Twice

3

The Story Begins

On the same day as their showcase, Twice had released their video for ‘Like Ooh Ahh’. A YouTube music video was an essential device to reach out to fans, especially international fans. The global availability of YouTube ensured that the excited and the curious living outside South Korea – from the USA and Europe to the Middle East and especially in Japan and other parts of Asia – could see what the fuss over JYP’s new girl group was all about.

The music video had developed into the major tool for promoting an artist. An entertaining, interesting or visually appealing video could gain millions of views and significantly boost an act’s profile. The pressure to produce a captivating video that bore repeated viewing for Twice’s debut single was therefore immense.

Responsibility for producing the video was given to Naïve Productions, a company that had worked with all JYP’s major acts, including Miss A and Got7. Their job was to communicate Twice’s concept – fresh, colourful and fun – and introduce the members to a global audience. With Halloween approaching, they opted to surround the girls with zombies (explaining why the undead had co-starred in the girls’ teasers) to add humour and excitement.

The video begins with a single-take shot as the camera pans around an abandoned school to introduce each of the members. The grey background contrasts with the sharpness of the girls’ high-school-styled outfits, among them Nayeon in a short yellow-and-black tartan skirt, Sana in a cheerleader dress and Jiyho in gym gear, with the full school uniform given to youngest member Tzuyu. The second section finds them back in their debut outfits with the full nine performing the song’s choreography on the roof at dusk in front of baying, fenced-off zombies. This is intercut with their escape on the school bus, which, for some reason, takes them to a fairground for the final scene. There they dance with the zombies, pacifying them by showing them how to have some fun.

It is a simple plot, very loosely related to the song’s lyrics – at least if the zombies represent those guys who want the girls’ attention just because they’re so attractive. However, it is incredibly effective. It matches the energy and upbeat feeling of the song and, of course, the Twice members look fantastic. Equally importantly, they look unique, with fans now able to pick out their favourites – and not just the obvious red-haired Jiyho or Jeongyeon with her pink bob. There’s Dahyun with her red highlights, Chaeyoung with her side-parted, shoulder-length hair or the unmistakable long legs of Tzuyu.

The video also communicates another vital element of Twice: these girls like to have fun. From Nayeon’s beguiling wink at the opening to Sana’s self-mocking failure to imitate Mina and Momo’s balletic poses, to the bonus finale with clips of each of them dancing in the aisle on the bus, if producers Naïve had set out to charm viewers they had totally succeeded. Beautiful, vivacious and just a little quirky – who wouldn’t be eager to find out more about Twice?

Confirmation that the video had pushed all the right buttons came almost immediately. Within 24 hours ‘Like Ooh Ahh’ had been viewed over a million times and that total doubled after two days. Among K-pop videos only solo singer Taeyeon’s ‘I’ was more popular around the globe. Their video wasn’t breaking any records (yet), but Twice were most definitely on the world map.

Meanwhile the mini-album, The Story Begins, had dropped. Lasting just over 20 minutes it contained six tracks: ‘Like Ooh Ahh’ and the other songs performed at the showcase – ‘Do it Again’, ‘Going Crazy’, ‘Truth’ and ‘Like a Fool’ – as well as the yet-to-be-performed live ‘Candy Boy’. Aside from the ballad ‘Like a Fool’ (in which the vocals, in contrast to their showcase version, are spot on and moving), the up-tempo, good vibes and high-energy concept were maintained throughout, but the sound mined a host of genres – hip-hop, funk, R’n’B and EDM – so it was hard to classify. Perhaps it was colour pop!

Both the single and the mini-album made an instant impression on the charts. The Story Begins went straight to number four on South Korea’s Gaon Album Chart and ‘Like Ooh Ahh’ debuted in the charts at number 22. Both also registered on the Billboard World charts and in Japanese charts. For Twice, though, this was just the start. The hard work now began with promoting the single. This meant more nerve-racking performances for the novice members and an exhausting schedule of early morning make-up sessions, endless rehearsals, tense recordings and hours of sitting backstage waiting to be called.

The first of these performances – known as ‘debut stages’ – took place two days after the showcase, on the Mnet channel’s weekly pop programme M Countdown. Years later fans would marvel at the one girl chanting on her own as their performance commenced. It’s hard to imagine now, but their fan base was minuscule compared to the established acts on the show. M Countdown had given them a Halloween set, but there were no zombies here, just nine girls giving their all on the dancefloor and singing live. They had swapped the debut outfits for a mostly black and grey look that still maintained the cute but sexy concept. Jihyo stood out in her ‘After Dark’ t-shirt and hold-ups, while Momo took viewers’ breath away in her cut-off denim shorts and tight crop top.

As was often the case on the music shows, Twice also performed a second song, ‘Do it Again’, on M Countdown. They re-emerged in fetching red, blue and black athleisure outfits (very much on trend in autumn 2015). This time the choreography was completely girly, full of skips and jumps, while the performance was marked by rapping from Chaeyoung and Momo, with Sana left alone on stage at the end to show some top aegyo. Some fans were now beginning to wonder, were Twice going to be a cutesy girl group or a more edgy girl-crush group?

Over the next week they repeated their exertions on Music Bank, Show! Music Core, Inkigayo and The Show. Each time they seemed more relaxed and confident about singing live (many acts, especially rookie groups, lip sync on these shows). They also appeared in different outfits each time. Generally, they wore crop tops and tight or flared skirts or shorts (Jeongyeon’s somehow being shorter than the others’!). None of them wore the same outfit, but there was always a colour or pattern that gave them a group identity. On Show! Music Core, for example, where there was a yellow and black theme, Mina and Chaeyoung wore yellow-and-black-check crop tops, Tzuyu and Dahyun wore flared yellow, white and black patterned skirts, and Sana had the same pattern on a dress.

Audiences were amazed at just how good they all looked. They were used to K-pop groups having one or two ‘visual’ members who were noted for their looks, but with Twice it was impossible to see who that was – they were all equally beautiful. Fans would pick their ‘bias’ – their favourite member – then change their mind after the next show. The ‘bias-wreckers’ – members who would make fans question their choice – were often Mina, Momo, Dahyun or Jeongyeon, but every single member was guaranteed a mention in discussion forums.

The next thing fans noted was the choreography. Devised by renowned K-pop choreographer Lia Kim, it utilised all nine girls in a series of fun dance moves. Fans attempting to do the dances themselves soon discovered that they were not quite as complicated as they looked (although Twice were dancing in high heels!) and once they had mastered the flute playing, the making a heart with their hands, the throwing kisses, the Marilyn Monroe holding her skirt move, the ‘ooh ahh’ leg twist and the jumps and shakes, it all came together. The breakdown wasn’t quite so easy to imitate, though. Momo was a class act and her neck-jerking, hair-flicking solo dance was the work of a professional.

Music shows were only the half of it. The six weeks of promotion were filled with magazine interviews and photoshoots, fan signings, live radio shows and recorded TV broadcasts. For the nine members of Twice, who just five months previously had still been trainees, this was all very novel. The evening before their M Countdown debut they took part in a photoshoot for Elle – their first magazine shoot. One set of pictures was taken on a sports field after nightfall. The girls were cold, but excited, and came across as a group with boundless energy. Another set of pictures was taken in a studio and these shots were exquisite. Dressed in shiny black and lace, the girls exuded a femme-fatale vibe and posed like born models – they had come a long way since the Sixteen photoshoot challenge.

Fan meetings were another new phenomenon for the fledgling group. K-pop acts were expected to meet their supporters, and outside the studio after their debut stage over 200 people sat patiently waiting for them. The girls emerged wrapped in blankets, waved and each said a few slightly awkward words to the assembled fans. They looked visibly shocked at how many had turned up. It was enough to bring Sana to tears, but the numbers were only going to get bigger.

The new fans were overjoyed to discover there was a second series of Twice TV to coincide with their debut. Running weekly until Christmas, the episodes documented what the group had been getting up to, including photo sessions for the album, behind the scenes at their debut stage, the Elle magazine photoshoot and the filming of their first commercial – for a school uniform brand called Skoolooks. With later episodes following them to the zoo and the fairground rides at Everland, South Korea’s largest theme park, viewers were able to see them at work and at play.

Some episodes were pure fun, especially the parody of Sixteen which opened the series. Each of the girls played another member, except for Momo, who was excellent in the role of Park Jin-young. Nayeon was hilarious as Sana and Mina took her impression of Tzuyu as far as it could go. In episode five they wrote their own profiles and showed off their individual skills, including Nayeon’s girl-crush pose and Sana’s massage skills. In another episode the challenge was to make a 15-second film. Mina’s suggestion of a ghost film was voted the best (ahead of Momo’s idea of a commercial for pigs’ trotters!) and the result was genuinely scary, especially Tzuyu pulling an eyeball-less stare.

Fans loved the Twice TV series, but what people really wanted to see was Twice on television and in particular on variety shows. The South Koreans love their variety shows and have so many to choose from. Some are straightforward chat shows, but the favourites challenge guests in order to reveal different facets of their personalities. The challenges can be silly and fun or tough and testing, and the hosts are always ready to tease and mock the guests, however big a star they might be.

Twice’s very first variety show was on YouTube channel Kthe1’s Let’s Dance, and they announced themselves with their chant. Like many K-pop groups, Twice had their own greeting, which translates as ‘One in a million – hello we are Twice’, and they had spent the summer rehearsing it. The show required the girls to play some simple games to decide which duo got to teach the mystery man, who wore black and a motorcycle crash helmet, different elements of the ‘Like Ooh Aah’ choreography. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dahyun and Jihyo won the loudest voice challenge, while Nayeon and Tzuyu triumphed in the dance challenge, in which they had to remember the choreography for random hits. If this was a test, they passed with flying colours, showing they could be funny, cute and talented, often all at the same time.

What fans were really waiting for was an appearance on Weekly Idol, one of the longest-running and most popular of all the variety shows. The 60-minute show poked fun at its guests, while giving them a chance to show fans their true personalities. It had launched so many K-pop acts on the journey to stardom and the fact that Twice had debuted a mere 50 days before being invited onto the show was an indication of the impact they had made with ‘Like Ooh Ahh’.

The show was hosted by popular TV personality Defconn and Sungkyu from boy band Infinite. He was only MCing for his second week, after the departure of regular host Jeong Hyeong-don, and it was perhaps his nervousness that helped Twice feel more confident, because rather than the timid young girls that viewers might have expected to see, they were buzzing with energy and personality, and great entertainment value.

The show begins with Weekly Idol introductions, where each member of the group introduces themselves through their nickname. Some of the descriptions were obvious: Mina, who had trained as a ballet dancer, was the Black Swan Ballerina; Tzuyu the Tall Maknae; Sana was Cutie-Sexy; and Nayeon Bright Energy. Others needed a little explanation. Dahyun called herself Energetic Tofu, because her skin was pale like tofu; Momo was Performance and Belly, not because she liked revealing her abs, but on account of her insatiable appetite; and Jiyho was the Mic, because she didn’t need a microphone as her voice was so loud. That left the besties, Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon. They had picked up a reputation as the No Jam (or No Fun) Brothers, because they often laughed at jokes that the others just didn’t get.

The main segment of the show, called Idol of the Week, set the guests challenges from a menu of games designed to demonstrate their talents or charisma. As first-timers on the show, Twice avoided some of the difficult tasks, such as dancing the choreography from a random selection of their songs at double speed or performing the choreography of one hit to a different song. What they did get was dancing another group’s choreography. It was something they would have done many times for fun or in practice as trainees, but remembering the moves on prime-time TV could be difficult – not for dance machine Momo, though, who was up straightaway to EXO’s ‘Call Me Baby’, or Nayeon, who had no trouble recalling the moves to AoA’s ‘Heart Attack’. By the time Miss A’s ‘Display’ came on, virtually all of them took to the dancefloor. Only Nayeon stayed seated and she came to life for the final track, ‘Bad’, dancing with host Sungkyu, who had sung on the original hit.

Twice had gone on Weekly Idol to introduce themselves to the Korean public (and international fans who caught the episode later on YouTube). They wanted to present an image of beauty and energy. The first of these was easy. Even though they were dressed down for the show in jumpers, jeans and comfortable skirts, they still looked gorgeous. The second was more difficult, but they rose to the occasion in the Crazy Dance challenge. Just required to go crazy to ‘Like Ooh Ahh’, they did it with style and humour. Tzuyu stole Dahyun’s eagle dance; Jihyo fizzed around the stage brilliantly; Momo displayed her breakdancing skills; and Dahyun became a hair-flicking, arm-flinging blur who didn’t stop even when the music finished. For all their efforts, Jeongyeon was pronounced the winner for her lolloping and crouching dance, which had the other members in hysterics. How could they possibly say she was no fun?

Finally, they had to take on the special talents round. It was one thing to claim you had a skill, but proving it in front of the cameras was something else. Poor Jeongyeon was quickly brought down to earth when she was asked to prove she could play the buk drum, a traditional Korean percussion instrument. Although she clearly knew how to play it, the hosts jokingly mocked her skills. Tzuyu demonstrated that she excelled at pulling model poses, only for Jiyho and Jeongyeon to pull their own poses – to everyone’s amusement. The real stars of the round, though, were Chaeyoung, whose caricature drawing of the hosts was very impressive, and Sana, who displayed her calligraphy skills, even creating a poster declaiming the slogan, ‘No Sana, No Life’. In Korean sana means ‘to live’ and fans had quickly adopted the phrase.

Weekly Idol rounded off a successful if not sensational debut for JYP’s new girl group. After some initial success, ‘Like Ooh Aah’ had fallen in the charts but was increasingly looking like a sleeper hit – a release that remains in the charts, gradually becoming more and more popular. In November, the single had started to climb the charts again, reaching number nine, despite tough competition. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries, international K-pop fans were picking up on Twice. On 14 November, the music video for ‘Like Ooh Aah’ passed ten million YouTube views. To mark this pretty amazing achievement, JYP dropped Twice Special Video ‘C’, which showed the girls, in their original video high-school outfits, performing the whole dance in the dilapidated schoolroom.

Over 50 days the smiles and copiable dances of the Twice girls had caught the attention of many K-pop lovers, and the infectious melodies and chorus of ‘Like Ooh Aah’ had been played on radio, TV and in shops across Korea and beyond. They had already begun to fulfil JYP’s mission to captivate fans twice, through the eyes and through the ears, but their story had only just begun …

4

Once

K-pop fans are among the most passionate in the world. Sure, the West has witnessed the mass devotion of Beliebers or Directioners, but nothing on the scale of K-pop fandoms. Having a network of thousands who eagerly await every release and show is essential to an act’s success in K-pop, and the fandom is a cherished and nurtured body.

Being a K-pop fan is often an active as well as a passive activity. These fans do not only follow their idols, listen to their recordings, read or watch interviews and attend fan meetings, they actively play a part in promoting them. They might stream the music videos to increase the number of views, vote for the act on award shows or collectively lobby radio or TV stations to feature their favourites. Many, although understanding and respecting that their idols are people too, feel a deep relationship with a group or particular idol and it is a feeling that is often reciprocated by the stars, who feel nourished by the love they receive.

The growing Twice fandom already had their own nickname for Twice, calling them ‘Teudoongie’ – a word combining Teu, the first syllable of Twice in Korean, and doongi, a word meaning cutie – but what they really wanted was an official name for their fandom. K-pop fan-club names are usually a little more creative than Little Mix’s Mixers. BTS have Army, Blackpink have Blink, while some are even more imaginative – take TVXQ’s Cassiopeia or Seventeen’s Carat. On 4 November 2015, Twice released their official fandom name through their Instagram account. JYP Entertainment had approved the idea that Jiyho had floated in the debut countdown V LIVE broadcast: Twice fans were to be known as ‘Once’.

The Instagram message read, ‘A lot of fans liked “Once”. Once and Twice. Once then Twice. They seem to go together. If you love us even Once we’ll repay you with Twice our love. It’s difficult to connect with people and getting people to love is the most difficult of all. We’ll work hard so that you can look at us Once and fall in love with us Twice. Be with us until the end. We love you.’

Twice’s early fans took to the name immediately. It brought them together as a fandom and enabled them to meet each other and talk about the group. The main forum for this was online fan cafés. Fan cafés are an important part of K-pop culture as they give fans an opportunity to gather information about new releases, fan meetings or sightings of idols, and to voice their own opinions on the act. Occasionally members of the group themselves even post on the sites, but unfortunately, as they’re generally conducted in Korean, they are of limited value to international fans.