2007–2008: Debut and First Album
In July 2007, Girls' Generation had their unofficial first stage performance on M.Net's
School of Rock where the group performed their first single, titled
Into the New World (
다시 만난 세계,
Dasi Mannan Segye). A documentary recording the story of the group's debut titled
M.Net's Girls Go To School was filmed during this time, showing the members as they moved into an apartment together and prepared for their performances. The group's first single was physically released soon after, including an instrumental of the group's debut song and two other tracks; "
Beginning" and "
Perfect for You". The latter's Korean title is "
Wish" (
소원,
SoWon), which later became the name of Girls' Generation's official fan-club (stylized: S♡NE). The group's debut officially began on August 5, 2007, first performing on
SBS's
Inkigayo and then later on
MBC's
Show! Music Core and
KBS's
Music Bank.
Into the New World achieved #1 spot on M.net
M.Countdown!.
The group released their
first self-titled full album in late autumn 2007 with the lead single
Girls' Generation (
소녀시대), a remake of
Lee Seung-cheol's 1989 song. Promotion for the single started in early November. The album also included the group's first single
Into the New World,
Perfect For You retitled as
Honey, and 8 other tracks by the group. In early 2008, Girls' Generation began promoting their second single from the album,
Kissing You, which won the group their first k-chart win after getting the number one position on the
KBS Music Bank February chart.
[4]
In March 2008, the album was re-packaged, re-released and re-titled
Baby Baby. A third single,
Baby Baby, was used to promote the album. During the group's promotions, members Jessica, Tiffany and Seohyun were also featured on a mini-album released by Roommate, a one-man band from
Purple Communication. The mini-album was titled
Roommate: Emotional Band Aid, and was released on December 1, 2008. The 3rd track from the mini-album was performed by the 3 Girls' Generation members and is titled
Oppa Nappa (
오빠 나빠, literally
Bad Brother. The track was digitally released before the album was, coming out in April 2008. The song was performed live on
SBS Inkigayo and M.net's
M.countdown some time later.
[5][6] Later in the year the three members released "
Mabinogi (It's Fantastic!)" together as the theme song for the Nexon game
Mabinogi, with Tiffany participating in the music video.
[7]
M.net's reality show
Factory Girl chronicled the members working as interns at fashion magazine
Elle Girl.
[8] The articles the group worked on were featured in the Korean Elle Girl magazine. The program began airing in early October.
[9] In late 2008, the group also participated in the
SM Town Live '08 concert along with other SM Town artists.
2009: Gee, Genie and other activities
On December 26, 2008, posters of the Girls' Generation members wearing roller-skates were posted up in various locations around Seoul. SM Entertainment's phone-lines were blocked up by callers asking whether the posters were for sale and the company asked fans to stop taking the posters down for personal use.
[10] Three days later on December 29, the group's management stated that the posters were indeed teaser posters and that the group would soon release their first
EP,
The First Mini Album – Gee the following month in January 2009.
[11]
A teaser video was released in January 2009 and the first single
Gee released soon after.
Gee was met with instant popularity, topping
Cyworld's hourly music chart on the release day.
[12] The song also went #1 on all major digital music charts within two days.
[13] The music video set a record on release, garnering 1 million views on
GomTV in under a day. The music video became the first to reach "Diamond Track" status on GomTV after breaking the 5 million view mark on January 16. The music video now has over 40,000,000 views on YouTube, snatching the spot for the most viewed video in Korea.
[14]
The group began its album promotion in January 2009 on MBC
Show! Music Core where they sang their new lead single
Gee and the track
Himnae (Way To Go), another song from their mini-album.
[15] Gee went on to become a phenomenal hit, breaking the record for consecutive no.1 wins on
Music Bank with 9 consecutive wins, as well as receiving a triple crown on
SBS Inkigayo. The track also showed strength on other charts, topping the
Mujikon,
Melon and
M.Net charts for 8 consecutive weeks, the
Dosirak chart for 7 weeks, the
Muse chart for 6 weeks and the
Baksu chart for 4 weeks.
[16][17]
After a short break,
SM Entertainment announced that the group would be back with a new mini-album sporting a "Marine Girl" concept. The new single was to be titled
Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) (
소원을 말해봐 (Genie), literally "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)"); with the full mini album being released digitally on June 22, 2009.
[18][19] The group started their promotional activities on June 26, 2009, recording
KBS's
Music Bank.
[20] The performance was followed by follow-up comeback performances on MBC's
Music Core and SBS's
Inkigayo on June 27 and 28, 2009. The physical release of
Genie was delayed by SM Entertainment in order to redo the album art, and was released 4 days later on June 29, 2009.
[18]
The track proved to be a success as it conquered various music sites like Melon, Dosirak, MNet, Bugs and it was No.1 on the weekly charts and SKT ringtone weekly charts of the first week of July.
[21] The mini-album sold an estimated 50,000+ copies in its first week after released (almost double the numbers from the first-week sales of
Gee), an unusual feat for any Korean girl group.
[22]
Their first No.1 award for
Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) was on KBS
Music Bank on July 10, 2009.
[23][24] Their second award was claimed on SBS's
Inkigayo on July 12, 2009, and their third on the 16th on the same show.
[25] The group finished up promoting for
Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) in August 2009.
2010: Second Album, Japanese debut and Hoot
Later in January, SM Entertainment confirmed the release of
Oh!, the group's second full-length album to be released on January 28.
[26] The lead single
Oh!, was digitally released on January 25 with the music video being released two days later.
[27] The song proved to be popular topping various charts upon release.
[28] On January 30, the group started promotions with the recording of
MBC's
Show! Music Core.
[29] The broadcast of the performance experienced a blackout near the end, to which MBC made the whole performance available online in response.
[30] With 'Oh!', the group went on to win 5 consecutive K-charts on KBS
Music Bank, as well as achieving a triple crown on SBS
Inkigayo.
[31] 'Oh!' also went on to win
Music Bank's half-year K-chart, coming in at 2nd on Hanteo's first half album sales chart,
[32] and also winning the end-of-year K-chart, proving to be the most successful release of the year.
[citation needed] The music video also proved to be popular, ranking as the number one most viewed YouTube video in Korea by the end of 2010. It was also #1 in Hong Kong and made the top 10 in both the Taiwan and Japan rankings.
[33]
Starting from March 11, 2010, photos of the members were released online showcasing a dark concept, dubbed "Black SoShi".
[34] A teaser video was released on March 16, with the new single
Run Devil Run being released as a
digital single on March 17.
[32][35] The music videos for both "Oh!" and "Run Devil Run" made it into GOMTV's 2010 First Half Top 10 ranking, the group having attracted over 13 million views in 6 months combined.
[36]
Mid-June, it was announced that the group had signed contracts in May, and would begin working under Universal Music Japan's record label Nayutawave Records for their Japanese promotions, with their first Japanese single expected to be released in September 2010.
[37][38][39] Girls' Generation began promotion in Japan in August. "少女時代到来～初来日記念盤～" (
Girls' Generation's Arrival ～ First Time in Japan Commemoration Disc ～), a DVD featuring seven of the group's music videos as well as special bonus footage was released on August 11, with the special edition of the DVD containing a pink glowstick as well as a pass to the Girls' Generation debut at the
Tokyo Ariake Colliseum on August 25.
[40] According to Universal Music Japan, the DVD had reached considerable success even before physical release, the pre-orders having sold out.
[41] In the first week after release, the DVD sold 23,000 copies, making no.4 on the weekly DVD Oricon ranking and no.3 on the weekly music DVD ranking,
[42] making Girls' Generation the first female k-pop group to make the Oricon DVD Top-5 ranking.
[43] SNSD’s First Photobook, “So Nyuh’” was estimated at 1.6 Billion Won.
[44]
Amidst their Japanese activities, the group also participated in the
SMTown Live '10 World Tour alongside their label-mates on August 21 at
Seoul Jamsil Olympic Stadium.
[45] And then in Shanghai and Los Angeles on later dates.
[46]
On August 25, the group held their first showcase in Tokyo Ariake Colliseum.
[47] With an initial 10,000 fans invited, it was reported to be the most large-scale plan for a Korean artist debuting in Japan.
[40] However, due to high number of expected attendees, the group's management announced that the showcase would take place three times in the same day rather than once to accommodate the estimated 20,000 fans.
[48] The group sang 5 of their Korean tracks at each of the showcases, the total number of attendees over all three shows estimated to be at least 22,000.
[49] At this showcase, the
Genie Japanese music video was also revealed publicly for the first time, the teaser having been released a few days prior on August 20.
[50]
Their Japanese debut single
Genie peaked at the #5 spot on the same day of its release on the
Oricon Charts and later rose to the #2 position some time later, earning the group a #4 position on the Oricon weekly ranking.
[51][52][53] The group also hit the number #1 spots on Japan iTunes' music video chart and both the
Rekochoku daily video clip chart and incoming movie daily ranking chart a day later.
[2] With pre-orders amounting to 80,000, the single sold an estimated 45,000 copies in the first week after release.
[54][55] The single also placed high on Japan's Billboard chart, ranking #4 on the comprehensive Hot 100 chart, #5 on the Hot Single Sales Chart and #1 on the Hot Top Airplay chart.
[51] On October 20, 2010, the group released their second Japanese single,
Gee.
[56][57] The popularity of the two singles saw the group receive acknowledgments from Japanese rankings websites toward the end of 2010, including the "Rookie Album of the Year" from Japan iTunes and the "Best Single Award" from BigGlobe Music Awards.
[58][59][60][61]
A week after the release of their Japanese single, the group released their third Korean mini-album,
Hoot on October 27, 2010, consisting of five tracks.
[62] The music video for the lead single,
Hoot, was released on October 28.
[63] Girls' Generation commenced their promotional activities with a comeback stage on
KBS's
Music Bank on October 29.
[64] "Hoot" quickly rose to the top of the charts and received the #1 spot numerous times on music shows, proving to be another successful release for the group.
[65][66][67][68] The group simultaneously promoted "Hoot" and "Gee" in Korea and Japan respectively, participating in Japanese music broadcasts such as the
FNS Music Festival, where they performed their two Japanese singles,
Gee and
Genie on December 4.
On December 22, 2010, "Hoot" was repackaged with additional tracks from previous albums and released in Japan. The release rose to the #2 position on the Oricon charts and selling 21,000 copies on the first day, faring surprisingly well considering the track itself is entirely in Korean.
[69]
On December 9, 2010, the group attended the
Golden Disk Awards, being awarded three awards including the Disk Daesang (Album of the Year) for their 2nd album
Oh!. The group also became the first ever girl group to have both a Disk Daesang and Digital Daesang, having received the latter in 2009 for their hit
Gee.
[3] On December 15, 2010, the group attended the
Melon Music Awards winning the
Best Dressed Singer award,
Hot Trend Song award for their latest song, "Hoot", as well as the
Artist of the Year award. This would be the 2nd consecutive 'Artist of the Year' award for the group. They topped the
Hanteo annual
Singer Award chart for 2010.
[70]
On December 27, the group was chosen "Star of the Year", Most Influential Artist in the Industry by Sports Korea. They were named on Asia Today’s list of
50 Korean power leaders for 2011 at the #44 spot, being the only idol group from the list.
[71] Girls' Generation was designated "Artist of the Year" by Dosirak, Soribada, Korea Gallup, Hanteo and Sport Korea and also won
Best Song of The Year with "Oh!" at Monkey 3.
2011: New Japanese Singles, upcoming Korean Comeback and other activities
Hoot was certified Gold by Record Industry Association of Japan.
[74] At the start of 2011, the group prepared a new song titled
Visual Dreams, as part of their endorsement efforts for
Intel.
[75] The song was reported to be used for the endorsement of Intel Core Processors throughout Asia.
Last January, it was announced that they will be returning to the Japanese market through the release of their Japanese version of
Run Devil Run as a digital single, scheduled released on January 25, 2011.
[76] On January 20, their song "Gee", was certified as
Platinum by RIAJ for its downloads according to Chaku-UTA.
On January 20, at the 20th
Seoul Music Awards, the group received an
Artist of the Year award, a
Bonsang prize, a
Popularity award and a
Hallyu award. In doing this, Girls' Generation became one of four artists in Korean music history (the others being
Seo Taiji,
Jo Sungmo and
H.O.T.) to win two consecutive
Artist of the Year awards at the
Seoul Music Awards, they are the only girl group to receive
Artist of the Year awards for
Seoul Music Awards,
Melon Music Awards and
Golden Disk Awards for two consecutive years.
[77]
Forbes Korea ranked SNSD as
Korea's #1 power celebrity.
[78] They also had performed at MBC's 50th anniversary concert
Korean Music Wave in Bangkok in
Thailand on March 12, 2011, which was their first performance in Thailand since the stage at
Pattaya Music Festival in March, 2009.
On March 8, SM Japan updated their official website on the release of Girls' Generation 3rd Japanese Single and their 1st Japanese tour. It was stated that on April 27, Girls' Generation will be releasing their third Japanese single
Mr. Taxi/Run Devil Run, which includes an original Japanese song "Mr. Taxi." and the Japanese remake of their song
Run Devil Run. The single was reported to have a double A-side instead of the regular single which has the A-side and the B-side . SNSD will be donating a portion of their revenue from their upcoming Japanese single, “MR.TAXI/ Run Devil Run” to Japan’s Red Cross in order to provide assistance to the victims of the tragic earthquake. On April 9, the Japanese music video of Run Devil Run was released.
It was also announced that the girls would be having their very own national tour in Japan called
The 1st Japan Arena Tour which would start at Yoyogi , Japan this coming May 15.
[79] The girls will hold 6 other concerts in Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka as well. According to SM Entertainment the girls' will be scheduling their official Korean comeback sometime in September 2011, almost marking a year from their last hit "Hoot".
Discography
Korean Discography
- Studio Albums
- Repackaged Albums
- Mini-Albums
- Live Albums
- Single Albums
- Digital Singles
- Compilation albums
- 2008: Sweet Memories with Girls' Generation
- 2008: Heart 2 Heart with Girls' Generation
Japanese Discography
- Mini-Albums
- Singles
- Digital singles
- DVDs
- 2010: Girls in Tokyo (bonus DVD from Girls' Generation's first photobook)
- 2010: New Beginning of Girls' Generation (Japan debut DVD)
