Stomping out of K-pop seclusion with carefully choreographed Naomi Campbell walks (OMG WATCH OUT IT’S ATTACK OF THE KILLER G.G. GLAMAZONS!), Girls’ Generation has effectively announced their intention to trample the competition on the charts with The Boys. The single is SoShi’s first Korean foray since the wildly-successful Hoot last October.
And if the initial reception is any indication, the girls have done just that, already claiming an all-kill on Korea’s major music portals just days after its release. The Boys hits listeners hard with chant-y choruses, pulsating beats, and sonic sucker-punches galore, courtesy of mega-producer Teddy Riley.
Riley (whose credits span from MJ to Gaga) has always been a bit ahead of his time in terms of production wizardry, being one of the first in the biz to tinker with voice boxes and auto-tuning since his humble beginnings with R&B trio Guy in the late 80′s. These effects have over-saturated the music industry recently, but luckily the vocal processing was kept to a minimum in SNSD‘s latest, allowing these young ladies to shine in crystal-clear clarity – most notably main belters Taeyeon, Seohyun, and Jessica.
The single doesn’t say anything of substance/make any real sense lyrically (in Korean or English), and neither does the high-production music video, for that matter. But that’s not what the K-pop masses really care about here, is it? The Boys may be mostly superficial fluff, but it’s slickly-crafted top-notch fluff, that’s for sure.
The Boys (Korean Version) – Girls’ Generation
The Boys (English Version) – Girls’ Generation
