u/averageweebchan

I saw this post about how TWICE's western success was unexpected and it listed 3 main points:

• TWICE have a cute concept
• No english speaker (Despite the Sharon theories)
• Too many members

Reading this I realised that these points that made people think TWICE would fail in the west, JYPE solved with ITZY. They had a smaller group, a fluent English speaker in Lia and a self-love and self-empowerment girlcrush concept. Despite this TWICE has seen incredible success in the west with selling out NFL stadiums, multiple tours across continents and headlingin Lolapalooza and ITZY hasn't really reached the levels we saw when they debut with DALLA DALLA and then WANNABE (ITZY are still a very successful group tho, just an interesting comparison).

I used to be into K-pop from like 2018-2021, the last TWICE song i remember listenign to is I cant stop me and I remeber then TWICE had a huge controversy with the More and More Encore, Sana's japan controversy in 2019 and then Mina and Jeongyeon hiatus and with JYP moving TWICE's focus to the west, many people said that TWICE would fail to find success. I remember the main issues were that they were too cute, too many members and had no english speaker. Personally, I agreed mainly with the last point. Actually, at the time ITZY had just released WANNABE, and I thought that they were the JYP group that would suceed in the west.

I came back to K-pop tbh because I am going through a very stressful period of my life right now and K-pop helps me remind of time when i wasn;t so stressed and the content they produce is very soothing and healing, just to see the girls hanging out even after 11 years now. Tbh, that's why I feel I like Kpop content so much as someone who is quite lonely and has little social interaction, getting to see sisterhood and camaraderie; while yes it might be somewhat manufactured It genuinely heals me and is more chill.

Now TWICE has had HOT 100 hits, gone viral with Kpop demon hunters, headlined Lolapalooza, sold out NFL stadiums and gone on multiple world tours and I'm so proud of them. And the music is still so good, love Talk that Talk, This is For, One Spark, Moonlight Sunrise as well as Nayeon having a successful solo career and Mina, Sana and Momo having a subunit in Japan. Its honeslty so surprising and impressive what TWICE has achieved in the west. And you can't help but feel so proud for them, watching all the hard work they have put into their careers, its so inspiring that they succeeded when the cards were against them to last this long as a girl group with 0 members leaving.

Now I might have come back at a bad time because they are now on hiatus and apparently many members are leaving. But I'm actually happy, they deserve the rest and my dream is after 2-3 years of good rest, they perfom at Wembely Stadium as a English ONCE. And if they don't, that's ok; they've achieved a level that no one would of thought of when they debuted on SIXTEEN.

Overall, I love TWICE and there music but also they taught me that its possible to survive tough situations and come out stronger on the other side.

It was said a lot and smug businessmen would say, but you don't really hear it anymore. It had died down, maybe due to China not leading the world as much as expected or because Chinese is really hard to learn.

My bet is the radio, like I've tried countless times to get my mom onto Spotify so she can listen to what she wants, but she finds making playlists too confusing and prefers the radio. But idk how long the radio can last, u can listen to whatever you want whenever with no ads on Spotify and other streaming apps. Also, if you don't like music, there's a plethora of podcasts.

I think stuff like TalkSport, which is live and callers can call in and voice their opinions, may carry on there's nothing quite like that

Like it sounds weird, but I really can't watch old stuff or stuff set in small little towns and much prefer trashy high school dramas and shows set in urban life. Idk why it makes me feel more connected and alive, and other stuff makes me feel so trapped and stuck in the past.

Also, when it comes to video games, I really struggle with first-person games. Idk why again, but it can get so chlotrophopic, and I actually feel like I'm struggling to breathe. The only exceptions are games like Battlefield, set in wide open fields, or Overwatch, colourful, lively personalities.

Was there demand for a sequel to the max story or were people happy the devs moved on

It would be very relaxing personally