Greatest Hits:: Taemin (SHINee): Advice

 So this was a request I got that made me smile and I'm doing this one here because I think it'll pair well with the last Greatest Hits post I did. The person who submitted it said they were at Taemin's concert in Vegas and saw this performed for the first time. They found my blog a few days ago and when they found out that I take submissions for this, they wanted to know if I'd do this one. The answer is, of course! I'll send you a message with it as soon as I've got this posted!

Taemin, maknae of the second gen boy group SHINee, debuted under SM Entertainment in 2008 with his group and 2014 as a soloist. He's generally regarded as one of the best dancers in K-Pop and also has the nickname "Idol of Idols" because of the number of younger idols who cite him as their inspiration and the reason they decided to go into K-Pop.

Advice (the song) is the title track for Taemin's third mini album, Advice (the album), which was released roughly two weeks before he enlisted in the military. The lyricist for the song is Cho Yun Kyoung, who has worked primarily with SM artists but also others (NCT, Red Velvet, EXO, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ZEROBASEON, GFRIEND, Enhypen, Super Junior, LE SSERAFIM, Super Junior, ILLIT, BTS, CLC, and The Boyz). Composers are Wayne Hector (primarily Western artists (including Donny Osmond of all people, which was not on my Fun Fact Bingo Sheet for 2026), as well as NCT, Chung Ha, and Super Junior), Lucan Secon (a lot of Western artists as well as TVXQ!, Chung Ha, SHINee, Jamie, and Girls' Generation), PhD (again, a lot of Western artists, but also RIIZE, NCT, Taeyeon, Junhee, SuperM, aespa,  EXO, Chuu, MAMAMOO, Wendy, Fifty Fifty, SHINee, Girls' Generation, Purple Kiss, Weeekly, and Super Junior), and Cutfather (NCT, aespa, TWICE, SuperM, RIIZE, Chung Ha, CLC, Taeyeon, Red Velvet, EXO, f(x), B.A.P, and Close Your Eyes). 

• Group: SHINee
• Debut Date: 2014 August 18
• Company: SM Entertainment
• Status: Active
• Album: Advice
• Song: Advice
• Release Date: 2021 May 18

We got a Studio Choom performance for this. Nice.

The introduction of this song with its solo piano is so beautiful. One might almost call it ephemeral. 

Just a little joke because he had a tour called "Ephemeral Gaze."

But it's also not wrong. That's such a pretty way to start a song, especially once it gets layered over the trap beat. It's very elegant, very classical and soft, but then the beat kicks in, and it's such a wonderful contrast, very Taemin in a way with that blend of the elegant and sharp, but so, so incredibly vulnerable at times. 

The costuming matches that as well, because while the majority of what he specifically is wearing is very stark and rigid in its lack of color and in the patterns, there's a soft flow his dancing lines and his movements. Most of his costumes have strings or strips of fabric that flutter as he moves, and with how long his hair is, that helps compound and reinforce that look of the song. 

And the lighting is also fascinating, because the combination of the blue light and the red light on the black and the white gives him multiple different costumes in only using one, plus I'm actually reminded a lot of The Matrix. I know that one of the colors that's most associated with that movie is bright green, but if you think about the red and blue pills and the concept of choice, combined with when the colors are most present here, something really interesting shows up. The blue pill represents ignorance, comfort, acceptance, and the blue lighting is strongest at the beginning of Advice. The first time we get the properly red lighting is when Taemin is literally unmasking himself.

I know.

If I was analyzing this for one of my film classes, I'd be having a field day because it would be just so easy.

From that point on, there are flashes of the red breaking through the blue, and because of what the music is doing during those points, they almost read as defiance. 

Easily the best costume of the bunch (other than the crop top, which I'll get to in a moment) is that black and white suit in part because the dancers are costumed in half like he is. That whole bit is so cool because the stylists could have made it gendered, and they didn't. They blended the dancers, they blended Taemin, which again is that whole thing about the mix of the elegant and the sharp, and the way he has a full fashion show catwalk in the middle, with that suit on is incredible. I try not to talk about the choreography too much until the dance practice if it's available, but come on. Look at that.

And that crop top? That one is probably the height of the gender mix because I could swear that I've seen something very similar to that when girl groups and female idols do their dance practices. I don't want to call what he's got on under the crop top a sports bra because I'm not sure that's what it is, but that's what it looks like. And the choreography right there is so female idol that even though I know Taemin is a dude, my brain fully accepts that the main figure in that is not a dude. 

Okay, so, first of the videos goes to the behind-the-scenes where Taemin was either in adorable dork mode or intense idol mode. There was no in between. I'm glad that we did get two things confirmed here though. First, he was actually playing the piano at the beginning so kudos to him for the talent. I hoped he was, because he looked like he was, including using the pedals, but it's nice to get that confirmation. Second, he also showed off some unfiltered vocals. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it as someone who likes hearing evidence that the singers can sing well. 

Minho also showed up to support him, and we love a supportive hyung, but looking at his hair, unless Minho kept it really short for a while after he was discharged, this had to have been filmed either while he was still enlisted, or shortly after that, so late 2020 or very early 2021.

Speaking of Minho, look what I found! A music video reaction with him and Taemin!

He's very vocally expressive about the whole thing, even right from the start. Those are happy Korean noises he is making, and I adore that for him. 

Also, his crack about it sounding like Psyduck absolutely made me laugh.

Taemin saying that he hoped it didn't look sexy, Minho confirming that it did look sexy, and then Taemin's disgruntled pout was adorable. 

This was good. They're both sharp and insightful, as they should be considering that they'd been doing this for almost thirteen years at that point. 

You know what other reaction video I found for this? aespa!

I love that both aespa as an entire group and Minho audibly reacted to the start of this music video. It's such a strong opening that I'm glad we get to see people reacting.

And the fact that some of them immediately started going with the choreography? That's great to see. Immersion and imitation at its finest.

And I find it wildly hilarious that Ningning, the redhead who doesn't talk a whole lot because she's obviously so immersed, is so satisfied by the fact that Taemin is wearing a seatbelt. That's so endearing. And Winter was being a dolphin to sing part of it.

Next up is the recording video for both Advice and SAD KIDS, but we're only going to worry about Advice for now since it's first and also the one I'm doing this post on.

We get raw, vibrato-filled vocals. I'm very happy.

Again, like with the music video reaction with him and Minho, the decade plus of experience really shows in his level of precision and attention to detail and understanding of the craft to be able to have that conversation with the producer like that and for the producer to trust his experience and ears like that. 

And here is where Taemin truly shines as an artist: the live performances. There aren't going to be a lot of variations between the stages because of how precise he is as a dancer, so I'm not going to share as many of them as I normally do. 

Now, that being said, I really did like this one. This one is post-military MCountdown in France. The crowd is so loud, and Taemin himself has this lazy, predator prowl to him that genuinely just suits the song so well. He never actually relaxes, holding himself with the same tension throughout the song, but the difference is whether the energy is potential or kinetic. Even through the screen, you can feel it, especially when the camera is showing his eye contact. 

We've got that in some of the comeback stages, but not quite as sharply as we've got it here. There's just something about the men post-military where it doesn't matter how mild their personality is, getting back on stage brings a whole different vibe.

I supposed I'll have to do a comeback stage to point out the differences. Oh, no. I have to watch an incredible dancer some more? Whatever will I do? Twist my arm, why don't you?

There is one very important key detail about the choreography here that you do not see in the comeback stages, and it's when Taemin flips his jacket off his shoulders. And the crowd goes wild.

You know what? Let's do the One Take stage from Inkigayo as the pre-military stage.

This costume is probably my least favorite one from the music video, but I also love plaid and the colors are really good in it. That being said, it fits so, so well with the styling for the dancers, because they're in completely unmatching costumes, and that means they match together. 

It's also really hard to get a good look at his throat to check for live vocals. It sounds like he should have them because there are a few spots where his voice is very clearly not the same as the studio version, but the choreography is such that between the movements and the jacket and the choker and that's also not counting the camera movements on top of that, we don't get a lot of still shots of his throat. But at the very end when he's finally still, you can see his throat muscles working. So there were some live singing for at least parts of it, which is all the more impressive because that choreography would absolutely not make it easy to sing. 

He's very obviously got a lot of focus and everything, exactly as you'd expect and want to see. But there's more of a fragility here that ties back into the vulnerability that he clearly wanted more of for the concept and the music video. The difference is really cool. 

There are a lot of stages out there for this song. I highly recommend you take a look, and submitter, you're not alone in loving this song. I think this is one of his more beloved ones from the fans. 

But we're going to pop a little further into the future, closer to the present, with Taemin's Ephemeral Gaze tour, of which this was on the setlist. He looks like he may have been having some difficulty with the headset mic, which I imagine was just irritating.

This is a rearranged version with strings (be still, my soul!), and the costuming is beautifully flowy to match. I really like the introduction of the stage because the screen is showing a piano being played, and I love how just generally throughout the stage, the lighting is following the movement of the piano's notes. 

There are, again, little flairs to the choreography that we don't see in the comeback stages. Him messing with his hair, changes to the body rolls, things that make the choreography more dangerous and sensual.

Okay, so the program was Queendom Puzzle, and if you know me, you know I love the survival shows because of the stages we get to see and the incredible interpretations of the songs. I love covers because they register in my head as crossovers, and there are very few things I love in this world more than crossovers, because then I don't have to choose.

This is Suyun from Rocket Punch. And honestly, she did an incredible job. Those high notes she's hitting? Her expressions? Holy Helen of Troy. And I absolutely adore the way the choreography ended. Covers of this quality are a tribute to the original artist.

She killed it.

Choreography time!

This song has song incredible moves to it. I'd actually recommend watching this at half speed just because there are so many details hidden behind the speed at which he and the other dancers are moving. And the best part is Taemin is looking so relaxed here. It's the difference between a performance and a practice, but he looks like he's just going for a casual stroll, a literal walk in the park. 

The amount of body control that this song requires. I wish I knew more about dancing. I wish I did, because I recognize at least three different styles but I cannot tell you what those styles and moves are called. I think there might be some tutting in there, but everything he does is just so smooth that it all looks effortless. 

Also! You may notice that this video was posted about a year after the song was released, which may make you wonder why. It was posted for Taemin's birthday while he was enlisted. What a gift!

Well, everyone, I hope you enjoyed Advice! I know I do! It's actually one of my top three favorite Taemin songs along with Criminal and Shadow, but I've never dug this much into it, so thank you for submitting this to me and trusting me with it. I found some things that I wasn't expecting to find, but am also happy to share them with everyone!

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover here, or maybe you recently saw it performed and want others to know how amazing it is, or maybe you've got a song that you don't think people talk about enough, drop a comment or submit it via The Form. Also, if you've found this on a social media somewhere, I'll always take messages on that platform. Or comments on that platform.