You know after almost a decade of following kpop I’ve seen plenty of things. Groups debuting, groups disbanding, members leaving, several scandals, changes in trends etc. and it’s certainly interesting to look back and think how everything evolves or changes over time.
And the longer a group stays, the longer you look back at their rookie years and think how far they’ve come. I wouldn’t call myself an once, though the group has a special place in my heart, but since I’ve witnessed their career for almost a decade now it’s undeniable the impact they had in the industry.
What’s the most interesting thing to me though is how their concept and image evolved with time. And it is through their korean title tracks that I want to look at how this happened and why it’s one of the best “coming of age” stories kpop has ever seen.
Let’s begin!
2015 – Like OOH AAH
Their official debut after being assembled in Sixteen. I think it establishes Twice as a fun, cheery and even a bit cheeky and at times edgy group. It’s a song full of confidence and joy, the girls describe themselves as pretty, showstoppers, they come in strong and aren’t afraid of looking for what they want.
And this also introduces some Twice signature elements like:
– Each girl is dressed differently at one point, embodying a certain “archetype” or showing off an unique feature (like Sana in a cheerleader costume, Tzuyu in a school uniform)
– A small dance break
– A fantastical element. This time around we have zombies as our background characters while the girls go around singing and dancing.
They start their journey as confident, funny and beautiful girls that came to stay. It’s interesting to note that while this is a fairly cheerful song, I wouldn’t exactly call it a “cute concept” at all. When I think of early Twice, instead of “cute” I think of “fun” and there’s a lot of difference there.
2016 – Cheer Up
Their first big hit. Here we also have an interesting concept evolution: while in LOA we saw them dressed differently, here we have them in different scenarios altogether, each girl inhabiting their own “universe” based on different movie genres (thing they’d keep exploring later too)
All this keeps establishing that each girl is their own person with their different charms, but that they all eventually come together to form Twice.
It’s still a fairly confident type of love song, Twice keeps putting themselves as the ones who have to be impressed, not the other way around. I feel like even though we who don’t speak korean can’t really perceive it unless we read translations, it’s important to notice what a group’s lyrics are saying as it also reveals quite a lot about them.
2016 – TT
Twice was really on a roll in 2016, huh?! With TT I think they fully establish their brand (in early years) as a fun, whimsical, cute and colorful group. This time they make a themed type of release putting the group in different types of costumes. One could argue LOA kind of is too (zombies in October after all) but I feel like they fully embrace this here.
Actually I believe it’s one of the best seasonal types of releases and fits them well. The two kids at the beginning are sort of a stand in for us, the audience, being invited to enter their world, see them in their element and even being teased at the end about what’d come next…
Lyrics wise it’s the first track that’s a more melancholic one. We still have a bit of their usual confidence, but the pains of falling in love are much more present here. It shows quite a bit of vulnerability, thing that CU had a bit but here we have quite literally the TT emoji lol
2017 – Knock Knock
If TT is a halloween comeback, I’ve always thought of Knock Knock as a sort of winter type of comeback. So far Twice brought us plenty of different scenarios and feelings, but this time they come with something…cozy. That’s what I feel when I watch and even hear Knock Knock.
We also start to move a bit from the trend of the first three releases. Here we have them in a much more mundane setting, all dressed differently but at the same time uniformly, fully a group. We also see more of them as a friend group having their own sleepover and goofing around together, which contributes to the cozy vibes
Twice is still Twice though and at the end we see a bit of their whimsical, magic side!
One fun tidbit: in the beginning the lyrics say “the door closes at twelve” and at the end…the door closes at twelve when the girls are outside lol I love when lyrics also reflect a bit of what happens in the MV.
2017 – Signal
One bit of lore about me: I discovered Twice in 2017, at the time I was fairly new to kpop and I wasn’t as involved in fandom spaces, so imagine my surprise when later I discovered that Signal wasn’t that well received, at least in the western fandom. I was kinda like: “why? it’s such a bop?!”
It’s a early Twice comeback through and through. You can spot the whimsy and fun concept, the girls each having a different theme (this time everybody has a different super power), the catchy lyrics, maybe it’s not as explosive as other songs but it’s grooviness absolutely fits with the retro sci-fi MV
The lyrics are also very in line with what the MV shows us: the girls trying, and failing lol, to get the guy’s/alien’s attention.
2017 – Likey
Out of all their 2017 songs, Likey is probably the one that’s most reminiscent of their 2016 hits Cheer Up and TT. It’s unabashedly catchy, has a dance break, and perhaps their best rap verses to date. Though the dab they do kinda dates it a little bit lol
It’s interesting how they used the location of a foreign country for this, being their very first venture (at least as far as korean title tracks went) into showing them in an open world setting. The other MVs were clearly filmed in more closed spaces or sets, here we see them dancing and having fun in real life streets, shops, school etc. It brings an extra layer of reality for them. They really brought up the “girl next door” this time around.
The lyrics are interesting in that, while they can be interpreted in a more lighthearted manner (a girl wanting to be pretty for the one she likes) it can also have some pretty dark undertones (the pressure of looking pretty for the camera, the difference between what’s shown and what’s inside you). Knowing their lyrics so far have skewed in the romantic direction, I believe they wanted to convey the first, but it’s interesting to see how different interpretations can be made.
2017 – Heart Shaker
“Is Sana gay?”
Haha I had to do that. But really, here we have yet another somewhat thematic track with the snow bits we witnessed in Knock Knock now here. 2017 surely was a very busy year for Twice as we have four different titles, each with their own unique flavor and Heart Shaker is exactly the amount of cheerful and heartfelt ideal to close the year.
It’s cute and bubbly, the girls are presented in different outfits and dance while walking in different types of corridors. I think it’s interesting how the camera is always moving forward and so do the girls and then they end in a pretty sick double effect, like a grand finale not only for the MV but for their year as a whole. That’s my interpretation anyway haha
2018 – What Is Love?
Here we get back to that “movie concept” notion I talked about back in Cheer Up. This time around it’s not about genres, but specific movies like Princess’ Diaries, Ghost, Pulp Fiction etc which the girls all give their fun little spin and act as if they were the main characters.
We once again have the girls each starring their own film, showing how different everyon eis, with their “real selves” watching TV and fighting for who gets the control. It’s classic Twice showing that even as a unit they all have different charms and are their own person. However despite that they show how they work just as well as a full group.
This is also the beginning of the end of an era, here we have a quintessential Twice comeback, but things would soon start to change and I think they changed a bit earlier than most noticed.
2018 – Dance The Night Away
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I’ve always felt that Twice’s change in concept actually started around here. Surely it’s still a pretty “cutesy” type of track, full of fun and playfulness, but there are some subtle changes, enough to see they’re starting to mature. That’s why I call this and the next as “transition comebacks” for our nine girls.
Once again they’re in an open world, but this time stranded in an island. Really what Twice didn’t do in their concepts? That’s why I say they’re more versatile than people give them credit for. They always bring joy to everything without feeling too repetitive.
But apart from that, here we see them just a bit more mature than usual. From the acessories to the clothes, even the fact that they’re in swimwear at times, and if you look at their stage outfits you feel this too. Even their choreography goes up a notch and becomes a bit more elaborated and difficult. It’s minor stuff, and it’s not like Twice didn’t present themselves in sexier clothing before, but I’ve always felt the overall vibes had a bit of difference to them.
2018 – Yes or Yes
Plaid core before StayC made it popular later.
Here we have another “transition comeback”, perhaps a bit less than DTNA but I do think the palette here is quite a bit darker than Twice’s usual softer colors. It still follows a pretty clear “what if Twice but” with magicians and carnival aesthetic, the mood is whimsical.
I still remember there was a pretty minor controversy due to the contents of the lyrics (in which they basically say there’s only one option and that’s saying yes), but I’ve seen a korean speaker saying it’s more of a playful type of song without being so heavy or think too much on the implications. Kinda like Likey in which the lyrics can be interpreted in different ways but it doesn’t necessarily mean the intentions were bad.
2019 – Fancy
Now we enter a new Twice era, one that (imo) had been cooking underneath for a while. And I actually believe it came at the exact right time for them, they were already veterans, having multiple hits under their belt, a clear established brand and image. And they decided to evolve it to match their experience and also age.
Actually if we look at it sonically Fancy is not that different than what Twice was known for (it even has the TWICE shout effect, their signature), but when it comes to styling and construction of the comeback you can plainly see they’re going for something more mature, stylish, chic even.
It is still colorful, but a different type with neon tones and psychedelic imagery. Actually the whole MV feels like a bit of a trip, with different and absurdist types of scenarios, things that Twice never really did before. Yes they often tackled the magic and whimsical but not in this more surrealistic approach.
It all says: yeah this is still Twice but a newer version of them.
And that’s it for now! Twice has a very extensive career, that’s why I chose to only cover their korean singles or else it’d be toooooo much for me lol I’ll do the part 2 soon and post.
Also maybe it’s presumptous on my part but if you liked my analysis you can request for me to do it on other groups lol I’m always eager to babble non stop
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