Girls' Generation (Korean: 소녀시대; Sonyeo Shidae) is a nine-member South Korean pop girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007.[1][2] They are known in Japan as Shoujo Jidai (Japanese: 少女時代) and are referred to as SoShi (소시) or SNSD by their fans, both abbreviated forms of the group's Korean name. The group consists of Taeyeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun.
They sold over 100,000 copies for each of their six Korean releases,
making them the first female group in the South Korean music industry to
do so in over six years.[3][4]
They gained attention at the beginning of their career with songs such as "Into The New World", "Kissing You" and "Baby Baby". However, it was not until 2009, they gained immense popularity with their hit single "Gee", which holds the record for being the longest running number one song on KBS Music Bank,
having held the number one chart ranking for nine consecutive weeks.
"Gee" was named 'song of the decade' by the Korean music site, Melon.[5] The group solidified their place in the Korean music industry with follow-up singles "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)", "Run Devil Run", and "Oh!".
The group began a foray into the Japanese music scene in late 2010 under Nayutawave Records, a label part of Universal Music Group, with the Japanese remakes of their 2009 Korean hits "Genie" and "Gee." The group's debut Japanese album, Girls' Generation, released in June 2011, is currently the highest selling album in Japan by a Korean group in Oricon history. The album quickly became their most successful album to date, being certified 'Million' by the RIAJ and made the group the second Korean artist to earn this achievement in Japan since Korean labelmate BoA's "Best of Soul" in 2005.[6]
In 2011, they returned to the Korean music scene with "The Boys",
which was released in three languages: Korean, Japanese, and for the
first time, English. At the start of 2012, the group performed the
English version of "The Boys" on the late night talk show Late Show with David Letterman and on the daytime talk show Live! with Kelly,
becoming the first Korean musical act to perform on each show, and the
first Korean act to perform on syndicated television in the United States. In the same year, the group formed their first sub-unit, entitled Girls' Generation-TTS, or simply "TaeTiSeo", composed of members Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. The subgroup's debut EP, Twinkle,
peaked at #136 on the Billboard 200, becoming the highest charting
K-Pop album on the chart thus far. They returned to the Japanese music
scene in June 2012, with "Paparazzi", the lead single from their second Japanese album.[7]
