It's been 15 years since Girls' Generation entered the K-pop scene. The eight-member girl group from SM Entertainment has set countless records and is now considered almost a legend. And rightly so: countless idols who debuted after them were inspired to make music by Girls' Generation! The girl group is therefore a piece of K-pop history! In this article, you'll learn everything about how they came about and the path they have taken so far.
- Creation (Pre-Debut)
- The members
- Debut (2007)
- Breakthrough (2009)
- Japan debut (2010)
- 2011 - 2014
- Jessica leaves Girls' Generation
- 2015 to today
- Discography
- Solo careers of the members
- Sub-Units
Origin
The first future Girls' Generation member joined SM Entertainment in 1998: Sunny. But she took a detour and moved to Starworld in 2003, an agency where she was preparing for her debut in a duo, which never came to fruition. It wasn't until early 2007 that she returned to SM Entertainment and was added to the Girls' Generation line-up! Sunny is the niece of SM Entertainment's founder Lee Soo Man.
The other eight members had gathered under SM Entertainment within four years. First came Jessica in 2002, who was discovered along with her sister Krystal during a family vacation. Krystal also joined SM Entertainment and later became known as a member of the girl group f(x)! Sooyoung and Hyoyeon joined the same year after impressing themselves at SM Entertainment's auditions. Sooyoung later won first place at the “2002 Korea-Japan Ultra Duo Audition” and debuted with the Japanese “Marina Takahashi” as a duo called “Route 0”. The two released three singles together, but broke up in 2003. Marina left the entertainment industry and Sooyoung returned to SM Entertainment, her biggest success still ahead of her.
Meanwhile, two other future members of Girls' Generation had found their way to SM Entertainment: Yuri won an SM dance competition in 2001 and Yoona passed an open casting by the agency in 2002. In 2003, Seohyun was discovered by talent scouts in the subway and in 2004 Taeyeon and Tiffanny finally joined them. Taeyeon had won a singing competition held by SM Entertainment and Tiffany had successfully participated in an audition in Los Angeles. The young talents all trained under SM Entertainment for at least three years before ushering in a new era together!
The girl group is called both Girls' Generation and SNSD.
SNSD is an abbreviation of the group's Korean name “Sonyeo Sidae,” which literally translates to “Generation of Girls.” Sonyeo Sidae is often shortened to “SoShi”. New fans are often confused by the many girl group names, but ultimately they all mean the same thing.
The fans are called “SONE”. The name is made up of “So” (from Sonyeo Sidae) and the English word “one”. It symbolizes the relationship between the girl group and their fans. They are one.
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Taeyeon (Leader) | Kim Taeyeon | 09.03.1989 |
| Sunny | Susan Soonkyu Lee | 15.03.1989 |
| Tiffany | Stephanie Young Hwang | 01.08.1989 |
| Hyoyeon | Kim Hyoyeon | 22.09.1989 |
| Yuri | Kwon Yuri | 05.12.1989 |
| Sooyoung | Choi Sooyoung | 10.02.1990 |
| Yoona | Im Yoonah | 30.05.1990 |
| Seohyun | Seo Juhyun | 28.06.1991 |
| Jessica | Jessica Jung | 18.04.1989 |
On August 5, 2007, Girls’ Generation officially debuted with the single “Into the New World”!
The girl group had already performed the song on the Mnet show “School of Rock” in July. In the show, idols appear in schools and surprise the students.
“Into the New World” is still regularly covered by idol groups and in survival shows. Just last year, for example, members of (G)I-DLE, IZ*ONE and Weki Meki performed the song together.
In November, Girls' Generation released their first album, which contains eleven songs, including "Into the New World". The album and the title song are called “Girls' Generation” like the girl group itself. The album sold almost 50,000 copies in its first month, making it the second most successful album of November, just behind Super Junior's "Don't Don"! In March 2008 the repackage Baby Baby was released with three new songs including the title song of the same name. Although the girl group's debut was undoubtedly successful, their big breakthrough was still to come.
In 2009 the time had come: Girl’s Generation conquered the top of the charts!
The third album “Gee” was released on January 7, 2009. The title song of the same name ranked number 1 on the music show “Musik Bank” for nine weeks and was the best-selling single of the year in South Korea! The record for the longest time at number 1 on Musik Bank was only broken by Psy three years later with “Gangnam Style”.
The next album “Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)” in June was no less successful. It sold 50,000 copies in its first week of release, almost twice as many as “Gee”!
In December, Girls' Generation set off on their first concert tour "Into the New World", which also took them to China and Taiwan. Tickets for the South Korean dates sold out within three minutes - another sign of the girl group's increasing popularity.
With their fifth album “Oh!”, which was released on January 28, 2010, Girls Generation topped the recently founded Gaon Album Charts. The Gaon Charts - “Circle Charts” since July 2022 - are Korean charts launched by the Korea Music Content Association with the help of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. They are the biggest and most important charts in the country. The following repackage album “Run Devil Run” also topped the Gaon album charts. On the list of best-selling albums in 2010, it ranked number 4, just behind “Oh!” in 2nd place!
But those weren't all the milestones the girl group achieved in 2010!
In September she made her Japanese debut with a Japanese version of "Genie" and reached number 4 on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart. A month later, Girls Generation achieved the incredible: the second Japanese single “Gee” shot to number 2 on the Oricon Single Charts! It was the first time since 1980 that a non-Japanese girl group reached the top 3 of the charts!
After the continuous success in 2009 and 2010, it was clear to everyone that Girls' Generation belongs at the top of the Korean music industry and will stay there for a long time! Every subsequent album was also a chart success! Below we will shorten the story a bit and focus on the most important and interesting milestones of the legendary girl group.
2011 - 2014: The greatest successes
Girls' Generation released three albums in 2011: A Japanese version of "Girls' Generation" (June), "The Boys" (October) and "Mr. Taxi” (December). The Japanese album was extremely successful in Japan: never before had a non-Japanese girl group topped the Oricon Album Charts! Of course, Girls Generation was one of the most popular K-pop girl groups in Japan at the time.
At the end of the year, Girls Generation won the “Artist of the Year” award at the Seoul Music Awards, just like in 2010. This made them the first girl group to win the award twice in a row and only the fourth artist overall!
In 2013 they gained international attention because the music video for the song “I Got A Boy” won the “Video of the Year” award at the YouTube Music Awards . Competitors included global stars such as Psy and Justin Bieber.
A year later, in July 2014, Girls Generation topped the Oricon Album Charts for the third time with the Japanese best off album “The Best” and thus defended the top position in Japan, as they were once again the first non-Japanese girl group to achieve this milestone. The next record didn't take long to arrive. The group ended their Japanese “Love & Peace” tour in July, which was attended by over 200,000 fans at the various concerts. Combined with the previous two Japanese tours, Girls' Generation had a total audience of more than 550,000, more than any other K-pop girl group before!
Girls Generation continued to regularly set records and delight hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide with each new album! The shock was all the greater given the developments in September 2014.
Jessica announced on September 30, 2014 that she had been fired from the group.
According to her, SM Entertainment asked her to leave without warning because her new business - she founded the fashion brand "Blanc" in August - made her too busy to do activities with Girls' Generation. SM Entertainment, on the other hand, stated that they warned Jessica several times before the final exit occurred.
Since then, Girls Generation has had eight members.
2015 to today
The eight's first release was the single "Catch Me If You Can" in April 2015. It was recorded in both Korean and Japanese.
Four months later, in August, “Lion Heart,” the first album without Jessica, was released. It was promoted with three singles - “Lion Heart”, “Party” and “You Think” - and reached number 2 on the Billboard World Digital Song Charts. The placement was a personal record for Girls’ Generation. According to the Korean Gaon Music Charts, they were the most successful girl group of the year in South Korea! The success didn't diminish even with the changed line-up!
After that there was actually a longer break, because it wasn't until two years later, in 2017, that a new album called “Holiday Night” was released.
It topped the Billboard World Album Charts and showed once again that the fans are always behind the girl group!
In 2016 only one single called “Sailing (0805) was released. However, this is special because it was written by Sooyoung for the fans.
In October, Tiffany, Sooyoung and Seohyun left SM Entertainment. However, they assured several times that they are still part of Girls' Generation and that the girl group will get together again one day.
Fans had to wait five long years for this. So you can imagine the excitement that followed the announcement of a new album in August 2022! So, to celebrate their fifteenth anniversary, the legendary girl group will present an album with the meaningful title “Forever 1” on August 8th!
| Album | Title song | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Girls’ Generation | Girls’ Generation | 01.11.2007 |
| Baby Baby | Baby Baby | 13.03.2008 |
| Gee | Gee | 07.01.2009 |
| Genie | Genie | 29.06.2009 |
| Oh! | Oh! | 28.01.2010 |
| Run Devil Run | Run Devil Run | 22.03.2010 |
| Hoot | 27.10.2010 | |
| Girls’ Generation (jap.) | 01.06.2011 | |
| The Boys | The Boys | 19.10.2011 |
| Mr.Taxi | Mr.Taxi | 09.12.2011 |
| Girls & Peace (jap.) | Paparazzi | 28.11.2012 |
| I Got A Boy | Dancing Queen | 01.01.2013 |
| Best Selection Non Stop Mix (jap.) | 20.03.2013 | |
| Love & Peace (jap.) | Love & Girls | 10.12.2013 |
| Mr.Mr. | Mr.Mr. | 24.02.2014 |
| The Best (jap.) | 23.07.2014 | |
| Lion Heart | Lion Heart | 19.08.2015 |
| Holiday Night | Holiday / All Night | 07.08.2017 |
| Forever 1 | 05.08.2022 |
Over the years, all members have built their own solo careers. Not only are they successfully conquering the charts; some also show off their acting talent in the popular K-dramas!
Taeyeon was the first member of Girls Generation to make her solo debut with the mini album “I” and is now one of the best-selling solo Artists in Korea! Since her debut, she has released nine more albums - most recently “INVU” in February 2022 - as well as a number of successful soundtracks. In addition, the singer can also be seen in entertainment shows such as "Amazing Saturday" and works as a presenter.
Sunny moderates events, plays in musicals like "Singin' in the Rain", publishes solo songs (mostly soundtracks for series) and has even appeared twice as a voice actress in Animated films - “The Outback” & “Rio 2” - participated!
Tiffany made her solo debut in 2016 with the mini album “I Just Wanna Dance”. This made her only the second from Girls Generation after Taeyeon. Since then she has released a second album called “Lips on Lips” and several singles. Aside from that, she stars in musicals - most recently in the Korean version of the Broadway musical “Chicago” - and will soon make her acting debut in the K-drama “The Youngest Son of a Conglomerate,” which will air in 2022.
Hyoyeon has been very versatile so far. For example, she had her own television show “Hyoyeon’s One Million Likes” in 2015 and published a book called “Hyo Style” in the same year, in which she gives beauty, fashion and lifestyle tips. Her first solo single “Mystery” was released in December 2016. Many more followed in the next few years and Hyoyeon adopted the stage name “Hyo”. She is sometimes called DJ Hyo because she also works as a DJ. The first solo album “Deep” was released recently, in May 2022!
Yuri made her solo debut in 2018 with her first and last album “The First Scene”. But she is primarily active as an actress and has appeared in series such as “Innocent Defendant” (2017) and “Bossam: Steal the Fate” (2021). In fact, Yuri starred in her first series “Fashion King” back in 2012.
Sooyoung also made her acting debut in 2012. Her first series was called “The Third Hospital”. Since then she has played many more roles; most recently a reporter whose life is disrupted by a superstar in “So I Married the Anti-fan” (2021). In 2018, Sooyoung released her first solo single “Winter Breath”.
Yoona has perhaps the most successful acting career among the members. She has been playing leading roles in series such as “Love Rain” (2012), “Prime Minister and I” (2013), “The K2”, “King in Love” and most recently “Big Mouth” (2022) since 2008. In 2008, she won the Best New Actress award for her role in “You Are My Destiny” and her films “Confidential Assignment” (2017) and “Exit” (2019) are among the highest-grossing in South Korea! So far, the singer has released a digital Chinese single called “Blossom” (2016) and a solo album called “A Walk to Remember” (2019).
Seohyun, like many of her band members, is also a successful actress. Series fans know her from dramas like “Moon Lovers” (2016), “Time” (2018) and “Jinxed at First” (2022). She has also appeared in several musicals: including “Moon Embracing the Sun” and “Mamma Mia”. In January 2017, Seohyun also released a solo album titled “Don’t Say No”.
Some of the members are not only on the road solo, but also with sub-units!
Girls Generation has two sub-units: TTS and Oh!GG
TTS is also called TaeTiSeo or Girls' Generation-TTS. As you may have already noticed, the name is made up of the initials of the three members Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun together. TTS was founded in 2012 and has released a total of three albums: “Twinkle” (2012), “Holler” (2014) & the Christmas album “Dear Santa” (2015).
The second unit Oh!GG made its debut in 2018 with the only single so far, “Lil' Touch”. It consists of the five Girls' Generation members who are still under contract with SM Entertainment: Taeyeon, Sunny, Hyoyeon, Yuri and Yoona. In December 2021, the new winter album by all SM Artists (“SMCU Express”) was released, which also includes “Melody”, a new song by Oh!GG.
Hyoyeon and Taeyeon have also been part of the new project group “Got the Beat” since this year, which consists of members of SM Entertainment's girl groups. In addition to the two, Seulgi and Wendy from Red Velvet, Karina and Winter from Aespa and BoA are also part of the group. The group debuted in January 2022 with the single “Step Back”.
We are excited to see what new songs and projects Girls’ Generation will present to us in the future!
