Wondergirls vs. Girls' Generation

I agree with some members that this article seemed biased.

I went karaoke one day with my friends (who are Americans) and I remembered this article so I turned on "So Hot" to see their responses. They thought it was awkward and turned it off.

I do not agree that success should be dependent on the Western market because that is JYP's definition of success for his groups. SM's definition of success is all of Asia, which is why his groups are so popular in Japan, Thailand, and China (not talking about his soloists). If success is dependent on the Western market, then that means DBSK and Super Junior are unsucessful because they have no intentions in debuting in the West.

I believe success should be dependent on talent. Every member of SNSD has talent, listed by toocutedoggy, but Sunny has potential.
In WG, Sunye, Yeeun, and Yoobin have talent, Sunmi has potential, and Sohee. (By the way, it's spelled "mandoo." "Mangdoong" means "goby," a type of fish). Right there, SNSD has a higher percentage.
I believe a lot of WG's popularity came from Yoobin, who was not a JYP trainee. Like toocutedoggy mentioned, Yeeun is underrated, and Sunye seems to be well-known for being the leader and eldest. It seemed to me that JYP had poor planning for WG that one of the members would quit so quickly (I know it was due to medical reasons but he should have seen that coming) and he did not replace her with one of his own trainees but another company's, Good Entertainment's, trainee, Yoobin.
Popularity-wise, SNSD started out strong with many people liking Into the New World. WG's debut was weak with Irony but became a huge hit with Tell Me. To me, it seemed like people liked the dance and song more than the talent of the girls. JYP acknowledged for both songs, Tell Me and So Hot, they purposefully had simple dances and did not have vocally-strong songs. I'm not sure about Nobody though.

Unfortunately, success is truly dependent on sales. In the beginning, SNSD was definitely more successful than WG because people only liked the song Tell Me so they would download only that song (I bet 80% of them were free downloads so there was no profit) while everyone bought SNSD's album. Then, WG got more CDs while SNSD was on hiatus so WG became more successful... or so it seems. From looking at the discography from Wikipedia, the sales for The Wonder Begins was 14,815, The Wonder Years 71,830, So Hot 49,499, The Wonder Years Trilogy 46,000. For SNSD's Into the New World 32,861 and Girls' Generation Album 123,504.
Like I mentioned earlier, SNSD had a stronger start, and SNSD's album had much more sales than WG's album.
We can't use sums for comparison because Wiki did not include sales for SNSD's Kissing You single, Baby Baby Repackaged Album, and Gee mini-album and I doubt The Wonder Years Trilogy's number is updated. If anyone has more updated numbers, please post them!
Sales-wise, SNSD wins because they had a CD sell over 100,000, which WG never accomplished.

Even though WG has a larger age range of popularity, I doubt elementary school kids who dance to Tell Me could have bought a WG CD or asked their parents for one. I also doubt an elderly woman who watches WG on TV would think "I want to buy their CD." WG has a larger age range of popularity but the age range that purchases their CDs is not much different from the age range that purchases SNSD CDs.

I know going off-topic but for quick verification, an album should have about 10 or more songs. A mini-album has about 5 songs, and a single has 1-3 song(s) with instrumentals.

That sounds about right, Anonymou. Which surprised me, because I thought WG had more sales. Heh, I should believe in my Soshi girls more.

Though, Sunye of WG isn't the oldest-it's actually Yoobin.

@RiceRiceBaby: Ah, thank you for reminding me that Yoobin is the oldest. And you should definitely believe in SNSD!

In WG, Sunye, Yeeun, and Yoobin have talent, Sunmi has potential, and Sohee.

XD I don't know why it got cut off at the end but I meant to say "... and Sohee has no talent."


I found the most-sold album statistics list in Korea on a Korean website called Recording Industry Association Korea.

1st Half of 2007
WG's 1st single (Irony), released in February, is at 35th place with 8,110 CDs sold.


2nd Half of 2007
WG's single is now at 72nd place with 11,454 CDs sold.
SNSD's 1st single (Into the New World), released in August, is at 41st place with 22,818 CDs sold.

8,110 + 11,454 = 19,564 so that means WG's single still didn't reach SNSD's number even though WG's single has been released for 11 months while SNSD's for 5 months.

Wonder Girls' 1st album (Tell Me), released in September, is at 15th place with 47,927 CDs sold.
SNSD's 1st album (Girls' Generation), released in November, is at 12th place with 56,804 CDs sold.

Sales are at a difference of about 10,000 even though WG's album has been released for two times longer than SNSD's.

WG's Total: 59,381
SNSD's Total: 79,622

1st Half of 2008

WG's single is now at 96th place with 3,314 CDs sold.
SNSD's single is now at 39th place with 10,043 CDs sold.

WG's album is now at 13th place with 22,762 CDs sold.
SNSD's album is now at 6th place with 64,339 CDs sold.

WG's mini-album (So Hot), released in June, is at 12th place with 31,840 CDs sold.

WG's Total: 57,916
SNSD's Total: 74,382

WG's Cumulative Total: 125,407
SNSD's Cumulative Total: 154,004

The numbers speak for themselves; SNSD's sales beat WG's.
The chart for the 2nd half of 2008 still hasn't been made but since SNSD didn't release anything, there wouldn't be anything to compare.

WOW! I give you credit for taking the time to research all that!
My Soshi girls rock!!!

Though, I think Sohee is improving-a little bit at a time. Sunye is the best to me in WG. Love her voice!