"What Is Love?" by TWICE is Breaking K-Pop Records Across the Board!

On Monday, April 9, 2018, popular K-pop girl group Twice released their fifth extended play (EP) or mini-album, which happens to be their first album for 2018, titled What Is Love? It was instantly a hit among K-pop fans, but it is the featured title track sharing the same name as the album that is getting plenty of attention.

Right now, the album's title track "What Is Love?" is making and breaking records. The K-pop community, especially those who are part of Twice's fan club called Once, are noticing.

Before we even summarize the records Twice are making and breaking, it is probably best to detail the song "What Is Love?" The title track song off the mini-album of the same name is, at this point, reusing the template of their past songs. I know that probably sounds too critical but if you were to listen to their last five songs "What Is Love?" included, you'll hear they kind of sound similar to an extent.

Despite this, Twice's sheer popularity will guarantee two things. First, they will dominate the music charts. Second, you'll most likely end up liking even if you didn't like the song in the first place. On a business sense, why would Twice and JYP Entertainment change a template, a formula for success, when it still works right?

The factor that really rounds out Twice's songs' popularity however are the accompanying music videos. They often like to use a theme with multiple examples that cause viewers to "find out" what they are or what they represent. For example, in "TT," the theme was Halloween so each member dressed up in a different costume. "Signal" was superheroes so each member had a different super power.

For the theme of "What Is Love?" music video, the theme was movies specifically romance and romantic comedies. Ergo,referenced popular scenes from The Princess Diaries, Ghost, La Boum, Pulp Fiction, Romeo + Juliet, Love Letter, La La Land, and Léon: The Professional. As always, the theme was a hot topic talking point among K-pop fans in online communities and discussion boards.

We can continuously discuss why "What Is Love?" is successful, but it all comes down to the question I poised earlier. Why would Twice and JYP Entertainment change a template, a formula for success?

For "What Is Love?," it is the ninth featured song to reach number one on their respective music chart. That is amazing given the fact they only have ten featured songs and the only song that didn't hit number one was their debut song "Like Ooh-Ahh." Not only that, "What Is Love?" is the latest song by them to earn a Certified All-Kill. That means it is number one for all realtime charts and number one for all top 100 regional charts.

If Twice is able to earn number one across the board, which includes iChart's weekly chart (which currently sits at number 15), then "What Is Love?" will have earned what is known as a Perfect All-Kill. So far, Twice has achieved the prestigious honor with only three of their songs: "Cheer Up," "TT," and "Knock Knock."

Twice topping the charts and earning all kinds of All-Kills shows how popular they are locally in Korea. However, the best site to show how popular they are among other K-pop acts among international fans is on YouTube.

Ever since 2010, fans have kept a record of viewership milestones and accomplishments for K-pop acts. "What Is Love?" is technically still brand new so it doesn't have that many viewership accolades. The ones they do have are worth noting though.

• Second in most views in its first 24 hours after release for K-pop girl groups at 12,576,820 views. "As If It's Your Last" by Black Pink is still number one at 13,316,290 views.
• Second in fastest music video by a K-pop girl group to reach 10 million views at 17 hours and eight minutes. "As If It's Your Last" by Black Pink is still number one at 16 hours and 58 minutes.
• Fastest music video by a K-pop girl group to reach 20 million views at 35 hours and 35 minutes. They dethroned "As If It's Your Last" by Black Pink at 47 hours and one minute.
• Fastest music video by a K-pop girl group to reach 30 million views at three days, seven hours, 26 minutes. They dethroned their previous record made with "Heart Shaker" at four days, six hours, 39 minutes.

Twice still has a ways to go if they want "What Is Love?" to reach the epic status earned with their song "TT," but they are off to a good start. It is Twice's only song to reach 300 million views as well as being the first song by a K-pop girl group to reach that milestone too. It did take them over a year to earn that record though.

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For those living in the United States who want to own a digital copy of "What Is Love?," it is available at both Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music.

As for owning a physical copy of "What Is Love?," YesAsia has numerous buying options as some include extras. The "random version" of the album is linked below for your convenience.