Hello, hello! It has been over a year since I last frequented this blog, but I'm back. I've finally found my way back home! Never mind that I'm only here because the girls would eat me the fuck up on Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok if I posted this there. That's a nonissue. The ACTUAL ISSUE in front of us today is Twice's latest concept photoshoots. In short, I fucking hate them. Let's discuss:
Twice will return with their 12th Mini Album Ready To Be in a couple of days. I don't go into their teaser rollouts expecting to be wowed, but I can appreciate what they bring to the table. This time around though, I can't enjoy a single photoshoot. Twice has never been a group known for otherworldly photography, but they have long ago peaked in the department of pretty girls in pretty clothing. At this point, I'm fucking exhausted of them standing/sitting in a line like 🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️🧍♀️ . I even struggled to find a decent recent picture for this entry's cover image. We all know Twice is beautiful. We all know the styling is immaculate. But there's no substance to this face-value perfection. I understand they aren't a lore-heavy group at all, but that's no excuse for being so generic. I cannot tell you what the fuck to expect from the following teasers:
Like are they getting ready to Shut shit Down? Are they suave businesswomen? Or perhaps they are eager girls from the country ready to experience their first night out in the big city? I really don't fucking know what I'm supposed to feel. And with their labelmate girl group (that is admittedly operated by a separate JYP division) Nmixx is also gearing up for their 1st EP Album expergō , the differences in creative direction & quality show themselves like a Baboon's ass. Here's one of Nmixx's latest teasers for reference:
This leads me to my second point, I am not inclined to purchase any of Ready To Be's 13 album versions. With their releases over the past 2 years, I usually go ahead and buy myself at least one album, but not a single Ready To Be concept speaks to me. There are photobooks from eras like Taste of Love that I always enjoy sifting through occasionally, but lately, I find myself investing in each comeback for the primary goal of hoarding photo cards. It's just really not a lot of fun watching Twice do the same goddamn thing in different fonts every few months (even if they are really good at doing such). I'm sure their creative director is a quality person, but it's not rocket science to do SOMETHING with these girls that's not stoically posing like Barbie dolls. If one member could pout or play with their hair, and another faced the other girls or something, that alone would be a massive improvement. And don't come for me saying that this is a symptom of big girl group syndrome because XG (I know they aren't kpop) is only two members short of Twice and their 3rd Single Shooting Star gave me some of my favorite teasers of the year so far:
(There are a lot more of these XG teasers that I love love love, but I can't figure out how to format them properly into a slideshow so feel free to look them up yourself lol)
To wrap this rant up, of course I always look forward to Twice's music (they are even my second most streamed artist of 2022). And I definitely think in this regard, they can only improve from here, but I'm personally bummed by their formulaic comeback cycles. The most climatic event to happen so far is the group finally giving in to the member-specific digipack trend. Wow, I sound like such a hater (which is why I would've been torn a new asshole on ANY social media platform) but I'm tired of these very safe aesthetic choices. Don't get me wrong, I get that one of Twice's appeals is that they are easy to love, like the Girl Next Door. But in the year 2023, my nostalgia for their rookie years can only carry my perception of their current artist choices so far.
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