A Look into How Girls' Generation's Concepts Are Formed!

Girls' Generation's "The Boys" heroine concept.

In August of 2007, Girls’ Generation debuted with a mysterious, cheerful dance and song titled “Into the New World”, wearing Converse sneakers and pastel tone skirts. When promoting their remake of “Girls’ Generation” by Lee Seungchul, they showed a “young lady” image with a preppy look.

The sexy uniform concept from 2009's "Tell Me Your Wish".

They showed the charms of “grouping” by having all nine members wear the same outfits for “Gee” and “Tell Me Your Wish”.

SM Entertainment’s visual directing team leader, Min Heejin, stated, “After hearing ‘Gee’, we wanted to create an ’80′s Brooke Shields/Phoebe Cates image, so we had them wear white t-shirts with jeans, or the colored skinny jeans.” She said she chooses the outfit concepts by matching them with the first image she’s struck with after hearing the song. The sexy uniforms for “Tell me Your Wish” and the cheerleader concept for “Oh!” were completed the same way. She also got the image of Jessica Alba in the film “Sin City” after hearing “Run Devil Run”, and the Bond Girl image from “Hoot”.

For their latest single, “The Boys”, to fit the confident lyrics and music, she chose a “heroine” concept. Unlike their previous unified outfits, this heroine concept emphasized each members’ individual charms and tastes or preferences. However, each member was still unified with each other with modified equestrian uniforms and training outfits. Each member also freely switched up their costumes by wearing skirts, hot pants, pants, capes, and jackets. This could have been unfamiliar to those who remember the nine members wearing the same exact outfits.

Team leader Min stated, “I got some inspiration by watching the finale of the fashion show for the lingerie brand, Victoria’s Secret, where all the models appear together, all wearing different types of lingerie.” She revealed, “‘Healthy girls’ will be the ground rule of Girls’ Generation’s future concepts.”

SM TOWN's Warmest Gift!

December 6, 2011

SMTOWN’s Warm Present for Global Music Fans!

2011 SMTOWN Winter [The Warmest Gift] will be Released on the 13th!

SMTOWN’s winter album, 2011 SMTOWN Winter [The Warmest Gift], will be released on the 13th.

It has been four years since SMTOWN released winter album in 2007. In addition, since all the SMTOWN artists including Kangta, BoA, TVXQ!, TRAX, THE GRACE DANA & SUNDAY, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, f(x), Zhang Li Yin and J-min participated in the album, this assorted gift set is predicted to fascinate music fans.

Also, this album includes a total of 11 songs including 7 new songs and 4 covers such as world famous carols like ‘Last Christmas,’ ‘Sleigh ride,’ etc., so it is enough to meet warm music gift for the winter as well as Christmas season.

Especially SMTOWN has proved its global brand power and artists’ tremendous popularity once again through world tour concerts in Seoul, LA, Tokyo, Paris, New York, Shanghai, etc. Therefore, in return for global music fans’ support, all the songs in the album are recorded in English.

Pursuant to the title of the album, ‘The Warmest Gift,’ Super Junior is selected as Santa who carries presents. The lyrics of the title song ‘Santa U Are The One’ is about how Santa is the greatest for bringing the world joy and presents. With cute lyrics and quick rhythm and melody, it gives Christmas atmosphere and Super Junior’s bright and cheerful voice doubles the atmosphere of the song.

Also, TVXQ!’s ‘Sleigh ride’ has a light swing rhythm accompanied by the orchestra’s grandeur and big band’s powerful charm to express brilliance and excitement for Christmas. SHINee’s electronic dance music, ‘Last Christmas,’ features SHINee’s own unique color and dreamlike and powerful charms of synthpop.

Moreover, Girls’ Generation expressed warm and happy feelings of winter through standard pop music, ‘Diamond.’ Following the song ‘Stand up!’ from the 1st album, f(x) once again worked with Peppertones for winter song ‘1,2,3’ which features Peppertones’ own bright and healthy music color with cute and lovely atmosphere.

In addition, BoA’s new song, ‘Distance,’ is a R&B ballad featuring simple rhythm, dreamlike piano melody and mournful and graceful voice. Kangta’s ‘For The First Time’ is an acoustic ballad which reminisces about the days with woman he loved and he sings about love he received from her.

The album also contains the English version of TRAX’s ‘Like A Dream’ from their 3rd mini album, Zhang Li Yin’s cover version of ‘The First Noel,’ THE GRACE DANA & SUNDAY’s pop ballad ‘Amazing’ and J-min’s remake version of ‘Happy X-Mas (Original version by John Lennon and Yoko Ono)’ so 11 songs of various genres are expected to receive an explosive response.

Meanwhile, 2011 SMTOWN Winter [The Warmest Gift] will be released in Japan as well on December 14th.

SNSD to release repackaged Japanese edition of “The Boys”

With SNSD‘s latest album, ‘The Boys‘ making waves in Korea, it should come as no surprise that the ladies will be releasing a special Japanese edition to continue their foray into the international music market.

The repackaged release, which will be the girls’ first album in Japan, will reportedly feature fifteen songs, including the Japanese and English versions of “The Boys”, a new song, and three remixes from the original album. Furthermore, the new release also means a brand new set of jacket photos giving fans a refreshed take of the album concept.

On top of the regular CD edition, the first press edition and limited period edition versions of the album will be released. Both editions will include a special case, thirty-six page photobook, digipak and bonus DVD with the English version of “The Boys” and the music video for “Bad Girl”. In addition, when purchased at a certified shop, the first press edition will include a rubber coaster set (white or blue version), and the limited period edition will include two posters.

The album release is scheduled for December 28th, with pre-orders beginning this week on December 5th.

Girls' Generation Interviewed on American Radio

Back at the end of October, Girls’ Generation came to New York City for SM TOWN Live in New York. While they were in town they stopped by the studio of Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, a syndicated radio program, to sit down for an interview.

TJ, the host for the interview, welcomed the girls warmly and provided a fun atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, Jessica and Tiffany answered the majority of questions due to their being fluent in English, but Sooyoung got to chime in with her fluent Japanese as she said hi to one of TJ’s friends.

Jessica and Tiffany talked a lot about their pre-debut days and how they came to be in Korea and part of Girls’ Generation. The girls also showed their thanks to TJ by giving him a copy of their album and a photobook.

The interview was very entertaining and got to show off some back story to Girls’ Generation, as well as some of the charms that makes them loved by so many. Check out the full interview below, or head over to the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show website to download the interview.

Girls' Generation to Release Japanese Re-packaged Album

Girls’ Generation’s Japanese mobile fansite just recently announced that Girls’ Generation will be releasing a re-package of their first Japanese album “Girls’ Generation”, which had originally been released on June 1st, 2011.

The re-packaged album will come with all new photo jackets and visuals. It will also come in three different versions: first press, limited and normal. The first press and limited editions will both come in a special case along with a 36page mini-photobook, and will contain a DVD with “The Boys” (English version) and “Bad Girl” music videos. The first press edition also comes with a two set coaster present, a white and blue version, that will be given out at random at participating stores.

The limited edition comes with a two poster set that is also available at participating stores. The re-packaged album will have a total of fifteen songs, three of which will be re-mixed versions from the Japanese album “Girls’ Generation”. Also included will be songs from the recently released “The Boys” album. As a special present, a song that has not yet been announced will also be included. Pre-order sales begin on December 7th.

Further details about the album will be announced on December 7th, so stay tuned to Soshified for additional details.

Girls' Generation and Hyun Bin Most Wanted at Year End Parties

Actor Hyun Bin and the nation's most in-demand dance group Girls' Generation have been voted as the celebrities Korean workers most want to invite to their year-end parties.

Of 980 office workers surveyed by Hiscott Kingdom, the whiskey-making affiliate of Hite Jinro, 39 percent chose Hyun Bin as their No. 1 pick among male stars, while 35 percent selected Girls' Generation as their top choice among female celebrities.

Office workers also favor relatively simple end-of-the-year parties this year due to the slow economy. In terms of how much they are prepared to shell out, 14 percent answered "less than W50,000," while another 43 percent are prepared to spend up to W100,000 (US$1=W1,130), and 20 percent drew the line at W200,000.

The survey also showed that 65 percent of workers plan to attend between three and four year-end parties in December, while 24 percent are preparing for one or two. Six percent of the busiest social networkers said they plan to attend more than six year-end parties this month.

SMTown Winter album "The Warmest Gift" out on December 13

The 2011 SMTOWN Winter album ‘The Warmest Gift’ will be available on December 13th. This will be the first winter album released since their 2007 one from 4 years ago. SM artists collaborated in this winter album such as Kangta, BoA, DBSK, The TRAX, CSJH Dana & Sunday, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), Zhang Liyin and J-min. This album includes 7 new songs plus additional remake Christmas songs.

Here are the list of the songs:

Santa U Are The One – Super Junior
Sleigh Ride – DBSK
Last Christmas – SHINee
Diamond – SNSD
1, 2, 3 – f(x)
Distance – BoA
For The First Time - Kangta
Like A Dream – The TRAX
The First Noel – Zhang Liyin
Amazing – CSJH Dana & Sunday
Happy X-Mas - J-min