Girls' Generation
The group's Korean name is So-nyuh Shi-dae (Korean: 소녀시대; Hanja: 少女時代; RR: Sonyeo Sidae), from the Sino-Korean root meaning "Generation of Girls"; they are also known as SoShi (소시) or SNSD, both of which are abbreviated forms of the group's Korean-language name. Because their name consists of Chinese roots, the group's name is similar in Chinese and Japanese: in Japan the group's name is pronounced as Shōjo Jidai (少女時代), and in Mandarin Chinese as Shàonǚ Shídài (simplified Chinese: 少女时代; traditional Chinese: 少女時代).
2000–2008: Formation and debut
Prior to the group's debut, some of the members were already involved in the entertainment industry.
In July 2007, Girls' Generation had their first stage performance on Mnet's School of Rock, where the group performed their first single, "Into the New World" (다시 만난 세계; Dasi mannan segye). On August 5, 2007, the group officially made their debut on SBS's Inkigayo, where they performed the same song.
Though Girls' Generation had gained some attention with their 2007 debut album, it was not until 2009 that the group rose to stardom.
Sales
- With around 100 million recorded sales, Girls' Generation is the best-selling asian girl group of all time
- Girls' Generation is also among the three best-selling girl groups in the world
- Gee is the most downloaded idol group song in the history of South Korea
- With at least 6.75 million pure sales worldwide, Gee is the most downloaded girl group song of all time
- Gee was also crowned the song of the decade by Melon
- In 2011 and 2015, no other girl group in the world sold more records than Girls' Generation
- I Got A Boy is the only release in history to top the monthly download, streaming, digital, mobile and album charts on Gaon
- Gee is the only song to top the Gaon Monthly Digital Chart* for 2 consecutive months
- In October 2011, Girls' Generation became the very first artist to have 1 million recorded physical sales on Gaon
- In 2009, Gee topped Melon for a total of 8 weeks, a record yet to be broken
- The original version of Mr Taxi is the most downloaded non-korean song by a korean artist in the history of Gaon
- No other non-japanese girl group has more certified songs in Japan than Girls' Generation - 7 in total
- Gee topped the Oricon Daily Chart in 2010, the first song by a foreign asian girl group to do so
- Oh! was the very first girl group song to top Gaon Digital Chart
- In 2010, they became the first group to top Gaon Chart with 3 different songs in one year
- The only artist to have five albums to top Gaon Monthly Digital and Album Chart at the same time
- The korean girl group with the most physical releases selling over 100,000 copies
- Holiday Night has charted in a total of 61 countries and topped iTunes in 20, the most for any korean female artist ever
- If by Taeyeon is one of the most successful OSTs of all time, ranking on Melon's Top 1000 since its release in 2008
- Galaxy Supernova was the only song by a korean act to receive a japanese digital certification in 2013
- The most streamed korean girl group in Xiami and the second overall
- Girls' Generation is the only girl group to top the Gaon Weekly Album Chart for more than one week
- The Boys is the only album by a female artist to top the Gaon Yearly Chart
- The Boys is the only album to top Gaon Monthly Chart for 3 months
- With over 460k sales in South Korea, The Boys is the best-selling girl group album in the history of Gaon
- Oh! is the longest charting album by any female artist on Gaon, charting for over 180 weeks (including 11 in Top 10)
- Girls' Generation topped Gaon with 11 different albums, more than any other girl group ever
- The only girl group among the artists with most weeks at #1 on Gaon Album Chart, ranking #2 with a total of 21 weeks
- Into The World is the best-selling korean single album by a girl group of all time
- With over 100k sales, The First Asia Tour Into The New World is the best-selling live album of all time on Gaon
- The only korean group to have a certified million-seller album in Japan
- Girls' Generation ranked #5 at 2011 Oricon Yearly Album Chart, the highest among all korean artists
- Hoot is the only korean release to receive a gold certification in Japan
- The first non-japanese girl group to have three #1 albums on Oricon
- Girls' Generation was the first album by a korean girl group to top Oricon Weekly Chart
- New Beginning of Girls' Generation was the first DVD by a korean girl group to enter the Top 5 of Oricon Weekly Chart
- Girls' Generation is the korean act with the most entries on the Billboard K-pop Hot 100 - 23 songs
- Girls' Generation is the only korean act to put all of the album's songs on the chart twice, with The Boys and Twinkle
- Girls' Generation is the korean girl group with the most #1's on Billboard World Album Chart, topping it six times
- Mr.Mr. was the first k-pop album to top Billboard Heatseekers Album Chart
- The first and only korean girl group to have three consecutive #1 albums in the Philippines (Genie, Oh! & Run Devil Run)
- Every album and mini-album released by Girls' Generation has sold at least 150k copies
Awards
- The most awarded girl group of all time
- According to Guinness World Records 2018, no other girl group in the world has received more prizes in a single awards show than Girls' Generation - a total of 13 in Melon Music Awards. They're also the best-placed asian artist on the list
- Girls' Generation has won more daesangs than any other korean girl group - a total of 10
- The only girl group to win at least one daesang at all five major awarding ceremonies (GDA, KMA, SMA, MMA & MAMA)
- The most awarded idol group at Melon Music Awards and Seoul Music Awards
- The first girl group to win the prestigious Artist of the Year and Song of the Year at Melon Music Awards
- The first and only girl group to win a Disc Daesang at Golden Disc Awards
- The first and only act to win a Disc Bonsang as a group, sub-unit and solo at Golden Disc Awards
- The first and only girl group to have won Song of the Year at the Korean Music Awards
- The first and only girl group to win the Artist of the Year award at the Seoul Music Awards for two years
- The first and only girl group to win the Best Female Group award at MAMA in 3 different years (2011, 2013 & 2015)
- Girls' Generation is the female act to win the most popularity awards at Golden Disc Awards
- The first and only korean artist to win Song of the Year twice at Japan Gold Disc Award
- The artist with most wins on korean music shows - a total of 136 with 23 different songs
- Girls' Generation has won on a music show every single year since their debut
- The most amount of triple crowns on Music Shows among all girl groups
- Gee won the first place in Music Bank for 9 weeks, a record among k-pop groups
- The first artist to have a perfect score on M Countdown, with I Got A Boy and Mr.Mr.
YouTube
- The first and only korean artist to win the Video of The Year award at the Youtube Music Awards
- The first asian group to reach a combined of 1 billion views on Youtube
- The first asian girl group to reach a combined of 2 billion views on Youtube
- In 2013, Gee became the first idol group music video to reach 100 million views on Youtube
- Gee was named one of the 100 greatest music videos of the 21st century by Billboard, the only by a girl group on the list
- Gee is also the most watched asian video from the 2000s
- I Got A Boy was the first SM Entertainment music video to reach 200 million views
- I Got A Boy was also the first music video by a second generation girl group to reach 200 million views
- The first asian group to have one, two, three, four and five music videos with over 100 million views
- The first asian girl group to have one, two and three music videos with over 150 million views
- With a combined of over 10 million likes, Girls' Generation is the most liked asian girl group on Youtube
- The only girl group in the world to have over 20 music videos with at least 20 million views
- Holiday trended #4 on the United States, the highest among all asian girl groups' music videos
- Mr Taxi is the only japanese song by a korean artist to have over 100 million views on Youtube
Concert Tours
- The first and only korean girl group to have over a million people attending their concert tours
- The first and only korean girl group to sell out over a hundred concert dates
- The first girl group to hold a concert at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena
- The first and only non-japanese girl group to fully sell out Tokyo Dome
- Half of the ten highest-grossing girl group tours of all time belong to Girls' Generation
Others
- Due to its impact and contribution to k-pop, Girls' Generation is often labeled as the nation's girl group, queens of k-pop, leaders of the hallyu wave, the textbook for girl groups and the unbreakable wall
- Girls' Generation holds the record for the highest score ever on Gallup (31.5% in 2010)
- Girls’ Generation is the highest grossing foreign girl group of all time on Oricon ($156 million)
- The only group to enter Gallup's Top 5 for two years without having a comeback
- I Got A Boy ranked #21 in Billboard's Top 100 Best Girl Group Songs of All Time, the highest among all asian artists
- According to a research done by the major japanese station Fuji TV, Girls' Generation was the #19 most influential foreign artist in the Heisei Era, that began in January/1989 and ended in April/2019. The list had celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt
- Gee was chosen as the #71 most influential japanese song of all time, the only song by a korean artist in the Top 100
- Girls' Generation ranked #7 among the girl groups japanese teens want to be in, the highest of all korean acts
- Fuse named Party the song of the summer in 2015
- Despite not accepting new members since 2010, Girls' Generation's korean fancafe is the biggest among all girl groups
- Girls' Generation is not only the most followed non-japanese girl group on the streaming service Line Music but also has more followers than big japanese acts like AKB48, Perfume and Keyakizaka46
- Girls' Generation was the fastest star to surpass 200.000 friends on KakaoTalk.
2007 - 2,015,627+
2008 - 9,732,993+
2009 - 10,146,413+
2010 - 14,632,753+
2011 - 15,120,694+
2012 - 10,249,601+
2013 - 5,444,932+
2014 - 4,084,750+
2015 - 7,736,635+
2016 - 5,905,622+
2017 - 4,180,343+
2018 - 508,850+
2019 - 245,846+
Total Recorded Album Sales Per Year:
2007 - 334,005+
2008 - 58,966+
2009 - 348,582+
2010 - 1,655,730+
2011 - 1,897,560+
2012 - 760,047+
2013 - 815,927+
2014 - 516,768+
2015 - 544,559+
2016 - 208,254+
2017 - 505,123+
2018 - 130,881+
2019 - 37,273+
Grand Prize/Daesang
When it comes to daesangs, there are two main criteria that are taken into account to define the number of grand prizes a group or a soloist has won.
The first one, that has been widely used by k-pop fans and journalists alike since the second generation, only acknowledges the grand prizes given by the seven - formerly five - biggest awards shows of the korean music industry: Asia Artist Awards, Golden Disk Awards, Korean Music Awards, Melon Music Awards, Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), Seoul Music Awards and Soribada Music Awards.
According to it, these are the daesangs under SNSD's belt:
09.12.10 - Song of the Year @ Golden Disc Awards
09.12.16 - Artist of the Year @ Melon Music Awards
09.12.16 - Song of the Year @ Melon Music Awards
10.02.03 - Daesang @ Seoul Music Awards
10.03.30 - Song of the Year @ Korea Music Awards
10.12.09 - Album of the Year @ Golden Disc Awards
10.12.15 - Artist of the Year @ Melon Music Awards
11.01.20 - Daesang @ Seoul Music Awards
11.11.24 - Global Star Daesang* @ Melon Music Awards
11.11.29 - Artist of the Year @ Mnet Asian Music Awards
12.01.12 - Song of the Year @ Golden Disc Awards
*retroactively made a daesang by MMA in 2017
Total: 11
However, it is becoming more and more common to also count the grand prizes given by less prestigious awards shows, whether or not they're part of the Big 7. This is the criterion used by most of the 3rd generation groups' stans.
All the daesangs previously listed
+
09.11.30 - Artist of the Year @ Korean Culture Entertainment Awards
09.12.28 - Star of the Year @ Sports Korea Awards
10.02.19 - Artist of the Year @ Korea PD Awards
10.09.23 - Artist of the Year @ Korean Broadcasting Awards
10.12.02 - Art Category Daesang @ Proud Korean Awards
10.12.27 - Star of the Year @ Sports Korea Awards
10.12.30 - Song of the Year @ KBS Music Festival (KBS Gayo)
11.02.28 - Artist of the Year @ Korean Republic Seoul Art & Culture Award
11.12.15 - Hallyu Grand Award @ Korean Cultural Entertainment Awards
11.12.26 - Star of the Year @ Sports Korea Awards
Total: 21
WHO ARE GIRLS' GENERATION?
The most impactful girl group of all time according to a panel of politicians
Several girl group members named Girls' Generation and its members as their role models
The highest peak any artist ever had on Gallup Korea
The only artist to appear on the Top 5 of Gallup Korea for ten years straight
The only girl group to appear on the Top 3 of Gallup Korea since the debut
The only idol group to ever appear among the celebrities that move the country
The only idol group to be chosen as one of South Korea's all-time representative singers
The first celebrities to get their own official stamps by Korean Post
One of the representatives of the korean culture in promotional brochures given to foreigners
One of the representatives of the korean culture in promotional brochures given to foreigners (2)
Gee is the most broadcasted song in the history of South Korea
The most searched girl group in the world during the first half of the decade
The first and only korean group to appear in all three major american TV networks
Channel SNSD has the highest viewership rating among all idol variety shows (78.44%)
Chosen the best k-pop girl group of the past decade by Billboard
Gee has the greatest k-pop chorus of the 21st century, according to Billboard
0 Comments