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Right Now, It's Girls' Generation!
By Christopher Ng
So Nyeo Shi Dae, Girls' Generation, SNSD, Shao Nu Shi Dai, Soshi, only one thing comes to mind for many Kpop fans upon hearing these words, introducing Korea's representative girl group, "Ji geum eun So Nyeo Shi Dae!" Literally translating to "Right now, it's Girls' Generation!", this introductory statement that the girls shout out before or after performances has become synonymous to the arrival of the best of the best of the Korean girl groups.
Having debuted two years ago under SM Entertainment in Korea, the nine girls that make up Girls' Generation have steadily risen up the ranks of the Korean entertainment industry not just with their music and performances, but also with various other activities such as acting, modelling, emceeing, deejaying, variety shows, reality shows (they currently have their very own show called Hello Baby on KBS) and commercial endorsements.
However, the girls made their biggest splash earlier this year when they released the song "Gee" which reached an all time record of 9 consecutive wins on the weekly music variety show Music Bank. No artist in the history of the Korean entertainment industry ever achieved such a feat and most experts in the industry admitted that the record will probably stand for a very long time. It would seem that the number 9 is truly a lucky number for these 9 girls.
The girls also have the distinction of being the only female act in Korea thus so far to ever sell 100,000 copies consecutively for each of the past 3 albums they've released, Baby Baby in 2008, Gee in the earlier half of 2009, and Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) during the 2nd half of 2009. However, apart from selling numerous albums upon each release, the girls also set fashion trends in Korea with their unique album concepts.
For Gee, the girls followed through with their already sweet, pure and innocent image and wore skinny jeans in bright neon rainbow colours. It was an instant hit with tens of thousands of men and women in Korea and thousands more across the world! One fan remarked on the YouTube video of their Gee MV, "I never knew girls this cute could ever exist!"
When they released Genie last July, they switched to a more mature image with the marine concept. The girls wore army attire for the album and all their performances, from infantry fatigues to navy officer uniforms, it drove all the male fans wild! One must remember that in Korea, all men must serve two years of mandatory military service so having a beautiful, young girl looking at you straight in the eye saying "Tell me your wish, I'll be your genie" whilst wearing a sexy military uniform would be enough to drive any Korean male crazy!
However, these fans have a name. Girls' Generation fans are called "Sones", and they range from tens of thousands from their native Korea to as far as Europe and even more surprising, the Middle East! This is evidence by the 48,000 members that are part of Soshified, an online forum that is home to the largest international fanbase of Girls' Generation.
This is no surprise since Girls' Generation can speak over four different languages, Korean, English (Jessica and Tiffany are Korean American), Japanese (Sooyoung was a child star in Japan) and Chinese Mandarin (Hyoyeon studied in China for over a year).
Currently, the girls are taking a break but SM Entertainment has hinted that they are resting in preparation for their promotional activities in China. It would seem that these nine girls, Taeyeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun are poised to take over the world, currently adding the Philippines to their list of conquests with the tremendous sales they acquired from their Genie album release.
Truly, it is now a girls' generation. SNSD Fighting! Ji geum eun, So Nyeo Shi Dae!
Credits: me, i wrote this ^^
Source: MYX Magazine Dec 2009 - Jan 2010 issue
MYX is the local version of MTV in the Philippines. MYX Mag is their monthly publication of music scene news.
When I was asked to write the article, they told me I had a 500 word limit and I had to work with that.
I just tried my best to say everything I could since I didn't want my editor to cut parts of my article.
I made special mention of Soshified just because I could. lol
Hope I made everyone here proud! Fighting!!!
소녀시대 화이팅! 지금은 소녀시대!
mods i hope i posted this up in the right section, apologies in advance if i didn't
it's 60 pesos harrell! u should go buuuuuy your own, i had to buy my own copy too >.< even my copy wasn't free!
and mentioning soshified, i'm sure we'll have alot of new members because of that.. thanks for sharing.. i'm going to buy a copy of it.. prode to be SONE!!
