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(L-R) Victoria, Amber, Krystal, Sulli, Luna

f(x) is a South Korean Pop Music Girl Group formed in 2009 by SM Entertainment. The name is a play on the mathematical notation for function, with "f" signifying "flower" and "x" representing the female's double X chromosome. The group members have also been nicknamed "function girls".

The quartet consists of Victoria, Amber, Luna, and youngest Krystal, who is coincidentally the younger sister of former Girls' Generation's Jessica.

Former member Sulli went on a hiatus from mid-2014 due to the stress of dealing with malicious internet comments about her, and eventually she officially withdrew from the group in August 2015 to focus on her acting career. Tragically, she committed suicide in October 2019 due to the non-stop hate she had received from the general public.

The group debuted on September 5, 2009 with the release of the single La Cha Ta. The lead single off their album Pinocchio gained their first music program win and was their first song to win the triple crown.

f(x) became the first South Korean group to perform at SXSW and they also did a video with actress Anna Kendrick for Funny Or Die.com, both events of which has more or less garnered attention to f(x) in the US.

Following a three-year hiatus, Amber made an announcement on September 1, 2019 that she had not renewed her contract with SM Entertainment. Four days later, SM announced that neither Luna nor Victoria had renewed their contracts. When asked if that mean the group had disbanded, Amber said that the group had no intentions to reunite, continuing "[w]hether we do music or not, I think there will be a time when we can but I think right now we’re just figuring ourselves out. We have no plans, but it’s never not an option." On August 18, 2020, Krystal was reported to have parted ways with SM Entertainment, although SM claimed that their exclusive contract with Krystal expires in late August and that they will continue to have discussions with Krystal about renewing the contract.

In 2022, Luna was cast as the lead in the Broadway musical KPOP.

For the network owned by Disney, see FX Networks.

     Members 
Current:
  • Victoria (Song Qian, born February 2, 1987) - Leader, Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, Vocalist
  • Amber (Amber Josephine Liunote , born September 18, 1992) - Main Rapper, Vocalist
  • Luna (Park Sunyoung, born August 12, 1993) - Main Vocalist, Lead Dancer
  • Krystal (Chrystal Soo Jungnote , born October 24, 1994) - Lead Vocalist, Visual, Face of the Group, Maknae
Former:
  • Sulli (Choi Jinri, born March 29, 1994; died October 14, 2019) - Vocalist, Lead Rapper, Visual, Face of The Group
     Discography 
Korean Discography:
  • LA chA TA single (2009)
  • Chu~ single (2009)
  • Nu ABO EP (2010)
  • Pinocchio (2011)
  • Hot Summer (Pinocchio repackage, 2011)
  • Electric Shock EP (2012)
  • Pink Tape (2013)
  • Red Light (2014)
  • 4 WALLS (2015)
Japanese Discography:
  • Hot Summer single (2012)
  • SUMMER SPECIAL Pinocchio/Hot Summer (2015)
  • 4 Walls / COWBOY (2016)

Tropes related to f(x):

  • Animal Motifs
    • Amber once said in an interview that she's a Koala, Victoria’s a hamster, Krystal’s a tadpole, Sulli was a penguin, and Luna’s a puppy.
    • Fans have also jokingly said that Amber resembles a llama and she's accepted it, to the point where she's adopted "llama" as her new nickname.
  • Ascended Meme: The fans calling Amber "llama". It's now part of her Twitter username (llama_ajol).
  • Bifauxnen: Amber who is a tomboy and dresses like such, which matches her pretty and androgynous looks.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Krystal was born and raised in America, therefore making her Korean-American. Same for Amber, who was born and raised in America to Taiwanese parents, making her Taiwanese-American.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Overlapping with Rule of Symbolism, the music video for "4 WALLS" has shots of a purple butterfly in the forest scenes and revolves around the Butterfly Effect. After Amber breaks her teacup, Krystal spills tea that Victoria eventually slips on, which brings them to a dream/alternate reality where the girls race to find answers that would prevent their fate (hinted to be death) from happening.
  • Camp Straight: Gender-Inverted Trope with Amber. She's so boyish that people have mistaken her for a man in real life, but she is attracted to men.
  • Cooking Duel: There was one in the 12th episode of Koala, in which Luna and Sulli (who made a rice cake soup) teamed up to go against the team of Victoria and Krystal (who made kimchi pancakes). The duel was peaceful, though.
  • Cool Big Sis: Amber's sister Jackie and Krystal's sister Jessica act as chill and admired sibling mentors to them.
  • Cosmetic Award - The reward in their last mission in Koala? A piece of cardboard with the words "End of broadcast. You have done well".
  • The Cutie: Sulli was f(x)'s resident fake maknae mostly because she looked (and acted) younger than the real youngest Krystal.
  • Darker and Edgier: Their album and title track "Red Light" has a darker concept compared to previous albums.
  • Denied Food as Punishment - The consequence in the 7th episode of Koala, in which the first person to find the Egg Pie shop gets to buy... well, an egg pie. (In the other episodes, they sometimes compete against each other to get the prize money which would be used to buy food).
  • Fake Memories: For 24 years, Victoria thought she was O blood type and only found out after that that her real blood type is A.
  • Family Business: Krystal's older sister Jessica is also in SM and is a former member of the girl group SNSD.
  • Fangirl:
    • Amber is a big fan of Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, and when she was a kid, she tried copying his voice.
    • Episode 3 of Jessica & Krystal shows that Krystal's a huge fan of Pharrell Williams, Frank Sinatra and even her sister and SNSD.
  • Food Songs Are Funny: Ice Cream at one point repeats the line "Milkshake, milkshake, actually I’m Ice cream, ice cream, vanilla ice cream".
  • Friend to All Children: Luna gets along well with kids.
  • Fun with Palindromes: Krystal's Korean name.
    "From the front, it's Jung Soo Jung. Say it backwards and it's Jung Soo Jung. My name is Jung Soo Jung!"
  • Genki Girl - Luna. She's the "energy pill" of the group.
  • Girl Group - A Korean Pop Music example of a girl group.
  • Multinational Team - Let's have a recap: Victoria is Chinese, Amber is a Taiwanese American, Luna is Korean, as was Sulli, and Krystal is a Korean American.
  • New Sound Album: 4 WALLS, f(x)'s fourth album, was heavily centered on the electronic dance music genre.
  • Not So Stoic: Ice Princess Krystal. It runs in the family. Watch f(x)'s shows and you'll find out that she and her members are actually very nice and energetic.
    • Ascended Meme: Krystal proved she really was an Ice Princess by winning first place in the figure skating reality show competition Kim Yuna's Kiss & Cry.
  • Older Than They Look - Sulli had quite the babyface, even though she was actually about 7 months older than the youngest member Krystal.
  • Retraux: The style of the "art film" for their 2nd full-length album Pink Tape was quite vintage and hipster-like. For 4 WALLS, the design of the album and their outfits were influenced heavily by the 70's.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Amber was once absent from activities due to her ankle injury, and it went on for more than 6 months. The long absence lead fans to speculate that Amber had a dispute of sorts with SM (there were allegations she fought with another member and debated leaving, but this was never proven), thus lead people to think that f(x) would have their comeback with only four members. Fortunately that wasn't the case.
    • Following massive flack she was receiving for all kinds of reasons, Sulli's hiatus from mid-2014 began in this manner with SM saying the hiatus was indefinite and she would not be leaving the group. This was averted in the end when she never returned from said hiatus, formally withdrawing from the group in 2015.
  • The Reveal: Krystal revealing Amber's middle name in Hello f(x) as a surprise for many, including Amber who had no intention of revealing it. She's become okay with it since then.
  • Shrinking Violet - Krystal. On the first episode of Jessica & Krystal, Jessica even revealed that when Krystal was young she would cry when people even looked at her.
  • Silly Love Song: Chu~ is a ridiculously cute song about kissing, complete with lyrics like "Do it do it, chu~♥ It's true, true, true, true it’s you".
  • Stage Names: "Victoria" for Song Qian, "Luna" for Park Seonyoung, "Sulli" for Choi Jinri. Krystal technically counts since her birth name is actually spelt Chrystal.
  • Surreal Music Video:
    • Not an official music video, but the teaser / "art video" for Pink Tape. Try to decipher what the heck's happening in the video.
    • The teaser and music video for Red Light is full of confusing symbolism and artsy scenes.
    • The music video for 4 Walls seems to feature parallel timelines where the individual members are interchangeably beginning and completing actions (with rapid cuts between parallels), switching to a dreamlike sequence with more saturated colors and altered aspect ratio, and then back to "reality" to avert a minor disaster.
  • Take That! - To the too-high standards of the South Korean celebrity industry. Blink and you'll miss it, but here it is, from the ending credits of Koala episode 11.
    Sulli: South Korea is so picky about being skinny, that's why you can't develop/grow anymore!
    Luna: We need to have some fat!
    Sulli: Don't you agree? Everyone's so skinny!
    Victoria: We should stop here... (laughs) Please edit this out!
  • Team Mom - Victoria, who cooks and does the grocery shopping for the members. She's endearingly called "Vic Umma" (mother). During her time in the show We Got Married, the other members even treated her partner Nichkhun (of 2PM) as their dad.
  • Teen Idol: Just about everyone were in their teens when they debuted as idols.
  • Tomboy - Amber, and their stylists really like to emphasize this. She prefers to dress more boyishly such as baggy shorts and loose clothing, has Boyish Short Hair, and used to play a lot of sport when younger (which is how she adopted her tomboy looks in the first place). It's to the point that when she once grew her hair out it was interpreted as a Girliness Upgrade.
  • Travelogue Show:
    • In Hello f(x), they went to Africa for a photoshoot, to Thailand to perform in the Pattaya Music Festival, and to Japan (along with label-mates SHINee) for the Boys Before Flowers promotion.
    • There's Koala, in which they went to 5 countries to promote Korea's culture - although it sometimes looked more like a cooking (and eating) show than a travelogue show...
    • Amazing f(x) had the girls travelling to New Zealand.
  • Unperson: This was done to Amber when she was recovering from her ankle injury, which went for over 6 months. When f(x) was filming Koala, because she wasn't part of it, video footages of the members talking about Amber were edited out and it went as far as asking a Hong Kong fanboy that they were filming to take down his poster of Amber.

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