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Girls' Generation debut on American TV

·431 words·3 mins
k-pop girls-generation k-pop korea korean-pop snsd
James Pettigrove
Author
James Pettigrove
Cloud Engineer with a focus on Microsoft Azure

For many fans of Girls’ Generation (often referred by SNSD or SoShi, both come from their Korean name) today has been a long time coming. The Hallyu wave, as it is called, has reached the shores of the United States and into the households of the populous across the nation. I, myself cannot claim to be a long-time fan.

I first happened upon Girls’ Generation after clicking on a rather inviting topic title on NeoGAF forums that promised to mesmerise and surprise. So with cautious excitement I proceeded to watch a video linked in the opening post of this topic. I was presented with nine beautiful ladies, dancing in sync, singing powerfully to a quick bass beat. Never have I been a great fan of anything pop related; I have always stuck to metal, electro & rock, but something in the beat had me hooked. It wasn’t long before I was constantly replaying this video, over & over. Simply astonishing was the whole package that came before me; both visual and aural senses completely overwhelmed. I craved more…

After returning to the topic that brought me to the video I started to dig, dig for anything related to this group, and I found more, lots more. Little had I known Girls’ Generation has been around since 2007 and there were plenty more hits than the one I had experience, even different versions of the same song.

This was back in 2010, I have since not only discovered more fantastic music & dance from the world of Korean Pop but I have even seen Girls Generation live, in the flesh when they, along with many others came to Sydney for the K-POP Music Fest.

Fast forward back to today and we have Girls’ Generation debuting on American TV (they have performed in the US but only in concert, never on public television) with a remixed version of their latest hit ‘The Boys’. With any luck (and early feedback is looking positive), Girls’ Generation will become a less of a leading group in a niche genre and more of a household name. Like TVQX and BoA did for Korean POP in Japan, Girls’ Generation hope to pave the first stones to success in the otherwise elusive American music market.

Watch and judge for yourself

The music & dance in Korean Pop is simply the tip of a very large ice berg. I implore you to go out and explore the crazy world of Korean Pop if you are interested in something outside the culture you grew in.

Good luck and enjoy the ride

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