With “View,” SHINee simultaneously showed their growth as musicians, expansion of their musical capabilities, and a growing sense of freedom as seniors in the K-Pop music industry. 

In their seventh studio album Odd, SHINee lived up to their title as a “contemporary” and “experimental” musical group, mixing their R&B style with funk, house, hip-hop, and retro sounds. The five members showed their expanded range by taking on the deep house genre in the title track “View,” which was released on May 18, 2015. British composing team LDN Noise lent their producing talents to the group while SHINee’s vocalist Jonghyun beat out 30 other songwriters to pen the lyrics. 

SHINee’s Odd album marked their return to the Korean music scene after nearly two years. The five members voted on “View” as their title track to “focus on expressing youth rather than masculinity” and to show “a freewheeling style that matches our age,” as Jonghyun described in an interview with the 1theK YouTube series “Ask in a Box.” As a group that always put their fans first, they unveiled “View” during their concert SHINee WORLD IV, along with four new songs off the album: "Love Sick,” “An Ode To You,” “Woof Woof,” and “An Encore.”

Min Heejin, SM Entertainment’s Creative Director at the time, embodied the freedom of summer in the concept for Odd and the music video for “View.” In the video, the members enjoy an unexpected “freeness” after a day in the spotlight when they are kidnapped by a group of women and led through the woods. Viewers feel like a fly on the wall as the members make summer memories—hitchhiking in the back of a pickup truck, raiding the shelves of grocery stores, and riding through the streets on the backs of stolen electric scooters. Their fun eventually lands them in trouble after Minho gets into a fight at a warehouse party, and the police arrive at their hideaway just after SHINee gives their kidnappers a private performance of “View.”

The group made their music show comeback on M!COUNTDOWN on May 21, 2015, opening the stage with the B-side track “Love Sick,” taking fans back to their early 2000s R&B sound and telling a follow up story to their debut song “Replay.” As Jonghyun described during a press conference for the album, “‘Replay’ was about confessing your feelings to the noona, then ‘Love Sick’ describes the relationship after going out with the same noona for seven years.” SHINee even brought back some of their key moves from “Replay” for the “Love Sick” choreography. 

After reminiscing with fans through “Love Sick,” SHINee debuted “View.” The set was reminiscent of the music video’s free-spiritedness, featuring a mini bar with wine bottles and disco balls. They breathlessly nailed every note and showcased the highly detailed choreography by dancer Ian Eastwood from America's Best Dance Crew.

Throughout their music show performances, SHINee showed their diverse music capabilities by 

promoting additional tracks from the album, including the fan-dedicated song “An Ode to You,” the vocally impressive “An Encore,” and the sultry “Odd Eye,” which was co-produced and co-written by Jonghyun. 

On the night of the Odd album release, SHINee shot to No. 2 on the MelOn Real Time Charts and topped the iTunes Albums Chart and iTunes Pop Albums Chart in six countries. Just two days later, SHINee took home their first music show award on Show Champion and went on a nine-week winning streak. They not only saw immediate success with the album, but a week after release they rose to No. 1 on the Gaon Digital Chart and maintained the highest album sales on the HANTEO Chart and Synnara Records Chart for two weeks. By the time they wrapped up Korean promotions for “View,” SHINee’s popularity exploded internationally, earning them a No. 1 spot on the Billboard World Albums Chart while “View” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart.

On top of SHINee’s many awards and accolades for “View,” it also remains one of their most loved songs by fans and the general public. In 2021, Korean music critics chose the now seven year old track as one of the 100 best K-Pop songs of all time. Many fourth generation groups pay homage to SHINee through their covers of “View” like the girl group cignature, boy groups ATEEZ, DRIPPIN, and ASTRO, and SHINee’s label juniors NCT 127. With “View” also being a special song for the members, they’ve promised to one day reunite for a present day performance.

Edited by Erin Rupprecht