First Impression: SNSD (Girls' Generation)

Quick Bio: A nine-member girl group debuted in 2007 under SM Entertainment.

Day 1: I first heard about them in 2008 through my friend who showed me Kissing You. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t tell who any of them were. My friend spent the longest time putting names to their faces and none of them stuck in my head. They looked like an army of girls and I thought most of the were the same girl with different hairstyles. I thought Taeyeon and Jessica were the same person.


My friend then showed me Into the New World for more practice in recognizing them. I did make progress. I remembered Seohyun because she looked like a monkey to me.


In the end, my friend gave me the MV of Girls’ Generation to study since they were wearing sweaters with their names on them. I’ll tell you now. It didn’t work. Why? I was completely not interested after my first five minutes being introduced to SNSD.


First impressions on those who stood out: The only impressions worth mentioning are on Yoona, Yuri, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung. I saw Yoona on Manwon Happiness and I thought she would be an incredible singer. She was the one doing the challenge, she was complimented on her looks, the PD commented on her commercial experience and for some reason I just figured she’d be a impressive singer. I heard her sing. Weak and unstable voice. Shocked and disappointed. Now I know. A good singer? Uh, no.


My first impression of Yuri was simple. I saw her in Super Junior’s Attack on the Pin-Up Boys dancing with Heechul. I thought she was way to skinny. Too skinny. No curves. No. I also thought she was Yoona and Seohyun. Those three confused me as hell. Seohyun and Sunny too.


I had the same impression for both Hyoyeon and Sooyoung. Half a line. Why are they in the group. So sad. I know I shouldn’t add this in, but of course I will. I figured they didn’t have any lines and were always in the back because they couldn’t sing and they weren’t as aesthetically pleasing to the eye compared to the others.



Now: My opinions on some of the members have changed throughout the years. Some for the better, some for the worse. Some didn’t change. I can tell them apart now. Their songs are catchy and forces into my brain. None of their songs get stuck in my head because they’re good. SNSD is near impossible to forget and erase not because they’re impressive, but because they’ve made a name for themselves and they’re everywhere in kpop.


-Cassis-