The Boys (Girls' Generation album)
The Boys is the third Korean-language studio album and the fourth overall by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. Lee Soo-man, former chairman of the group's agency S.M. Entertainment, served as the executive producer of the album. 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 S.M. Entertainment, and was distributed in South Korea by KMP Holdings. A reissue 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, which are affiliated with Universal Music Group, in order to expand the group's endeavor to the global music scene.
To promote The Boys domestically, Girls' Generation appeared and performed on several music programs, including Music Bank, Inkigayo, and M Countdown. To further promote the record to international audiences, the group performed on US television shows Late Show with David Letterman and Live! with Kelly and Michael, and French televised program Le Grand Journal. The title track "The Boys" was released as the album's lead single on October 18, 2011, and claimed the top spot on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.
Upon its release, The Boys received mixed 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 project won the Digital Daesang Awards at both the 26th Golden Disk Awards and 21st Seoul Music Awards. It also achieved success in other Asian countries, including Japan and Taiwan. 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, S.M. 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
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 The Little Mermaid, 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.On October 1, 2011, SM Entertainment released the first teaser for "The Boys", followed by 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 a 16-second teaser clips for both the Korean and English version 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, 2011, starting with Music Bank. It was confirmed on November 27 that a re-release of the album will be out on December 8. The Korean version of "Mr. Taxi" was promoted as the lead single from this re-release.
The album was promoted with the tour "Girls' Generation World Tour Girls & Peace, starting on June 8, 2013, in Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul, South Korea, and ending in Cotai Arena, Macau, on February 15, 2014. The tour also promoted their 4th studio album, I Got A Boy.
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. 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. With the exception of 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. In addition, four remixes of "The Boys" are 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. 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 Korea K-Pop Hot 100.The Korean version of "Mr. Taxi" was the lead single from this re-release.
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 decade in the country until it was overtaken by in January 2020. 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
Personnel
Credits for The Boys are adapted from AllMusic.- 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
- Gang-Mi Kim – Make-Up
- Richard Garcia – Arranger, Composer
- Gi-Hyun Kim – Publicity, Public Relations
- Girls' Generation – Primary Artist, Vocals
- 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
- John Kim – Management, 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
| Chart | Position |
| South Korea | 33 |