Has Taeyong paid an homage to his sunbae in SM?

On an online community forum, netizens talked about Taeyong's hair featured in NCT 127's latest "Ay-Yo" MV. A spikey shape styled with gel, the hair partly resembles a similar look from TVXQ's Changmin when the group promoted "TRI-ANGLE."

Netizens joked that Taeyong has "copied" Changmin's style from 2004, which was almost 20 years ago.

TVXQ's debut-period hairstyles were considered experimental even then. Netizens who were familiar with the era explained that Changmin used to be referred to as "the sea urchin" and Junsu as "the Shih Tzu."

Reactions include:

"Omg what is this"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat"
"Only 127 can pull this off now"
"I feel kind of bad for them lol"
"Super experimental"
"Isn't it just durian?"
"I think he reminds me of someone from Dragon Ball Z"
"I was so shocked when I saw the MV"
"SM....."
"Also gives me GD feels"
"There is no way they can just reject it?"
"The traditional hair"