Taeyeon, The Secret To Her Long Run

 

Taeyeon, The Secret To Her Long Run

 

Taeyeon, who has been active in all directions as the leader of the group Girls’ Generation and a solo artist, is literally a good example of an ‘all-time legend’. 

 

Taeyeon, who debuted as the leader of the group Girls’ Generation in 2007, has already become a big senior in K-POP in her 16th year since debut. Of course, as you age, the higher your skills and general public recognition, but in the K-POP scene, which has an exceptionally fast flow of trends, it isn’t easy to maintain the popularity of your prime days the more you age so the position of a senior in the music industry is difficult. 

 

Among them, Taeyeon is continuing her thorough career with active engagement as a good example of the music industry. What is her secret to a long run where she has been reborn as a ‘good example’ of a K-POP god by nicely accomplishing a close to impossible mission of catching all of the following: skills, trendiness, popularity and a fandom?

 

A ‘natural idol’ who has good visuals and speaking skills

 

Even though fifteen years have passed since her debut, if you were to pick the K-POP female singer (or idol member) in Korea who still has the thickest core fandom, Taeyeon can’t be left out. This is a very impressive and noteworthy point.

 

At the time of her debut, Taeyeon gained huge popularity within her team and was a ‘stan-attractor’ for her visuals, gathered a fandom as an all-rounded character with her robust singing skills and speaking skills, and since then she has steadily gained strong popularity without people leaving the fandom.

 

Her specialty was her easy-going way of speaking that created flawless visuals and an unexpected charm. Thanks to this, Taeyeon succeeded in securing popularity with the public as well as with a core fandom by appearing on regular entertainment shows including various radio DJ gigs.

 

Her unreserved communication with fans was also the secret to her long-time popularity. As of February 25, Taeyeon’s personal SNS reached 18 million followers. However, for Taeyeon, SNS was not a window to show a stereotypical image.

 

She has been broadcasting real-time with fans through SNS live broadcasts in her spare time, and her talks there are really ‘out of this world energy’. It’s a time where you get a glimpse of the friendly and outspoken charm of ‘neighborhood lady’, not singer Taeyeon who is most popular in her era and is called a legend even now. Over time, as she communicated with fans with her more natural and comfortable charms, she did not neglect taking care of herself as a singer, and this was the secret to captivating fans’ hearts for as long as 15 years. 

 

Main job is like Taeyeon.. Whether in a group or solo, a ‘Main Job Genius’

 

Above all, Taeyeon’s biggest charm comes from her ‘main job’. Having achieved record breaking results both as a group and as a solo artist, without any objections, she became one of the ‘K-POP legends’.

 

Unlike the cases where people expand their activities to other fields such as acting, musicals after a certain period of time since debut, Taeyeon’s convincing move, which insisted on solely following a single path as a singer, is remarkable. Although she once took the stage in 2010 with the musical ‘Midnight Sun’, this kind of move did not lead to a side job.

 

Instead, Taeyeon was more immersed in expanding her own musical spectrum. In 2008, the year after her debut, while gathering huge popularity with her ‘If’ OST from ‘Hong Gil Dong’,  Taeyeon, who showed her potential as a solo artist early on, began her full-fledged solo activities after building her career and focusing on Girls’ Generation activities till 2015. The result was successful.

 

Just as Girls’ Generation has already marked a milestone in the K-POP girl group market, Taeyeon, who emphasized her musical color with her solo albums, continued her streak of hits for every song she released. Delicate emotional expressions and robust singing skills helped solidify her position in the female soloist market.

 

As if to prove this, she recently placed #1 for Gaon Chart’s ‘No. 1 female solo singer with the highest cumulative album sales in Korea for the past 10 years’. With her solo albums alone, she reportedly sold a total of 1,051,567 copies.

 

As expected, the achievements for her 3rd full album ‘INVU’, which was released on the 14th are also remarkable. Immediately after its release, ‘INVU’ topped the iTunes Top Album Charts in 22 countries around the world, and has topped a number of major domestic and foreign music charts, showing off her appearance as a strong contender in music.

 

At this point, Taeyeon’s long run feels like a natural result. I’m curious about the new future she will write, as she’s said she has a lot of appearances she wants to show through music and various activities.

 

 

2022.02.28

Written by Hong Hyemin

Translated by: Bee (@taengab)

Source: Naver

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