How westernization harms groups like Twice

also important to remember Jihyo herself said the members didn’t want to do cute stuff forever as they aged.

I need "talk that talk" and "alcohol free" formula back

One thing I think these companies fail to understand is that most kpop stans were drawn to kpop due to it's uniqueness from other music industries. I personally liked kpop because it was very different from the culture I grew up with and found it interesting and fun. And due to them changing and taking away this uniqueness,many fans are leaving because what they entered the fandom for is slowly fading away. Kpop is just trying hard to be something it's not and can never be. They are losing the fans they already have in attempt to appeal and get validation from the west. Such a bad marketing strategy ngl

The drastic switch between aespas kr release and eng singles are baffling

I think Jihyo's single suffered from this alone. I think the rest of the album (minus Talk about it) is great- shows vulnerability, the musical direction, songwriting and composing aspect. Killing me good didn't reach the Korean audience and while having some noticeable moments outside of Korea, it didn't manage to show longevity. That's why Nayeon's Pop worked, cause it was unapologetically K-pop, from sound, lyrics, choreography point, colours mixed with nostalgic feelings towards early Twice.

I don’t even know why they bother releasing English versions, half the reason I enjoy K-pop is because I have no idea what they’re even saying

One thing that's not mentioned is that once fans lose interest in a group, it takes extra effort to get them back. When a song doesn't chart as well, it's not necessarily because of that song, it might be because of the last song or few songs. Even if they were to return to form, doesn't mean it'll chart as well. For a portion of the fan base, the momentum is gone, the enthusiasm has dwindled, and they're moving on. They'll still like TWICE but they'll be more interested in their old work, rather than paying attention to their new work. When a legacy group has new releases, it can't be viewed in isolation, there is context.

I’ve been saying this for awhile, so I’ll narrow down my thoughts. Kpop companies can’t and shouldn’t change a groups concept of image to be more marketable in the west, like they do in The Jappanese market . People in the west reverted to Kpop has niche to fulfill spaces in-between other niches. Blackpink never had a concept change or that heavy of a sound change and that’s why they did and do so well in the west. Blackpink’s concept and performance style is also very suited to western audiences already. YG made them with all audiences in mind and you could see that with how they shoved Jennie and Lisa into the front of promotions and kept Rose and Jisoo in back, since Rose and Jisoo are suited to the Korean general public. Looking at what Lesserfim and Aespa at Coachella, they both didn’t have training in preforming with western audiences or stages and they got torn down. I think most people are leaving kpop because kpop companies are trying to hard to shove pandering to western audiences.

I never realized the translation aspect of their songs and how that effects the effort put into the lyrics which is a shame

JYPe has always had this problem with integrating their artists with the western audiences, from fumbling wonder girls, hot and cold with Twice, completely losing the plot with Itzy and now shoot blindly with stray kids, for stray kids' sake i hope this single gives them what they want from it.

THANK YOU THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING. Like there's no Issue in promoting in the West or having English of their versions of their songs or even making English music, that's fine and a good marketing tactic. But my Issue personally is how much some Kpop groups try to emulate SO FIERCELY what's popular on the West Pop scene in the dryest way possible, to the point that it's giving nothing to really work with the music besides being Top 40 Pop radio music. As a Queen would say: "Where is the flavor in this. I taste nothing"

Did you just forget about the feels? The chokehold the feels had on the west should be studied. They were playing the feels in the CLUBS like twice needs to go back to doing more like the feels everyone was eating her uppppp

when you mention set me free i can’t help but think about how we need more songs like girls like us

i personally believe that western audiences dont even really WANT these groups to become to hyper-westernised. like part of the reason groups like TWICE and BTS got traction in western markets was because their sound wasn't like your Ariana Grandes and Taylor Swifts. They were them! And frankly, JYP should realise we fell in love with TWICE back when TWICE was not even trying to be a global girl group. Their identity is not incompatible with global audiences, it very much is IMHO. TWICE releasing English-language singles and translations is inherently fine, but what JYP, TWICE's team, and TWICE themselves need to do is evaluate how much pf a role pandering plays in lyrical content. I think the best course of action is to either simply just write the Korean-language tracks to their full power, translatability be damned, and then continue writing good English singles, OR, balance it out. Kpop groups should not sacrifice their identity to pander to the western hemisphere, especially since it's clear that western audiences enjoy these groups even if they have a very Korea-aimed strategy.

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't enjoying Set Me Free or One Spark as much, and this makes a lot of sense.

One thing I would add is that I'm personally a little sick of pre release singles. I tend to like the songs themselves a lot, so that's not the problem. But I don't even usually associate the pre release with the album by the time it actually drops. If you want to make multiple MV's, I'm more than fine with that. But I think pre releases tend to highlight any lacking cohesion in the actual comeback and fuels comparison about what is actually "the best" and "deserving" of the majority's attention.

I think that Twice’s signature sound really fits what is popular with both Korean and western markets right now. They should try to take advantage of that. Twice still has so much that they can achieve. They just need to select title tracks that are true to them as a group. I think that Twice can make music that is both mature, fits the Korean and western markets, and still has their signature sound. A really great example of this is The Feels. The Feels stays true to their signature Twice sound, but is more mature than their past releases. With You-th is such a strong album. All of the songs follow the same distinct sound in my opinion. One Spark is the only song that doesn’t really fit the rest of the album. In an interview the members said that One Spark was supposed to be a title track for a previous album, but they ended up not using it. I think JYPE needs to be making title tracks specifically for Twice instead of using rejected songs that were supposed to be on previous albums. Now that the Twice members have more of a voice in the direction that their music is going in they definitely seem to want to lean more into a mature sound. I think they should continue making music that makes them happy and that they feel comfortable performing now that they are in this stage of their career.

Not choujimi feeding us very well these days, no complaints from me

For me I look at it as a tale of two methods: emulating western sounds after a group establishes themselves, and debuting with western soundscapes and promotional methods already in place. This is why to me, western promoted tracks from BTS and Twice sound so removed from their other songs. Blackpink and NewJeans debuted with the plan to both make music and promote with the west in mind. I think you could make the argument BTS debuted with a very western hip-hop sound but I would disagree, their production even for 2013-ish was quite dated, I still love No More Dream though.

western audiences went to k-pop for the k-pop sound, not for more western songs.