A Beginner's Guide to TWICE Part 1

A Beginner's Guide to TWICE Part 1

     So you wanna stan TWICE? You're new to K-Pop or Girl Groups in general? Or maybe you've just been exposed to Girl Crush concepts like BLACKPINK or aespa? Well TWICE is the Cute Concept turned Mature, presently. But it's important to recognize that transition while watching their singles, albums, MVs, and Live Stages through the eras.

First of all, you should definitely start with their MVs...

1. TWICE MV Collection

Here is an especially helpful playlist that compiles all of TWICE MVs from debut to present (updated regularly with each comeback) and includes all of the Japanese releases as well as their comeback's teasers and trailers.

There's about 194 videos, currently, so take your time to parse through them at your leisure. >,<

Some people like to listen before they view so feel free to swap steps 1 and 2 if depending on your given mood. But I feel like watching their MVs serves a few more purposes: a.) it's better to get a visual feel for the given era's themes, b.) it's easier to identify the members and their line distribution (which member is singing during the verse or chorus), and c.) if you are a non-Korean speaking stan it's useful that the MVs on their official YouTube (as well as fan-made edits) have English subtitles so you can understand the messages and themes of the song.

If you're somewhat of a tech and video quality snob like me (I can't stand YouTube compression and bitrate quality), then you will want to download the MV in the highest quality video form possible...

(Bugs!) Korean MV Streaming App

Bugs! is an online streaming platform used throughout South Korea. The app is geolocked and is not able to be downloaded into phones outside of South Korea.

There are many third party sites in the US that host Bugs! MVs ripped or downloaded straight from the site. I had another blog that posted K-Pop Bugs! MVs but I've since made it private to avoid DMCA take downs. If you would like access to free downloads of TWICE MVs please drop your email in the comment below and I'll add you.

TWICE MV Collection (Bugs!)

So if you liked what you saw in the single's MVs, then you can expand further with their B-sides in...

2. TWICE Albums

With a whopping total of 22 albums, including special albums (repackaged min-albums with 1 or 2 additional new songs), compilations, mini-albums (in US these are like EPs), and Full Albums (these are like LPs), TWICE does not have a shortage of album releases.

Releasing about 3 albums per year since 2015 (they debuted in October 2015 so not including that year), TWICE has a prolific catalog of albums. Early favorites include Page Two, Twicetagram, and What is Love? Up to and including their more mature works starting with Fancy, Feel Special, Eyes Wide Open, and their latest album Formula of Love: O + T = <3.

TWICE Physical Albums

If you are new to K-Pop Fandom culture in general, you probably should know that it is very consumerist heavy. That means supporting your Ultimate Bias Group by not only streaming their latest comeback MV repeatedly on streaming platforms, but voting on their music shows to help them win, and of course buying their official merchandise, including their physical album release, which includes many knick-knacks like stickers, posters, artwork, & photocards.

Stans will even buy the same album multiple times in order to secure a collection of all of the members of their bias group or multiple versions of their bias member. So in the case of TWICE, good luck collecting all 9 members across 22 albums. I would advise, if you are a completionist, to buy in bulk and in lots. Whether that be album lots or photocard lots. It will be less time consuming and, of course, easier on your wallet.

Brushing up on non-single songs (B-Sides) gives the newly minted ONCE (TWICE Fandom name) an advantage in TWICE trivia, as well as the ability to sing along at their live concerts to most, if not all, of their expansive catalog of songs.

TWICE's digital catalog is available on many popular streaming platforms like Spotify and iTunes.

From there you can start to learn more by checking up on their Fandom Wiki. If that piqued your interest even more, then you can go further down the rabbit hole with blogs in their Amino Apps database. And, of course, you want to know more about each individual member so you checked on KProfiles.

That's it for this post. In the next post, I'll start on a Guide to TWICE Variety shows.