"View" by Shinee, Wednesday, August 11, 2021

In May of 2015, Shinee released their fourth Korean album, Odd, with its lead--and only single, other than the repackaged album--"View." The song was extremely popular, winning eight year-end awards on Korean award shows and heard in commercials and in every Korean radio station. It seems that the classic, early- '90s vibes of the song made the song palatable to all generations and inescapable bop to all who were out and about in summer of 2015 in South Korea. The music video, filmed in Thailand, tells the story of teenage rebellion, set in a retro style. The sticky hot atmosphere, member Key's (키) Guns N' Roses muscle tee, stealing beer, riding vespas, dancing in a dusty garage, and diving into a neighborhood pool and rushing off, stealing the clothes from the line--creates a vibe of a carefree summer. Though the boys of Shinee and the their female fans might be a little bad, nothing shocking happens. It's just like a story parents sometimes tell their older teens when they say, don't do what I did.

BEYOND THE FOURTH DIMENSIONAL, A MIRACULOUS VIEW. Jacques Patterson ranked "View" in Idolator's "25 Best Best K-Pop Songs of 2015" at Number 3, behind Hyosung's "Into You" (#2) and Big Bang's "Bae Bae" (#1). Patterson said "'View' sounds like it was lifted straight out of a gay New York nightclub in the early nineties, which is about the highest possible praise one can give a record like this. . . .  The moment SHINee start swivelling their hips and vogueing to the chorus, you can almost hear Ru Paul snapping his fingers in the background with a sassy 'You better WORK!'” But before this song became the song of the summer, South Korea was facing a scary situation. On May 20, 2015, South Korea reported its first case of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. Infections started rising in early June. The government took measures against the spread of the virus by quarantining close contacts and family members of the infected. An eerie calm fell over the districts of Seoul. The normally crowded, bustling shopping districts became ghost towns. Shops remained open, but customers mostly stayed home. Everyone was fearful of catching this exotic virus with so little known about it. The stories of burning lungs or not knowing you were exposed until 10 days later, the fear of catching it in a crowded city or from a sauna--where a man in Daegu attempted to treat his flu-like symptoms with hydrotherapy--circulated in early June. All the while, the stores were playing a new song by Shinee.

THE SKY IS BEAUTIFULLY SPREAD. In the peak of MERS fear, Josh worried about the stigma of people who traveled to Seoul, a two hour trip. Would he be judged as selfish for his leisure time on the weekend? It seemed highly unlikely to get this new disease, but the crowded subways with a confirmed patient could cause him to go into quarantine, and then the questions could start. And meeting Song Jae was starting to hit a lull. They'd check into a hotel. Sometimes paid for by him, sometimes Song Jae. They'd have dinner at a restaurant and then come back to the hotel, have sex, and go to bed. They'd go out on Saturday to have lunch and maybe do some window shopping, have dinner, and go back to the room. They'd talk about nothing too deep. Josh's Korean was limited, Song Jae's English was better than Josh's Korean. The weekends in Seoul were starting to rack up a heavy credit card bill, but Josh needed to see the man that he loved. A new physical relationship void of meaningful conversation couldn't afford physical absence, something that would prove true in the months to come.  Health authorities contained MERS. The last case was reported on July 19th. Some 100,000 tourists canceled their trips to Korea that year and department stores reported a loss of profits that summer. By the end of June, Seoul started to pick up--shoppers came back. The coffee shops filled up again. The outbreak was forgotten and it was back to normal. It wasn't fear of MERS that led to the break up, though.

 Read the lyrics on Genius.