Just under a fortnight after the release of their 4th full-length album ‘I Got A Boy’, Girls’ Generation has been placed under the spotlight in not only Korean media but international media as well. On January 11th, Girls’ Generation and their new song ‘I Got A Boy’ was featured in an article in the entertainment and music section of ‘TIME’, an American weekly news magazine, which is also one of the world’s largest circulated magazine of its kind.

In the article, an interview with Girls’ Generation’s U.S. marketing representative revealed some exciting news for fans – the girls will be releasing a version of ‘I Got A Boy’ with Interscope Records later this year as part of their first full-length American album!

At the forefront of the Kpop wave, it was also inevitable that Girls’ Generation, dubbed “K-pop megagroup” by the writer of the article, will be compared to the hugely successful ‘Gangnam Style’ by fellow Korean PSY but Jane Choi, the group’s marketing representative in the U.S., said, “I don’t think we’re at a disadvantage because we’re not as funny and the dance isn’t as easy to follow as the horsey dance.”

She also thinks that PSY’s success could be beneficial for Girls’ Generation. After all, he proved that unfamiliarity and the language barrier will not stop public interest in an artist.

The article also highlighted YouTube viewerships and how it helped to spread songs out to fan globally but it was also said that air play on radios plays a huge role in making music mainstream so it will be an important part of getting the group across to the public.

Besides TIME magazine, Girls’ Generation and their new album was also given exposure in other international media including Billboard.com, where a track-by-track review was written in an article published on January 4th, shortly after the release of the album.

Los Angeles Times also gave a review on the song and music video, while pointing out similarities and comparisons to other pop songs in the market.

Meanwhile, ‘I Got A Boy’ has been topping charts domestically and internationally. The song has also won Mnet’s M!Countdown on Thursday as well as KBS Music Bank’s K-Chart on Friday.

Credit: time.com, billboard.com, latimes.com

Girls’ Generation TaeTiSeo, also known as Girls’ Generation-TTS, has successfully concluded their first ever performance on a music program as a subunit of Girls’ Generation with their new songs ‘Twinkle’ and ‘Baby Steps’ on Thursday’s M!Countdown.

The mini album ‘Twinkle’, which consists of seven new songs, was released online worldwide on April 29th through iTunes and the all-time high record managed to break all previous records set by Korean artistes. Back in Korea, ‘Twinkle’ achieved an ‘all-kill‘ on real-time music charts across the country including melOn, Mnet, Olleh Music and Daum Music within hours of its release. The physical album, which was released on May 2nd, has garnered a total sales of over 24,000 copies in just two days according to the Hanteo Charts. In addition to that, the mini album also did well on preorder charts in Japan‘s Tower Records and HMV, proving the popularity of Girls’ Generation worldwide once again!

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise when more records are broken by the unstoppable power of Girls’ Generation. Amazingly, ‘Twinkle’, a non-English album, made its debut on the US Billboard 200 Chart at #126, an unprecedented record for Korean artistes. The Billboard charts shows the weekly popularity of songs or albums in the US and the two primary charts are the Hot 100 (top 100 singles) and the Billboard 200 (top 200 albums). Also, the newly-released mini album, which was not promoted in the US, made it to #1 of Billboard’s World Albums chart, #2 on the Heatseekers Albums chart and #21 on Independent Albums chart. This shows the change in music preference worldwide and in America, which signifies the growth of the Hallyu wave globally.

Within three days after its release, the ‘Twinkle’ music video uploaded on SMTOWN’s YouTube page has achieved more than five million views and that is not including the whooping 14 million views for Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun’s individual teasers, which were released one each day before the mini album was released.

Meanwhile, check out the performance of ‘Baby Steps’ and ‘Twinkle’ by Girls’ Generation-TTS on May 3rd’s M!Countdown!

Credit: Billboard.com, namchn719@youtube.com, SMTOWN@youtube.com

Girls’ Generation’s special album which was released on January 17th in United States, Canada, France, England and various countries in American and European continents made its debut on US Billboard charts.

The special album which consists of ‘The Boys’ and the songs in the 3rd album as well as the English remix versions, debuted at no.22 on Billboard’s ‘Heatseekers Albums’ chart ending February 4th.

Billboard’s ‘Heatseekers Albums’ chart (50 positions) is ranked based on Nielsen SoundScan sales data and it charts albums from ‘new or developing artists’ based on their historical chart performance. Being listed in the chart, it is a recognition that the girls have the potential to be successful among many new artists in the US market.

Besides the ‘Heatseekers Albums’ chart, ‘The Boys’ had also made it to the no.2 spot on the ‘World Albums’ chart. Although the girls have not officially kick off their promotional activities in the United States, this is a meaningful and impressive result against other musicians around the world who are carrying out their activities in America.

On January 31st, Girls’ Generation will be appearing on CBS talk show ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ and on February 1st, the girls are scheduled to appear on ABC’s popular morning show ‘Live! with Kelly’. Their appearances on these two talk shows are becoming hot topics among all the fans around the world.

Credit: star.mt.co.kr/wikipedia

After analyzing the strategies and key to SNSD’s success in Japan, Japanese media believes that the girls are on their way to be the symbol or identity of the East Asian music industry which is expanding globally.

In the October issue of the monthly Nikkei Entertainment Magazine published by Japan Nikkei Report, the main reasons for SNSD’s success in Japan were revealed through an interview with SNSD’s Japan director Tsuchiya Nozomu.

Tsuchiya Nozomu said, “The question of ‘How to bring SNSD, Korea’s national superstar, into Japan?’ was the start of everything. It was not merely an ‘advancement into Japan’, but as part of the process of pushing SNSD onto the world stage and we intended to create a proud idea of ‘Our turn has come in Japan’, while showing their natural images.”

While talking about the secret behind choosing ‘Genie’ as the debut song, he said, “(Through the song) their attractiveness can be brought out as a whole, just like the attractiveness of sports. People received the shock physiologically.”

In the beginning, two songs of SNSD that were already successful in Korea were translated into Japanese, before the announcement about the sale of Japanese single was made.

The debut song was chosen from the two shortlisted songs, ‘Genie’ and ‘Gee’.

Tsuchiya Nozomu added, “As I was troubled over ‘How to show off SNSD’s attractiveness in a direct way?’, I thought of ‘Genie’ – a song that contains the most amount of group dance. I then persuaded the company into choosing it instead of ‘Gee’ which was decided as the debut song earlier on.”

After pointing out the fact that although lyrics are seen as very important in the Japanese music industry but it might become an obstacle between international borders, Nikkei Entertainment saw the merit in the ‘Impact & Repeat’ concept of ‘Mr Taxi’ lyrics in SNSD’s first Japanese original album.

As Nikkei Entertainment quoted from Tsuchiya Nozomu, “Despite the challenges ahead and productions that might be possibly seen as aggressive, SNSD has overcome them through improving their ability and efficiency in their work. As SNSD possesses America’s ‘Big Entertainment’, Europe’s intelligence and Asia’s delicacy, they can exist as the symbolic center of the East Asian music market too.”

Credit: Billboard Korea
Translated by: imwhywhy@fanwonder.com

SNSD’s 4^th anniversary events attracted huge attentions.

On the 5^th of August, fans of SNSD from various fansites and online communities sent their congratulatory messages to the ‘nine so nyeos’ through videos, advertisements and online articles.

Out of the many events, one event by international fans caught the public’s attention and spread their names to the world, just like how their idols do.

On the 2^nd of August, a 41-seconds long video entitled ‘SNSD 4^th Anniversary’ was uploaded on Youtube, revealing the billboard event organized by international fans.

In the video, the name ‘Girls’ Generation’ was shown on the wide digital billboard, followed by individual members appearing on the screen one by one and ended with the message ‘Happy 4^th Anniversary SNSD’.

Organized by SNSD’s largest international fansite ‘Soshified’, the aim of the event was to set up a digital billboard measuring 10.4m x 7.3m in the central area of LA and play SNSD’s promotional videos.

On ‘its website, ‘Soshified’ stated, “The digital billboard event will be the largest of its kind in America and the video to be played in the central of LA will also attract a lot of attention.”

Upon watching the video, international fans responded, “Happy 4^th Anniversary my angels”, “I can’t believe that it’s already 4 years”, “Congratulations! It’ll be good if they continue their career for a long time in the future” etc.

Also, Korean fans commented, “They’re indeed ‘the stars of the world’!”, “Their high popularity is not limited within Asia but goes all the way to America and Europe!”, “I’m really proud of them. Thank you, international fans” etc.

The event which kicked off on 1^st of August will be ongoing for 8 days and the billboard sits on top of the Aroma Wilshire Center.

Credit: donga.com
Translated by: imwhywhy@fanwonder.com

SNSD’s Japanese debut single “Genie” is set to make its debut in Japan on Tuesday, September 8th and the widespread publicities in Japan have garnered interest from the Korean and Japanese media.

A large billboard promoting the girls’ debut can be seen next to billboards of “Resident Evil 4″ and Japan’s famous group, SMAP at Shibuya, Tokyo which is one of Japan’s largest shopping area. Along the streets in Shibuya, the girls’ “Genie” promotional and music video was displayed on large screens. Ever since Tohoshinki’s 2007-2008 promotional activities, publicity of this scale has never been witnessed.

In view of SNSD’s popularity in Japan, an undisclosed Japanese source said, “SNSD’s appearance on various TV programs in the past two weeks have increased their popularity in Japan.”

In Japan’s largest record store, Shibuya Tower Records, SNSD’s CDs and DVDs are being displayed among other Japanese and foreign artists, indicating that the hot demand and expectations from fans and music lovers.

The girls have also graced the covers of a few magazines such as AERA’s “K-POP GIRLS” and Nikkei Entertainment which have attracted a lot of attentions from netizens.

An 18 year-old high school student living in Tokyo named Shiozaki gave SNSD a thumbs up in terms of their appearances and said that the girls are prettier than other entertainers in Japan. Shiozaki added that she heard stories of Kara and SNSD in school. When asked, “what is your opinion of their songs?”, Shiozaki left without answering the question.

Despite these promotions and publicities, there were also responses such as “I don’t know” from the general public. Hopefully after their debut single is released, the word “don’t” would be struck off…lol.

Credits: mydaily.co.kr