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They gained attention at the beginning of their career with songs such as "Into The New World", "Kissing You" and "Baby Baby". However, it was not until 2009, they gained immense popularity with their hit single "Gee", which holds the record for being the longest running number one song on KBS Music Bank, having held the number one chart ranking for nine consecutive weeks. "Gee" was named 'song of the decade' by the Korean music site, Melon.[3] The "Gee" music video also holds the record for the highest amount of views for a K-Pop video on YouTube, with over 80 million views accumulated by the end of July 2012.[4] The group solidified their place in the Korean music industry with their follow-up singles "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)", "Run Devil Run", and "Oh!".

The group began a foray into the Japanese music scene in late 2010 under Nayutawave Records, a label part of Universal Music Group, with the Japanese remakes of their 2009 Korean hits "Genie" and "Gee." The group's debut Japanese album, Girls' Generation, released in June 2011, is currently the highest selling album in Japan by a Korean group in Oricon history. The album quickly became their most successful album to date, being certified 'Million' by the RIAJ and made the group the second Korean artist to earn this achievement in Japan since Korean labelmate BoA's "Best of Soul" in 2005.[5]

In 2011, they returned to the Korean music scene with "The Boys", which was released in three languages: Korean, Japanese, and for the first time, English. At the start of 2012, the group performed the English version of "The Boys" on the late night talk show Late Show with David Letterman and on the daytime talk show Live! with Kelly, becoming the first Korean musical act to perform on each show, and the first Korean act to perform on syndicated television in the United States. In the same year, the group formed their first sub-unit, entitled Girls' Generation-TTS, or simply "TaeTiSeo", composed of members Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. The subgroup's debut EP, Twinkle, peaked at #136 on the Billboard 200, becoming the highest charting K-Pop album on the chart thus far.

In 2012, they returned to the Japanese market with, "Paparazzi", taken from their upcoming second Japanese album. The song ranked high in various Japanese charts, including the Japan Hot 100 in which it peaked at the number one spot.