k-pop compendium: girls generation - gee

once again, here to boggle minds with synchronized bouncing and day-glo spandex, its a fresh look at the wonderful world of k-pop music. this time starring those much adored media darlings, girls generation! hooray!

girls generation, aka 소녀시대, is who comes to mind when i think 'k-pop girl group.' they're the perfect realization of everything it, k-pop, stands for: cuteness, silly dances, coordinated outfits, ridiculous amounts of members, hair, legs for miles, etc. girls generation, so called i guess because it's literally an entire generation of girls that make up the band, has just under 10 members. i'm sure they're all very talented individually - i mean they wouldn't get into the group just based on their sex appeal right?? - but distinguishing their individual contributions is just about impossible. which is fine. they make for an appealing texture of voices.

but what i think is most interesting about girls generation is their unavoidable marketing presence. whether they are on an entirely reasonable and expected advertisement for a clothing brand (spao):


or selling a computer processor:


or even fried chicken:

they seem to be everywhere you look. i think my favorite is the collectible vitamin-c drink bottles - collect all 9 and fight that cold!


i'm not saying its weird. i mean what else are you going to do with nine attractive korean girls with unparalleled media presence? make money off them, duh. but it is funny seeing the full extent of it. creepy in a big brother sort of omnipresence, but maybe creepier because you wouldn't expect them.

so anyways, here's 'gee.' it's over a year old (from 2009 actually) but still makes the rotation on the streets of daegu. apparently it holds the record for most weeks at #1 on kbs' music bank (whatever that is!), charting for 9 (is it a coincidence?!?!) consecutive weeks. the video is a re-imagining of the wildly popular 80's film, 'mannequin,' but stars all nine of the girls in the titular role. ugh, god its so adorable. now i'm going to try and pick a favorite, based on looks obviously because, as i said, i have no way of telling who is the best singer. seohyun has this weird living doll thing going on that i find compelling in a horrible sort of way, but actually i think yoona, in her boring, nothing spectacular, typical koreaness is actually my favorite. welp, that's that. here's the video:



edit: oh shit! 50th post! congratulations! we did it!