SNSD - The Boys [MV]

The nine angels of Korea, SNSD, have returned home. With them they bring a new album and new MV for their song "The Boys". Which I have to be honest, on my initial listen of the song, I found it to be quite terrible. Now before you Sones get up in arms about this, hear me out first. If you look at only the verses of the song, the song is actually rather decent. Granted, I feel like parts of the singing sections have a similar melody to Lady Gaga's song "Telephone". Though, I'll that slide for now. But yeah, the vocals are decent. It is comparatively weaker than their previous singles though in my opinion. Also, I'm not sure what they are trying to go with the "cheerleader shouting" sections. Those parts just seem out of place and seem to break up the flow of the song. After School does a similar type of thing in their song "Bang" due it's marching band concept. However the method works a lot better in that song. I mean every time I hear "Girls Generation make you feel the heat", I just want to cringe. Oh and officially this might be the first SNSD song to have a "rap" section. I don't know who's idea it was to have them rap, but I particularly don't like it. The girl's are just not that good at rapping. I mean a lot of Korean girl group rappers tend to be awful, but the rap break in this song is completely abrupt and unnecessary. Although, I will say after multiple listens I have been able to get into a mindset where I can tolerate the song for being what it is. Granted the "cheerleader shouting"/rap or whatever the hell you want to call it chorus and the over repetition of "bring the boys" still bugs the hell out of me. In general, I still think this is currently the worst song on their new album.

On a interesting note, in an attempt to gain worldwide recognition, an English version of this song was created. This is also why SM entertainment chose to recruit Teddy Riley to produce this song and probably why Jessica, who is one of the two members fluent in English, gets the most lines. Now you would think as some who understands English and knows no Korean I would like this, but no I do not. Why you ask? Because now I know what the girls are singing about. Considering their image and status in Korea, the lyrics of the song actually don't really fit well with them. I mean song's lyrics give the impression that these girls are drop dead hot and have the swagger to win the interests of any man. Which I feel is a bit odd. I mean the girls are attractive and what not, but they're not as "provocative" as the lyrics would suggest. Which makes the sound seem out of place to me. Also the lyrics also make the girls sound like they have an air of arrogance. This is also something that the girls don't seem to show in reality either. I mean from my perspective, Girl's Generation isn't really a group that seems like they exude huge amounts of swag. I mean look at the other songs on this album. Almost every other song on this album is sweet and cutesy and definitely is more towards aegyo style. Hence why I feel this makes the song seem really out of place in this album. Though as a song that was meant to introduce the girls to a US market, I guess it would make sense to copy a US style. Granted, I started to listen to K-Pop because it's not like American music. So there's also that to think about. Also, some lyrics in the song are a bit awkward because I still don't get what they're trying to say by saying "we're born to win, better tell all your friends, we get it in". I mean "we get it in"? What does that even mean? Although in any event I don't blame the girls for the song being a disappointment but rather we should point the finger at Teddy Riley.

As for the video to this song, I literally skipped the intro. I honestly didn't feel like watching a minute long intro of the girls with doves and roses before I could hear the song. I mean sure it made the video pretty and visually interesting, but I felt it was too long and unnecessary as a lead in to the song. Also it felt like some kind of American Beauty meets John Woo combination. Which adds to a lot of camera spinning and the aforementioned doves and roses nonsense. As for what happens in the portion of the MV dedicated to the song, basically you have SNSD in some kind of crystal rock looking thing and they sing and dance. That is pretty much the entire video. OK not really, there's more of that doves and roses nonsense as well. Though I guess another way to describe it would be as a kind of "Run Devil Run" 2.0. Also I'm not sure what to think of the dance that is featured in this music video. I mean it doesn't really seem that interesting in comparison to their other dances, and often at times it doesn't really seem like they're putting that much effort into it. Also the attire the girls have on for the performance section isn't really that interesting to me. Or their hair for that matter, I mean they made Sunny the Amber of the group and what's up with Taeyeon's tri color hair? I don't know, I guess I'm being too harsh to them. Then again, I was never really a fan of the "Dark Soshi" concept that started in "Run Devil Run". Although, there is one positive to this video and that is the introduction of Yuri's sand attack.











Yes Kwon Yuri, I chose you! On second thought, nevermind. What am I going to do with a sand attack when there are no enemies around to attack with it? Serious what was the point of all that anyway? All Yuri accomplished was getting their probably expensive outfits covered in sand and probably getting sand in their eyes. It's just as tacked on as the doves and roses. Eh, I digress I don't think the video was made to be analyzed this much. So I guess we should all just take it as it is.

To watch the Korean and English music videos for SNSD's song "The Boys" yourself, check out the videos below.

Korean:

English:

Note: In case anyone think I'm being a Girl's Generation anti, I actually enjoyed the other songs on their album "The Boys". I think my top favorites on it are My J, Vitamin, Lazy Girl, Telepathy, Say Yes, Trick, and Top Secret. So yes, this album did reaffirm the fact that I am still a Sone.