Anime, Manga and Music! Oh my!: SHINee 셔이니 (Korean Boy Group) MUSIC REVIEW

SHINee! (Left to Right: Onew, TaeMin, JongHyun, MinHo, Key)

So I guess it's kpop month! May is the officially designated month that I am going to devote to kpop. Music reviews will be coming at least twice a week with a different kpop group or artist. I don't claim to be an expert on all the groups. I know songs, I know some names but I can't tell you their middle names or where they ate sushi the other day. Anyways, onto today's music review!

SHINee

Hwaiting! 화이딩!

SHINee is a popular Korean boy band that debuted on May 25 (MY BIRTHDAY!), 2008. They signed a contract with SM Entertainment and have since then gone huge with not only their Asian fan bases, but with their North American fan base as well.

The group has produced many hits including Replay, Ring Ding Dong, Hello and Lucifer. The boys have a total of two full length albums (The SHINee World, Lucifer), five mini albums (Hello, Replay, Romeo, Year of Us, Amigo), many, many singles and have won awards, gone on tours as well as starred in a few reality shows (SHINee Yunhanam and Hello Baby! just to name a few popular ones).

SHINee has five members. All cute, all hot, all talented dancers and singers. Here are their profiles:

Name: Lee Jinki (이 진기)

Stage Name: Onew (오뉴)

Position: Leader

Birthday: December 14, 1989

Height: 177cm (5'10")

Quirks: Clumsy, funny, "group clown", he has "Onew Condition", very caring, awkward with children and loves fried chicken.

Name: Kim JongHyun (김 종현)

Position: Lead singer

Birthday: April 8, 1990

Height: 173cm (5'8") He's the shortest member

Quirks: Some times daft, "Dino", very childish at times.

Name: Kim Kibum (김 기범)

Stage Name: Key (키)

Position: Second dancer, second rapper, vocalist

Birthday: September 23, 1991

Height: 177cm (5'10")

Quirks: Diva, "Almight Key", very caring, is like the umma (엄마) of the group.

Name: Choi MinHo (초이 민호)

Position: Rapper

Birthday: December 9, 1991

Height: 181cm (5'11") Tallest of the group.

Quirks: Very sporty, caring for the maknae, good with children, "Flaming Charisma"

Name: Lee TaeMin (이 태민)

Position: Lead dancer, maknae

Birthday: July 18, 1993

Height: 175cm (5'9")

Quirks: Innocent, cute, loving, caring

SHINee World (Left to Right: JongHyun (blue), MinHo (orange), Onew (green), Key (pink), TaeMin (yellow))

Their first album (The SHINee World) was released August 29, 2008. Two music videos were released as well as theses songs (this is the track list):

1. The SHINee World

2. Love's Way

3. Love Like Oxygen (music video)

4. Romantic (live performance)

5. One For Me

6. Graze

7. Last Gift (In My Room) - Prelude

8. Best Place

9. Y Si Fuera Ella

10. Four Seasons

11. In My Room (Unplugged Remix)

12. Replay (music video)

Lucifer (Left to Right: Onew, TaeMin, JongHyun, MinHo, Key)

Their second album (Lucifer) was released July 19, 2010, had one music video released and included these tracks:

1. Up & Down

2. Lucifer (music video)

3. Electric Heart

4. A-Yo

5. Obsession

6. Quasimodo

7. Shout Out

8. WOWOWOW

9. Your Name

10. Life

11. Ready Or Not

12. Love Pain

13. Love Still Goes On

Replay (Left to Right: Key, JongHyun, TaeMin, MinHo, Onew)

Their first mini album (Replay) was released May 28, 2008. It had the songs:

1. Replay

2. Real

3. Love Should Go On

4. Replay (Boom Track)

Juliette (Left to Right: Onew, TaeMin, JongHyun, MinHo, Key)

Their second mini album Romeo was also released with one music video and these following tracks:

1. Talk To You

2. Juliette (music video)

3. Hit Me

4. Senorita

5. Please Don't Go (Only JongHyun and Onew sing in this one. It's a very sad and powerful song.)

6. Romeo and Juliette

Amigo (Left to Right: Onew, JongHyun, TaeMin, MinHo, Key)

Their third mini album (Amigo) was released in 2008. Including a music video and these tracks:

1. Amigo (music video)

2. Forever and Never

3. Plugged

Ring Ding Dong (Left to Right: Onew, TaeMin, JongHyun, MinHo, Key)

Their fourth mini album (Year of Us) was released in 2009 with a music video and these tracks:

1. Y.O.U.

2. Ring Ding Dong (music video)

3. Jojo

4. Get Down

5. SHINee Girl

6. The Name I Loved (Only Onew sings this one. It's my favourite on the album; his voice is so beautiful.)

Hello (Left to Right: Onew, TaeMin, MinHo, Key, JongHyun)

Their fifth mini album (Hello) was released October 4, 2010. It had a music video as well as these songs:

1. Hello (music video)

2. One

3. Get It

Replay- Japanese Debut (Left to Right: Key, MinHo, TaeMin, JongHyun, Onew)

SHINee has since then made a Japanese debut and has made it big on the Oricon chart. Their following old tracks as well as their new track were released with their first Japanese album, 'The First':

1) Lucifer (Japanese) (music video)

2) Amigo (Japanese)

3) Juliette (Japanese) (music video)

* Juliette (Japanese) Dance Version

4) Better

5) To Your Heart

6) Always Love

7) Replay (Japanese) (music video)

8) Start

9) Love Like Oxygen (Japanese)

10) Hello (Japanese)

11) The SHINee World (Japanese)

12) Seesaw

13) Stranger

There are some songs I didn't mention here... The one's that I didn't mention that I know of are the following:

1. Stand By Me

2. Tragedy (Another duet by Onew and JongHyun; very heart breaking and powerful)

3. Lollipop- f(x) ft. SHINee

4. Kiss Kiss Kiss (Japanese)

Even after all this advertising and such I've done here, I have to mention to you all that SHINee will be disbanding in five years for their contract will be expiring. It's going to be a sad day since they're such a promising group and millions, including myself, love them to death. Until then, though, I'll enjoy listening to their music and watching each new thing they create and hopefully some of you will endulge in their greatness with me! 샤이니 화이딩!!!!

For those who are interested, you can watch SHINee's predebut performance video here.

And for those interested in watching a few of their reality shows, here are the two most popular that I think you'd all like:

SHINee Yunhanam

SHINee Hello Baby!

Yunhanam.

Hello Baby!

Currently, each SHINee member is single because when you're signed under SM Entertainment you are not allowed to date. However, a certain rebellious member of SHINee broke that rule and is now seeing Shin SeKyung- a Korean actress who is also a noona.

JongHyun and Shin SeKyung broke a million fan girls' hearts when they were officially announced and a bit of a dilemna ensued for SM Entertainment. Now, however, SHINee's all back together and JongHyun is able to see his girl friend freely much to the fan girls' displeasure. I myself was kind of crushed when all my fan girlish dreams got crushed. But considering I'm not a hard core shipper, I learned to accept it. I do find it weird, though, that she's a noona (AKA, a cougar).

Here are some pictures of the happy couple:

Shin SeKyung and Kim JongHyun. Walking happily while a million fan girls sit at their computers and plot their break up... Or for the hard core, crazy fan girls, Shin SeKyung's death.

**NOTE: JongHyun and SeKyung are no longer together.