Girls ' Generation (Hangul: 소녀시대; RR: Sonyeo Sidae), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. Originally a nine -piece group, Jessica later departed from the group in September 2014. Girls ' Generation debuted in 2007 with their Korean eponymous debut album. Though the album gained some attention, it was not until 2009 that the group rose to fame with the single "Gee", which claimed the top spot on KBS's Music Bank for a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks and was named the most popular song of the 2000s in South Korea by Melon. Girls ' Generation further consolidated their popularity on the South Korean music scene with follow-up singles " Tell Me Your Wish ( Genie )", "Oh!", and "Run Devil Run", which were released in mid-2009 and early 2010.
In mid-2010, Girls ' Generation signed with Nayutawave Records (present- day EMI Records Japan ) to venture into the Japanese music scene. Their 2011 eponymous Japanese debut album peaked atop the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart and became the first album by a non-Japanese girl group to be certified " Million " by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group's third Korean studio album The Boys was released in October 2011 and became the best- selling album of 2011 in South Korea with sales of over 380,000 copies. An English version of the single "The Boys " was released by Interscope Records in an attempt to expand the group's endeavor to the global music scene.
