Girls' Generation: I can't wait to see the Wonder Girls

Girls' Generation [SM Entertainment]

"The Boys," Girls' Generation's first album in Korea in a year, and its title track of the same name, has revealed a number of new sides to the girls. For the first time, the entire group rapped instead of singing a song with a hook and their dance moves have become more bold and powerful. What is as important as these changes is that "The Boys" will be the girls' first release in the U.S. which draws even more attention because they have gained enough foothold in Japan that their first full-length Japanese release "GIRLS' GENERATION" went double platinum after selling over 500,000 copies and from the beginning, 300,000 people tried to get tickets for their arena tour. Here's what the girls said they did to prepare for this first step into the U.S. market. Below are excerpts from their interview with the media.

"The Boys" - worldwide release album
Taeyeon: We made an album which would sound balanced, whoever heard it, yet not be awkward with our style of music. Please pay attention to our choreography and wardrobe as well because our music will feel different when you watch us perform (versus just listening to it).
Tiffany: Only our album will be released in the U.S. We don't have anything else planned overseas. We'd like to go (to the U.S.) if we got the chance to stand on stages where we could make special appearances and such but for the time being, we plan to continue with our singing career in Korea.

First impression of title track "The Boys"
Tiffany: Honestly, I went, 'Huh? What?' because it was new to me. [laugh]
Taeyeon: The song sounded very different from when we got the guide for it compared to how it turned out in the end with the rearrangements and mixing. And all our past songs had 'hooks' but this song isn't like that. I felt that it's new because it has an overall flow to it.

Girls' Generation member Yoona [SM Entertainment]

Girls' Generation member Hyoyeon [SM Entertainment]

Choreography
Taeyeon: The moves are hard on our legs, to the point that it's difficult to go up and down stairs the day after we practice. We've been trying out a lot of new moves so there are certain ones I want to do well at.
Sooyoung: My legs got all bruised. [laugh]
Tiffany: There are moves where the lines of our bodies will be important but we focused more on groovy and powerful moves this times.

Wardrobe
Seohyun: We used to wear clothes that are similar -- many people even called them group uniforms -- but each and every one of us will wear clothes that show our own styles this time.
Taeyeon: We plan to wear something new for each performance.

Release of first English-language album
Jessica: We paid a lot of attention to the English pronunciations. [laugh]
Taeyeon: We'll only be releasing our album in the U.S. so we didn't get seperate training for it. But we all learned English in school [laugh] so we tried our best to remember what we learned back then.
Tiffany: I still tend to speak in English first when I'm in a hurry but the members of my group are slowly starting to understand what I say. I think they'd be extremely good once they start learning English properly. [laugh]

Rapping for the first time
Tiffany: Many of us had been confident about rapping -- it's just that we never got around to showing it. And we sometimes even rapped when we're joking around so we had fun recording it.
Seohyun: I think Hyoyeon did the best job.
Tiffany: Hyoyeon had always been strong with beats and like music with groove so the moment I heard her (rap), I thought, 'Wow, she sounds cool.'
Hyoyeon: I thought it was difficult when I was recording it but was quite satisfied with the end product. [laugh]

Girls' Generation member Taeyeon [SM Entertainment]

Girls' Generation member Jessica [SM Entertainment]

Working with Teddy Riley
Sooyoung: The difference between working with him and past composers was… language? [laugh]
Taeyeon: We thought it would be hard to work with him because we can only communicate with him to a certain extent but he rather softened the atmosphere which helped us record the song in a free atmosphere as well.
Yuri: He danced with us where the beats are strong to help us rap with ease and complimented us a lot too.

Sooyoung's first self-written song "Spring Day"
Sooyoung: Our agency came up with the guide for the song and told us that whoever wants to can submit lyrics for it. I was on vacation then and had only a day left so I thought of not submitting but mine got chosen. [laugh] The members of my group probably had a hard time recording it though because it was my first time writing lyrics and had to make a lot of change up till the day we recorded the song. And I wrote the song thinking that it would be nice if there was a presence that gives us warm love, like a spring day, but I didn't want to limit that presence to your mom or lover. I wrote it thinking that you could listen to it thinking of whoever it is that you love.
Yuri: We usually go with lyrics that best suit a song's mood and Sooyoung's lyrics went well with the warm melody.
Taeyeon: Other members of our group submitted lyrics as well but I guess the criteria of judgement was extremely strict. [laugh]
Tiffany: Basically, the rest of us failed. It's harsh. [laugh]

Competition with other girl groups
Taeyeon: I think music programs in themselves stand out these days because everyone has such different styles, rather than there being a particular group that stands out for me.
Sooyoung: We're not looking forward to competing with other girl groups but rather looking forward to watching their performances. We tend to watch other singers rehearse and there's really a lot to learn from them. Wonder Girls will be making a comeback for the first time in while as well so I can't wait to see them. I feel sort of the excitement you get ahead of getting to see an artist from overseas come to Korea and perform. [laugh]

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