Promotion and Reception
The year prior to the album's release was seen as a hiatus year for Super Junior, although sub-unit groups Super Junior-M and Super Junior-Happy had been promoting in both China and Korea for most of 2008. Although members of the group were popular on various Korean variety shows, they were falling behind musically, and the group felt that they should be judged on their musical merits before anything else. Through this album, Super Junior hoped that it would give the group a stronger musical impression in the media, confirming a style that is strictly Super Junior's own style of music. As soon as "Sorry, Sorry" was released via MP3 websites, it topped every music chart, confirming the single's popularity. Super Junior explained that "Sorry, Sorry" was not chosen because of popularity, but because they see the song as their own style.
Super Junior's first comeback performance was on March 13 with the performance of "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" on KBS's Music Bank. That following weekend, they performed the same two songs on MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Popular Songs, and have been performing "Sorry, Sorry" on the same three programs every weekend until July 2009. "Sorry, Sorry" achieved its first recognition as the #1 song of KBS's Music Bank monthly pop chart on March 27 after only two weeks in the charts. The single won again for the April pop chart, and was the #1 song in its weekly pop chart for the first two weeks of May. In addition to other recognitions, the song won the Mutizen Song award on Popular Songs for three consecutive weeks (Triple Crown) and it also became a song of the week on Mnet's M! Countdown on April 9 and April 23, although Super Junior was not present at the program to receive their awards. "It's You", however, only received two recognitions during its promotional period.
Outside of Korea, Sorry, Sorry was heavily promoted in other Asian communities. Fifty-one subway trains in Taipei were covered with Sorry, Sorry advertisements from April 17 through May 7 to promote the Taiwan release of Sorry, Sorry, which was released on April 17. Amongst one of the trains was the "Super Junior Train", in which the train was entirely covered with Super Junior posters. Taiwan also released an exclusive CD and DVD version of the album on August 14. Sorry, Sorry and its eponymous single was a huge hit in Taiwan, topping all available album and singles chart in the country. It debuted at #2 in Taiwan G-music's Combo chart, #1 in the International chart and #1 in Five Music's Korean chart.
On May 1, Super Junior performed "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" for the first time overseas in Beijing, China for Jackie Chan's Bird's Nest concert, simultaneously promoting the Mainland China version of the album's release. Starting June 1, Mnet's sister channel in Japan aired Super Junior documentaries and live performances weekly for seven months. Sorry, Sorry also peaked at #1 on Thailand's international pop charts within two weeks after its release. The album topped Thailand's Channel V Asian Chart for eight consecutive weeks, setting a new record for the chart. Released in the Philippines on September 4, the album topped album charts of Music One that same weekend, outselling albums by Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. It became the first #1 K-pop in the country, entering the Odyssey album chart one week after its release, and stayed in the charts for over ten consecutive weeks and eventually reached Gold status three months after its release in the country, selling 7,500 units. Both "Sorry, Sorry" and "It's You" became Arirang's Best 10 K-pop songs as #1 and #6 respectively.
Shortly after Super Junior began their promotions on "It's You", the group began preparing for their second Asia-wide tour in the summer of 2009. The tour was officially announced on June 3, 2009, almost three months after the release of Sorry, Sorry. The tour included songs from their previous albums and kicked off with three shows in Seoul, South Korea from July 17 to 19.
Read more about this topic: Sorry, Sorry
Famous quotes containing the words promotion and/or reception:
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