SONES (pronounced so-won or so one) are fans of the Korean Girl Group Girls' Generation or SNSD. They "debuted" on August 5th, 2007 and are considered the nation's girl group in South Korea. The group consists of 8 (9 until 2014) members: Taeyeon (leader), Sunny, Tiffany, Yuri, Yoona, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung and Seohyun. Jessica was a former member who left in 2014. They have Korean, Japanese, and English Albums. Their official fan "color" is Pastel Rose Pink. I've bought multiple albums and have been a fan for 4 years.
SNSD at Inkigayo (A South Korean music program)
Fan Websites & Social Media Pages
SONES have created several websites to share their love of SNSD. One popular website is Soshified, a large international community for SNSD fans. It was founded in 2008 and continues to be updated to this day. They share news, videos, pictures, member birthdays, translations and more. The website also has forums so SONES can interact with each other. SNSD also has a page on KpopProfiles which lists tons of information about each members.
There are also fan pages on Instagram, Tumblr, Tiktok, Youtube, and more. On these fanpages, people create fancams (more on that later), edits, fanart, and more. Instagram accounts tend to post fancams, pictures from other accounts, and videos. Tumblr blogs tend to post "edits", fancams, gifs, and other images. Youtube channels have can have compilations or "funny moments". They also post translated tv shows made by the group or song translations. Song translations or "color-coded lyrics" can help fans new and old. It's nice to understand what's being said and who's singing it. SONES also create song and dance covers, which are pretty self explanatory. These are pretty common in kpop fandoms. Here's a video of a dance group covering their debut song, Into The New World.
Concerts
SNSD has performed over 150 concerts to nearly 3 million people worldwide (1). They have went on 7 tours. Also, like most kpop groups, SNSD has an offical lightstick. Fans can wave these around during concerts to show their support. SNSD's lightstick has GG in the shape of a heart, with the group's official color. SONES also have several fanchants. A fanchant is a phrase created by fans in the audience that sync with the main performance. The video below shows fan chants used 2007-2014, which include Jessica.
SONES have participated in several concert events. One example is a pink ocean. During a pink ocean, tens of thousands of SONES in the audience turns on their lightstick, creating an "ocean" of pink glowing lights. Soshified, mentioned above has also organized several concert events. During a 2011 tour, SONES held up banners saying "보고싶었어" (we missed you) (2). During a 10-anniversity fan meet in 2017, SONES held up banners saying "꾸듯 함께한 10년" (ten years of dreaming together) (2). Performances or concerts are also places where people make fancams. Fancams are small videos that focus on one specific member, and are pretty popular in kpop fandoms. SNSD actually started the trend of fancams! It started with a SONE recording Yuri during a performance of Oh! You can find fancams of SNSD on instagram, tiktok, and twitter. You can find fancams of every member and almost every stage performance.
Albums
Like all kpop groups, SNSD creates albums. SONES can collect albums as a way to support the group. They're also able to buy and sell older albums, there are lots on ebay. SNSD was the first group to create photocards. They were created in the Oh! album back in 2010, and to this day, groups continue to make photocards. SONES can trade photocards online and if they're lucky, in person. Unboxing videos are popular in general, so SONES also post unboxing videos. Here's an unboxing of both versions of their most recent album, Forever 1.
Jessica's departure
SONES were divided, and still are divided, on Jessica's departure in 2014. Jessica left the group, or rather, was kicked out, nearly 10 years ago. There's still a lot of discourse surrounding the issue. The company, SM entertainment, stated that Jessica's time managing her fashion business interfered with idol activities (3). Despite this, some SONES say she issues with Taeyeon or other members, or that the other members have ganged against her and voted to kick her out. Some SONES comment, "where's Jessica?" on online content that features the other 8 members. OT8 v OT9 refers to the group today, without Jessica, versus the group with Jessica. It's a bit of a mess. Jessica's books, Shine and Bright, has lead to SONES creating theories and rumors about the situation. This is due to the fact that Jessica has stated that the main characters of the book, Rachel Kim is a reflection of her (4). We may never find out what "actually happened" as some SONES say. Luckily, though, the other 8 members are fairly successful and the group is still going strong after 15 years. Most SONES support OT8 but don't pretend Jessica never existed.
Works Cited
Adejobi, Alicia. “Girls’ Generation ‘fascinated’ by New K-Pop Era after Seven-Year Break.” Metro, 30 Aug. 2022, metro.co.uk/2022/08/28/girls-generation-fascinated by-new-k-pop-era-after-seven-year-break-17257657/.
“Fan Projects.” Girls’ Generation - More Than The Music, girlsgeneration-morethanthemusic.weebly.com/fan-projects.html. Accessed 3 May 2023.
Serendipity. “SM Entertainment Releases Official Statement Regarding Jessica and Girls' Generation.” Allkpop, Allkpop, 30 Sept. 2014, https://www.allkpop.com/article/2014/09/sm-entertainment-releases-official-statement-regarding-jessica-and-girls-generation.
Moon, Kat. “K-Pop Star Jessica Jung on Using Her Life in 'Shine' Book.” Time, Time, 24 Sept. 2020, https://time.com/5892708/jessica-jung-shine-interview/.
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