Today’s Lucky Numbers Are…

Let’s face it; numbers play an important role in life.  While some of us might hate working with numbers (Curse you discrete math and advanced calculus), it’s a necessity in our world today.  However numbers are a lot more than just a unit of measure or a tool for counting. Numbers can also tell stories.

Soshi’s success story can also be reflected in numbers.  While the overall range of these numbers are rather wide in scope (low-to-high), they certainly provide insight into Soshi’s popularity.  Many of these numbers are surprising, others heartwarming, but overall it really gives us a sense of how much the girls have achieved since their debut nearly 4 years ago.

Let’s first start with the most important number of them all in the Soshi world. 

The Number 9

The Power of 9 is a phrase that is tossed around by a lot of SONEs and with good reason.  SNSD has 9 members that contribute to the formula that is SNSD.  These 9 have achieved more than any other girl group before them.  For diehard SONEs, 9 is a personal and special number, for some their favourite.

Additionally 9 is also the record for the most consecutive wins on KBS2 Music Bank that SNSD holds.  Oddly prior to their debut in 09 the girls had been on hiatus for exactly 9 months.  They have also held #1 on 7 different music charts in Korea as well as 2 in Japan all on a single day, October 26th of 2010 (7+2 = 9).  It’s also no surprise that most of the girls were born in decades beginning or ending with 9 (89, 90, 91).

Thanks to greeentee we also know that adding up these 9 decades [6(89) + 2(90) + 1(91)] gives us 805.  If you convert 805 into Month (08) and Day (05) formats, you get August 5th.  The day SNSD debuted.

The Number 1 is another number synonymous with SNSD.  Countless times since 2007, SONEs have seen their girls take #1 spots on music/sales charts across Asia.  More impressively they are the 1st female girl group to ever win the Disk Daesang (Album of the Year) at the prestigious Golden Disk Awards in Korea.   Just this year, Forbes Korea Ranked SNSD as the #1 most powerful celebrity in the Korean Star Power Ranking. 

Number 2 holds significance for SoShi as well.  They are the 2 time winners of the ‘Artist of the Year’ categories at the Melon Music Awards.  It also only took 2 hours for their music video “Oh!” to achieve 200,000 views on Gom.TV’s music video charts.  Their Japanese single “Gee” also debuted at #2 on the Oricon Daily Singles chart in Japan.  Additionally, they are the 2nd foreign (the 1st Korean) female girl group to ever place first on the Oricon Weekly Album chart in Japan.  They even took 2nd overall on the list of `Power Groups` in the Japanese Magazine, Nikkei Entertainment.  Considering how short their promotions have been so far in Japan this is an amazing feat.

Numbers were also an important concept for “Oh!”, where each girl donned their own personal handpicked number as cheerleaders.

Sooyoung chose 24, because she wanted to be with her fans 24/7.  Later on, she confessed on “Entertainment Relay” that she also wanted to get married by the age of 24.  Seohyun picked the number 11 because it symbolized her desire to be the best (#1).  Yuri & Jessica selected their age (21) and (22) respectively.  Hyoyeon picked her favourite number 32 as did Sunny who put her two favourite numbers 1 and 2 together to form 12.  Yoona picked her lucky number 7, and Tiffany meant to pick 01, but got 0 instead due to a mistake by wardrobe designers.  Of course Taeyeon picked 9, the number that represents SNSD.

To go into detail about each number would be extremely difficult.  But already you get a sense of just how far the girls have gone as artists.  Other impressive numbers that the girls have achieved include:

4

Their rank on ‘100 Sexiest women in the World’ according to FHM Taiwan (Ahead of Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, and various others).

13

The amount of consecutive weeks Girls Generation held the #1 spot on Melon’s Music Charts with “Oh!” and “Run Devil Run” albums.  [31st of January, 2010 – 1st of May, 2010]

25

The number of CFs that they starred in during 2010.

150,000

The total amount of pre-orders that came in for their Japanese single “Gee”.

232,000

The amount of their first Japanese album “Girl’s Generation” that was sold in it’s debut week.

497,851

The summation of Total Sales for the South Korean market of SNSD Mini-Album and Albums (Oh!, Hoot, Run Devil Run Repackage) for 2010 according to the Gaon Music Chart.

8,880,200

The total revenue generated in US Dollars from the girls activities in South Korea for the year 2010 according to Forbes Korea.

10,656,247

The amount of US Dollars that they earned for their label in just 3 months since their debut in Japan.

On another note, “Gee” has been viewed so many times on Youtube that total amount of views would add up to 362 years.  Other popular music videos are also equally impressive in this regard.  “Oh!” has been played on the site enough times to span 265 years.  Similarly Run Devil Run has a total amount of views that would accumulate to 178 years.  Hoot continues the trend by capturing a stunning 116 years of total playing time since it’s release last October.  Rounding up the list is another popular video “Genie (Tell Me Your Wish)” with 69 years worth of views.  Of course none of these numbers include the hits from other videos, or even performances that were uploaded on alternate channels.  Adding these years up, the total time spent on views for these 5 videos alone amounts to nearly a Millennium (around 990 years) of SNSD .

Truly a Girl’s Generation.

Calculations for Youtube Views

Views as of 1:13 PM KST August 3, 2011

Approximately 48,575,000 views x 3.916666667 (approx. from 3:55) = 190,252,083 total viewed minutes “Gee” on Youtube.  Divide by 60 to get hours = 3,170,868.05 total hours viewed of “Gee”.  Divide by 24 to get days = 132,119.5  Divide by 365 to get years = 361.97 years or nearly 362 years

Approximately 39,070,000 views on Youtube for Oh! X 3.5666666667 (approx. from 3:34) = 139,349,666.7 total minutes viewed of “Oh!”  Divide by 60 = 2,322,494.44 hours viewed of “Oh!”  Divide by 24 to get days = 96,770.6 days.  Divide by 365 for years = 265.12 years or nearly 265 years

Approximately 27,000,000 views x 3.4666666667 (approx. from 3:28) = 93,600,000 total viewed minutes of “Run Devil Run” on Youtube.  Divide by 60 to get hours = 1,560,000 total hours of “Run Devil Run”.  Divide by 24 to get days = 65,000.  Divide by 365 to get years = 178.08 years or nearly 178 years

Approximately 14,475,000 views on Youtube for Hoot X 4.2166666667 (approx. from 4:13) = 61,036,250 total minutes viewed of “Hoot”.  Divide by 60 = 1,017270.833 hours viewed of “Hoot”.  Divide by 24 to get days = 42,386.29 days divide by 365 for years 116.1268 Years or nearly 116 years.

Approximately 9,065,000 views x 4.016666667 (approx. from 4:01) = 36,411,083.33 total viewed minutes of “Genie” on Youtube.  Divide by 60 to get hours = 606,851.39 total hours of “Genie”.  Divide by 24 to get days = 25,285.47  divide by 365 to get years = 69.27 Years or nearly 69 years.

Note: I didn’t approximate for calculations for minutes, hence some discrepancy.  Literally each decimal place mattered to calculate total minutes (because of the amount of views)

Sources: Soshified, Sports Chosun, Forbes Korea, SNSDKorean, Kyuhyun-ie@isnsd, and of course GreenTee and ferrororocher9.

Video Source: Soshi Subs Team@SSF.

– Steve