#idk or maybe theyll go back to doing something weird and electronic. ball's up in air its impossible to predict

[sanstropfremir]

Reading you talking about producers and how important they are for a group's identity, especially when they are rookies... How do you think SHINee managed to keep their identity while always changing concepts, sound and producers? Was there a period where you felt they had a more "fixed" sound and image? Do you think that with TSOL and DCM they have abandoned their more experimental sound and went more mainstream? If so, do you think they will go back to that or is something now for NCT/aespa?

they managed to keep a consistant identity because it was them. this loops back around some of the discussions we've had about having variety show personalities, but part of being an idol that performs idol music is about having a personality that you play during those performances. and although there are variations and differences tailored to each type of concept, the key point is that there's a running thread of consistency through everything. this is something that second gen idols are really good at; they've got very consistant performance personas because it's part of the whole entertainer package (which also includes how you perform offstage too). and two other big parts of it are 1) physical appearance and 2) voice. shinee has relatively good face diversity and each of them are usually styled in a unique way to them within each cb, and all five of them have insanely distinctive voices. jonghyun and jinki obviously, but key, taemin, and minho all have vocal tones that stand out from each other, so much so that you even when they're singing together you can pick out who's singing what parts if you really pay attention. you can recognize a shinee song instantly, no matter what genre or style, because of their voices.

dcm/atlantis (the album/repack) is maybe the only time i'd say they had a 'fixed' sound; sonically that album has a very consistant sound across all the tracks, with the main outliers being dcm, body rhythm, and area. but i don't think that they've totally 'gone mainstream'. they're well aware of their status as an experimental group and that's probably going to manifest again in whatever the next cb is. are we going to see something like sticker from them? unlikely, but that isn't the only type of experimental music there is.