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"Boyz" is a song recorded by artist M.I.A. for her second album ''Kala'' (2007). The song was written and produced by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam and Dave "Switch" Taylor and composed in recording sessions held in several countries. A combination of the native styles and influences of these regions and her traditional and electronic musical roots, the song sees M.I.A. mock and simultaneously praise men for various character traits. "Boyz" is one of the first songs that the artist composed for the album and was released as the album's lead single through XL Recordings and Interscope Records on 11 June 2007, in 12-inch single, CD single, digital download and USB flash drive formats. It additionally appeared in an enhanced EP format for its CD single release, and appeared on the ''How Many Votes Fix Mix EP'' edition. On 24 April 2007, "Boyz" received its world premiere on the BBC Radio 1 radio station in London. An uptempo dance song, "Boyz" draws from West Indian soca and Tamil gaana influences, incorporating electronica and club music influences to a 4/4 beat bassline. Displaying elements of worldbeat, its instrumentation consists of urumee drum percussion, trumpets, tambourines, electronic scratches and synths. Its lyrics make reference to male bravado, warlords, motorcycle and dirty track riding and dance moves originating from Jamaica, a country that inspired the song's composition. "Boyz" placed at number nine on the ''Rolling Stone'' "100 Best Songs of 2007" list and ranked one of the best songs of the year and the decade by ''Blender'' Magazine, NME, ''Eye Weekly'' and PopMatters. The single's accompanying music video was directed by Jay Will Williams and M.I.A., presenting the singer-rapper dancing with several male dancers from Jamaican dance crews surrounded by colourful lo-fi computer animated graphics, garnering critical acclaim for its subversive nature and triggering a new dance and graphic design revolution in music and videos. "Boyz" was nominated for the "Viral Woodie" at the 2007 mtvU Woodie Awards. The song made appearances in many television shows and video games since its release, and featured in the film ''Eat Pray Love''. "Boyz" reached number seven on the Canadian Singles Chart and the US ''Billboard'' Hot Singles Sales chart and number ninety-nine on the ''Billboard'' Pop 100. Peaking at number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Singles Sales, eight places higher than "Galang", "Boyz" gave M.I.A. her first top ten charting single and the record for the first artist of Sri Lankan and Tamil descent to have a top ten charting single in ''Billboard'' history and the first to chart on the ''Billboard'' Pop 100. "Boyz" was also part of her set list on the Kala Tour (2007) and People vs. Money Tour (2008). ==Background== Written and produced by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam and Dave "Switch" Taylor, "Boyz" was the first official single to be released from M.I.A.'s second studio album ''Kala'' and one of the first songs composed for the album. During an interview with ''The Big Issue'' following the release of debut album ''Arular'', M.I.A. stated that she was looking forward to writing her second album the next year, spending six months in Jamaica and collaborating with high profile American producers. The songwriter was unable to gain a long-term work visa to enter the US in 2006 and access the demos she had composed and stored at her New York flat. With the visa denial, she ended up couch-surfing, sleeping at other people's houses in London, as her constant touring on dates in Canada, Argentina and Brazil meant that she no longer had a home in England. She said in an interview "I had to start from scratch with what was around me. The thing is, I get bored easily, and I don't see the point of doing something twice. I made ''Arular'' in London; I'd already made a real London album. I just thought, fuck it. If I'm gonna couch-surf in London, I might as well go and couch surf in India or Liberia."〔〔http://www.list.co.uk/article/5713-m-i-a-interview/〕 M.I.A. opted to record the album at a variety of locations around the world, beginning by travelling to India following the release of "Bucky Done Gun" and the last date of her Arular Tour in Japan in February 2006. She said of her decision "I wanted to get out of people's view: to go and spend time learning about myself and trying to be better. Not really technically better, but I just wanted to be better as a human being. And it's really hard to do that when you make club music."〔 M.I.A. initially travelled to Chennai, India to meet A. R. Rahman, but found it hard to communicate her ideas to him and the planned musical collaboration did not take place.〔 Rahman did, however, provide M.I.A. with a number of instrumentalist contacts and allow her to use his studio AM Studios to record songs for ''Kala''. The singer was amused during recording the song in India that she needed her brother Sugu to repeat some of her instructions to the instrumentalists for them to play, saying "you have to have somebody who's male, who looks like you, standing next to you like a Siamese twin that's attached at the hip, and they have to be your mouth."〔http://www.newnownext.com/exclusive-m-i-a-interview-on-jamaican-boyz-new-music-old-love-gays/07/2007/〕 Producer Switch, who met the songwriter in Trinidad had later travelled to India purely to engineer more planned sessions, but ultimately became involved in the composition of "Boyz" and other ''Kala'' tracks.〔 On this second trip to India, M.I.A. recorded in Kovalam, Tamil Nadu, during which the pair recorded the song and others in a cupboard with a broken monitor due to lack of recording space in the music studio.〔http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/62231-a-new-global-gathering〕〔http://www.factmag.com/2009/01/01/interview-m-i-a/〕 The singer was able to record the song further in Trinidad again, in Jamaica and later America. She described Trinidad, where she also recorded songs such as "Big Branch" and World Town" for the album, as where the inspiration to put the "meat" of all the songs of ''Kala'' together came from, saying "Trinidad is halfway between Jamaica and India. It was nice to see a new Indian approach to life—like Indian people going Jamaican, and the music that comes out is something totally different and weird. There's something that's so approachable about Trinidad and then something that's so dark—people don't really know that. When I was there, it was 50–50, all the time."〔 The song, which epitomises "a world-weary sarcasm that pervades" much of the lyrical content of ''Kala'', began from M.I.A.'s frustration and exhaustion following touring for ''Arular'' and her experiences as a woman recording her album.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boyz (song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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