Gee (Girls' Generation song)

South Korean entertainment agency SM Entertainment launched Girls' Generation, a nine-member idol girl group, in August 2007. In November, SM released the group's debut studio album, which was supported by singles including "Into the New World" and "Girls' Generation"; the latter of which was among the top three most popular songs of 2007 according to a Gallup Korea public poll.^[2] The album was succeeded with a reissue titled Baby Baby in March 2008.^[3] Girls' Generation sold over 100,000 copies of their debut album in South Korea, ranking among the period's commercially successful idol groups.^[4][5]

On January 5, 2009, SM released Gee, the group's first extended play (EP) (known in South Korea as "mini album").^[6] SM had planned to release "Dancing Queen", a cover version of Duffy's single "Mercy (2008), as the title track.^[7] The plan was inspired by the "retro" music trend caused by fellow idol group Wonder Girls' hit single "Nobody" (2008).^[8] It was scrapped due to copyright issues.^[9] Production duo E-Tribe, who wrote "Gee", pitched the song to SM, who thought the lyrics were childish and the melody weak. E-Tribe maintained their position, and SM selected "Gee" as the title track.^[8] It was released as the lead single onto South Korean digital music platforms.^[10]

After Girls' Generation's domestic success, SM extended their promotional activities to Japan. In September 2010, the group signed with Universal Music Japan-owned Nayutawave Records. Their first Japanese single was the Japanese-language version of "Genie", which had been released in South Korea prior. Nayutawave released the Japanese-language version of "Gee" on October 20, 2010, as the group's second Japanese single.^[11]

"Gee"

"Gee" is a bubblegum song with an electropop and Europop sound. The production incorporates techno- and hip hop-influenced synthesizers and beats.

---

Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Gee" was written, arranged, and produced by E-Tribe, a production duo consisting of Ahn Myung-won and Kim Young-deuk. It was recorded at SM's Concert Hall and Yellow Tail Studios in Seoul, South Korea. The track is three minutes and 21 seconds long.^[12] The Japanese version's lyrics were written by Kanata Nakamura.^[13]

"Gee" is an upbeat track that uses dense synthesizers.^[14] Rolling Stone described the synthesizers as "glittering Shibuya-kei",^[8] and Billboard found them to be influenced by techno.^[15] The track is accentuated with chimes at the beginning^[14] and pulsing electropop beats throughout.^[15] Music critics categorized the sound as bubblegum,^[15] Europop,^[16] and electropop.^[14] The A.V. Club characterized the track as "a three-minute aural mélange of techno, bubblegum pop, and hip-hop".^[14] The group members sing in high-registered vocals accentuated with electronic processing including bleeps and clicks.^{[citation needed]} According to musicologist Michael Fuhr, this vocal technique demonstrates aegyo, a Korean concept for cuteness in an adolescent, feminine way.^[17] The lyrics talk about the girls' feelings when they fall in love.^[7]

The music video for the Korean version of "Gee" begins with the nine members being displayed as mannequins at a clothing store and coming to life after the store's male staff (played by Minho of Shinee) leaves. The members then discover the surroundings and find out the portrait of Minho being "the employee of the month". Scenes of the members performing the choreography are juxtaposed with the storyline. At the end of the video, the members leave the store and Minho returns realizing the mannequins have disappeared.^[18] The video became the first video by a girl group to achieve over 100 million views on YouTube.^[19] Another music video for the Japanese version was also released, which also features Minho as the male staff, but does not portray the members as mannequins but Minho's fellow female staff.^[20]

Girls' Generation had their first promotional activity for the song on MBC's music show Music Core on January 10, 2009.^[21] "Gee" eventually became a hit, achieving nine consecutive weeks at number one on KBS's Music Bank,^[22][23] and eight consecutive wins on the Mnet's chart,^[24] setting a record at the time. It was named as the Song of the Decade by South Korea's online music website Melon,^[25] and chosen to be the most popular song of 2009 on Music Bank.^[26] The song has also won several major awards such as Digital Daesang and Digital Bonsang at the 24th Golden Disc Awards,^[27] the Daesang and Digital Music awards at the 19th Seoul Music Awards,^[28] and Song of the Year at the 7th Korean Music Awards.^[29][30]

The Japanese version sold 130,145 physical copies in 2010, becoming the 49^th best-selling single of the year in Japan.^[31] The song reached number one on the RIAJ's weekly digital track chart on October 26,^[32] and eventually was ranked fifty-seventh and twenty-third on Billboard's 2010 & 2011 Japan Hot 100 charts, respectively.^[33][34] In January 2014, "Gee" was certified "Million" by the RIAJ, achieving more than one million digital downloads.^[35] The song is also the group's best-selling single in the US with 80,000 downloads sold as of May 2020.^[36]

"Gee" won 14 first place music program awards in South Korea, and received a record nine consecutive wins on Music Bank until Psy's "Gangnam Style" in 2012.^[37]

A parody of "Gee", called "Hee", has gained popularity among Korean citizens. It is a combination of the instrumental of 'Gee' and confrontational dialogue from the drama Temptation of Wife.^[54]

In 2009 and 2010, SM labelmates Super Junior regularly included a cover of "Gee" on their Super Show 2 tour, introduced by a comedic video interlude featuring both groups.^{[55][better source needed]} "Gee" was the opening theme song of the film "To All the Boys: Always and Forever".^[56]

"Gee" has been widely recognized as a K-pop classic and the group's signature song.^{[citation needed]}

The song's choreography, built around a repeated pointing hook that fans nicknamed the 'crab dance,' circulated widely, and the brightly colored skinny jeans the members wore in the video influenced fashion trends in South Korea.^[15]

On writing the group's biography for AllMusic, Chris True selected "Gee" as one of their outstanding songs.^[58] Chuck Eddy from Spin ranked the single fifth on his list of the 21 greatest K-pop songs of all time in 2012, opining that the song has set up the group's "huge deals" ever since.^[59] Pitchfork Media editor Jakob Dorof included the song on his list of 20 essential K-pop songs in 2014, noting it for being the "magnum opus" of modern Korean bubblegum pop genre, which he regarded as K-pop's "comfort zone." Dorof also described the song as "formally irrefutable" and credited it, in hyperbolic terms, with briefly easing long-standing cultural tensions between South Korea and Japan.^[60] Abigail Covington writing for The A.V. Club regarded Girls' Generation as the K-pop "premier, ubiquitous provider," particularly with "Gee", which she said showcased Korean music's potential, noting that K-pop had predated the group's 2007 debut.^[14] Billboard magazine labelled "Gee" "arguably the most iconic K-pop song in the past ten years."^[61][62]

In 2016, "Gee" was voted the top K-pop girl group song in the past 20 years in a poll involving 2,000 people and 30 music industry experts by South Korean magazine Dong-a Ilbo, web magazine Idology and research company M Brain.^[63][64] In a panel of 35 music critics and industry professionals organized by Melon and newspaper Seoul Shinmun, "Gee" was ranked the fifth best idol song of all-time, crediting the song as one of the catalysts of the popularization of idol/K-pop. Music critic Jiseon Choi believed that "through the rise of 'Gee', the year 2009 was heated up and became the protagonist of a nationwide syndrome."^[65] In 2023, Rolling Stone named "Gee" the greatest song in the history of Korean pop music, referring to it as "a pure distillation of the giddiness of infatuation".^[8]

Credits adapted from album's liner notes.^[80]

Studio

• SM Concert Hall Studio – recording, mixing
• SM Yellow Tail Studio – recording
• Sonic Korea – mastering

Personnel

• SM Entertainment – executive producer
• Lee Soo-man – producer
• Girls' Generation – vocals, background vocals
• E-Tribe – producer, Korean lyrics, composition, arrangement, vocal directing
• Kanata Nakamura – Japanese lyrics
• Sugarflow – background vocals
• Go Myung-jae – guitar
• Nam Koong-jin – recording, mixing
• Lee Seong-ho – recording
• Jeon Hoon – mastering

• List of number-one digital singles of 2010 (Japan)