The song was originally to be included in Milk's next album, which will be released from 2002-2003. but it later became Girls' Generation's debut song due to the breakup of Milk. In general, the hook's emphasis in the early 2000s was less than in 2007 and the length of the song was much longer than four minutes. The composition of the song is not about putting the hook to the front, but rather about building up the verse and then explodes power in final chorus. The song's first melodic phrase"전해주고 싶어 슬픈시간이" is identical in pitch content to the main theme of the finale of Antonín Dvořák's ninth symphony, which is subtitled "From the New World."
Music video
The music video features a small amount of dance scenes. The video starts with a plane landing, followed by a silhouette of the girls forming a line and then dancing. During this, text appears saying “Into the New World, Or Not.. It’s Up to Your Choice.. ”. Throughout the music video, it shows the girls doing activities, either alone or coupled with another member. The activities done by the girls are:
Taeyeon is flying a light aircraft with Sooyoung accompanying her. In the video, the aircraft Taeyeon flies is broken, and she attempts to repair it, with Sooyoung praying. The aircraft is successfully repaired and both of them are happy. In the last scene of the video, Sooyoung is seen chasing after Taeyeon as she flies away in the aircraft.
Yuri is a barista, and she is seen making a latte. In one scene, she puts a pot of flowers onto a desk.
Hyoyeon is purchasing a pair of white training shoes at a department store, after which she dances on a stairway.
Sunny and Jessica are making graffiti. The graffiti says "New World 2007".
Tiffany is repairing a scooter and repaints its body with pink color with flower motif and customizes its license plate. The customized license plate says "Tiffany" with the Hanja version of "Girls' Generation" above it. It is actually owned by Shindong of Super Junior.
Seohyun is doing ballet while holding a paper plane, on the rooftop of a building.
There are two dance settings featured in the video. The first one is a room with a white background, and the second one is a lobby of a shopping mall.
Release
The song was released as a single album on August 3, 2007. The song was originally first performed by the group in SBS's The Music Trend on August 5, 2007. "Into the New World" reached number one on Mnet's M! Countdown.
Track listing
Reception
Commercial
The physical edition of "Into the New World" debuted at number 5 on the chart for August 2007 compiled by the Music Industry Association of Korea, selling 10,823 copies in its first month of release. It was the 41st best-selling CD release of 2007 in South Korea, selling 22,818 physical copies in total. In 2010, the single peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Album Chart for the chart issue dated April 18 – 24, based on physical sales. It became the 9th best-selling release of April 2010 in South Korea.
Cultural
The song experienced a resurgence in 2016 when Ewha Women's University students sang it during part of their peaceful protest against the university whilst facing 1600 police officers. Girls' Generation member Tiffany responded that Fellow member Yuri also expressed similar sentiments: During the 2016-17 South Korean protests, the song, along with Twice's "Cheer Up" and Big Bang's "Bang Bang Bang", was sung widely in public squares, leading to it becoming the "morning dew" of the young generation and its position as No.1 on Melon's real-time charts almost 10 years after its release.
This song is often covered in survival shows, special stages of music charts and award shows. In the first season of Produce 101, it was used as one of the debut song missions, it was also used for the first evaluation in Finding Momoland. In Idol School in 2017, it was used as a preliminary vocal assessment. The 9 winners from the show, Fromis 9, performed the song again for M! Countdown's 600th episode. In 2016 at KBS Gaon Music Awards, GFriend, I.O.I, Twice and Red Velvet covered the song. After Jessica left Girls' Generation, the song was also changed into a ballad version for live concert performances. Hyoyeon also admitted on Secret Unnies that the choreography was prepared as far back as a year before SNSD's debut. The ballad version of the song was used as a diagnostics tool in Produce 48.
