Last week’s poll is officially closed, and may I just say this was by far the most intense poll yet. It was a clear race between SNSD‘s “Into The New World” and “Genie“, leaving all other singles eating dust for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But by today, one came out soaring above the other. Which one? Read on to find out!
No, it wasn’t “Hoot“. That’s the only SNSD gif I could find at the moment, but hey, a little Tiffers looking gorg’ doesn’t hurt anybody.
The winner, by a sudden landslide of 53% to “Genie”s 32% is surprisingly (but not really), their very first single – “Into The New World” ~ !!
Looks like you prefer your Girls Generation old-school over any of their new material. “Hoot” came in third with 6%, beating out big songs like “Gee” and “Oh!“. But both “ITNW” and “Genie” really did mark the height of this group’s career, at least til now. Two very distinct sounds, but very good ones at that.
Here’s to SNSD, who we hope will tap into their roots and find a good balance between the classics and contemporary Korean pop music.
and here’s where they are now:
Voting has already started on this week’s poll, featuring Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu of DBSK: What song from JYJ’s “The Beginning” should have been the lead single?
And a request post will go up soon for you to choose the songs that you think should be featured on the playlist on the sidebar. 2 will be picked through requests and 2 by me. Sound good?
McRoth's Residence 
Finally! I’d been waiting for this. Last time I checked though, Genie was winning! Bummer! lol Into The New World definitely deserves to win – it’s vocally and musically their most impressive song. Genie however, is just so damn appealing and catchy that it remains my favorite. I also heard it before I heard “Into The New World” so I guess that factors into it.
I think what the three top songs have in common is that they’re not gimmicky – they’re not trying so hard to be cute or sexy or happy – they just are. And the truth is you can’t beat genuineness, no matter how many rhinestones you put on whatever else you try to sell.
with a paltry 6%, I don’t think we can even call hoot “third place”.
it’s almost as if it’s third by default, which…it seems to be.
Pretty much, haha. I expected Gee to be higher, but I guess its level of suck is universally understood.
You know, I think I’m the only person who doesn’t think that Gee sucks, and actually likes it a decent amount. Since you put this poll up I’ve been trying to understand why I liked it, and I came up with some reasons:
(1) the production is stellar. E-Tribe somehow managed to capture musically the essence of the cute anime girl – something that many have attempted but few have achieved.
(2) It sounds to me like a Jem and the Holograms song (best fictional girlband EVAR). It gives off the same colorful eighties vibe, with some 90s-ness thrown in too. And these days we’re all about throwbacks, right?
(3) It ushered in the electro-pop craziness that’s still got it’s hold on k-pop today. It also solidified SNSD as a force to be reckoned with in the Korean music industry. Something about it has to be good, if people are still in love with it right now. It’s not like other mania songs, that experience a high for a few months to a year, and then fade away into obscurity – it’s still selling. All they needed for Japan was a modified video and a Japanese version and it climbed up the Oricon chart like it was nothing.
It’s not as good as their other material, this is for sure. But the truth is the only reason most people care about SNSD is because of “Gee”.
It’s also VERY Asian. I mean, some of their songs could appeal to, say, Americans, but Gee is an Asian song down to its core.
And as such, it was (and still is) gobbled up because of its freakish appeal and typical girly-Asian elements.
Which just doesn’t cater to me.
Point taken.
it also happens to be a recycled tell me. I mean, think about it from a conspiracy point of view.
tell me was the original mania song. cute outfits, lots of colours, a fun music video, and a repetitive chorus that doesn’t require much intelligence to sing along to.
SM says, man, I want some of that. SM also says, why didn’t I think of that before? the whole repetitive chorus concept? so two years later, when songs are deemed old, SM thinks, “hey! let’s make our own “tell me”. but when should we release it? oh, I know, early 2009, when the competition is laughably low and no one of relevance is releasing anything!”
and thus began the production of gee to the disdain of the rest of us who realized it was basically a lame attempt by SM to make their own tell me mania.
to this day, I still cannot rationalize any form of musical value in the song.
I mean, I’d at least understand it if the verses didn’t run in such a messy pace, but who am I kidding? the brainless korean music consumer masses really only care about a chorus they can sing to.
and for that trend, you can thank JYP.
every. single. day.
@compliant you know, I was wondering why exactly the Wonder Girls are so popular despite not releasing any really decent material. Now I get it – it’s because of Tell Me! lol
That being said though, the whole point of pop music is a chorus that you can sing along to. Korean music consumers are as brainless as consumers of any other country’s music, or consumers from any other country (wasn’t sure which you meant), so don’t single them out. Let us not forget the atrocities of “Party In The USA”, “Touch My Bum” and a number of other crappy songs that have taken their countries by storm for no reason other than a simple chorus. Besides, anything that isn’t easy to sing along to isn’t really pop music – it’s some other genre. Even the Beatles did pop music if you think about it. If you like pop music, you like catchy choruses, and generally tolerate music that isn’t amazing. I know most of us who read McRoth’s blog tend towards pop music of a higher quality (in our own estimations, of course), but once it’s pop music – music meant to appeal to the masses – that bar can only be so high. Let those who wish to listen to music of more fluff than substance do so – at least, they know what to expect and don’t mind it.
it really is because of tell me, tbh. cause the other two parts of their trilogy basically follow the exact same formula. miss A’s “breathe” – also, a fruit from the same tree.
which is not unlike what SNSD has done, of course. but instead of following musical formulae, it’s been more of
1) SM throwing around its gargantuan weight against smaller korean labels (as usual), and
2) an obvious shift towards much heavier use of hype and image marketing. an image not simply of “being sexy” or “being cute”, but of being the idealization of girls that a vast majority of asian guys are very, VERY attracted to.
which you probably figured ages ago anyway.
the reason I singled out brainless korean masses in my original comment was because 90% of kpop consumers are, well, korean.