<The Boys> by Girls’ Generation is the first album they’re releasing since their last, <Hoot>, which was about a year ago. The title song for the album, “The Boys”, shows off the girls who have transformed in many ways. They’ve given up hook songs, and all the members tried rapping for the first time. The choreography is a little more powerful and bold. And just as important as these transformations is the fact that “The Boys” is being sold in America for the first time. Their first Japanese album, <Girls’ Generation>, sold more than 500,000 copies, gaining double platinum status. Their arena tour sold 300,000 tickets from the beginning and put them in a solid position, so their album being sold in America is garnering even more attention. We met with Girls’ Generation to personally hear from them how they prepared for all this.
< The Boys >, Worldwide Release Album
Taeyeon: The album was made so that people around the world who listen to it won’t think the music is one specific genre, and also so it won’t be awkward when SNSD’s color is mixed in. Watching a stage performance while listening to the music is different than just listening to the music by itself so we hope they pay attention to the choreography or our clothes as well.
Tiffany: We’re only releasing the album in America, we don’t have any plans to promote there as of yet. We would like to go if we are given the chance to make a special performance, but for now, we are just planning to be active on music broadcasts in Korea.
What were your first impressions of the title song, The Boys?
Tiffany: To be honest, I said, “Huh? Sorry?” (because it was a little bit unfamiliar). (laughs)
Taeyeon: When we listened to the song after the mixing was done, it sounded very different than when we heard the guide version for the first time. Also, our past songs such as “Gee” had repetitive hooks so it was easy to tell where the chorus was, but this song isn’t a “hook song”. The parts of the entire song just flow into one another so I thought it was fresh.
Choreography
Taeyeon: This choreography requires so much work to our legs that the day after our practice, it was difficult to walk up and down the stairs. We were attempting many moves that were new to us so there were parts that we become greedy about [greedy to do especially well].
Sooyoung: I have a lot of bruises on my legs. (laughs)
Tiffany: There are moves that accentuate our body line, similar to the choreography to our songs in the past. But for this song, we focused more on the groovy and powerful moves.
