The Boys (Girls' Generation album)

The Boys is the third Korean-language studio album (and fourth overall) by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. It was released on October 19, 2011 by both SM Entertainment and KMP Holdings in South Korea.

The album is also the debut American release of the group. Promotion was led by the release of an English version of the lead single on December 20, 2011. Under the distribution of Interscope Records, The Boys was released both physically and digitally with an expanded track listing on January 17, 2012.

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

On January 19, 2012, performing The Boys at High1 Seoul Music Awards

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. 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 "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 19 October 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.

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

The album charted both in Spain and France at position #64 and #130 respectively for one week.

Commercial performance

The Boys has been commercially successful in Asian regions. It debuted at #1 on South Korea's Gaon Weekly Albums chart, and had sold over 400,000 copies in South Korea alone. The album peaked at #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 moved 26,000 copies in Taiwan.

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 #2 on the Billboard World Albums[5] and re-entered the Heatseekers Album Chart at #17.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Track listing

1.   "The Boys" 

2.   Telepathy

3.   "Say Yes"

4.   "Trick"

5.   How Great Is Your Love

6.   "My J" 

7.   "OSCAR" 

8.   "Top Secret" 

9.   "Lazy Girl" 

10. (Sunflower) 

11. VITAMIN

12. "Mr. Taxi" (Korean Version)