The Future of SNSD

OT9... Looking fine.

Now while writing the Marchen Fantasy article, I was inspired to do an editorial on SNSD's future as idols in the industry, because I always felt like it was an interesting topic to discuss, but in order to do this we need to start from the beginning.

Wait... who are these girls?  Some Nugu Group?

Now most of you are probably thinking... 11? Who are these girls and what have they done with our precious Soshi?

Well this was one of the original lineups of So Nyeo Shi Dae (the most famous one as well), and if you look closely you should see some familiar faces... but allow me to point them out in order from top-left to bottom-right.

Stephanie "Tiffany" Hwang (She looks so different now, right?)
Park Soyeon (Yes the one from T-ara.)
Jang Hajin (Yeah I have no idea who this is either.)
Kim Taeyeon (She looks the same.)
Kim Hyoyeon (She has aged gracefully since then.)
Choi Sooyoung (Still looks the same too.)
Kwon Yuri (Looks pretty here.)
Im Yoona (She's sorta pretty here too.)
Stella Kim (Now this is a group visual I can agree with!)
Jessica Jung (Wow she looks amazing!)
Seo Juhyun (D'awww Maknae.)

Now obviously we all know that Soyeon is part of T-ara now... But what happened to Stella Kim, Jang Hajin and that Stephanie Hwang kid?

Now while the last one was a joke, Stella and Hajin both went to work on their studies and Stella ended up at New York University, whilst Hajin got accepted into the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (otherwise known as KAIST). Which isn't bad at all, education is very important and at the time a lot of people (I-Nets and K-Nets alike) were claiming that this group was doomed to fail, there was an entire thread on soompi dedicated to the fact that a group with a huge amount of girls in it would not work.

(Just saying now that After School, RaNiA and Nine Muses also shit on that theory...)

After a while the group was eventually trimmed down to these 10.

Yay it's SNSD-- Wait a minute, who's that chick?

This was going to be the lineup that was finalized... as you can see Park Soyeon was going to be in that lineup and had the chance to be part of Korea's greatest girl group since S.E.S or Fin K.L.

So why is Soyeon now with T-ara? Well we could ask the same question about why a certain Kim Taeyeon was really close to leaving the group as well...

They both cited harsh training.

Can you imagine her singing "Gee, Gee, Gee, Gee, Baby Baby Baby...?"

The difference between Taeyeon and Soyeon is that while Taeyeon did indeed run away at one stage, she came back and toughed it out for her fellow idols, but Soyeon left and never looked back.

And now we end up with the 9 lovely girls we have today...

Ahhh... That's better. That's the Soshi I know and love!

Now if everything went smoothly from here on out, then this would be a happy ending... Unfortunately, SNSD's path to becoming the Nation's Girl Group was long, arduous, tiring and even stressful for all 9 of these girls. There were many tears and sweat to be shed, not too sure about blood unless they were trying to force feed Jessica cucumbers (FN: Please don't, the bitch might actually cut you...).

An example of such was the infamous Black Ocean incident that happened at the 2008 Dream Concert, which was instigated by three different fandoms (Cassopeia, ELF and Triple S) which fused together to form CARTEL to get at the Sones in their fanwar because they thought their oppas were being disrespected by SNSD.

What usually happens during concerts is the fans would hold up glowsticks depicting their fandom's colour for the artist while they were performing either as a sign of admiration, showing respect or just generally giving support to the artist that is performing. However as a sign of disrespect, CARTEL decided to switch off their glowsticks during the SNSD performance.

Now while it is tragic that this would happen to SNSD in such an early stage of their artistic development (they debuted in 2007 mind), the girls would've had no recollection of the event  happening due to the setup of the stage as well as the lighting, however when they found out AFTERWARDS it was devastating for them, and it would be even more so because they'd have felt they did a good job, only to find out that they were being disrespected like that.

However to be fair, 2008 Sones were (and still are) acting like Exotics now, so I guess the retribution was warranted but not admirable and most certainly misdirected.

Nevertheless, they pushed on through and gave us this in 2009...

You are not a fan of K-Pop if you have not at least heard of this song at all, or if it hasn't been mentioned within your range of hearing.

Gee propelled SNSD to new heights of fame all around Asia and cemented their status as one of the biggest Korean girl groups of all time, even getting them to be more well known than the ever-so-popular Wonder Girls who were also tearing up Asia with their popularity and the famous "Nobody".

SNSD started as some nugu group that everyone hated and transformed into a group that could stand toe-to-toe with the Wonder Girls and have a rivalry (as far as the fans were concerned) with them.

However, they wouldn't stop there... Even though SNSD's exploits took them to Japan and had them dominate Korea in the absence of more prominent girl groups at the time and in spite of the newer ones that tried to claim the throne that the Wonder Girls would eventually abdicate...

They had bigger plans. Enter Teddy Riley.

Their image at this point had since been revamped and transformed into a more mature group, that talked less about "Oppa Saranghae~" and based their image around confidence and "Bringing The Boys Out...".

They still had that vibe of bubblegum pop group that has a squeaky clean image, but now they are showing a bit more variety in their style, even if the song itself isn't a masterpiece.

Of course this was only natural as they grow older and more mature, so should their music. I could never fathom a 30-something year old Jessica Jung singing Kissing You and waving around a goddamn lollipop all the time, it would just be weird and pretty darn creepy. (Isn't that right, Yui Horie?)

This would be SNSD's first foray into the American Music Industry, of course they realized that they were not ready yet, but they eventually will be... Their appearance on David Letterman shows that it's only a matter of time.

But now we fast forward to 2013.

What the fuck is this shit? No seriously... What the fuck?

Sone or not, I do not condone this shit as progress... Whoever made this mess should crawl in a hole and bifurcate him/herself.

The lyrics are bad, the composition is worse, it's like someone opened up Logic, got a bunch of loops and presets, had a fucking seizure and sent it to Skrillex to drop some treble in there to make it sound halfway decent... Only he failed, because he's a fucking idiot too.

Why the hell does it look like Sunny gave Smurfette a reach around and a rusty trombone? Why the fuck do they not feed Sooyoung? Why the fuck is their so much bad shit going on?

THIS IS FUCKING AWFUL!!!!

Rant done.

This song is the only reason why I worry about the future of Girls Generation, fuck everything else...

Fuck the K-Pop is a passing trend argument, fuck the bullshit about their being no mainstream appeal for a group of more than 5 members when the Jackson Family, Osmond family and Wu Tang Clan existed.

If anything having a group of 9 cute Asian girls would work awesomely well with the Otaku/Weaboo culture seeping it's way into music, if you haven't noticed it by now then you are an idiot.

And fuck the bullshit about Asian artist never making it mainstream, it's because they either don't promote properly or they aren't signed to a company that can do that for them... Charice got mad airplay and still gets decent work out there, the only reason why she's struggling so hard is because she fucked up and messed with her image.

Dumbfoundead is another successful artist, the only reason why he isn't on the tip of everyone's tongue is because he isn't signed to a Major and/or he's underground, but guess what Hopsin and Kendrick Lamar where like that too, and guess where they're at now?

In fact, so was Eminem too, so suck a dick you dumb motherfuckers.

But I will conclude this much... SNSD is losing fanbase fast in Korea because of the same reason Wonder Girls lost people. SNSD has Japan to fall back on, but they need to promote in Korea more often, otherwise they will just be another K-Pop group that can only promote properly in Japan (T-ara or KARA anyone?).

In all honesty, SNSD is not gonna be ready to promote as the whole group in America for a long time... I'd give them about 5/6 years of consistently good releases and promotion before they can come close to nabbing a decent spot. The best time to take advantage of popularity would've been to try and test the waters whilst Gangnam Style was at it's peak, because then SNSD would've gotten their name out by association, and because they are a much more consistent act than PSY (in terms of success and gimmick) then they could've thrived off of that popularity.

However, there is a way around it... Sub units and perhaps solo ventures are the way forward.

Tiffany and Jessica would do perfectly well as solo acts in the industry with good enough promotion. I can see Tiffany doing something very idol-like with enough western influence to make it marketable and doing cross-promotion with the States and with Korea, meanwhile Jessica could something RnB influenced with the same idea of cross-promotion... That would be a better way to test the waters, because the rest of the members could continue their activities elsewhere and it would build their idols as solo acts, sort of like how YG does with Big Bang.

Another idea is to try and put TaeTiSeo to the test or perhaps create another sub unit and market them to Japan (cross promotion wouldn't hurt either) just to see if the sub unit could survive, and then possibly market to the States.

Also what I like about TaeTiSeo is that all three of them can get their individuality across whilst maintaining that visage of togetherness with their group. Even so I still think all three of should work on solo stuff too.

Tiffany could definitely do something idol-esque with her solo stuff, Taeyeon could do something more edgy (like Devil's Cry) or perhaps be SM's answer to a female Max Changmin, Seohyun should appeal to a more indie crowd with what she's shown... And what happened to Jessica being the next BoA?

However this is just taking the Western market into account... I'm also concerned about whether or not SNSD can make the transition from Idols into Artists like Lee Hyori or Brown Eyed Girls or even Big Bang themselves can be considered artists now.

SM has this thing where they hate developing their idols... Some examples being Kim Jonghyun from SHINee. Talented musician, has been working on songwriting and composition for years, but has only had works like Alarm Clock (IU) and Red Candle (Son Dambi) being released recently. Although Juliette was purely his own lyrical work (and a masterpiece too, might I add).

Another example is Amber from f(x) who wrote Goodbye Summer from f(x)'s Pink Tape album. In fact some of the Soshi girls have taken an interest in Songwriting... Yuri and Sooyoung have been the most active however.

SNSD has been around since 2007 and only in 2012 did Kim Taeyeon get any sort of solo stuff released (in a sub unit mind), Devil's Cry is a masterpiece and if Taeyeon released that by her lonesome it would have had an All-Kill guaranteed...as a matter of fact, in any other company Taeyeon would be a solo act by now, or would have had some solo stuff released.

All of these girls (bar a few) are ready for either solo promotions or at the very least sub units, Hyoyeon's talent in dancing is wasted in choreography that all of the girls find too easy to do.

All I'm saying is that the future looks bleak for SNSD as artists unless they either pressure SM into allowing them to do more than just clump together and release another "Oppa Saranghae~" song for their uncle fans to fap too...

Or they do a Han Geng and fuck off to another company that will allow them to be more independant, or heck even start their own! Shinhwa did it, so why can't they?

Please SM-oppa, let us be free!

Just a little food for thought...