Released January 5, 2009 (Korean version)
October 20, 2010 (Japanese version) Format CD
DVD
digital download Genre Bubblegum pop
electropop Length 3:20 (Korean)
3:23 (Japanese) Label S.M. Entertainment (Korean)
Nayutawave Records (Japanese) Writer(s) Ahn Myung-won • Kim Young-deuk (Korean)
Kanata Nakamura (Japanese) | ||
"Gee" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. The original Korean version was released as a single from their extended play of the same name on January 5, 2009. Written by Ahn Myung-won and Kim Young-deuk, "Gee" is primarily a bubblegum pop and electropop song with elements of hip hop and techno that lyrically talks about the girls' affections when they are in love. The single was a success in the group's native country, claiming the top spot on Music Bank for a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks and on Inkigayo for three weeks. It was the best-selling single of 2009 in South Korea.
Contents
A Japanese version was written by Kanata Nakamura and was later released as the group's second single in Japan in October 2010 in conjunction with their foray into the Japanese music scene. The single peaked at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart and number one on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart, and received certifications from the Recording Industry Association of Japan on four bases–physical single (gold), digital download (platinum), chaku-uta (double platinum), and full-length chaku-uta (million). "Gee" has been widely recognized as a K-pop standard and considered as the leader in modern Korean bubblegum pop trends.
Background and release
"Gee" is a fast-tempo song about a girl who has fallen in love for the first time. The title is supposed to be an exclamation of surprise, an expression similar to “Oh my gosh”, or more similarly, "Gee!" in English. The song "Dancing Queen", from their later released 2013 album I Got a Boy, was scrapped due to copyright issues and "Gee" was chosen instead. Girls' Generation had their first promotional activity for the song on the MBC's music show Music Core on January 10. "Gee" eventually became a hit, achieving nine consecutive top one on the KBS's Music Bank, and eight consecutive wins on the Mnet 's chart, setting a record at the time. It was named as the "Song of the decade" by South Korea's online music website, MelOn, and chosen to be the most popular song of 2009 on Music Bank. The song has also won several major awards such as "Digital Daesang" and "Digital Bonsang" at the 2009 Golden Disk Awards, "Daesang" and "Digital Music" awards at the 19th Seoul Music Awards, and "Song of the Year" at the 7th Korean Music Awards.
In popular culture
A parody of "Gee", called "Hee", has gained popularity among Korean citizens. It is a combination of the instrumental of "Gee" and some extremely venomous dialogue from the drama Temptation of Wife.
A viral video named Showa Era Gee (Grandpa Showa era) (Gee しょうわ時代 （爺爺爺－昭和時代))) was posted on YouTube on Aug 15, 2011 featuring elderly men in a shoe shop dancing to the Japanese version of "Gee". The video was originally on SMAPxSMAP Japanese show. It was also posted on Smosh website and was reviewed by "AtomicMari" on "Smosh Pit Weekly".
In 2009 and 2010, SM labelmates Super Junior regularly included a cover of "Gee" in their setlist for Super Show 2. The performance was preceded by a video interlude entitled The Secret of "Gee" including Jessica and Tiffany respectively dancing Heechul's and Kangin's parts in "Sorry, Sorry" during a Girls' Generation dance practice before the practice is infiltrated as a prank by Heechul, Kangin, Leeteuk and Sungmin respectively disguised as Jessica, Tiffany, Taeyeon and Sunny.
Recognition
"Gee" has been widely recognized as a K-pop classic and the group's signature song. On writing the group's biography for AllMusic, Chris True selected "Gee" as one of their outstanding songs. Chuck Eddy from Spin ranked the single fifth on his list of 21 greatest K-pop song of all time in 2012, opining that the song has set up the group's "huge deals" ever since. 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." He further recognized the "formally irrefutable" song as overcoming half a millennium of historical animosity to broker pop cultural peace between South Korea and Japan for only one year. Abigail Covington writing for The A.V. Club regarded Girls' Generation as the K-pop "premier, ubiquitous provider," particularly with "Gee", which helped to promote Korean music's full potential despite the fact that K-pop had existed long before the group's debut in 2007.
Billboard magazine labelled "Gee" "arguably the most iconic K-pop song in the past ten years."
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.
Music video
There are three full music videos for the Korean version of Gee. The video with the storyline was released on January 7, 2009. It features the girls as mannequins in a store who come to life after the employee closes and leaves the store. Shinee member Minho plays the employee. At the end of the video, the girls run away as they're mannequins and Minho comes in and looks at a work board. The dance scenes show the girls dancing in a white room wearing different colored shorts. The other two videos are dance versions of the music video. The first one shows the girls dancing in the store, without the "mannequin storyline" while the second one simply shows the girls dancing before a white background which is used in the original music video.
The music video became the first video by a girl group to achieve over 100 million views on YouTube.
Japanese version
A Japanese version of "Gee" was released on October 20, 2010 in Japan by Nayutawave Records as Girls' Generation's second single in the country, preceded by "Genie". The single peaked at number two on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart and number one on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart, becoming the first by a non-Japanese girl group to do so.
On October 6, 2010, the Japanese music video of "Gee" was released. Shinee's Minho once again plays a role, this time as a customer, of the store run by Girls' Generation. Throughout the video they dance in the shop, and instead of showing them wearing different colored shorts as they did in the Korean version, this time they wore jeans. It also has new scenes of the girls dressing up, which are in the second chorus. When Minho comes in the store the girls hear the door and they drop everything in their hands, but pick them back up and run to Minho. There are still mannequins in the video this time but they are real ones and cannot come alive. The video shows the girls hiding behind the mannequins at the very beginning.
The single sold 130,145 physical copies in 2010, becoming the 49th best-selling single of the year in Japan. The song reached number one on the RIAJ's weekly digital track chart on October 26, and eventually was ranked fifty-seventh and twenty-third on Billboard's 2010 & 2011 Japan Hot 100 charts, respectively. In January 2014, "Gee" was certified "Million" by the RIAJ, achieving more than one million digital downloads.