On April 29th Girls’
Generation sub-group TeaTiSeo’s (a
combination of 3 of the girls names, Teayeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun) mini-album (or
what we in the west would call an EP) Twinkle
released on iTunes. Now Most of you probably need a little back ground before I
tell you what the significance of this is.
Girls’ Generation is a Korean pop group comprised of nine
girls (Teayeon, Tiffany, Jessica, Yoona, Yuri, Sunny, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, and
Seohyun). They gain popularity in Korea, and all of Asia, with their 2009 hit
Gee. In 2010, they explained into Japan releasing several Japanese versions of their
songs and in 2011 an entire album for the Japanese market. This was the First
time a Korean artist had ever made the #1 spot of the charts for Japan. And
early this year they released their first English song The Boys (Link here). They even did a remix with Snoop Dogg (Link Here), and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, and Live With Kelly to promote The Boys in the US.
Right now most of the girls are just doing promotions or some
other kind of other work. Yoona and Yuri are both filming tv dramas, Sooyoung is a
radio DJ most days, Sunny is staring in a Korean musical, Hyoyeon is on the
second season of Korea's Dancing With The Stars, and Jessica is doing plenty of photo
shoots and fashion boutique openings all across Asia and even in New York City.
This Left Teayon, Tiffany, and Seohyun, with a lot of free time, because the
only thing they were doing was hosting a music show called "Show! Music Core" every
other week. So what did they do? They started a sub-group. It still says Girls’ Generation on the cover but specifics
that it is only those specific members.
Their title song Twinkle
Shot up to number 1 on all the South Korean Charts (MelOn, Bugs, Olleh,
Soribada, Mnet, Daum and Naver), unsurprisingly. But was surprising was the
rest of the world’s responses. The mini-album rose to #1 on the Japanese
iTunes, #10 on iTunes Mexico’s pop album chart, #18 in Spain, #32 in Ireland,
#26 in the Netherlands, #22 in the UK, and charted at various positions on the
Top Albums chart, including #11 in Sweden, #6 in Brazil, #60 in
the UK, #15 in Finland, #36 in France, #56 in Italy, #5 in Canada, #4 in
Australia, #8 in New Zealand, and even #1 in Bulgaria. Yeah, Bulgaria! Who would have guessed?
In the US the mini-album rose to #2 on the iTunes Pop album
chart in the US store, and peaked at #4 in the overall album chart. Girls’
Generation Not only set a record for the highest place of a Korean artist on
the US chart but also for the highest for any no-English speaking artist on the
US iTunes store.
It has since fallen off the top albums chart in the US,
considering most US sones (pronounced So Won/ the term for Girls’ Generation
fans; it means "wish" in Korean) now have it or have their physical copy.
At its debut Twinkle was at 126th on the “Billboard 200″ album chart, his is the
highest position held on the “Billboard 200″ album chart by any Korean artist yet.
It also placed first
on Billboard’s “World Albums” chart, second on Billboard’s “Heatseekers Albums” chart, sixth on Billboard’s
“Korea K-Pop Hot 100″ music chart, and 21st on
Billboard’s “Independent Albums” chart. The American and
worldwide response to “Twinkle” is especially
surprising considering “Twinkle” is an entirely Korean album.
But why does this matter to you? You’ve probably have never
even heard SoShi* before. Lets change that. Here is the Twinkle music video**.
Well, first off, I want to point out that we live a truly global world with at the click of a mouse you can be in Korea or in France, or in any place that suites you fancy.
Secondly, most - if not all - of them are openly Christian, and I think they need the support against their secular rivals 2NE1 (pronounce 21).
Take it away Tiffany.
Sources.
Notes
*Soshi is the abbreviated Romanization of their Korean
Name 소녀시대 (Sonyeo Shidae).
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