ON! Track Quiz: How Well Do You Know Girls’ Generation?

Their title track, Into The New World is an empowering song about not giving up on love and stepping bravely into the future despite the uncertainties ahead.

There are two sub-units: Girls’ Generation – TTS and Girls’ Generation – Oh!GG.   

TTS, which stands for TaeTiSeo, is Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. The trio debuted on May 2, 2012 with the title track, Twinkle. The song’s music video also featured cameos by EXO’s Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Kai, and Sehun. 

Oh!GG, on the other hand, is made up of Taeyeon, Sunny, Hyoyeon, Yuri, and Yoona. The quintet debuted on September 5, 2018 with the single, Lil’ Touch.

There are four songs that have reached over 15 million streams (and counting!) on Spotify*. They are Lion Heart (over 48 million), Gee (over 37 million), Into The New World (over 21 million) and The Boys (over 16 million).

*As of August 2022

Tiffany’s birth name is Stephanie Young Hwang. Tiffany was chosen as her stage name because it’s what her mother initially wanted to name her.

With its bubblegum pop tune and infectious hook “Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby Baby Baby”, it’s no wonder so many people were, and still are, hooked on Gee.

Even the robot dogs at the 2009 Incheon Global Fair & Festival were programmed to mimic the dance moves of Gee.

The song not only has 37 million streams on Spotify but also topped the Korean music shows and charts, taking first place on Music Bank for nine consecutive weeks. Gee was also topping Mnet for eight consecutive weeks, and took home the Digital Daesang (the top award) at the 2009 Golden Disc Awards, Song of the Year at the 2009 Melon Music Awards and 2010 Korean Music Awards, and the Best Song at the 2010 Seoul Music Awards (formerly known as the High1 Seoul Music Awards).

Only the biggest Girls’ Generation fans will know that the group’s official colour isn’t just pink — it’s pastel rose. You’ll see this hue on the Girls’ Generation light stick and all official merchandise.

While many of the Girls’ Generation members have contributed to OST soundtracks, Taeyeon has the most number under her belt. In fact, she released her first OST songs, If and Can You Hear Me from the K-dramas Hong Gil Dong and Beethoven Virus respectively, in 2008, just one year after the group debuted. Since then, she’s gone on to release many more, including All With You (Moonlovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo), All About You (Hotel del Luna), Kiss Me (Do You Like Brahms?) and By My Side (Our Blues). She’s even sung the Korean version of Into The Unknown for Disney’s Frozen 2.  

Because it was for the group’s 15th anniversary – a milestone in itself in the world of K-Pop, the members requested Kenzie, the songwriter for their debut track to write a song befitting their growth as a group.

And here’s an easter egg you might have missed. The members shared on the MMTG show that when Yuri sings her lines in verse five, the piano melody in the background is actually from Into The New World.

On the JTBC show Knowing Brothers, Tiffany shared that Villain was written to showcase the members’ impressive vocal performances, and was even selected as a possible candidate for the album’s title track. And while she and Sooyoung both share song-writing credits for the song, she also worked on the music composition of Villain together with Josh Cumbee. It’s also why Tiffany was tasked to direct the girls during the recording because she knew their vocal stylings the best.

As for Seventeen, Sooyoung shared in an interview that while it was the first song she wrote with Tiffany, it was a great experience for her thanks to their chemistry.