The Most Important Thing About TWICE Isn’t Their Music

The Most Important Thing About TWICE Isn’t Their Music

Nine members, three countries, two languages, and a decade of quietly rewriting what a girl group can do.

Members of K-pop band TWICE (Photo by Allkpop)

There’s a certain moment in songs fans constantly ramble on about: the moment a song catches you, and it doesn’t let go. A similar thing happened to me with TWICE. One bright, impossibly catchy chorus and a certain hand gesture that felt addictive. Soon I found myself deep in a discography spanning two languages (English and Korean, if I’m not wrong) and ten years. The group certainly has a gravity to it.

Before I write about their THIS IS FOR tour in my next blog, I want to do this properly and introduce TWICE itself: who they are, the company that built them, why K-pop conquered the planet, how they sing in two languages on purpose, everything they’ve achieved, and a couple of collaborations worth having a listen to. So let’s rewind the clock now.

But first, I would like to show you my beginning with them because I think how you find a group shapes how you hear it. I came to TWICE fairly late (as I always do with many artists), around the middle of 2024, when a friend kinda nudged me in their direction. What actually hooked me on permanently was their bright and energetic music, the kind of vibey, mood-lifting sound that’s hard to be in a bad mood around. And like a lot of new fans, I fell for specific voices first: Mina, Sana, and Momo, with those sweet, light tones. They had their own small group known as MISAMO, and that’s why those three attracted me the most. Tzuyu won me over a little later, almost by accident, through her “Blink” collaboration, which we will talk about near the end.

The point is, TWICE doesn’t really capture you all at once. It captures you in pieces.

Who is Twice?

TWICE is a nine-member South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. They didn’t come together silently. They were assembled in front of an audience through a 2015 reality survival show called SIXTEEN, where trainees competed for a spot in the final lineup. It was a clever, slightly ruthless way to build a group: by the time TWICE debuted, fans had already invested their time watching these young women fight for their place.

TWICE’s 9 Members when the group was created in 2015 (Photo by stylecaster)

TWICE debuted on October 20, 2015, with the mini-album The Story Begins and the single “Like OOH-AHH.” That song quietly made history as the first K-pop debut music video to cross 100 million views on YouTube. The group’s fandom is known as ONCE, built around a sweet idea the group has repeated for years: if you love TWICE just once, they’ll repay you twice. Ten years on, that’s held up.

The Nine of Them

Part of the TWICE charm is that it genuinely feels like nine distinct people, not a faceless unit. Here’s the lineup, oldest to youngest – which is the order K-pop fans naturally use.

• Nayeon is the oldest member and also one of the group’s lead vocalists and lead dancers. Bright, expressive, and impossible to miss on stage, she became the first member to launch a solo career, debuting in 2022 with the hit “POP!”
• Jeongyeon is a vocalist known for her warm, grounded presence, and a cool, boyish kinda personality and charm that the fans absolutely love. She and Tzuyu share a soft spot for animals and have a reputation as the group’s quiet animal lovers.
• Momo is one of TWICE’s three Japanese members and the group’s main dancer. She moved to South Korea as a teenager to train, and her sharp, powerful dance moves are one of the marvelous things to not miss at a TWICE performance.
• Sana, who is also from Japan, is famous for her playful, bright energy and her gift for connecting with each and every ONCE. She’s one of those members whose joy is quite literally contagious on and off the stage.
• Jihyo is the leader and main vocalist. She trained at JYP for around a decade before debuting, the longest training period in the group, and that foundation that she has is seen every time she opens her mouth. Her voice is the central powerhouse of the band’s sound.
• Mina brings an elegant, composed presence rooted in years of training in ballet. She was born in the United States and raised in Japan, making her another member who’s from Japan and is known for a graceful precision that balances out TWICE’s brighter chaos.
• Dahyun is a rapper with an uncontrolled bubbly personality. She was something of a viral sensation before debuting for a quirky “eagle dance,” and that same spark can be seen when she’s on stage today.
• Chaeyoung is the group’s other main rapper, the self-described artistic one, with a creative streak that shows up in her lyrics and her love of drawing and painting.
• Tzuyu is the youngest, my favorite TWICE member, and the group’s designated visual. Originally, she is from Taiwan, and she rounds out TWICE’s multinational makeup and has grown into a confident soloist in her own right.

Just take a moment to look at the diversity within the group: five Korean members, three Japanese, and one Taiwanese. TWICE was built as a pan-Asian group from day one, and that international diversity turned out to be a quiet superpower.

The JYP Machine Behind It All

You can’t really talk about TWICE without knowing about the mastermind behind the group: JYP Entertainment. This is the agency that was founded by singer-songwriter-producer Park Jin-young, who is also known as J.Y. Park, or by his nickname “The Asiansoul.”

JYP is one of the few agencies that effectively run K-pop, alongside names like HYBE, SM, and YG. And its track record is hard to argue with: beyond TWICE, JYP has launched Stray Kids, ITZY, NMIXX, DAY6, and 2 PM, among others. The company doesn’t just handpick talented kids. What they actually do behind-the-scenes is that they run an entire pipeline, from years of practice into vocal and dance, and language. training to concept design, choreography, music video production, and the kind of global marketing most labels can only dream of.

What JYP and its peers have managed to discover early is that K-pop, as a genre, is not just about the songs, as it’s more about worlds. Coordinated comebacks, concept teasers, behind-the-scenes content, reality T.V. shows, fan platforms, unique merchandise, and choreography built to want to be copied. SIXTEEN itself, the show that led to the creation of TWICE, is the perfect example: the marketing started before the group even existed in the industry. It’s a system, and TWICE is one of its most successful products.

Why K-Pop Took Over the World

The rise of the K-pop genre in the last decade or two is an interesting and wild case study in the pop culture universe. A genre sung largely in Korean (and sometimes in English), from a country of about 50 million people, somehow became a default setting for global youth culture. Groups like BTS, Blackpink, and obviously TWICE were and still are able to top American charts, perform in sold-out NFL and MLB stadiums, and turn farm armies into a real economic and cultural force.

[embed]TWICE interview about their growth since 2015 (By Zach Sang Show Clips on YouTube)

There are quite a lot of factors that play a vital role in the genre’s rise. The internet, and especially YouTube, erased the old gatekeepers. There was no longer a need for a Western label or radio station to reach a teenager in Brazil, Korea, or Japan. The production quality reached a world-class level. The performances were out of this world. Astonishing to say the least. And the fandom culture is uniquely participatory: streaming, voting, translating, making edits, and showing up.

TWICE not only rode that wave but also helped push it forward. They basically kept that momentum going forward. They’re frequently credited as central figures in a renewed “Hallyu” — the Korean cultural wave — particularly in Japan, where their popularity reached a scale that local media treated as a phenomenon in its own right. K-pop didn’t just travel: groups like TWICE made sure their music felt like home to everyone from everywhere.

Signing in Two Languages, On Purpose

Here’s the part that managed to grab my attention the most. Moreover, it captured me.

For most of their career, TWICE sang primarily in Korean, with their Japanese releases as a parallel track for that market. But as their global audience started to grow, they leaned into English. No, that didn’t mean that they simply abandoned Korean, but they simply blended the two.

“The Feels,” released in 2021, was their first fully English single and gave them a real foothold on the Billboard Hot 100. They followed it with English tracks like “Moonlight Sunrise” and “I GOT YOU,” while their Korean catalog kept growing right alongside. The result? Well, you have a discography that you can dive into with a variety of both languages. The best part is that even if you don’t understand the songs that are in Korean, you can still enjoy the vibe of it.

I think that it’s a beautiful and deliberate strategy, and a smart one too. A bilingual catalog does its job to perfection. It lowers the barrier for new listeners (LIKE ME!). You can find your way in through an English track and then happily fall down the rabbit hole into “Cheer Up” and “TT.” That’s a path that’s quite easy to follow. They sing in two different languages to expand their audience, and it works. I mean, it worked for me.

Ten Years of Receipts: TWICE’s Achievements

A decade in, the group has certainly built an amazing résumé for itself. A few of the highlights:

• Chart history at home and abroad. TWICE became the first female K-pop act to simultaneously top Billboard’s World Albums and World Digital Song Sales charts, and they’ve gone on to land seven albums in the Top 10 of all-genre Billboard 200.
• **TWICE has sold roughly 20 million albums** over their career, earning multiple RIAA Gold certifications in the United States. That is a level of physical success that’s rare for any act, let alone a non-Western one.
• A literal global landmark moment. When TWICE debuted in Japan, the Tokyo Tower lit up with “TT.” This is reportedly the first time that the tower has ever done a display in collaboration with an artist.
• Stadium history. In 2023, they became the first female K-pop group to headline a stadium concert in the United States, and they went on to become the first female K-pop act to headline at both an MLB and an NFL stadium. It was the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
• Festival history. In 2025, TWICE went on to become the first female K-pop group to headline Lollapalooza in Chicago. Boy, did they put on a show.
• Touring at scale. Their READY TO BE world tour drew around 1.5 million fans across 51 shows in 27 cities. In the second blog, we’ll see how this number exceeded another level.

TWICE’s tenth anniversary special album (Photo by The Music Universe)

The “TT” gesture that I mentioned earlier became a worldwide trend. TWICE has spent ten years quietly turning small, joyful things into global phenomena.

Two Collaborations Worth Mentioning

TWICE has never been a group that chases features for the sake of it, which makes their collaborations with other artists feel ultra-special. Here’s one famous and one delightfully niche.

The famous one: “Strategy” with Megan Thee Stallion. This song, released in 2024, “Strategy” pairs TWICE’s bright, hook-driven sound with one of the biggest rappers in the world. It’s a playful and catchy song about the careful tactics of catching someone’s attention, and Megan’s verse really gives it swagger and crossover reach. Megan has been open about her love of K-pop, and the team-up landed as one of the most talked-about TWICE moments of the year.

[embed]Blink Music Video ft. Tzuyu of Twice (By YouTube)

The niche one: “Blink” with Corbyn Besson. This is the one that I love the most and should be on everyone’s radar. In September 2025, TWICE’s Tzuyu got called up to feature with Corbyn Besson for an English duet called “Blink.” Besson was part of the American group Why Don’t We. It’s an unexpected, groovy little track built around the idea of love at first sight. It’s that breathless moment of locking eyes with someone. The music video follows the pair through Seoul: alleyways, a convenience store, a claw-machine arcade, all glances and chase and chemistry. It’s not a chart monster, but it has a charming crossover. It’s definitely one of my favorite things Tzuyu has done outside the group.

It also gives the music world an idea of where TWICE stands right now. They’re established enough that the members can step out individually, collaborate with other artists across the world, and still be unmistakably themselves.

So anyways, that’s TWICE for y’all: nine members from three different countries, built by JYP into one of the most defining acts of global K-pop, fluent in two languages, and a decade into rewriting what a girl group can achieve.