The Boys (Girls' Generation album)

The Boys
Studio album by Girls' Generation
Released	October 19, 2011 (2011-10-19)
Recorded	2011
Genre	Dance-pop electropop
Length	46:02
Language	Korean English
Label	SM Interscope Polydor Dreamus[1]
Girls' Generation chronology
Girls' Generation (2011) The Boys (2011) Girls & Peace (2012)
Mr. Taxi version
Singles from The Boys
"The Boys" Released: October 19, 2011 "Mr. Taxi" Released: December 9, 2011

The Boys is the third Korean studio album and the fourth overall by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. The record saw the contribution of the group's previous collaborator Hitchhiker, who produced the tracks "Telepathy" and "Sunflower". The title track, "The Boys", was a result of experimenting with new producers, including American Grammy Award-winning producer Teddy Riley. Musically, The Boys mostly contains uptempo dance tracks and occasionally empowerment ballads.

The album was released on October 19, 2011, by SM Entertainment, and was distributed in South Korea by KMP Holdings. An alternate version titled Mr. Taxi featured a Korean-language version of the group's 2011 Japanese-language single "Mr. Taxi", and an English-language version of "The Boys" was released on December 9, 2011. An international version featuring the English-language version of "The Boys" was released in January 2012 by Interscope and Polydor Records, in order to expand the group's endeavor to the global music scene. To promote the record for international audiences, the group appeared on television shows in the United States and France.

Upon its release, The Boys received generally positive reviews from music critics. Commercially, the album was a success in the group's native country South Korea, peaking atop the Gaon Album Chart and was the best-selling album of 2011 in the country. The title track won the Digital Daesang at the 26th Golden Disc Awards. It also achieved success in other Asian countries, including Japan (reaching number 2 on the Oricon Albums Chart) and Taiwan (reaching number 3 on the G-Music chart). The record additionally charted at numbers 64 and 130 in Spain and France, respectively. In the United States, The Boys reached number 2 on the World Albums and number 17 on the Top Heatseekers.

Background

In August 2011, SM Entertainment confirmed that the group will be back in September with their third full-length album, but the release date was eventually delayed to October due to Sooyoung’s unexpected car accident injury.

Release and promotion

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Borneo Post	Positive[3]
IZM	[4]
Spectrum Culture	4.25/5[5]

On September 26, 2011, the first teaser photo featuring Taeyeon was released online for the impending comeback for "The Boys", followed by Sunny and Hyoyeon on September 27, Jessica, Sooyoung, and Tiffany on September 28, and Yoona, Yuri, and Seohyun on September 29. The girls all represented a fairytale theme, with Taeyeon as Snow White, Sunny as Little Red Riding Hood, Hyoyeon as Thumbelina, Jessica as Elisa, Sooyoung as Rapunzel, Tiffany as Ariel, Yoona as Milady de Winter, Yuri as Karen, and Seohyun as The Snow Queen. On September 30, 2011, SM Entertainment announced that the album would be indefinitely postponed due to ongoing discussions about an album release in the United States, with details to be released as soon as they were confirmed.^[6]

On October 1, 2011, SM released the first teaser for "The Boys", followed by the second teaser on October 7, 2011. Both teasers showed Yoona picking up a black crystal, and proceeds to show the rest of the members in an outside, misty atmosphere. Later on October 13, 2011, SM Entertainment released 16-second teaser clips for both the Korean and English versions of "The Boys". The teaser depicts the girls rapping and chanting along to the song. On the same day, SM released 30-second teaser clips of "The Boys", which showed a longer version of the previous teaser videos.

The album was officially released on October 19, 2011, and the group's comeback performances commenced on October 21 starting with Music Bank. It was confirmed on November 27 that an alternate version of the album will be out on December 8. The Korean version of "Mr. Taxi" was promoted as the second single from the album and the main promotional single off the alternate version of the album.

International releases and promotions

Japan

A Japanese version of "The Boys" was produced for the repackaged album of Girls' Generation, released on December 28, 2011. It included the song "Time Machine", for which an MV was revealed on March 13, 2012.^{[7][unreliable source]} However, it was never officially promoted on Japanese TV broadcasts. On December 19, 2011, Girls' Generation performed the Japanese version of "The Boys" live on the Japanese TV reality show, Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ.

North America

"The Boys" was announced for an American release on November 19, 2011, under their American label Interscope Records, but after postponement, the single was released digitally on December 20 instead. SM Entertainment confirmed that the girls would promote their debut US single, "The Boys" on the late-night talk show the Late Show with David Letterman and on syndicated daytime talk show Live! with Kelly on January 31 and February 1 respectively.

The Boys was released in the US on January 17, 2012. This marks Girls' Generation's first physical release in the country, using the Korean single cover of the title track as the American album cover. Except for the English version of the title track, the entire album consists of Korean-language songs, all of which were taken from the original edition of The Boys. Four remixes of the English version of "The Boys" are also included in the US edition, the first of which features American rapper Snoop Dogg.

Europe

They performed "The Boys" on the French show, Le Grand Journal after it was announced that they were to release "The Boys" on February 13, 2012, through Universal Music Group’s Polydor Records in France.

Singles

"The Boys" was released worldwide via iTunes on October 19, 2011.^{[citation needed]} In an interview with MTV K, members Jessica and Tiffany mentioned that the recording of both English and Korean versions took a week to finish. The song marked the first time a Girls' Generation member had written a single for the group, with Tiffany writing the English rap and final chorus of the song. In the US, the single failed to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 but entered the Top 100 on the iTunes 200 Top Songs, and later reached the Top 30 for a moment on its first day of release. It dropped off the chart three days later; despite this, the song managed to sell over 21,000 copies.^[8] However, the Korean Version debuted at number 1 on the Billboard's K-pop Hot 100. The Korean version of "Mr. Taxi" was the album's second single to promote an alternate version of the album.

Accolades

Awards and nominations for The Boys

Year	Ceremony	Award	Result	Ref.
2011	Mnet Asian Music Awards	Album of the Year	Nominated
2012	Gaon Chart Music Awards	Album of the Year – 4th Quarter	Won	[9]
	Golden Disc Awards	Disc Bonsang	Nominated	[10]
	Mnet 20's Choice Awards	Album of the Year	Nominated
2014	iF Design Award	Packaging Design	Won	[11]
	Red Dot Design Award	Communication Design Award	Won	[12]

Commercial performance

The Boys was commercially successful in Asian regions. It debuted at number 1 on South Korea's Gaon Weekly Albums chart and sold over 460,000 copies in South Korea alone, which made it the best selling girl group album of the 2010s decade in the country. The album also peaked at number 2 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart, the standard album chart of Japan, with sales records of more than 100,000 copies in the country. In addition, the album sold 26,000 copies in Taiwan. The album charted both in Spain and France at position number 64 and number 130 respectively for one week. A total of ten songs charted within the top ten on the Gaon Chart, including "Telepathy", "Top Secret", "Vitamin", "How Great Is Your Love", and "Mr. Taxi". The US edition of The Boys has not replicated the same commercial performance as it did in its native country; the album failed to enter the Billboard 200,^[13] but debuted at number 2 on the Billboard World Albums^[14] and re-entered the Heatseekers Album Chart at number 17.^[14]

Track listing

Credits adapted from Naver

 – Standard edition^[15]No.TitleLyricsMusicArrangementLength1."The Boys"3:482."Telepathy" (텔레파시; Tellepasi)3:453."Say Yes"3:464."Trick"3:155."How Great Is Your Love" (봄날; Bomnal; lit. Springtime)3:546."My J"3:537."Oscar"3:238."Top Secret"2:599."Lazy Girl (Dolce Far Niente)"3:0510."Sunflower" (제자리걸음; Jejarigeoleum; lit. Walking on the spot)3:5011."Vitamin" (비타민; Bitamin)3:1012."Mr. Taxi" (Korean Version)3:3213."The Boys" (English Version)3:47Total length:46:02

David Anthony – Remixing Boo Min Kim – Composer Byung Seok Kim – Bass Byung-Ok Seo – Make-Up Chan Yong Eom – Engineer, String Engineer Hanna Cho – Repertoire Jane Choi – Marketing, Promoter Disco Fries – Remixing Eui Seok Jung – Engineer Eun-a Kim – Publicity, Public Relations Eun-Jeong Kwak – Engineer Eun-Kyeng Jung – Engineer Lola Fair – Vocals (Background) Gang-Mi Kim – Make-Up Richard Garcia – Arranger, Composer Gi-Hyun Kim – Publicity, Public Relations Girls' Generation – Primary Artist, Vocals (Background) Hae Young Jung – Composer Hae-Young Lee – Copyright Coordinator, Publishing Nikki Semin Han – Supervisor Martin Hansen – Arranger, Composer Hee-Jun Yoon – Artist Development Ho-Jin Kim – Management, Promoter Hoon Jeon – Mastering Greg Hwang – Choreographer, Direction Hye-Young Eom – Management Hyoyeon – Group Member Hyun Hwang – Arranger, Composer, Director Hyun-Jung Ryu – Make-Up Neil Jacobson – A&R Jae Myoung Lee – Vocal Director Gabriella Jelena Jangfeldt – Arranger, Composer Kyle Chang-Hwan Jeong – Director Jeung-Ah Lee – Artist Development Ji-Hong Kim – Management, Promoter Ji-Young Choi – Hair Stylist Ji-Young Lee – Make-Up Ji-Yu Hong – Composer John Hyun-Kyu Lee – English Supervision Jong-Pil Gu – Engineer, Mixing Jung Bae Kim – Composer Jung-Ah Kang – Management, Promoter Jam3s K3nn3dy – Additional Production Ji Hyun Kim – Vocals (Background) John Kim – Management (US), Marketing Tae Woo Kim – Photography Yongdeok Kim – Management, Promoter Young-Hu Kim – Arranger, Composer, Director, Engineer Young-Min Kim – Executive Supervision Kwang Wook Lim – Arranger Chris Sung-Su Lee – A&R, Coordination, Direction Jinny Lee – Marketing, Promoter Ji-Sun Lee – Publicity, Public Relations Nile Lee – Conductor, String Arrangements Seongho Lee – Engineer, Mixing Soo-Man Lee – Producer Sung Ho Lee – Marketing, Promoter Lin Kang – Marketing, Promoter

Sarah Lundback – Arranger, Composer Scott Pearson Mann – Arranger, Composer Tony Maserati – Mixing Sam McCarthy – Arranger, Composer Hee Jin Min – Art Direction, Design, Visual Direction Mina Jungmin Choi – Marketing, Promoter Min-Kyong Kim – Copyright Coordinator, Publishing Mirae Seo – Vocals (Background) Jean T. Na – Composer Rino Nakasone – Choreographer So Young Nam – Managing Director Jin Namkoong – Engineer, Mixing Hun-Young Park – Visual Direction Hye Jin Park – Repertoire Jun-Young Park – Video Director Paolo Prudencio – Arranger, Composer Teddy Riley – Arranger, Composer, Director, Engineer, Mixing, Remixing, Vocals (Background) Adros Rodriguez – Mixing Chad Royce- Arranger, Composer Sang-Hee Jung – Publicity, Public Relations Lucas Secon – Composer Seohyun – Group Member Seong Je Hwang – Arranger, Composer, Director, Engineer Jae Shim – Choreographer, Direction Agnes Shin – Vocals (Background) Mikkel Remee Sigvardt – Composer Snoop Dogg – Featured Artist Soo Wan Jung – Guitar Soo-Koung Suh – Stylist Soonsoo-a-Reum Kim – Hair Stylist Soonsoo-Kyoung-Mee Shin – Jacket Design, Make-Up Clinton Sparks – Remixing Sung Gun Oh – Engineer, String Engineer Sung-Woo Choi – Management, Promoter Tae Yoon Kim – Composer Taeyeon – Group Member Tesung Kim – Arranger, Composer, Director, Engineer Thomas Troelsen – Composer Sharon Vaughn – Arranger, Composer Allison Veltz – Arranger, Composer Mathias Peter Venge – Arranger, Composer Peter Lars Wennerberg – Arranger, Composer Yong Shin Kim – Arranger, Conductor, Piano, String Arrangements Janie Yoo – A&R, Coordination, Direction Yoo Young-jin – Composer, Director, Engineer, Mixing, Vocals (Background) Yoo-Da Soonsoo-Heewon – Hair Stylist Young Hyun Kim – Conductor, Guitar, String Arrangements, Supervisor, Vocal Editing Young Shin Kim – Director Young Son – Video Director Soo Young – Composer Young-En Kweon – Hair Stylist Young-Jun Tak – Choreographer, Director Yung Strings – Strings Yun-Kyoung Cho – Composer

Weekly charts Chart (2011–12) Peak position French Albums (SNEP)[18] 130 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[19] 2 South Korean Albums (Gaon)[20] 1 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[21] 64 Taiwanese Albums (G-Music)[22] 3 US World Albums (Billboard[23] 2 US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[24] 17

Year-end charts Chart (2011) Position Japanese Albums (Oricon)[25] 95 South Korean Albums (Gaon)[26] 1 Chart (2012) Position South Korean Albums (Gaon)[27] 33

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SubgroupsStudio albums

Korean	Girls' Generation Oh! The Boys I Got a Boy Lion Heart Holiday Night Forever 1
Japanese	Girls' Generation Girls & Peace Love & Peace

Extended plays

Korean	Gee Genie Hoot Mr.Mr.
TTS	Twinkle Holler Dear Santa

Compilation albumsVideo albumsConcert tours

Asia tours	Into the New World Tour Girls' Generation Tour Girls & Peace World Tour Girls' Generation's Phantasia
Japan tours	The First Japan Arena Tour Girls & Peace Japan 2nd Tour Love & Peace Japan 3rd Tour

Affiliated toursFilmography

Music shows	Girls' Generation's Romantic Fantasy
Reality shows	Factory Girl Horror Movie Factory Himnaera Him! Hello Baby