SHINee once again proved their relevance in the music industry even after 15 years!
With their new album, "HARD," the quintet continues to exceed their personal best record. And with experts still praising the group even after over a decade, SHINee is indeed once in a millenium.
Music Expert Highlights SHINee's 'Role' as 'Edge of K-pop,' 'Contemporary Band'
On June 26, SHINee finally returned to the music scene with their eighth full-length album, "HARD," featuring a title track with the same name, to celebrate their 15th debut anniversary.
Upon its release, people were shocked by the group featuring a song with an old-school hybrid hip-hop sound, a genre that was never been heard from SHINee before.
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Since the quintet's launch, SM Entertainment had been introducing them as a "contemporary band," and recently as "K-pop's Edge" by the media. This is due to the fact that "SHINee has the power to show the inclusion of the genre of 'edge without discount' and renew its familiarity," which became the key to their longevity.
The group doesn't limit themselves to a certain genre – they make themselves the genre.
Regarding this, Lim Hee Yoon, a music expert, (Hee Minem, Yuni Lim) explained:
"K-pop is a famous genre that shines the most with fragmented SNS, and instant aesthetics that are most suitable for relaxation and shorts.
However, some of the works on the opposite point shine even more as time goes by after releasing the album. SHINee albums are like that."
Lim also defined SHINee's full-length album as the "bible" of K-pop that shows one characteristic vertex of the SM A&R system.
Interpreting that SM's A&R system is a flexible yet solid system honed over a long period of time that completely overlaps with the history of K-pop, Lim continued:
"If we accept the premise that K-pop is pop, it is a key technology that enables the current K-pop world if we accept the definition of a music genre before audio-visual and synesthetic entertainment."
Lim furthered:
"From unexpected chords and melody developments that slightly deviate from expectations, unconventional hooks, minimal but melodic and glossy lyrics, and vocal and rap skills of members who performed them well, SHINee's 8th album proved "SHINee World" and once again proved the capabilities of the K-pop world."
SHINee Achieves Best-Selling Album on Hanteo 15 Years After Their Debut With 'HARD'
Aside from rave reviews from music experts, SHINee also proved their significance through the record.
As of July 3, the "JUICE" singers broke their first-week album sales' personal best record with its full-length album, "HARD."
According to the Hanteo Chart SHINee's new release sold more than 206,000 copies on the first week of its release, which is nearly double the initial 127,000 copies of the seventh full-length album "Don't Call Me," released in 2021.
With this, "HARD" also became their best-selling album on Hanteo, recorded 15 years after their debut.
Congratulations, SHINee!
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