turning my tags into a full post cuz i was rly rambly:
#key meta#is a tag i might start???#with taemin its v about narratives so it's easy to analyze like a book#but key's metatextual self commentary stuff is so rooted in like industry#it's so smart in a business way and a social navigation way and an emotional way#where taemin is more cerebral philosophical narrative literary filmic and about art#whereas key is always about expressing himself more and better and more clearly within k entertainment#taemin exploring themes he relates to and finds interesting vs key expressing himself in a changing context as he ages#so key i'm more careful about talking about
when i write meta about kpop artists it's metatextual because they're always talking about their relationship to fame and the public media gaze, their art and their control over it, and the effects of those things on their self image. it's usually soloists that are able to have a full artistic vision and show a self-written storyline about themselves through their albums, music videos, photoshoots, and performances. gain, taemin, and sunmi have a lot to say. they all use archetypes and worldbuilding and repeated imagery and lyric motifs to talk about themselves through their art and it's really fun to analyze and see what kind of story they're telling.
key is a little bit different and i mostly just bask and yell and lose my mind over it with my friends instead of theorizing and conjecturing and analyzing. with taemin, sunmi, and gain they present characters and stories they invented and it's designed so that every interpretation is fairly true and every fan with a theory is building this imaginary world together and deepening the meaning of the art together. but with key, his work has always been skillfully tactfully and carefully expressing more and more of himself. his honest, true self with his interests and influences and the messages he wants to send to the people he cares about and who care about him.
taemin specifically is very clear that his art shows very little personal detail about himself and his character but is instead about the celebrity persona he's been grappling with since he was 13 and what aesthetics he's interested in talking about that with. he wants to design stories that people can play in and explore in and build with him so i can think however i like about his temptation/corruption of innocence motifs and his religious symbolism and philosophy/film/literary references and analyze what he has to say about gender and sexuality and the shame around it and it's all within what i'm supposed to be doing as a fan.
but with key, i can so clearly see him as a gay icon of south korean entertainment he's genuinely an important pop culture figure in south korean lgbt history from the late 2000s onward and he's always been loved for it and hurt by it too. and now after 14 years he's only getting better at his many jobs and he's only now reaching the heights of recognition and respect he's always deserved within his several fields within k-entertainment. and he's always been a very real person that always strives toward honesty and kindness while having very obvious vulnerabilities that people do in fact use against him all the time. he's an artist that i respect and admire very much and all of his work is simply sharing himself and his views and his experiences in very tactful skillful entertaining ways. he knows how to put on a good show and express the parts of his character he wants for certain jobs and how to balance intimacy with healthy boundaries with his audience. so when i talk about his work i'm very careful about it, it feels like i have to be more careful out of respect.
