The Story Begins

''The Story Begins'' is the debut extended play by South Korean girl group Twice. It was released by JYP Entertainment on October 20, 2015, through KT Music. It features six tracks, including the lead single, "Like Ooh-Ahh", which was composed by Black Eyed Pilseung and is a blend of several different genres.

Following the formation of Twice through the survival show '' Sixteen'', which concluded in July 2015, the group made their official debut three months later. The group promoted their debut EP on several South Korean music show programs, with the EP meeting moderate commercial success, peaking at number three on the Gaon Album Chart and selling over 40,000 copies by the end of 2015.

Background and release

On February 11, 2015, JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young announced the company's collaboration with Mnet to air '' Sixteen'', a competition survival show that would decide the lineup of an upcoming girl group, the first under JYPE in five years, following the debut of Miss A in 2010. The show, which featured a total of 16 candidates, began airing on May 5.

The show concluded on July 7, with Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, and Chaeyoung being selected as the seven Twice members. Park then made the controversial decision of adding two eliminated contestants: Tzuyu, who was known as the "audience's pick" since she was the most popular contestant by the show's end, and Momo, who was added by Park himself since he felt the group needed someone with Momo's performance abilities. It was then announced that the new girl group under JYPE would be making their debut in the later half of 2015.

On October 7, JYPE confirmed that Twice would make their official debut on October 20, with the agency releasing a group teaser image. On October 9, Twice released a group teaser image and confirmed that the lead single for their upcoming album is titled "Like Ooh-Ahh". The following day, the group revealed more details about their EP titled ''The Story Begins'', posting a picture of the album's track list revealing six songs in total. On October 12, the group released individual teaser videos featuring Nayeon, Momo, and Mina, which depicted certain notable characteristics or personalities of each member. In each of their respective videos, zombies made an unexpected but short appearance. Later on the same day, individual teaser photos of the three members were uploaded. On October 13, individual teaser photos of Sana, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu were released. The following day, teaser photos for Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun were uploaded.

On October 15, the group uploaded two teaser images featuring all the members. On October 16, they uploaded a music video teaser clip revealing a part of their choreography for "Like Ooh-Ahh". The members were depicted to be dancing in the middle of a zombie horde. On October 17, Twice uploaded an album highlight medley featuring audio instrumental snippets for all tracks in the EP. A day before the release of their album, the group held a live countdown broadcast on V Live.

''The Story Begins'' and its lead single "Like Ooh-Ahh" was officially released on October 20.

Composition

''The Story Begins'' is an EP consisting of six tracks. "Like Ooh-Ahh" is produced by Black Eyed Pilseung, who had previously worked with other artists under JYP Entertainment including Miss A and Got7. The song was sonically described as a color pop track which incorporates various genres such as hip hop, R&B, and rock. The second track "Do It Again" was written by Park Jin-young, lyrically describing the excitement one feels after receiving a confession of love from another person, and was previously performed by Twice in ''Sixteen''. "Going Crazy" is another song that was first performed by the group during ''Sixteen'', and lyrically talks about uncontrollable feelings due to infatuation. The song "Truth" is classified as a song incorporating pop dance, punk, and ballad, and was also performed during ''Sixteen''. "Candy Boy" is described to be a love song, with the song's lyrics depicting how a person can meet their loved one even in dreams. The album's closing track "Like a Fool" is an acoustic song that tells about a girl's heartache after being unable to confess to their romantic interest.

Promotion

On the same day as the release of ''The Story Begins'', Twice held a live showcase at the AX-Korea in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, wherein they performed "Like Ooh-Ahh" alongside the dance tracks "Going Crazy" and "Do It Again."

Twice promoted their album by appearing and performing on several South Korean music programs. The group made their first-ever music show appearance on ''M Countdown'' on October 22, performing "Like Ooh-Ahh" and "Do It Again". This was followed by performances on KBS2's ''Music Bank'' on October 23, MBC's ''Show! Music Core'' on October 24, and on SBS' ''Inkigayo'' on October 25, among other performance dates. The group also made their appearance on the SBS ''Gayo Daejeon'' 2015 held on December 27, performing "Like Ohh-Ahh".

On January 22, 2016, Twice performed "Like Ooh-Ahh" alongside a cover of Miss A's "Bad Girl Good Girl" and Wonder Girls' "So Hot" on ''You Hee-Yeol's Sketchbook''. On April 24, the group performed at the KCON Japan 2016 in a special broadcast done by ''M Countdown''.

Commercial performance

''The Story Begins'' debuted at number four on the Gaon Album Chart for the week ending October 24, 2015, and peaked at number three two weeks later. By the end of October, the EP sold a total of 17,100 physical copies. At the end of 2015, the album reached 49,904 copies sold. As of 2020, the album has sold 199,696 copies in South Korea and 47,448 copies in Japan.Total album sales for ''The Story Begins'': 49,904 (2015) + 50,575 (2016) + 29,495 (2017) + 34,599 (2018) + 30,141 (2019) + 4,982 (2020)
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* As of May 2019, it was the group's best selling album in the United States with 4,000 copies sold.

Legacy

On October 19, 2016, Twice revealed their official light stick dubbed "Candy Bong" (''bong'' meaning stick in Korean), inspired by the song "Candy Boy".

Track listing

Content production

Credits adapted from album liner notes.

; Locations
*Recorded, engineered and mixed at JYPE Studios, Seoul, South Korea
*Mastered at The Mastering Palace, New York City, New York and Suono Mastering, Seoul, South Korea

; Personnel

* Jimmy Jeong – executive producer
* Jo Hae-seong – executive producer
* J. Y. Park "The Asiansoul" – producer
* Black Eyed Pilseung – co-producer
* Kim Yong-woon "goodear" – recording and mixing engineer
* Jo Han-sol "fabiotheasian" – recording and assistant mixing engineer
* Choi Hye-jin – recording engineer
* Han Cheol-gyu – assistant recording engineer
* Lee Tae-seob – mixing engineer
* Dave Kutch – mastering engineer
* Choi Hyo-young – mastering engineer
* Go Ji-seon – assistant mastering engineer
* Yoon Hee-so – choreographer
* Kim Hye-rang – choreographer
* Choi Hee-seon – stylist
* Im Ji-young – stylist
* Park Nae-joo – hair director
* Won Jeong-yo – makeup director
* Jo Dae-young – album design
* Kim Ah-mi – album design
* Kim Young-jo (Naive Creative Production) – music video director
* Yoo Seung-woo (Naive Creative Production) – music video director
* Jang Deok-hwa – photographer
* Rado – all instruments and computer programming (on "Like Ooh-Ahh")
* Jihyo – background vocals (on "Like Ooh-Ahh", "Going Crazy", "Truth", "Candy Boy" and "Like a Fool")
* Fingazz – all instruments and computer programming (on "Do It Again")
* Daniel Kim – vocal producer (on "Do It Again" and "Candy Boy"), mixing engineer (on "Going Crazy" and "Like a Fool"), background vocals (on "Candy Boy") and all instruments, computer programming and guitars (on "Like a Fool")
* Twice – background vocals (on "Do It Again")
* Kebee – rap director (on "Going Crazy")
* 220 – synthesizer and drums (on "Going Crazy")
* Jake K – synthesizer (on "Going Crazy")
* Choi Jin-seok – all instruments and computer programming (on "Truth")
* Ryan Marrone – all instruments and computer programming (on "Candy Boy")
* Julia Michaels – all instruments and computer programming (on "Candy Boy")
* Chloe Leighton – all instruments and computer programming (on "Candy Boy")
* Garrick Smith – all instruments and computer programming (on "Candy Boy")

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Story Begins
2015 debut EPs
JYP Entertainment EPs
Genie Music EPs
Korean-language EPs
Dance-pop EPs
Twice (group) EPs