[MUSIC REVIEW] Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy (2013)

Happy New Year, everyone :D

Well, we have been passed almost a week in 2013. It's sooo fast, right?

Anyway, how is your New Year's Eve? Is it fun?

Mine was pretty sucks since my father lost his handphone. But, for the New Year's event itself that I attend, it was quite interesting. I attended Car Free Night, an event where any kind of transportation is prohibited to pass protocol streets in Jakarta on December 31st 2012 - January 1st, 2013 at 6.30 PM - 02.00 AM. So, as expected, it was full of people walking around with their friends and family. Of course, there were music events and fireworks party to entertain them, so people don't get bored easily. This year is the first time this event being held and it seems that the government plan to hold the event annually.

Okay, enough with my New Year's Eve story. Anyway, as always, let's hope that I will update my blog more often in 2013 :D

To start 2013, I am going to review about Girls' Generation (So Nyeo Shi Dae/SNSD), newest single, "I Got A Boy". As the first position on my most anticipated January 2013 comebacks and debuts, surely I have been anticipating their comebacks ever since 2012 hehe. So, when it has been revealed that they are going to comeback on January 2013, I was really excited!! After several teasers photos and music videos, finally, here it is, as the New Year's present on the first day of 2013, Girls' Generation newest music video (MV), "I Got A Boy".

After the first time listened to the song while watching the MV, I was like..........what the hell was that?

Is that really the song?

I mean how come they mixed two different songs into one?

What's with the sudden transition?

And what's with Seohyun's outfit and all of their wigs in one of the scene?

Okay, enough with the complaints. Anyway, I was absolutely not preparing for something like that. It was completely different from Girls' Generation's previous concepts!

But, then, I read someone's tweet which stated that people should try to listen the song without watching the MV. So, I'll tried to do that in hope for a better result and yes, that person is right. The song started to grow on me, it was a fun song actually. The beat was really catchy and there were many "hook" parts in the song, which will constantly repeated on people's minds. The sudden transitions itself were starting to become not too weird.

Shortly, I was starting to like the song. I found the "oo oo eo" back sound was very addictive. I also love Taeyeon  and Sunny ad-libs at the end of the song. Oh and, whoever sing the harmonization for the refrain parts (I guess it's Sunny), I adore you so much! It was really nice! As for the rap parts, the four members, Sooyoung, Yuri, Yoona, and Hyoyeon did a good job (Tiffany's English lines were not considered as rapping, in my opinion). Hyoyeon's rap was pretty decent with her superfast talking/rapping while Yoona's rap was adorable. Yuri and Sooyoung were also surprisingly very bad-ass on the intro part, which I REALLY LOVE.

My love for this song was starting to get bigger and bigger when I know the lyrics meaning of this song. Honestly, it was really genius! I have never expected that Girls' Generation will sing a song with many meanings behind it. It's like every time you listen to it while reading the translations and watching the music video, you will get different perspectives.

As for my interpretation, I think the first part of the song is about a group of girls who talked about one of their friends. They dislike their friend's sudden change when she just got a boyfriend. Their talks stopped when Tiffany said, "A-YO STOP! Let Me Put It Down Another Way!", while the girl throwing their hats on the MV. Suddenly, the music change to be more upbeat and the point of view change into a girl who is being talked by her friends on the first part. This girl told everyone that she got a boy now (I got a boy meotjin! I got a boy chakhan!) and she began to describe her boy (Tiffany's part). After Hyoyeon finished her lines, "Neo michyeosseo, michyeosseo", music changed again into the music on the first part. At this part, the girl who just got a boy felt angry because her boy did not look at her as a girl anymore. I think this is the reason why all of the Girls' Generation members wearing wigs and coats that only appeared once on the MV during this part, to show that they were changed. Then, suddenly, Jessica said, "Don't stop! Let's bring it back to one forty!", which marked the change of the music into the second part of the song, which happened to start at one minute, forty seconds from the song. At this last part, it showed that the girl should forget about the problems and be happy again with her boy. Well, the lyrics meaning were actually pretty simple, right? But, remember it is my own interpretation, so it maybe different from yours :)

After knowing the lyrics meaning, I realized that it did not have relation with their messy concept for this comeback. Once again, SM Entertainment showed their cleverness in mixing unrelated song and concept to make it interesting. It is not the new thing for SM  since they have done this in another Girls' Generation comeback, "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)", with their marine/army concept while singing a song about seducing a guy.

Back to their concept again, these nine girls continued to surprise me by pulling off this concept well as the whole group. Now, I actually prefer to call this concept, messy, instead of, hip hop or swag, because as far as I know, the girls and SM themselves never mentioned this as a hip hop or swag concept. In this messy concept, the girls wore outfits from different brands that they ever use before. Like I mentioned earlier, they pull off the concept well as the group, but if you talked about individually, the result would be different. 

Yuri suited this concept the most. It's nice to see her shines again since she was not really shining during their previous comeback, "The Boys". After Yuri, there is Hyoyeon who finally had the concept that suited her. People know that Hyoyeon was not really comfortable with Girls' Generation cutesy and girly concept since she is more into hip hop and fierce concept, just like her basic dance. Oh and I guess I am not the only one thinking that Hyoyeon shines more and more these days, right? Then, there is also Sooyoung, who currently is the best rapper in Girls' Generation, so she also suited this concept well. I am hoping to see more of her raps in the future, so please SM, instead of giving the rap parts to Tiffany, leave it to Sooyoung because truthfully, she is better than Tiffany. If you're worried about English raps, well, Sooyoung also has good pronunciations in English, so it should not be too hard for her.

Moving on to the next member, there is Sunny, who surprised me a lot, because she just suited this concept with her sexy, yet adorable, attitudes. There is also Yoona, who seems never go wrong with every concept (thanks to her effortless beauty), eventhough she still lacked on her expression. Similar to Yoona, there is also Taeyeon, who managed to look super adorable on every concept, but still, she sometimes tried to hard on this concept which makes her look awkward at several points. I am kind of surprised with her dance moves during her first part of the song! I did not know that she was that good! I also like Jessica in this concept. I love how she just stick to her own personality without trying too hard to be swag or something unlike her fellow American friends, Tiffany, who tried too hard at some parts. Tiffany herself was actually good if she just stay with her own personality, like what she did during her "aegyo" part in the song, so I am hoping that she did not try too hard to be swag or sexy. Lastly, there is Seohyun, who unfortunately, did not really suit with this concept. There were many parts on the MV where she looked sooo awkward. But, still, nice try Seobaby :)

After discussing about the song and concept, now, finally, I am going to discuss about the MV. The MV was really eye-catching because of the colorful settings and outfits. I think this one of the reason why I got shocked when I first watched the MV. I also LOVE the choreography!!! It seems really complicated, but fun at the same time. My favorite parts would be on 2:53 - 3:06 (I don't know how to describe the part, so I just use the time hahahaha), Hyoyeon vs Yoona rap parts, Seohyun and Tiffany's parts (3:08 - 3:13), and also their famous body wave. 

Although the MV itself was already awesome, there are several parts which I think unnecessary which are the bedroom opening scene and their scene with mysterious boy because it did not really contribute to the whole MV. Beside that, I also found the "similar wigs and outfits" part weird. I get what the meaning of the scene, but, can't they just change it into other things? And lastly, will SM ever stop using all of those studios for their MV? Seriously, it was really boring! Thank God, on I Got A Boy, the usage of box studios were being minimized.

Overall, I like Girls' Generation's I Got A Boy Comeback! Genius song, eventhough it was hard to understand at first, catchy beat, sleek choreography, and fun MV. It is good to see them bravely taking a risk by doing something which was completely different from what they have done before. More importantly, it was really nice to see those girls having fun on the stage for this concept. Still waiting for their live performances, though. 




Rate                                       : 4/5

Categories: Girls Generation, Kpop, Music, SNSD, Songs