Trivia / NCT

• Absurdly Short Production Time: The music video for NCT 127's "Ay-Yo" was filmed in the first week of January 2023, just a couple of weeks prior to its release. Not only that, but the members had only began the recording for its accompanying album in December 2022.^note For reference, most of their music videos take a month or two for post-production, while songs are usually recorded a few months before release, and sometimes even a year.
  • The typical K-pop box music video exudes completely different vibes from the vibrant, summer-themed teaser photos.
  • Even the teaser photos and the official album cover were taken in what the members thought were just a simple photoshoot in Los Angeles.
  • NCT 127 themselves joked about the lack of budget for the music video, saying that most of it went to the fireworks in the background that appeared for about three seconds.
• Acting for Two: In the documentary series NCT 127: The Lost Boys (2023), Taeyong portrays multiple roles across the members' segments: Mark's brother, Jungwoo's mother^note voice, Trainee Doyoung, Johnny's trainee friend, and Yuta's sports instructor^note voice.
• Banned in China: Applies to majority of K-pop content due to political tensions between China and South Korea, being the reason why WayV does not use the NCT name.
• Breakthrough Hit: "Cherry Bomb" for NCT 127, "Boom" for NCT DREAM, and "Love Talk" for WayV.
• California Doubling: While the music video of NCT New Team's "Hands Up" seemed to be set in Tokyo, it's acknowledged that the music video was filmed in Korea.
• Caps Lock: How NCT DREAM and NCT DOJAEJUNG are stylized.
• Celebrity Endorsement: Several members are ambassadors for various luxury fashion brands:
  • Jaehyun for Prada.
  • Mark for Ralph Lauren.
  • Doyoung for Dolce & Gabbana.
  • Jeno for Ferragamo.
  • Taeyong for Loewe.
  • Jungwoo for Tod's.
  • There are also the non-ambassadors who exclusively promote luxury brands:
    • Yuta for Louis Vuitton.
    • Ten for Saint Laurent.
• Chart Displacement: NCT 127's "Ay-Yo" and "Sticker" charted higher than their Signature Song "Kick It" in South Korean charts.
  • "Ay-Yo" is also the only boy group song to reach number one in South Korea in 2023, despite NCT DOJAEJUNG's "Perfume"^note which debuted at number four and NCT U's "Baggy Jeans"^note which peaked at number 57 being more popular.
• Content Leak:
  • The entire NCT 2021 Universe album was leaked on a Thai music platform, a few days prior to its official release.
  • The release for "Jalapeño", a digital single by Hendery and former member Lucas, was canceled following the latter's scandals. A very low quality, bass-boosted music video was leaked a few months later.
• Contractual Purity: A requirement for idols under SM Entertainment. This doesn't stop them from releasing sexual songs, though.
  • Subverted in 2023 with NCT 127 openly swearing on stage and even flipping each other off... all in front of fans.
• Covered Up: On YouTube, Jaehyun's "I Like Me Better" cover has more likes than Lauv's original music video.
• Critic-Proof: "Sticker" was panned by both critics and fans alike, but it went on to become NCT 127's second highest-charting single in South Korea. It even received 11 music show wins and was the first boy group song since Wanna One's "Energetic" in 2017 to achieve a music show All-Kill^note when a song wins all of the six South Korean music shows within one week.
• Dance Sensation: As a performance-based K-pop Boy Band, this is expected.
  • Taeyong's finger movements for the chorus of "Kick It". New thangs.. new thangs.
  • "Hot Sauce", thanks to the rise of dance challenges on TikTok where K-pop idols would promote their songs by dancing to it with other idols.
  • Perhaps the most unexpected one on this list: Jaehyun's hook dance in "Perfume", a.k.a Jiteun nongdoe. No, it was never meant to be the song's official dance challenge, it just naturally went viral mostly due to his line's catchiness and his stage presence.
• Dueling Works:
  • NCT 127's fourth studio album 2 Baddies and BLACKPINK's long-awaited second studio album Born Pink were both released on September 16, 2022. Both albums sold a record-breaking two million copies^note Later three million for 2 Baddies after the release of its reissue Ay-Yo, but BLACKPINK won the crown for the Billboard 200 #1.
  • On October 6, 2023, NCT 127's fifth studio album Fact Check will be released alongside Drake's new album, which is yet another challenge for the top spot in U.S. charts.
• Dye Hard: They are K-pop idols, after all.
  • Taeyong is the most notorious for dyeing his hair various colors. He went from platinum, to red-and-platinum, to neon green, to pink-and-blue, and so on...
  • Jaehyun had a rather questionable one when he bleached stripes of his eyebrows to match with his blond highlights. He later dyed it pink.
• Fan Community Nicknames: NCTzen, meaning that all fans are citizens of Ncity.
  • There are also nicknames for fans of respective sub-units: 127zen for 127, Dreamzen for DREAM, and Wayzenni for WayV. There's also DJJzen for DOJAEJUNG, but it's not really acknowledged as most of their fans simply fall under 127zens.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Some members of the Japan subunit are fans of the older NCT members such as Riku whose role model is Mark, Ryo who looked up to Doyoung and Haechan, Jaehee whose favorite member is Jaehyun and Sakuya whose role model is Taeyong.
  • As usual, the NCT members are also fans of other SM groups such as EXO and Shinee. They get to perform with the EXO members together such as Jisung's performance with Kai and the famous collaborative "Monster" performance between NCT and EXO. Lucas, Mark, Taeyong, and Ten even get to be part of SuperM with Kai, Baekhyun, and Taemin.
• Sequel Gap:
  • NCT 127's first studio album, Regular-Irregular, was released in October 2018; their second studio album, Neo Zone, was released in March 2020. It wasn't until September 2021 that they dropped their third studio album, Sticker, which also marked their first comeback after 16 months.
    • Subverted with the gap for Regular-Irregular and Neo Zone as they released the extended play We Are Superhuman in between.
    • Averted with the Favorite repackage album, which was released just a month after Sticker.
    • Even more Averted now that NCT 127 are releasing a studio album every year, with the next one set in October 2023.
  • WayV did not release ANY music for a whopping 21 months.
    • Their latest album, Phantom, underwent Development Hell due to a former member's controversy.
    • Dedicated fans would recognize the members' hair lengths and colors in the album's photoshoot, and figure out that it was shot about a year prior.
• Significant Birth Date:
  • Jaehyun: Valentine's Day
  • Kun: New Year's Day
• Sleeper Hit: Jaehyun's SM Station song "Try Again" from 2017 went viral in 2021. It is currently the most sreamed NCT song on Spotify.
• Stage Names:
  • Johnny for John Jun Suh.
  • Doyoung for Kim Dongyoung.
  • Jaehyun for Jeong Yuno.
  • Winwin for Dong Sicheng.
  • Xiaojun for Xiao Dejun.
  • Haechan for Lee Donghyuck.
  • Jaehee for Kim Daeyoung.
• Technician Versus Performer: Ten is the former and Taeyong is the latter when it comes to dancing.
• Temporary Name Change: Jeong Yuno a.k.a. Jaehyun was actually born Jeong Jaehyun. He later changed his legal name to Jeong Yuno, but had to use Jaehyun when he entered SM Entertainment to avoid confusion with his senior, U-Know of TVXQ.
• Throw It In!: As seen the Behind the Scene video on the "Resonance" music video, Ten accidentally kicked the camera when he was doing his spin during the dance break. Instead of reshooting it, the director decided to keep it, much to the members' delight.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The fact that Johnny could have been in EXO doesn't go unnoticed by fans.
  • Hansol, one of the SM Rookies who was part of the trainee units SR14B and SR15B, would have debuted in the group if he hadn't left SM Entertainment.
  • NCT's concept is having limitless members where they would have international subunits such as NCT Hollywood, NCT Saudi, and NCT Singapore. However, in February 2023, SM Entertainment announced that NCT Tokyo would be the last subunit to debut, ending the expansion concept.
  • Shotaro and Sungchan, who debuted in NCT 2020, are expected to join a sub-unit that many speculated to be NCT Japan (formerly NCT Tokyo) along with the SM Rookies, Shohei, Eunseok, and Seunghan. However, on May 24, 2023, SM Entertainment announced that Shotaro and Sungchan would be leaving NCT to debut as members of SM's new boy group, RIIZE along with Eunseok, Seunghan, and other three members (Won Bin, So Hee, and Anton) while Shohei would not be joining due to health reasons. Instead, NCT Japan will comprise two new SM Rookies, Yushi and Sion, and five other members selected through a pre-debut reality show, similar to Produce 101, entitled NCT Universe: LASTART. On September 6, 2023, the final lineup of NCT Japan consists of Sion, Yushi, Riku, Sakuya, Daeyoung, Jungmin, and Ryo. Jungmin later departed from the group on October 2, 2023 due to health reasons, and will instead return as a trainee.

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