The Story Begins

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.[2][3][4]

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.[5][6][7]

On October 7, JYPE confirmed that Twice would make their official debut on October 20, with the agency releasing a group teaser image.[8] On October 9, Twice released a group teaser image and confirmed that the lead single for their upcoming album is titled "Like Ooh-Ahh".[9] 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.[10] 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.[11][12] On October 13, individual teaser photos of Sana, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu were released.[13] The following day, teaser photos for Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun were uploaded.[14]

On October 15, the group uploaded two teaser images featuring all the members.[15] On October 16, they uploaded a music video teaser clip revealing a part of their choreography for "Like Ooh-Aah". The members were depicted to be dancing in the middle of a zombie horde.[16] On October 17, Twice uploaded an album highlight medley featuring audio instrumental snippets for all tracks in the EP.[17] A day before the release of their album, the group held a live countdown broadcast on V Live.[18]

The Story Begins and its title track "Like Ooh-Ahh" was officially released on October 20.[19]

The Story Begins is an EP consisting of six tracks. The title track "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.[20]

Twice performing at Seoul Arts College in February 2016.

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."[21]

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-Aah" and "Do It Again".[22] This was followed by performances on KBS2's Music Bank on October 23,[23] MBC's Show! Music Core on October 24,[24] and on SBS' Inkigayo on October 25,[25] among other performance dates. The group also made their appearance on the SBS Gayo Daejeon 2015 held on December 27, performing the album's title track.[26]

On January 22, 2016, Twice performed "Like Ooh-Aah" alongside a cover of Miss A's "Bad Girl Good Girl" and Wonder Girls' "So Hot" on You Hee-Yeol's Sketchbook.[27] On April 24, the group performed at the KCON Japan 2016 in a special broadcast done by M Countdown.[28]

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.[29][30] By the end of October, the EP sold a total of 17,100 physical copies.[31] At the end of 2015, the album reached 49,904 copies sold.[32] As of 2020, the album has sold 199,696 copies in South Korea and 47,448 copies in Japan.[33][34] It is also the group's best selling album in the United States with 4,000 copies sold.[35]

Credits adapted from album liner notes.[38]

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