"TT" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group

Twice Twice (; Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn: ''To~uwaisu''; commonly stylized as TWICE) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, ...

. The song was released by

JYP Entertainment JYP Entertainment Corporation () is a South Korean multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate founded in 1997 by J. Y. Park. It is one of the largest entertainment companies in South Korea, and operates as a record label, tale ...

on October 24, 2016, as the lead single from their third extended play '' Twicecoaster: Lane 1''. It was written and composed by Sam Lewis and

Black Eyed Pilseung Black Eyed Pilseung () is a South Korean music production and songwriting duo made up of Rado (Song Joo-young) and Choi Kyu-sung, formed in 2014. They have produced hit songs such as Sistar's " Touch My Body"; Miss A's " Only You"; Twice's " L ...

respectively. The title "TT" refers to an

emoticon An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using Character (symbol), characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a ...

used to express crying or sadness. The Japanese version of "TT" was released as the lead single from the group's first Japanese compilation album, '' #Twice''. Its accompanying music video was released on June 21, 2017.

Background and release

On October 10, 2016, JYP Entertainment announced Twice's comeback with the title track "TT" from their third EP ''Twicecoaster: Lane 1''. The first teaser for the music video was unveiled on October 20, featuring a boy and a girl wearing

Halloween costumes Halloween costumes are costumes worn on Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. An early reference to wearing costumes at Halloween comes from Scotland in 1585, but they may pre-date this. There are many references to the custom durin ...

, followed by the second teaser on the 21st. It was released on October 24 as a digital download on various music sites. A remix version titled "TT (TAK Remix)" was released on February 20, 2017, as a bonus track from Twice's special album '' Twicecoaster: Lane 2''.

Composition

"TT" was composed by

, who is also the composer of Twice's hit songs "

Like Ooh-Ahh "Like Ooh-Ahh" (stylized as "Like OOH-AHH"; ) is the debut single recorded by South Korean girl group Twice. It was released by JYP Entertainment on October 20, 2015, as the lead single from their debut extended play '' The Story Begins''. It was ...

" and " Cheer Up", and arranged by Rado. It has lyrics written by Sam Lewis, which describes a girl's pounding heart as she falls in love for the first time. It is a K-pop song with heavy electronic influences and steady deep house snare beats. Of the song, Twice member

Jihyo Park Ji-hyo (; born Park Ji-soo on February 1, 1997), known mononymously as Jihyo, is a South Korean singer. She is the leader and vocalist of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Life and career Early life ...

said "We've got a song that best shows Twice's energetic, bright vibe that we've shown since 'Like Ooh-Ahh' and 'Cheer Up'".

Music video

The music video for title track "TT" was directed by Naive, the same production team behind the music videos for Twice's songs "Like Ooh-Ahh" and "Cheer Up". It earned more than 5 million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours since its release. As of 2016, the video set a new record in only 40 hours, making it the fastest K-pop group music video to reach 10 million views and then broke the record of fastest to reach 20 million views in 114 hours (4 days 18 hours). The music video also ranked third place on 2016 YouTube's Most Popular Music Video in South Korea, while "Cheer Up" topped the list. In early 2017, the music video for "TT" hit 100 million views and became the most viewed K-pop girl group music video of all time. It also recorded the first K-pop female act and the fastest idol group to achieve 200 million and 300 million YouTube views. In September 2018, the music video became the first by a K-pop female act to hit 400 million views on YouTube. In the music video, the members showcased different personalities and famous characters through Halloween-themed cosplays:

Jeongyeon Yoo Jeong-yeon (; born 1 November 1996), known mononymously as Jeongyeon (), is a South Korean singer. She is a member of Twice, a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. Early life Jeongyeon was born as Yoo Kyung-wan on 1 Novemb ...

and

Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy * Joffrey Tower, in ...

portray

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

and

Tinker Bell Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play '' Peter Pan'' and its 1911 novelisation ''Peter and Wendy''. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 ...

respectively;

Dahyun Kim Da-hyun (; born May 28, 1998), known mononymously as Dahyun, is a South Korean singer and rapper. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Life and career Dahyun was born in Seongnam, ...

is the

White Rabbit The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! ...

from ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

'' while

Sana Sana may refer to: Places * Sanaa, the capital of Yemen * Sana (river), a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Sana, Bhutan, a town in Bhutan * Sana, Haute-Garonne, a commune in France * Sana, Iran, a village in Iran * Sana, Mali, a commune in M ...

Hit-Girl Hit-Girl (Mindy McCreadySpelled Macready in the films.) is a fictional antihero appearing in the comic series '' Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years'' series, published by Marvel Comics under the company's imprint Icon Comics and later Image Com ...

of '' Kick-Ass'' comic series.

Chaeyoung Son Chae-young (; born April 23, 1999), known mononymously as Chaeyoung, is a South Korean rapper and singer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment. Early life Chaeyoung was born in Seoul, South K ...

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a h ...

and

Nayeon Im Na-yeon (; born September 22, 1995), known mononymously as Nayeon, is a South Korean singer. She became a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, under JYP Entertainment, in 2015 as a winning contestant of the reality survival televis ...

is a cute devil. Mina is a female pirate reminiscent of '' Pirates of the Caribbean''.

Tzuyu Chou Tzu-yu ( zh, 周子瑜}; , born 14 June 1999), known mononymously as Tzuyu (, ), is a Taiwanese singer based in South Korea. She is the only Taiwanese member of the girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Life and career ...

and Jihyo have contrasting concepts; Tzuyu is a mysterious vampire in a black see-through dress while Jihyo is a mix of Elsa from '' Frozen'' and the White Queen from ''

Alice Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

''—wearing a long white dress. The video ends with a "To be continued" message, hinting to the album's sequential nature. The sound the music video ends with is the beginning of the title track of their following comeback, "

Knock Knock Knock Knock may refer to: * Knock-knock joke, a type of joke Film and television * Knock Knock (1940 film), ''Knock Knock'' (1940 film), an animated short film noted for the first appearance of Woody Woodpecker * ''Knock Knock'' (2007 film), a ...

", which continues with the plot shown in "TT" by solving the mystery of who was knocking at the door.

Critical reception

''Billboard'' included "TT" in their best K-pop songs of the 2010s list, writing that "the decade-defining girl group solidified their legacy with this gooey synth-pop track that created a new go-to phrase for K-pop fans worldwide. The song boasts an earworm for anyone and everyone's taste."

Commercial performance

"TT" became one of the best-performing songs in 2016, as it claimed the top spot of ''Gaon'''s Digital Chart for four consecutive weeks. It also peaked at number two and three on ''Billboard'' charts'

World Digital Song Sales The World Digital Song Sales chart (formerly World Digital Songs) is a weekly record chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Established in 2010—with the issue dated January 23—as one of 21 genre-specific s ...

and ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100, respectively."TT" on Gaon Digital Chart: * * * * "TT" surpassed 100 million streams in April 2017 and 2,500,000 downloads in July 2018 on Gaon Music Chart. It placed at No. 6 on the 2017 Year-end Billboard Japan Hot 100 list, the only Korean song on the ranking. It is also Twice's best selling song in the United States with 33,000 copies sold.

Japanese version

A few weeks after the release, "TT pose", which is part of the choreography of "TT", became a

trend A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve shor ...

in Japan. It was imitated by several Japanese celebrities on SNS and became popular among teenagers. On February 24, 2017, Twice officially announced that their debut in Japan was set for June 28. They released a compilation album titled '' #Twice'' which consists of ten songs including both Korean and Japanese-language versions of "TT". It has Japanese lyrics written by

Shoko Fujibayashi is a Japanese lyricist who has written the lyrics for several tokusatsu television series' theme songs. Most recently, Fujibayashi has worked with Shuhei Naruse on the soundtracks of '' Kamen Rider Den-O'', ''Kamen Rider Kiva'', and their films. S ...

. The full music video of the Japanese version of "TT" was released on June 21. It was directed by Jimmy of BS Pictures, the same team that produced other JYP Entertainment artists' music videos including 2PM's " The Time We Have Spent Together", Got7's " Hey Yah" and " My Swagger", and more. It ranked at No. 4 of

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Japan Top Trend Music Video in 2017. In February 2018, "TT (Japanese ver.)" earned Gold digital certification for over 100,000 downloads on the Oricon Digital Singles Chart, marking the group's first single certification from the

Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include pr ...

(RIAJ). In April 2020, the single also earned the newly established Silver streaming certification for upwards of 30,000,000 known streams.

Accolades

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

, - , -

Notes

References

{{Twice 2016 songs 2016 singles Korean-language songs JYP Entertainment singles Gaon Digital Chart number-one singles Twice (group) songs Songs with lyrics by Shoko Fujibayashi