#she usually says it to TT or lala

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“What is Love” by TWICE

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t listen to many girl groups. I did listen to some of TWICE’s stuff and some of BLACKPINK’s stuff when the two groups first debuted, but ultimately the only girl group song on my playlist is GFriend’s “Navillera” because i just love that song.

Typically I only like songs I can sing along to in the car, and TWICE’s songs were all too difficult so I slowly stopped listening. However, I’ve decided to pull in a girl group song because odds are those who see this blog will get sick of me only talking about boy groups.

Overall Sound

As I’d expect of a TWICE song, it immediately has this cute sound to it. They sound like something I’d plug into the opening of a shoujo anime opening (as compared to Dreamcatcher, which has songs which sound more suited for the action-filled opening of a shounen anime). The vocals were nice and the song seemed to flow nicely from regular verses into the chorus, which is what I’d want for a cute song like the others from TWICE. I really love how the song’s rap managed to keep the mood of the song rather than sounding more tough. The music helps a lot with that, but credit must also be given to the group’‘s rappers.

MV

The MV left me with high hopes before I’d heard the song or seen the MV simply because Twitter and Instagram were covered in posts about the references to other movies.

I don’t know every movie featured, but I was able to identify some of the ones seen. I think it’s great that the MV does feature movies like “Ghost” and “Lala Land.” There are movies which are recent featured and older ones featured, which I liked since I have a lot of varied movie tastes.

The best part of the MV wasn’t the involvement of movie references, though. It was the use of the girls as all of the characters. This includes having the group’s members play the roles of the guys, too. It made it cute but also comical in spots and kept a lighthearted feeling.

Overall, the MV works well with the lyrics since many girls take movies as their idea of what romance should be. That’s why many people praise movies which don’t put emphasis on relationships or the need to have a prince charming. Even for me, who grew up homeschooled for most of my life, I found that most of my idea of what I’d like for a relationship came from movies I watched (pottery scene from “Ghost” anyone? As long as my datemate doesn’t die right after, that is!). I fell in love with simple, cute romance rather than the sexual bits and expensive dinners. But even now i don’t quite understand what is love and sometimes wonder if I’m mistaking platonic feelings for romantic ones.

Lyrics Meaning

The lyrics are pretty straight-forward with this song. It’s a song about wanting to experience love and hoping it comes to you. I love how it takes up mention that girls may often turn to fiction to get the feeling of love. Most people associate the movie taste of women as being romantic movies and romcoms and anything other than action (disclaimer: some women like action movies, some like horror, some like all of the above. each person is different in their tastes). There isn’t much to dive into with the lyrics, but I think they do well of conveying the feelings many girls may feel (and even those who aren’t female may feel) when it comes to falling love.

Choreography

It’s really hard to actually see the choreography at this point because the MV has been out for one day, but I did my best with what I had. Girl group dances always look fun to me, like they’d be fun to learn even though I never will manage that.

From what I could see in the MV (AKA just the chorus part), the chorus of the song does use unison. There’s not much acting out on the part of the members nor anything to draw attention towards any one member. I looked at the dance practice for “TT” and the dance practice for “Likey” and both songs use unison a lot. So, I’d assume the choreography I’ve seen for “What is Love?” is right in line with what you’d expect for TWICE. Which can be really good, don’t get me wrong. I think it suits them well since there are so many members. Individualistic choreography could become overwhelming if every song has moves like that. I will note that “Likey” does have a moment where one member dances alone, but the others soon join to essentially repeat what she’d just done.

I’d listen to this song if I was…

I get in these moods where I just randomly crave love songs and want to daydream about my bias acknowledging my existence. I like to daydream alternate universes where they’d have a reason to even speak to me. This is a song I think would fit those moods well. It’s basically my daydreams.

(disclaimer: i will likely never meet my biases and i am trying to be at piece with that. it’s not easy.)

You might like this song if you like…

I’d say any cutesy song will really help keep the mood if you’re dancing to it, but then there’s also those who want to listen to it for the love elements.For cutesy stuff, I’d say “Chewing Gum” by NCT Dream. I, personally, prefer the Chinese Version of the song. Usually NCT Dream is my go-to for songs with the cute sound like you hear from TWICE. However, I usually like the Chinese versions better and their most recent music hasn’t been in that mold (I don’t really like the newer stuff, though. Oops.)

It should be no shock, but “Navillera” by GFRIEND. I will always recommend this song if given a chance because it’s really catchy, cute, great choreography, and also I read somewhere that they confirmed the lesbian relationship. It’s a great video and keeps the upbeat feeling you’d get from “What is Love?” while also sticking to the theme of romance.

Okay, I know it’s an old song, but you guys should know by now that I’m a huge GOT7 fan. I think the upbeat sound and light lyrics of “A” by GOT7 really could be put in with the playlist of “What is Love?” even though “A” is such an old song and GOT7 doesn’t really do songs like this one anymore. Sometimes it’s really good to look back at older songs for this.

“She” by TOPSECRET. Gosh, I wish they got more attention. Them and ROMEO both have a softer concept than groups like Stray Kids and Monsta X. In terms of “She,” the song has a catchy chorus that will have you dancing in the same way I think “What is Love?” will. If you do like “She” and think it fits in the playlist will, go ahead and add “Target” by ROMEO. It also has the catchy sound and upbeat music which will have you dancing along to it. (I could go on and on with underappreciated boygroups, like M.Fect, which has a few songs that could fit as well).

This next song is one I couldn’t even listen to for linking it. “Hello” by SHINee. For many fans of SHINee, I know it can be hard to listen to their music. I still haven’t listened to Jonghyun’s album... I can’t. However, I can’t deny that SHINee’s song “Hello” fits along with “What is Love?” The song and MV are both extremely pure. It fits perfectly and I think that fans of TWICE may like some of SHINee’s music and vice versa. However, I also acknowledge not everyone can listen to SHINee’s music anymore (me) simply because it still brings you pain.