KPOP girl groups are not missing the chance of getting the spotlight themselves when it comes to dominating the global music industry. With KPOP being highly accepted globally nowadays, the two of the most iconic female KPOP groups nowadays are Twice and Blackpink, hailing from two of the biggest KPOP music entertainment companies. Both groups are loved regardless of genders around the world, raising the bar for other KPOP girl groups as well.
So today, we are going to discuss what's so great about these groups and in what aspect is the one greater than the other? We're about to find out.
History
Blackpink is an all-girl KPOP girl group that debuted last 2016 with their debut track “BOOMBAYAH”. The group is composed of four (4) members namely Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rose, and was put together by their founding company, YG Entertainment, the same entertainment company that established KPOP legendary groups that we know of before, BIGBANG and 2ne1.
Twice on the other hand, is another all-girl KPOP girl group that debuted last 2015 with their debut track “Like Ooh-Ahh”. Unlike Blackpink where the members were hidden from the public before they debuted, the members of Twice had public exposure before they debuted. This is because all of their members were all the final candidates of a competition survival show called Sixteen where the final candidates will be the deciding factor of whom will be part of the new JYP Entertainment girl group, voted by the public and handpicked by their company CEO, Jin Young Park. Twice is composed of nine (9) members namely, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Momo, Dahyun, Chaeyong, Tzuyu. Twice is also known as the new Nation’s Girl Group after all successes that they’ve achieved just right after debuting in two (2) years. Their known seniors in the industry are 2PM and Miss A.
Their music style
Blackpink is known to the current KPOP community as the ultimate girl group who does the girl crush concept the best. This is due to their consecutive successes just right after they debuted with Boombayah. Blackpink’s concept is also divided into two: the Black concept where the sounds of the songs are mostly focused on strong bass sounds and with a more aggressive concept; and the Pink concept where the sounds are not necessarily mellow but have lesser aggressiveness compared to the black concept. Though this definition of the Blackpink concept isn’t really dependable as a lot from the fandom is also having a hard time when it comes to differentiating the differences between these two concepts.
Twice on the other hand has a unique concept of their own. Twice, started off with a simple girl crush concept with “Like Ohh-Ahh”. Their debut music video also made history by being the first KPOP music video to garner 100 million views on Youtube. This happened around eleven (11) months after their debut. Then, they had a changed concept when they came back with “Cheer Up” with a more bubbly and cute concept. This time, this concept gained much attention and this became the standard of the “Twice Concept”. Even today, any person following KPOP would recognize the “Twice sound” even after their concept change when their comeback with “Fancy” happened.
Their fandoms
The fandoms of both groups is outstandingly big. Blackpink calls their fans “Blinks” and Twice’s “Once”. Aside maybe from BTS which is another one boy group that took the globe into a wild KPOP storm, Blackpink and Twice second the boy group with their huge following. This can be known by the amount of Youtube views that their Youtube music videos have. Currently, in fact, Blackpink’s music video with the highest views is their hit track titled “DDU-DU DDU-DU” which is on the 1.3 billion views marks and Twice, having 545 million views as their highest with their music video “TT”. Their huge following can also be seen from their huge album sales where Blackpink had at least 320,000 album sales from their debut (highest can be estimated at least around 700,000; excluding Japanese albums) and with Twice with at least 203,000 album sales from debut (with highest raging at least at 500,000; excluding Japanese albums).
Charms of both groups
Like I mentioned earlier, Blackpink is known for their girl crush concepts, and they have been consistent with their concepts ever since they debuted. They boast a unique music style from the rest of the KPOP music industry with their distinct YG sound that is known by anyone who knows KPOP even before Blackpink was even a thing. This is due to the influence of their seniors’ music style that effectively established that type of sound. But, that doesn’t mean that Blackpink is merely enjoying their success due to their seniors. In fact, their concepts are highly different from that of their seniors, which is timely very effective for the audience of today.
Twice boasts on their colorful and vast variety of sounds while still able to claim their signature distinction against other songs. With “Cheer Up”, Twice continued to retain their bouncy, and colorful sound with “TT”, “Likey”, and many more. With colorful music video visuals that suits the Twice concept, Twice quickly became the standard for the cute concepts that was once overly saturated by kpop groups before Twice debuted.
Each of these groups charm’s can also be seen through their individual members.
In Blackpink, since there are only four of them, it’s not hard to distinguish who’s who. When it comes to singing ability, you just know if it’s Blackpink especially with their strong vocal vibe plus with added swag (I would like to emphasize on the swag here since, that's a known YG singature). They are also known for their superb rapping ability (hence why their songs are also described as strong). This is heavily showcased with their most famous track “DDU-DU DDU-DU”, most especially during Jennie’s rap.
For Twice, they boast on their huge variety of vocals, considering there are nine of them members, this is to be expected. But that doesn’t mean that Twice doesn’t have charms of their own! In fact, the fact that there are many of them is one of their distinguishing features. With a diverse vocal line, listening to Twice feels refreshing every time. One of their strongest feats are their strong main vocal line Jihyo and Nayeon. But like I said, the best thing about Twice is that there is not a single member that you will not like as all nine of them have different charms of their own. Dance? Momo the dancing machine will sure make you wow every time. Distinct vocal color? Sana, (my personal bias) is your bet.
Basically, there’s more to love with Twice, and that’s precisely their charm!
Fashion (on-stage)
The YG fashion sense is very on your face, and basically the same goes for Blackpink. They don’t try to hide through subtleties, they make sure that the fashion that they wear leaves a strong impression to the ones seeing them. This is probably the best features of Blackpink when it comes to their stage presence. Not only do they look fabulous on stage, they make it so that each stage is remembered every time.
The Twice on-stage fashion on the other hand focuses entirely depending on their concepts. But to describe their overall feel, the Twice fashion mostly allures the ones seeing them through their flattering fashion that showcases individual charms. They also make sure that these are colorful and vibrant. The Twice fashion just doesn’t fail to showcase a taste of personality every time with their on-stage fashion sense.
Dance
As for dance, Blackpink is probably one of the girl groups out there that is not afraid to do an intense routine for their stage dances. My personal favorites are when they did dance practice videos for their debut song “BOOMBAYAH” and for their pink concept “As If It’s Your Last”. Both dances, though of different concepts, are known for their strong dance steps that is often not associated to girl groups then when these videos and songs were newly released. Right now, because of Blackpink’s influence, more and more girl groups are joining the trend in doing strong dance routines.
As for Twice, they focus more on creativity on their stage dances. Just like when they did their stage for “Signal” and “Likey”, their stages are often playful, hinting that there are always something new to discover. Unlike Blackpink’s strong dance imagery, Twice’s dances focuses more on establishing coherence, often associated through soft hand and foot gestures. Recently though, this has been gradually changing ever since their comeback with “Fancy” where they start to do strong dance movements with a nice touch of feminine movements that’s highly reminiscent of their creative dance movements from early debut days.
Verdict
So, who is the best KPOP girl group here? Well, the choice is up to you. Honestly, both groups are wonderful, they have their own different charms, they have their own different strengths, and there's a reason for that - just mostly because they are made for different audiences. If you are leaning towards Blackpink, then most likely you like girls who give you a strong impression on stage and their strong music upbringing. If you are leaning towards Twice, then most likely you enjoy looking at girls with cute concepts and colorful sounds, which is very much how you would define Twice.
Basically, in this part, there are no losers, and all winners - and that is us! Since we get to live in a KPOP community where girls are represented in a lot of ways through music, you wouldn't be even happier to stan for both groups (because I do!).
