Girls Generation Is Forever
Girls Generation, courtesy of SM Entertainment
“We’ll begin the photo time,” MC Choi Minho said as eight stylishly dressed women lined up on stage for a press conference. “It’s been a while so please pretend that you’re close,” he joked.
“Can you make other poses perhaps? Hearts maybe? Just waving is boring.”
The women looked at him and broke into laughter. The group is Girls Generation and today Taeyeon, Tiffany, Sooyoung, Sunny, Yuri, Yoona Hyoyeon, and Seohyun return for the first time in five years with a new album “Forever 1”. Minho, the group’s unofficial dongsang who debuted in the girls’ video for “Gee”, is perhaps the best fit for this occasion.
“August is the month of SNSD,” Tiffany said with a bright smile, “And I’m so glad that we are making a comeback on our fifteenth anniversary with a new album.”
If you want a shot in the arm of nostalgia, I highly recommend you listen to this album. Clocking in at thirty minutes, “Forever 1” is the classic SNSD sound with injections of some of the best pieces of contemporary K-Pop. This album is as much for the fans as it is for the girls, a triumphant victory lap that reinforces why they are the standard.The title track, of the same name, was written by KENZIE, a powerhouse songwriter at SM who also wrote SNSD’s debut song “Into the New World.”
Girls Generation, courtesy of SM Entertainment
“Forever one, we’re not stopping,” the girls declare in the song’s opening. “Forever 1” marks the first album in five years from SNSD, one of the best selling and most iconic girl groups in K-Pop. Girls Generation wrote the playbook for modern day girl group concepts and themes. There would be no TWICE or Red Velvet without the Girls Generation imprint.
The album is full of “gifts for fans”, as Taeyeon described at the press conference One of my favorite b-sides, “Lucky Like That” asks the listeners to make a wish in hopes that they can meet again. “It reminded me of our fan club SONE at first listen,” Yoona said. She was the last to record the song and found herself tearing up when she recorded her verses. “I got emotional hearing the other members’ voices after so long,” she said.
The girls took active roles in creating the songs on “Forever 1”. Most notably is “Villain”, a song produced by Tiffany and written by Sooyoung. When writing the song Sooyoung noted that since debut, people who have strong opinions and make choices that others may find selfish are beloved. “This is different from when we were active,” she said. Being bold, being outspoken, she found, is valued now. Her members, she realized, are the most individualistic people she knows. “Every single member of SNSD has a strong character and a savage personality,” she said. They might be villains to some for bucking traditional expectations of women or idols, but they’re heroes to us.
Girls Generation are women now – and SONEs, the girls’ fanbase, are also nearly all adults. We’ve grown up together. Some of us have been around for the full fifteen years since debut. Others, like me, came around in our college years during the girls’ peak with “I Got a Boy” or “The Boys”. Time and space have deepened the reverence I have for SNSD’s music and story. As I’ve gotten older, the songs that I used to listen to with my friends in college have become touchpoints for my youth.
Girls Generation is built on friendship. Their roots with SM date back to 2000 when Yoona and Hyoyeon joined the company. Over the next four years, Taeyeon, Sooyoung, Jessica, Sunny, Yuri, Tiffany and Seohyun followed as trainees. At the time their only senior was BoA, a superstar soloist who transformed K-Pop’s soft power impact by conquering the market in Japan. Unlike the original nine members of Girls Generation, though, BoA had to go at it alone. This made her an inspiring figure for many of the girls, including Tiffany and Sunny. “BoA really paved the way for me and every K-Pop artist,” Tiffany said on the idol’s 20th anniversary.
They debuted on August 5, 2007 with an almost perfect single, “Into the New World”. Listening to it today brings back a wave of sentimentality from the opening notes. “With the unknowable future and obstacles, I won’t change, I can’t give up,” they sing. Followed by a chorus that asks, “Let’s be together forever.”
In an interview with the Korea Herald, K-Pop columnist Choi Ha-rim commented on the enduring, political undertones of the song. “When ‘Into the New World’ was first used at a protest, it was known to help calm fears rather than to fight against something,” Choi explained. “The song has been sung at multiple protests and rallies, and I understand that the focus has been on confirming solidarity with each other. The Seoul Queer Culture Festival is a prime example.”
As their popularity grew, the girls quite literally created a new world in K-Pop. Fans saw themselves in the girls and across ten years, Girls Generation defined the sound of K-Pop. They performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City and followed in BoA’s footsteps as one of the most popular Korean music exports in Japan. And they grew up: Their sound evolved as they matured and as the girls branched out to various solo ventures.
In October 2017, Tiffany, Sooyoung and Seohyun left SM under the condition that Girls Generation would not disband. They had built too much together for it to come to an end. Over the next five years, the girls would get together for anniversary parties, Instagram lives, and a few late nights of cocktails.
They spoke often about reuning. Last year during promotions for Hyoyeon’s single “Second”, the girls made TikToks in a recording studio, sparking speculation that a comeback was imminent. But the timing had to be right: They wanted to honor their legacy.
The group teased a comeback for months with SONEs joking that their clown suits were ready (and often using the meme of Key dressed as Ronald McDonald at SMTown’s Halloween party for reference). Yet I never doubted the group would eventually come back. Their bond was too deep. As Taeyeon said in an interview with NME, “We would also reminisce about the past and share memories [when we’d get together]. We know each other better than anyone else, so it always feels like home when we’re all together
Back at the press conference, Minho asked the women what their secret was to staying together for fifteen years. It’s an accomplishment that so few groups can claim, much less a group where three members are now at different companies. Taeyeon’s answer was direct and simple. “I think SNSD really likes SNSD. It's not easy when gathering opinions from eight women but we have one thing in common: Since we really like SNSD, because we are protective of SNSD, we have the same goal.” she held up her hand for a dramatic pose and smiled. “That’s the secret to our longevity.”
