Director Reacts - TAEMIN - 'Criminal' MV & Dance Practice & Live 

Can I express how annoyed I get when people recognize Taemin only by "Jimin's friend"? .. it shows how fame wins the game in kpop over the talent, not saying Jimin is not talented - he's is my bias in BTS - but Taemin in another incomparable level, especially with his vocal skills, it's so so rare to see a dancing machine with such a vocal ability.

That line when he says "destroy me more" is so genius because with a slight change in pronunciation it becomes "run away". Something Taemin notes when he discusses the song.

There’s a reason why Taemin is known as the idol of idols. He works so damn hard and it shows in everything he does.

Let’s watch more Taemin!

Lee Taemin has so clearly earned the title of "Idol of Idols", denying it would just make people think you're insane. He is THE kpop idol, he's your bias' bias, your utl's ult. If Michael Jackson is the King of Pop, he is the King of Kpop.

Taemin is in a class all his own, and never get enough of him.

When Shinee were all doing their military service at the same time Taemin the Maknae kept Shinee on the radar with an amazing solo run. Hit after hit singles, sold out world tours, performances beyong amazing, dancing like MJ. He also became part of Super M a group of SM Entertainment consisting of their best vocalists and dancers from various groups of SM. It included Taemin from Shinee, Kai and Baekhyun from EXO, Mark Lee and Taeyong from NCT, and Lucas and Ten from WayV. They were truly a SUPER group. Not together anymore but with the talent that was all put into that group their music they put out for that short time is a worthwhile dive and shouldn't be slept on by anyone who loves Kpop. 💙

Criminal never gets old! And the choreography is toooooo good

Black Rose and Heaven are also really great live performances from Taemin too!

the best part of a dance practice is you get to hear the footsteps😍

Taemin is so mesmerizing that I never pay attention to the backup dancers. And his dance practices are my favorite. He's so adorable. Always watch till the end just in case he does something cute.

TAEMIN is huge MJ fan as dancer and fashionista as well as vocals. He has been dancing since he was 10 years old and became youngest member of 2nd OG group #SHINee at the age of 14 that debuted in Aug 2008. All the members especially TAEMIN have always experimented outside the box.

He's such a talent. Glad you're exploring his discography. He's definitely my fav solo artist from Korea and handsdown one of my favorite artists of all time because of his concepts, choreography, and how much of his own input goes into his art.

The main theory (and mine) is that the songs POV is Lee Taemin, the private person, and the Criminal he’s singing about is TAEMIN, the idol. It isn’t the first time Taemin has done songs about his struggle separating TAEMIN from Lee Taemin and how the industry have damaged him and it likely won’t be the last. Absolute banger of a song, it’s actually the one song that brought me back to kpop 😂 still my favourite title track of his.

the destroy me line also sounds like run away with me in korean so if you speak korean he could be saying run away with me or destroy me depending on which one you focus on

If you haven't already, I think you'd have a fit over "Want". That MV is my favorite.

YES! More taemin!! The stage performance of black rose is another incredible one to watch! The choreo is beautiful.

Criminal is truly the perfect title track - the music, the lyrics, incredibly intricate choreography, plus his phenomenal vocals and thrilling performance! I hope you’ll check out more of Taemin’s music - Want, Move and IDEA would be a perfect choice!

Taemin being the ultimate crush for everyone

Taemin is on another level. He’s often referred to the Michael Jackson of Kpop and I think you can see it in his dancing. That man oozes “seductive”. Also look into his “Want” and “Idea” and iconic Taemin is “Move”.

TAEMIN's live stages and dance practices are always awsome TAEMIN is the different level forever. THE KING of kings

"Criminal" is the second part of Taemin's Never Gonna Dance Again album. It is part of a trilogy, which started with his prologue "2 Kids," and continued with "Criminal," which is part of Act 1 of the album. "Idea" is part of Act 2 of the album and it brings the whole concept full circle. And now his follow up release "Advice" has become the epilogue to the story. Taemin said in an interview: "The two acts put together tell a story. '2 Kids’ is about growing pains and depicts the story prior to the story in the album. You can think of '2 Kids' as a teaser before the movie called 'Never Gonna Dance Again.' Act 1 shows a new side of me. I think it’ll be something you’ve never seen in K-pop before. And Act 2 is the end-all-be-all. It’s the ultimate level of intensity. Never Gonna Dance Again’ was originally the name of the concept. Because it doesn’t make sense for me to stop dancing. But I wanted to give a sense of rebellion with the irony of the title.” Just so you know, the Taemin you see is not really the criminal in the song. He is the victim who is being held captive by the criminal, who I see as represented by the lover (i.e the other side of him) that he is singing about, which is a metaphor for the pressure he feels under as a Kpop idol. The song is about living in a toxic relationship and being brainwashed by a lover. He has now fallen in love with the person (or thing -- i.e. his career) who is inflicting all the pain and suffering on him, so now he accepts the abuse as a normal part of the relationship. Even though he is being abused by that person -- possibly a metaphor for the pressure he is creating for himself with the need to always be the best in everything he does -- he can't help but love them and allow them to continue to hurt him, etc. All the abuse is happening to him, he is not hurting anyone else or doing anything criminal himself. Therefore, the story isn't about Taemin being a criminal. Notice, the S.W.A.T. team isn't arresting him. They pretty much walk right past Taemin and ignore him as they search for the criminal. The "boss" vibe is a facade he puts on to make people believe he is in control, but as you see in the choreography, he is being manipulated by all the outside forces around him. For example, you see him laying across the backup dancers' backs and they pick him up and manipulate him to do what they want him to do at that moment. A lot of his dance moves are designed to make him look like a marionette puppet that is being pulled around by strings and being told what to do. Which is what you see when he is crouched down and he creates that wiggly, wave movement in the dance, etc. As part of the story, he has been held captive for so long that, as it says in the lyrics of the song, he is now suffering from Stockholm syndrome, so he is no longer fighting the abuse and that is why you see him throw his bindings away. The criminal -- which is a metaphor for the pressure he has felt in his career -- no longer has to tie him up to keep him there. (Because he has fallen in love with the pain and suffering he inflicts on himself as an artist, etc.) The backup dancers represent the forces he is struggling against as he fights with his mind over whether to stay or go, etc. Fun fact: It was Taemin's idea to include the police blotter/news clips in that part of the song. If you notice, the sound bites are from all over the world and they are speaking multiple languages. This album's whole concept is a metaphor for his life and career. With every release from this album, the concept was designed to be darker than the last. In "2 Kids" he was emotionally and physically beating himself up with regrets. In "Criminal" he was living in a toxic relationship. In "Idea" he takes the theme one step further, and says that even though it was my idea and my plan to live this life, nothing comes without a price, and because of that need for perfection, any chance of being average or living a regular life is pretty much dead. Taemin has sacrificed everything to become the magnificent and unique performer and person that we know him as today. But there really is no one that pushes him or holds him to a higher standard than himself. Taemin has said that he really has never taken a true vacation since he was a trainee -- he started with SM Entertainment when he was around 11 years old -- and he doesn't know what to do if he isn't constantly working and training. As he has said, there has never been anything that has come easy to him and he has only gotten to where he is today because he has worked hard to accomplish everything. He is constantly pushing himself to become the best of the best in everything he does. All of Taemin's dances tell a story. As he has said, he specifically designs his choreography to be a part of the story within the song and MV. So, "Criminal" is supposed to be slightly creepy, as well as sexy. He is literally being abused and asking you to please "destroy me more." And it may be hard to believe, but as you can see, his dance practice isn't even Taemin at full power. He has always been known for saving his energy for where it counts the most -- for live performances and for filming MVs -- dance practices for him are literally dance practices, so he is just allowing himself to feel the dance and get in the groove. He is less worried about being spot on exact, and more about showing everyone the feel of the choreography and the story behind the dance. Taemin doesn't need to expend every ounce of his energy in the dance practice video, to show us how brilliant of a dancer he is. With even 50% effort, Taemin is more magnificent than a lot of dancers when they dance full out. No one can pull off a Taemin dance exactly the way Taemin does it -- it's never as sharp or precis as him -- no matter how talented of a dancer they are. As you can see, Taemin live is on a whole other level. That is where he truly shines. This is 100% Taemin live, not a stage mix. You can tell it's not a stage mix because everyone has the same outfits on the whole time. (Every time Taemin performed this song he wore a different outfit from the MV, so if this was a stage mix you would have seen him in several different outfits.) The Stage performance video is a special video that SM created for several of their groups and artists. Fun fact: Shindong from Super Junior -- a member of one of SM Entertainment's senior groups -- and his production company were the ones that directed this whole performance and video shoot. (Shindong and his company are also the ones that produce all of SM's The Stage videos.) As a member of SHINee, Taemin has trained his entire career to be able to pull off this type of intense and intricate dancing while singing live and always sounding flawless the whole time. (SHINee debuted in 2008 when Taemin was only 14 years old.) That is what SHINee are known for. So not only is Taemin an amazing dancer, but he is also one of the best singers in the industry, and the 5 members of SHINee make up one of the top groups, that everyone looks up to and dreams of even coming close to being as good as. Taemin's talents are one reason why SHINee have such legendary status. SHINee is made up of some of the absolute best singers, dancers and performers in the entire industry. That's why, even after more than 15 years since their debut, they still command one of the top spots.

Taemin , my favorite 😊Kpop artist ❤

If you have the time, check out the other SHINee members' solo stuff as well. They all have different vibes. You could do a vid with one mv per SHINee soloist and easily cross musical genres.

Taemin handsome, Taemin talents, Taemin power 😮

And he can do even better live.. he is such a classy and great dancer and singer.. his artistry is on a completely different level and exceeds the kpop boundaries completely.. He always transfers the story and the content of this songs to his dancing.. He is soo amazing. Best performer in kpop ever. Everytime he brings a new song we know there will be sth new, sth never seen or heard of.. I keep saying it and I do it again: he is a rare gem in this clone-like kpop industry.

Taemin live performances never disappointed, you have to watch his live perform from his solo concert👍🏻😍

Taemin is just great!!! Taemin, Jimin, San and Ten (have you seen Ten dancing Birthday??? 😳) . My favorite dancers!

Hes a king. Taemin, Kai, San, Ten, and Hobi are kpop dance elite.

Love the dance practices as you can truly see the clean dance lines without video distraction. Fantastic!

Taemin is ART.

Taemin es único!!!!!💎💎💎💎💎

Taemin said if i remember right that criminal is about falling in love feeling like stockholm syndrome and the choreo is from the point of view of a corpse

Love this performance! My personal theory is that Taemim is singing about dance.

Interesting tidbit! The cornerstone phrase he uses - "Destroy me more" 더 망쳐줘 (deo mangchyeojweo) in Korean - sounds like 도망쳐줘 (domangchyeojweo), which means "Run away (from me)"

Love Taemin, he never disappoints was so lucky to see him live in Chicago a few years ago, Thank You for watching this!! The song is about Stockholm Syndrome, and i believe its talking about between his two personas of normalcy and musically I also really love his Live Stage Performance of Black Rose, and his Japanese Live Stage of Famous

I agree that the lyrics are really well written, especially the destroy me more part. That line sounds like it could also be 도망쳐줘, which means 'run away'. There's an interview on a radio show where the lyricist talks about how Taemin wanted to intentionally blur the delivery of the line.

I think the last one had the regular audio over it, there are other live stages where you can hear him sing live and it’s so good 😍

My favorite dance practice of his is Famous. I am always in awe of his performances.

Most often, such videos are shot several times, once from afar and once close shooting. This video was filmed during covid without an audience. Some channels give you the opportunity to see everything from start to finish "one cut "video. As well as focus, fan video. And most often I choose this type of video to better experience the atmosphere.т

Again Taemin is known to be the dancing King in the kpop industry and to be the MJ of Korea.

He is an amazing dancer and hot as hell.

Yes more taemin!!!

Taemins main group is shinee. He is also apart of super m and is also a solo artist

The King of K-Pop 👑👑👑

I think I mentioned fun facts on Taemin to you before but if I didn't then here you go. He's a self taught dancer though he sought professional lessons later on and he was taught to sing by his members leader Onew and the late Jonghyun before seeking professional lessons later on. He's a fan of Michael Jackson and he is also Catholic and afraid of all insects and bugs but in the mv for want he is holding a real snake. Signed with sm entertainment age 11 debuted age 14 an has also been playing piano since he was 11. If you didn't notice at the beginning of this mv his hands were tied. Taemin himself with the director produces his own mv's and also helps with the choreography

I really love Famous choreography

Also SHINee is famous for their live performance, you could check out their concert live performance if you are interested, but they originally have 5 members so don't feel confused about that, btw Taemin is not the lead vocal, he's actually the main dancer in SHINee, they really are on another level

Taemin "Move" MV & Dance Practice next! It will change your life.

this is still one of my favorite Taemin songs

LEGEND OF KPOP

More Taemin please !!!!!!!

One of my fave TAEMIN songs lyrically. So beautiful. Definitely recommend IDEA by TAEMIN next

We only have dance practices because SHINee started doing them so 👏 SHINee dance practices are always worth watching

The algorithm brought me here. Been enjoying your reactions to OneOkRock, Stray Kids, & Woosung. Just hit that subscribe button when I saw Taemin. He was born to be an entertainer.

Press Your Number performance version 2 and Famous dance practice are most excellent.

Taemin is pretty special. I do find his backup dancers are hit or miss, which is frustrating. My friend and I have a totally unrealistic dream of a dance super group with Jimin, Taemin, Kai, Ten, Haechan, and Momo.

I love Taemin 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

MOVE!!!! Let’s watch more Taemin!

Famous dance practice ❤

Yes, Taemin! More of him please!

Noticed you caught the one Michael move but, earlier - definite Thriller.

Taemin is the God of Kpop. He's an Idols Idol.

Thank you for all positive comments ❤🙏

I love u Taemin. Amazing singer and dancer so nice.....

k-pop has the corner on story telling with dance, poetry, and visuals!!!!!I

O my gach.... Taemin is the King of the kpop

TAEMIN ? ? ? KING

When Taemin says “destroy me more” I go feral

My Taemin is really awesome !!!

The King Lee Taemin!!!!

He's legend

I haven't heard of the shoes problem from anyother youtuber. I enjoyed your reaction 😊

taemin move mv is amazing 2017

Theres a rock version of this now during his metamorph concert❤

Taemin king👑👑

I'm not sure if anyone already mentioned it, but taemin has said quite a few times that MJ is his role model and influences quite a bit of his work

He is the best ❤❤❤

The dancers are like flames.♨️

3:54 That’s the killing blow. (^~^) 💕🦋

perfect perfect perfect

They call him the Idol's Idol!

God I love Taemin

somebody please get him to check out the mv for "Idea". Also this isn't' not a stage mix, it's a prerecord to see an actual live performance with an audience (unless the performance was during covid) make sure to choose a idol show channel, like mnet, inkigayo, kbs and more. These channels do prerecords too but it's pretty easy to tell which ones are prerecorded and which ones aren't, like for example this one

Hi, i am back. Good reaction, ty. Love this one too. Such a bop. So catchy. Taemin uses a sample at the start from Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head. That is so cool. Great visuals. Loved the chain mail in the MV. He so hot. New Taemin bias here. I see so much that Jimin learned from him. Dang. Lots of MJ stuff agree. Ur the 2nd person that noticed the misstep. =0p Go u. Hugs. -NY USA 2019 Army💟 Charitha Venkatesh.B said on 1/30/21 The song is actually about STOCKHOLM SYNDROME 😳..... The police scanner u heard was actually news reports reporting on a suspect being arrested and rescuing someone who had this syndrome... It is both in ENGLISH and KOREAN (8 different people recorded for those reports it seems) For the "destroy me more" part, in Korean the lyrics is "Do Mang Cho Jo" has 2 meanings. it is said as "Do Mang Cho Jo" (a split second gap after 'Do') and also as "Do Mang Cho Jo" (no gap) , the meanings can be either "run away(from me)" or "destroy me more"..... This was done deliberately (maybe to signify both the pursuer and the pursuit are him?) @thespianoge said on 7/1/2022 Taemin has said that the general theme of this song is “Stockholm Syndrome.” While one normally thinks of that as another person inflicting it on another, the inner psychological idea of Stockholm Syndrome within oneself is worth exploring and I’m so glad for your thoughtful and intensive interpretation of this song! The main theme, as you’ve gathered, of Taemin’s solo work is about duality. Even his role of the little scamp makane from SHINee into intense sex god Taemin exemplifies this. Also, the recent news about his battle with depression anxiety (which I deeply understand myself) it further supports the idea that he has been forced to live in the public eye as someone who is always doing okay while suppressing that hurting part of himself. Taemin is my ULT, hands down, and knowing his struggles makes sense about why I’ve been so attracted to his work. I’m so glad you’re beginning your journey discovering his work! IDEA is technically the middle part of the trilogy that is Criminal, Idea, and Advice, so I’d recommend you do that one next. Move is also an iconic one to touch on early because it inspired a whole dance craze with its extremely atypical style. Then there’s “Danger” which was his solo debut. I personally love his Japanese stuff, sometimes even more than his Korean stuff, but I know that reactors have usually had difficult times with Japanese video reactions being blocked. Sorry for this long winded comment but bottom line: I appreciate your thoughtful analysis and you’ve brought more insight into my perception of this song!

Taemin lives stages are dinamic, please watch his solo concerts.

KING ✨♥️

YES this was one stage and Shindong is the PD he is great

I love Taemin! When you said that was so michael... Funny you said that because Taemin is known as the Michael Jackson of Korea. Everyone says that about him. If you ever get to check out Danger another one of his music videos you can see it so much more.

Hello! pleasre you need to watch Famouse live in Japan, that video and choreo is something else! Greetings from Peru

TAEMIN Dance Practices : ru-vid.com/group/PLG9J3dru6j3vux3JPvXQVu1NyVQX_Xi0f

You must watch the Taemin - SEXUALITY (live) That's insane!!! He's perfect.

Great! ❤

SM stage video They shot dance scenes and face focus cam differently and mix together.

Piece of choreography!!!!!👏👏👏

amazing

Lo amo a taemin ❤

El plano original de los solistas actuales (a excepción de su hermano Key y sus ideas súper originales) . Y aunque dos de sus amigos sean de los mejores bailarines (Kai y Jimin), es Lee Taemin por mucho mejor cantante y balarín, ya que empezó.muy niño en los escenarios. El trabajo de Taemin es influenciado por MJ y de su amado Jonghyun. El IDOL of IDOLS se llama Lee Taemin❤

Taemin 🇵🇪♥️

Quiero el comeback pronto