Girls’ Generation sells cute on crack. Pretty, thin, statuesque and gushingly adorable, the Barbie-plastic nine-girl pop group has colourfully sparkled their way to the top of the charts and now has over a billion hits on YouTube, making them one of the most successful pop acts in Korea and all of Asia.

Their lyrics are nonsensical (take the line ‘listen boys, my first love story, my angel, and my girls, my sunshine’ from their bubblegum dance, 200-million-YouTube-hit song Gee, for example), but their infectious gleeful beats and cutesy vocals make them – at least for their massive, growing fanbase – too much fun to ignore. Then there’s that hypnotic choreography: precise, feminine and flirty, which compels audiences to mimic en masse.

Girls’ Generation, also known as SNSD, is all about formulaic Korean Pop: a group of girls of similar weight, height and sexual attractiveness, get them to dance in unison, and make sure three of them can sing. It’s worked wonders, both in Korea and abroad.

They’ve dominated the K-pop landscape since debuting in 2007, after which they set their sights abroad. Japan has SNSD fever and so does most of Asia. Just recently, they released their new Teddy Riley-written English single, The Boys – a Western-influenced dancefest, heavy on the drums and bass and obviously targeted for their American breakout. They’re not the first Korean act to make this leap – think Rain and Wondergirls – but with their new mature look and sound, Girls’ Generation stand a good chance of infiltrating the US pop charts. That is, as long as their English pronunciation improves.

Arthur Tam 

Girls' Generation play AsiaWorld Arena on Sunday January 15. Tickets: Sold Out.