The Boys (Girls' Generation Album)
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''The Boys'' is the third Korean
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
and the fourth overall by South Korean girl group
Girls' Generation Girls' Generation (), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun. Originally a nine-piec ...
. 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 The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
-winning producer
Teddy Riley Edward Theodore Riley (born October 8, 1967) is an American record producer, singer, and songwriter credited with the creation of the R&B and hip-hop fusion genre, new jack swing. Musical artists who utilized Riley's production and songwri ...
. Musically, ''The Boys'' mostly contains uptempo
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
tracks and occasionally empowerment
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
s. The album was released on October 19, 2011, by
SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...
, 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 Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
(in US), and
Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
(in France/Europe), 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 Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
. Commercially, the album was a success in the group's native country South Korea, peaking atop the
Gaon Album Chart The Circle Album Chart, previously known as the Gaon Album Chart, is a record chart ranking the 100 most popular albums, extended plays and single albums in South Koreabased on their Record sales, physical sales. It is a part of the Circle 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 The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...
) 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 The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...
.


Background

In August 2011,
SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...
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

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 "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
, Sunny as
Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...
, Hyoyeon as
Thumbelina Thumbelina (; ) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in the se ...
, Jessica as
Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay is a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of ...
, Sooyoung as
Rapunzel "Rapunzel" ( ; ; or ) is a German fairy tale most notably recorded by the Brothers Grimm and it was published in 1812 as part of '' Children's and Household Tales'' (KHM 12). The Grimms' story was developed from the French literary fairy tale ...
, Tiffany as Ariel, Yoona as Milady de Winter, Yuri as Karen, and Seohyun as
The Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" () is an 1844 original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in ''New Fairy Tales. First Volume#New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection, New Fairy Tales. First Vo ...
. 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. 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 Girls' Generation (), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun. Originally a nine-piec ...
'', released on December 28, 2011. It included the song "Time Machine", for which an MV was revealed on March 13, 2012. 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 Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
, 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 ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...
'' and on syndicated
daytime Daytime or day as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences Daylight, natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the ...
talk show ''
Live! with Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Mark'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts sin ...
'' 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 Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...
.


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 Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...
’s
Polydor Records Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
in France.


Singles

" The Boys" was released worldwide via
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
on October 19, 2011. 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. 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


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, but debuted at number 2 on the Billboard World Albums and re-entered the Heatseekers Album Chart at number 17.


Track listing

Credits adapted from
Naver Naver (; stylized as NAVER) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment. History Naver was the first Korean web provide ...


Personnel

Credits for ''The Boys'' are adapted from
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
. * 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 Yoo Young-jin is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer and vocal trainer formerly under SM Entertainment. He has produced and written songs for H.O.T., S.E.S, BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, CSJH The Grace, Super Junior, Girls' Generatio ...
– 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


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Sales


Release history


See also

*
List of Gaon Album Chart number ones of 2011 The Gaon Album Chart was a South Korean record chart that ranked the best-selling albums and extended play, EPs in South Korea. It was part of the Gaon Music Chart, which launched in February 2010. The data are compiled by the Ministry of Cultur ...
* List of best-selling albums in South Korea


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boys, The 2011 albums Girls' Generation albums SM Entertainment albums KMP Holdings albums Albums produced by Teddy Riley Interscope Records albums Polydor Records albums 2010s Korean-language albums