, Jonghyun and Key on a higher pedestal and considered Taemin and Minho on lower level. Taemin is the maknae, so he wasn't as respected as much as the older members and was almost hated like Yeri during those days where people nitpicked and tried to find reasons to hate. Minho was another victim where people always dragged and mocked his singing, rapping, and acting (I could write another rant of the unwarranted hate that Minho also but I'll just stop here. Maybe another time) . This was back then when it was very toxic, things are probably better now or at least I hope the fandom grew up. 2nd gen stans were toxic and not any better than kpop stans these days unlike what they claimed as "peaceful" era especially not with the sones vs blackjacks, sistar stans vs gsd stans, cassies vs vips, the "black ocean" , etc.

If this thread was made like 5 years ago, nobody would mentioned Taemin here. If any SHINee member that would fit this category the most back then, it would be Onew until his scandal in late summer 2017, which hurt his rep and image quite alot.

The hate is ridiculous then because during his prime vocally (2011-2014) he was as good as Onew lol 

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3 hours ago, Oriane said:

 

Spoiler

"The hate is ridiculous then because during his prime vocally (2011-2014) he was as good as Onew lol "

Actually back then Onew's vocal chords was in poor condition and had some bad habits so his skills deteriorated a bit (before he got surgery around 2016-2017, so his vocals got better around that time ) and from what I heard vocal analysis put Taemin above Onew at some point around that time, so Onew fans were mad and their vicious hate towards Taemin fuel from there. Taemin's fans around 2011-2013 kinda sucked too or they weren't as strong nor in bigger numbers than they are today. They were unconfident and even downplayed Taemin's skills and just followed along with the rest of the Shawol fandom's popular opinion which regard other members as superior. I've never seen such passive and lame fandom like this. It wasn't until he debut solo and made solo cbs where he received more, new and better fans who knows and wants what's best for him but still without being delusional or deranged unlike many other fandoms out there.

 

Edited by Youahaen
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1 minute ago, Youahaen said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

"The hate is ridiculous then because during his prime vocally (2011-2014) he was as good as Onew lol "

Actually back then Onew's vocal chords was in poor condition and had some bad habits so his skills deteriorated a bit (before he got surgery around 2016-2017, so his vocals got better around that time ) and from what I heard vocal analysis put Taemin above Onew at some point around that time, so Onew fans were mad and their vicious hate towards Taemin fuel from there. Taemin's fans around 2011-2013 kinda sucked too or they weren't as strong nor in bigger numbers than they are today. They were unconfident and even downplayed Taemin's skills and just followed along with the rest of the Shawol fandom's popular opinion which regard other members as superior. I've never seen such passive and lame fandom like this. It wasn't until he debut solo and had solo cbs where he received more, new and better fans who knows and wants what's best for him.

 

Spoiler

Taemin has never been better per se, but they were very very close. Taemin was by far the best belter of the group (he could support B4 at times, quite legendary if you ask me) but his other registers were very underdeveloped. Onew has very strong lows and a supported head voice but his mix was a lot weaker than Taemin’s. It’s up to preference really. Sadly Taemin regressed a tad bit since then, but his improvement is still legendary.

 

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1 minute ago, Oriane said:
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Taemin has never been better per se, but they were very very close. Taemin was by far the best belter of the group (he could support B4 at times, quite legendary if you ask me) but his other registers were very underdeveloped. Onew has very strong lows and a supported head voice but his mix was a lot weaker than Taemin’s. It’s up to preference really. Sadly Taemin regressed a tad bit since then, but his improvement is still legendary.

 

Spoiler

The gap between those two is small in comparison with other mains like jaejoong and junsu ,Taeyeon and tiffseosica or Kyuhyun/Ryeowook and yesung 

 I also add taemin falsetto is better in his last albums than in 2011-2014 he got some connection going on and even with his regression he still has better mix than onew 

 

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6 minutes ago, BAZISSINO said:
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The gap between those two is small in comparison with other mains like jaejoong and junsu ,Taeyeon and tiffseosica or Kyuhyun/Ryeowook and yesung 

 I also add taemin falsetto is better in his last albums than in 2011-2014 he got some connection going on and even with his regression he still has better mix than onew 

 

Spoiler

That’s for sure, isn’t Onew around Baekhyun and current Taemin Taeil ? It’s there then but nowhere near as big as between Yesung and Ryeowook/Kyuhyun.

Well he has that B4 you showed me in the vocal thread, now I’m hoping he will get there again lol. I didn’t know his upper got better that’s nice. Also kinda random but I saw some kids on that Facebook page saying Taemin strained G4 recently... No no no

 

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You have to define what you mean by "universally loved"

Do you mean they have a much greater ratio of fans than haters? Because that person won't be exceedingly famous, they'll probably be a mid-tier idol who performs well and doesn't have any scandals, but most people don't know him

Or do you mean they just receive a huge quantity of love from a lot of people? In that case, it's going to be someone like Heechul who still gets a notable amount of hate, or someone like Taemin who has been in the spotlight for a long time and collected lots of love, but like people said earlier he got a lot of hate too

Like in a sense, a lot of the answers already said are basically correct in some capacity

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10 hours ago, Youahaen said:

@Orianeand @marin karin

It's interesting that you guys brought up Taemin. When I saw him being mentioned in the OP and by other users in the replies, I was unsure :unsure::unsure:. I neither agreed nor disagreed. Its like 50/50 imo. He may be well-respected and well-liked nowadays but it was the complete opposite in the past especially around 2012-2015. The hate towards him was massive but very unfair, stupid, messy and unwarranted.

  Hide contents

From what I remember when I first got into kpop, Taemin got unfairly hated for getting more lines which ppl accused him of stealing lines from other members (Jonghyun, Onew and Key) when he actually earned it due to his improvement which was his own accord and effort. Its like they don't want him to develop and progress. They want him to stay like before as background vocal with only 2-3 lines per song for eternity when he actually expressed desire to sing and get more lines since he earned and worked hard for it.

Then there's the IMS2  which alot of kpop stans back then; non-shawols and shawols(except Taemin biased fans) alike were against him appearing and thought he'd failed and mess up. They claimed he didn't deserve nor qualify to perform on such show. There was even a poll on akp forum back then where most users voted against him appearing as they claimed he's not prepared/qualified. Shawols were hating on him and said he didn't deserve to appear before Onew. But when he performed there, it went smoothly and quite successfully. Even the vocal analysis did a review and thought he did fine/well proving the haters wrong.

But the hate didn't stop there. He still got hated in the following year because ppl claimed he stole the main vocal roles from Jonghyun and Onew in SHINee's 2013 cbs and albums. The claim was ridiculous and a reach imo because in later/future cbs, Jonghyun and Onew went back to having more lines than him. Plus starting in 2013, SHINee especially Jonghyun in particular had more say and control over music direction and line distribution which is a testament of how much producing, composition and song-writing credits Jonghyun had and he mentioned they discussed amongst themselves over line distribution. Based on this, I'm sure he and Onew  and other members have discussed and were okay with giving Taemin more lines even if it means more than theirs, plus, their close relationship with Taemin showed there's no animosity or any ill feelings. If you truly followed and knew Jonghyun's personality, he loved Taemin more than himself (which was especially apparent when Taemin made his solo debut, Jonghyun had tears of happiness and became an emotional mess like prouda mother seeing her son grew up). 2013 also couldn't come at a better time as this was around the time when Taemin's improvement became significant and very noticeable so it was like SHINee wanted to show off that they have another vocalist emerging, so they gave this opportunity to Taemin to showcase what he got.

And then comes the solo debut, which was probably like the straw that broke the camel's back to these haters. Alot of ppl were hating and against it including shawols (except Taemin fans and supporters, nonfans and casual fans that believed he can do it as well as some nice Onew and Jonghyun's stans who were supportive towards him). Some other jealous SM stans also joined in the bandwagon hate e.g. exo-ls, sones, cassies, elfs, meus, etc. Because Taemin was the first Korean SM idol (from group) to make his solo debut which caught alot of attention both positively and negatively but unfortunately alot were vocal in their negative reaction towards it. Alot of intl kpop stans threw unwarranted hate, slander, and acted like they wanna boycott his solo. On twitter alot of twts questioning why him, why not Onew or Jonghyun first and some even went as far as writing essays about why Taemin didn't deserved it. They took it so seriously like their lives depended it, so ridiculous. After his debut song and mv was released, there were people who were amazed and wowed by it but still the hate was still there judging by the negative comments on YT asking for Jonghyun, Onew, Luna, etc. solos instead and they even slandered and nitpicked Taemin's singing and claimed his improvement was a hoax. Also, Jaejoong/JYJ stans accused him of copying Jaejoong which was the dumbest exaggerated claim I've seen.

Among other things, there was also the bodyhaming towards Taemin's skinny body. I believe he was like 19-21 at the time when boys his age haven't properly developed yet body and built-wise. People dragged and shamed his body with toxic remarks like "eww", "yuck", "disgusting", "unmanly" "nsfw" or vomit gif thrown at his pics. Opinions of  unattractiveness  when it comes to him was widely popular banwagon hate back then. While fatshaming was frowned upon among intl community, people got away easily with skinny-shaming (Yoona was another victim of this type of hate and she was shamed for not having enough volume on her chest). Unlike these days where body positivity which all body types are accepted.

Taemin was also a victim of unfortunate styling and fansite's whitewashed pics. Not only awful outfits but also make-up. Sometimes they caked him with thick layers of powder/foundation/bb cream which made him looked like a mannequin or kabuki/chinese theater actor. So he was an easy target by haters especially when they dragged his unflattering pics and unfairly accused him with exaggerated/false ps/botox accusations and made the nastiest comparison to MJ, Park Bom, Donatello V., Cher, etc. and everybody with sheep mentality believed it and joined the bandwagon. The bashing thread was full of these remarks of how they're degrading his appearances and presence. It was simply toxic, disrespectful, triggering and he was treated as a laughing stock. People also made up rumors about him sleeping around with girls overseas while on tour and accused him of being fake for the cuteness/maknae image. Not to mention ppl were homophobic and called him girly, girl, gay, etc. ( those days when gay was thrown in a negative way ) only due his pretty/feminine face when he was younger.

For someone who's rep is clean, professional, never a deadweight to his group and pretty much scandal-free, especially as he's always minding his own business, he's one of the male idols that got the most unwarranted and irrational hate. I still don't get why there was so much toxicity. it was like high school bullies targeting him for no reason.

It wasn't until his 1st solo cb, I believe when he dropped this teaser + Drip Drop, PYN, Soldier, it was like a surprising and an unexpected revelation. Alot of ppl were impressed and amazed. The hate started to lessen around this time. I guess all the hate before unfazed him and the more hate there was, the more it made him stronger, I guess. More and more people stopped hating. People started to take him seriously and thought he's not playing around and that he's legit talented. He worked hard and proved his worthiness and finally earned the respect and acknowledgement. More appreciation towards him were pouring in. Suddenly almost everyone wanted their faves to "pull a Taemin" , to collab with him, etc. And then the next year came Move and the rest is history.

There's still some hate and mocking towards him nowadays but mostly its just pettiness and insecure jobless ppl on twitter reaching but still isn't as bad as it was in the past.

So as you can see the hate was mostly unwarranted and irrational and shawols failed at protecting him especially the ones that have double standards and members like Onew, Jonghyun and Key were put on pedestal while Taemin and Minho treated as inferiors. Taemin is the maknae, so he wasn't as respected as much as the older members and was almost hated like Yeri during those days where people nitpicked and tried to find reasons to hate. Minho was another victim where people always dragged and mocked his singing, rapping, and acting (I could write another rant of the unwarranted hate that Minho also but I'll just stop here. Maybe another time) . This was back then when it was very toxic, things are probably better now or at least I hope the fandom grew up. 2nd gen stans were toxic and not any better than kpop stans these days unlike what they claimed as "peaceful" era especially not with the sones vs blackjacks, sistar stans vs gsd stans, cassies vs vips, the "black ocean" , etc.

If this thread was made like 5 years ago, nobody would mentioned Taemin here. If any SHINee member that would fit this category the most back then, it would be Onew until his scandal in late summer 2017, which hurt his rep and image quite alot.

 

All of this "old hate" stuff reminds me that I read that when Taemin did a very homoerotic/sexual performance with Jonghyun, a lot of people also massively hated on them and wanted them out of the group but I wasn't that much into kpop when that happened

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People call Taehyung the idol of idols because many teen idols have mentioned that they want to be like him. Since Taehyung is such a social butterfly, he's also friends with idols from many generations like Yoona, Minho, Baekhyun etc. Also, something I noticed is that he is someone who is followed by girl group fans and loved apart from his group. IDK maybe it has something to do with being shipped with so many idols. Taehyung generally gets a very positive reaction as he is very friendly to other groups as well. For example, he's loved by some Blinks for dancing to Blackpink's song, Once for dancing to Twice's song, and Nuest fans for bringing chairs to them etc. His unique personality usually makes BTS attract attention on every show he goes to. He is the most popular member of BTS in Asia, and the second most popular overall.

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