On SNSD

oh what a difference 8 years can make

It's time for an almost in depth look into the reigning queens of kpop, SNSD or Girl's Generation as they might be known to foreigners. Here be bias ranking lists, mini song reviews, and other thoughts on the greatest girl group in the history of kpop (so far).

Many of SNSD's members had trained for YEARS before debuting, with the longest going to Sunny, who started in 1998 under one company, before going to another company, before switching to SM to debut in SNSD. The member with the least training is Tiffany, who was cast in 2004. Everyone else was scouted between the years 2000 and 2004.

So, who are the members, you may ask? (probably not b/c u wouldn't be reading this if u didn't know who they were already lol)

*** Note on positions: These are their positions according to me, not necessarily the official designations. This is because many of these people (not just SNSD) have multiple positions and I find that they fulfill one position much better than the others.

In order of preference to me:

8.

Hyoyeon

Full Name: Kim Hyo-yeon

Birthday: September 22nd, 1989 (26)

Position: Main Dancer, Rapper

There's no particular reason that Hyoyeon is 8th, other than the fact that I don't know much about her. Looks may be a superficial reason to judge people on, but you have to wonder why SM cast her back in 2000 when you see her pre-plastic surgery pictures. She's not necessarily ugly, but a little plain to survive in the cut throat world of entertainment. Also, she's the best rapper in SNSD, though that's not saying much tbh. Nonetheless, she is a pretty good dancer, and she deserves to be in the group for all the work that she's done.

7.

Yoona

Full Name: Im Yoona

Birthday: May 30th, 1990 (25)

Position: Face of the Group

Yoona is the member with the most conventional beauty (which she did go through plastic surgery to achieve). However, there are some quirks to her body that I find interesting, especially how long her neck is lol. That picture definitely accentuates that long neck well, and I think that it's a nice oddity to find on an otherwise beautiful girl. She seems to be very popular in Korea, as she participates in the most CFs and advertisements. I haven't watched enough of SNSD on variety shows to know what she's like, but the reason why she is ranked above Hyoyeon is because of her "usefulness" to the group ie. everyone can dance, but she pulls in the big bucks.

6.

Sooyoung

Full Name: Choi Sooyoung

Birthday: February 10th, 1990 (25)

Position: Lead Dancer, Lead Rapper

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo young. Her name is really fun to say. That's all I have to say about her tbh. She's just as pretty as Yoona, she can dance etc etc, she fulfills her obligation as an SNSD member but she ALSO has a name that's fun to say!!

5. 

Yuri

Full Name: Kwon Yuri

Birthday: December 5th 1989 (26)

Position: Lead Dancer

A common theme with the bottom of these lists is that I don't know much about the members unless it's a group I really like. In this case, I like SNSD, but Hyoyeon, Yoona, Yuri, Sooyoung don't really mean much to me other than just performers in the group. So I rank Yuri above Yoona, Hyoyeon, and Sooyoung because while I don't know anything about her, she does all of their jobs AT THE SAME TIME, and that's actually innSAAANEEEE. jk but for me, Yuri is just as pretty if not prettier than Yoona and probably dances as well as Hyoyeon, so

4.

Sunny

Full Name: Susan Soonkyu Lee

Birthday: May 15th, 1989

Position: Subvocalist

Sunny gets extra points for having a really interesting bio: she was born in Orange County, before her family moved to KUWAIT (wait what?? lmao get it) and then to Korea right before the Gulf War. Imagine if Sunny moved to Korea knowing how to speak Arabic, wouldn't that be fucking crazy? Anyway, I think she's super cute and she seems to have lots of energy. Her introduction when they were at Kcon 2014 ("what's my name??? you know my name!!!! ;) ) was so sassy and fun, and her reactions on the Weekly Idol episode where they did all of their dances over the years in one go were awesome. ALSO, her voice is fairly unique, (though her ability is tbd) and her parts in You Think were so sassy and fierce, it was great.

3. 

Tiffany

Full Name: Tiffany Hwang

Birthday: August 1st 1989 (26)

Position: Lead Vocalist

Tiffany is the other American born member left in the group, though she actually grew up in America rather than moving to fucking KUWAIT (???). As such, her English is fluent, and apparently her Korean is actually not completely perfect lmao. I think that's cute. I like her because she tries as the English speaker on the team (at least compared to when Jessica back when she was still on SNSD) to connect with international fans when they perform abroad. When I watched their performances at kcon, she makes the effort to get the audience pummpedddddddd and though her interjections might be a bit annoying at times, it's still endearing. 

2.

Taeyeon

Full Name: Kim Taeyeon

Birthday: March 9th 1989 (26)

Position: Main Vocalist

Taeyeon is an amazingggg vocalist (at least compared to her compatriots in the kpop idol world) and her solo debut only proved that to the rest of the world. Not knocking on Seohyun or Tiffany at all, but Taeyeon is definitely the best of all three. Taeyeon seems to me the quiet, modest type, and her relationship with Baekhyun is sooooooo cute. I think that in an industry like kpop, it takes a lot of dedication to date, and that usually means that if a kpop idol is in a relationship, they must both be really worth it to the other person. Their dating only makes me like the two of them better. I was really sad when they broke up rip baekyeon. Also, there's this one live performance of I where Verbal shows up randomly and her reaction is ACTUALLY so cute. She's so bewildered she couldn't even sing properly.

1.

Seohyun

Full Name: Seo Juhyun

Birthday: June 28th 1991 (24)

Position: Lead Vocalist

When it comes to idols, I like English speaking, I like talent, but most of all, I like subversiveness (which is definitely something that extends to outside of kpop). With Seohyun, she's got two of those, and she's working on the third. You might wonder, why is she subversive? Well first of all, I think she has the most natural beauty out of any one of these idols. While natural or unnatural beauty doesn't matter much for me, I still appreciate the fact that she's gone through minimal surgery to become the cute yet mature woman she is today. Another reason why she is subversive is in her interests. She auditioned for SM with children's songs (which is so cute what?) and she really liked that one Korean frog thing, which is WEIRD. But so endearing! And most of all, the person that she looks up the most to is fucking BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY GENERAL, and she's read his motherfucking book. If that doesn't speak to her intelligence, then I don't know what does. Idols are supposed to be pretty and conforming, not intelligent and weird!!!! 

Her singing is pretty good too, probably second best after Taeyeon. She's participated in a lot of different musicals, which, again, is not something you see idols do a lot of (though she's not alone in the industry). This probably proves that she can act and sing well live, which is again, amazing. Seohyun is the golden maknae for me, and she will remain one of my favorite female idols of all time, if not my absolute favorite.

Look at how happy she is.

----

Now let's talk about their songs. Mini review, three sentences for each of the songs that I think are worth talking about, good and bad.

Into the New World: Early song from the modern era of kpop. I don't like it. It's boring, and too many girl groups try to copy it, which only makes them boring AND generic, a deadly combination.

Gee: One of the first kpop songs I've listened to. Contrary to what other people might have experienced, I hated how bubblegum it sounded, and it turned me off to kpop. Grew on me after I got more used to the cloying sweetness of the song and video.

Genie: Possibly the best song from pre-The Boys era of SNSD. Catchy, with a hint of sexy, and smooth. Dance is fun to watch and their outfits are legs for dayzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh: A revamped Gee, though it's only marginally better. Cloying cuteness is still here in overdose, but again, better managed than Gee. Cheerleading concept doesn't make much sense.

Run Devil Run: Third best song from pre-The Boys era. Sexy concept done well and it's a nice break from the innocent pure girls. Better than the Kesha version, and Jessica's vocals make the song really good.

Hoot: Second best song from pre-The Boys era. Edgier than their cute stuff, not as edgy as Run Devil Run, but it manages the classy spy theme very well. The song is extremely catchy - the western tinge is unexpected in kpop, but done well. 

The Boys: Mixed feelings about this song, though the styling is pretty great. Starts off with lots of promise (I think the intro+mini breakdown + first verse are great), but leaves me unsatisfied in the chorus and then disgusted in the rap breakdown. Started to doubt SNSD after this.

Trick: Deserves a special mention because this was the song that deserved to be promoted as the lead single off of The Boys album, not The Boys. Heavy electro feel to the song plays nicely off of the vocals. Extremely catchy prechorus, and I almost never skip it when it comes up in my playlist. 

Paparazzi: I think it might be a dank meme that SNSD's japanese releases tend to be better than their Korean ones, and this song proves it. Much better than the Korean material that proceeds it in 2013. Catchy, poppy electro - exactly what I find appealing in a song, though I don't listen to it much anymore.

Flower Power: Another great Japanese release from 2012. I think the chorus is really great and it alludes to pre-The Boys era in terms of its overall feel. 

I Got a Boy: Somehow this is their most popular song on Youtube, with over 150 million views; I absolutely hated this when it came out, but it's simmered down to a mere dislike now. Some parts are good, some parts are downright terrible, and while I understand the drive to experiment, I think this just wasn't done well, and is the worst of their lead singles, after Party. Rapping should really stay to a minimum in their future songs.

Mr Mr: Thankfully, they returned in 2014 to have one of the best, if not the best songs of their career. I love the instrumental to this, and also the dance does the splitting into different groups that do their own thing that I love. Didn't really listen to it until recently, but have not stopped even now.

Catch me if you Can: It seems to be a popular opinion to dislike this song, but I honestly enjoyed it quite a lot. Continues the electronic influences from Mr Mr but takes it up a notch, and does not suffer one bit for it. Dance line gets some more lines, which is nice.

Party: Nah. This is some boring generic girl group bullshit that honestly should not be as popular as it is.

Lion Heart: Pretty good actually. The chorus is so lighthearted and cheery, but the musical genre that influences it (which I can't name right now bc im musically illiterate) makes it unique and 100x better than Party. Music video is pretty funny.

You Think: Bit of a dramatic change to their image compared to the rest of 2015, but I'll take it. 19th best song of 2015 for me, and for good reason: it's catchy, fierce, and the styling is on point.

--- 

A brief comment on Jessica:

We'll never know what truly happened that summer of 2014 (and I'm assuming this whole ordeal took place over at least a couple of months before boiling over suddenly that September) until after they're released from their contracts and do a tell-all book, but at the very least, if it wasn't forced, it was a terrible PR decision from SM to suddenly drop Jessica. Which is why I'm doubtful this was all SM's fault or any of the members' fault. We all know that kpop idols have almost no power over their companies, and though that might be less true with such a huge group like SNSD, a member's removal could not have been caused by infighting alone (even T-ara's Hwayoung was only removed after the scandal broke). 

Blanc and Eclare is overpriced, and I don't know how much creative control Jessica has over it (most likely not very much). But I wish her all the best. If it truly was a decision between this and the idol life (and we all know which one is more lucrative (not the idol life)), and this was what she chose, then I can't really claim to have the right to judge her.