If you haven’t heard of Girls’ Generation or their debut song “Into the New World” yet, then you have been sleeping under a rock. Girls’ Generation debuted on August 5, 2007 under SM Entertainment with their song “Into the New World”. At the time of their debut there were 9 of them. The name of the members are (starting left to right) Sunny, Seohyun, Yoona, Jessica,Yuri, Taeyeon, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Tiffany. Jessica left in 2014 after 7 years. When they debuted, they received a lot of hate/criticism because before them, the most members a girl group had was 4. Another example of the hate they received was known as the “black ocean”. In 2008, just two months before their one-year anniversary as a group, Girls’ Generation was invited to perform at the Dream Concert in June. This concert is very popular and so it’s a bit rare to have rookie groups perform. Fans of Super Junior, which is another boy group under SM, were mad that Girls’ Generation was always around them, meaning stuff like commercials or events and so in protest of Girls’ Generation, they turned off their lightsticks, giving Girls’ Generation a black ocean. When I learned about this I thought it was very immature of the fans to do but in K-Netizens are known to be harsh on idols, regardless if they like them or not.
This song talks about the girls’ experience as trainees and how long they had to train because the formation of this group didn’t happen overnight. Taeyeon, who is the leader of the group, called out a person after they claimed on a TV show that they were almost a part of the group and she said, “Unless you manipulate the members’ memories somehow or have actually worked hard and sweat with us, I wish people would stop bringing up Girls’ Generation’s name so easily. It makes us uncomfortable.” Taeyeon then reiterated that the members had worked so hard and overcome so many obstacles to get where they are today. She said, “The eight of us put everything on the line and worked as hard as we can in order to debut under the name Girls’ Generation. We’re not a group that was made in a day. It’s true that we had to work towards creating the best synergy between the members, but we went through so much together before the public even knew about us.” When Taeyeon said this, she shed a little bit of light on the process to becoming an idol, mentioning that it was not easy and that they weren’t just picked for the group overnight, they had to work for it.
There’s a line in the song that says, “I leave behind this world’s unending sadness. In the many unknowable paths I follow a dim light. It’s something we’ll do together to the end. Into my new world.” That line right there talks about exactly what Taeyeon mentioned, that they had to go through years of training and bumps in the road to get where they are now. Ex member Jessica trained the longest out of the 9 of them. Her training time was 7 years and her whole family moved to South Korea from California in order for her to pursue her dreams, that is a big challenge right there. The song starts off with a soft piano sound repeating the same few notes over again (about 30 seconds) until Taeyeon’s voice comes in with the first line. The song starts off soft with the piano until the drums come in. In the beginning only three of the members have lines until about 1:22 when the chorus hits and all 9 sing it, signaling they are one and that they are heading into this journey together.
When this song first came out, it didn’t get that much attention at first even though the girls did get their first music show win just two months after they debuted.
You might be thinking why is this song so popular, why is Girls’ Generation so popular? Well the reason is because when they debuted there weren’t that many girl bands, especially a girl band of 9 people. It was a big deal for them because the last girl group that was under SM was a group called S.E.S and they debuted in 1992 and disbanded in 2002 so Girls’ Generation was their newest girl group in 5 years. The other reason they are so popular is because girl groups don’t usually last more than 7 years, if lucky. There is a “curse” that girl groups have where between 5 and 7 years, they could end up disbanding, the curse being called “the 7-year curse”. Girls’ Generation is the longest active running girl group ever. They just celebrated their 13th debut anniversary in August 2020. Without knowing it, they paved the way for future girl groups because they proved to the world that anything is possible. Because of them, rookie girl groups dream to be like them, lasting over 10 years. I’ve included a video of two girl groups singing and dancing to the song, which just shows how important Girls’ Generation is still to this day.
