Music / NMIXX

L-R: Bae, Jiwoo, Jinni, Kyujin, Haewon, Lily, Sullyoon

NMIXX is a Korean Idol Unit created by JYP Entertainment and managed by its subdivision, SQU4D. While the group's genesis traces back to Summer 2021 when its respective social media sites were registered and the company began teasing the public, they made their official debut on February 22nd 2022 with the song "O.O". They are the first Korean girl-group JYPE unveiled since ITZY, which debuted three years earlier almost to the day.^* Amusingly, Lily and Haewon are older than ITZY's maknae Yuna. Lily has expressed amusement that Yuna still calls her "unnie" (Korean for "big sis" amongst girls). Worth noting JYPE debuted NiziU in between ITZY and NMIXX, but NiziU is a Japanese group.

While initial reactions to "O.O" were… mixed to say the least, the accompanying single AD MARE still hit #1 on Korea's Circle^* (formerly known as Gaon) Weekly Album Chart (and #3 on the Monthly Chart) with nearly half a million copies sold and a Platinum certification. Their second single, ENTWURF, posted even stronger sales numbers. With both singles they managed to bag several awards, including "Favorite New Artist" at the 2022 MNET Asian Music Awards (MAMA, one of the most prominent K-pop awards shows). Their first EP, March 2023's EXPÉRGO, managed to go double-platinum in its first week and also earned the group its first music show win.

In addition to their base-breaking debut, the group is known amongst K-Pop fans for their extremely strong stage presence even as rookies, serving stable live vocals even when performing intense, hard-hitting dance moves. The group's maknae (youngest member) Kyujin is also notable for being quite young for a debutee, still 15 and in middle school when their first single was recorded and released. As of 2023 she's the youngest female idol active at JYPE.^* She took the title from NiziU's Nina Hillman who was born in February 2005, over a year before Kyujin. Jiwoo is also younger than Nina but only by a few weeks. While 4/6 members of later unit VCHA are younger than Kyujin, that group is co-owned by Republic Records in the USA.

Shortly after their debut in Korea, the group began showcasing themselves internationally by taking part in K-CON Chicago, followed by trips to Los Angeles and Tokyo. Since they already have a native English speaker and the Korean members are passable to decent at it, nearly half the members (notably Haewon and Sullyoon) are known to be studying Spanish, which certainly won't hurt with K-Pop's massive but underserved Latin American fanbase.^* Their seniors TWICE held a full concert in Mexico City and a festival appearance in Santiago in 2018, but no one in Twice knows any Spanish. In Spring 2023, following the release of their first EP, they embarked upon their first "Showcase Tour", hitting several medium-sized venues in the USA before moving on to Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

They also performed songs for the Korean version of American children's show Gabby’s Dollhouse, which was also released as its own single but not counted as part of the group's official discography. They even made music videos for it.

The group initially debuted with seven members. However, on December 9th, 2022, JYPE abruptly announced that member Jinni had left NMIXX and her contract with the company was terminated due to undisclosed reasons. She redebuted in Fall 2023 under a different agency as a soloist. The group has continued since then as a sextet.

Members

Current Members:

• Lily / 릴리 (Lily Jin Morrow^* Korean name Park Jin, born October 17, 2002)
• Haewon / 해원 (Oh Hae-won, born February 25, 2003)
• Sullyoon / 설윤 (Seol Yoon-ah, born January 26, 2004)
• Bae / 배이 (Bae Jin-sol, born December 28, 2004)
• Jiwoo / 지우 (Kim Ji-woo, born April 13, 2005)
• Kyujin / 규진 (Jang Kyu-jin, born May 26, 2006)

Former Members:

• Jinni / 지니 (Choi Yun-jin, born April 16, 2004)

Discography

Extended Plays

• EXPÉRGO (March 20, 2023)
• Fe₃O₄:BREAK (January 15, 2024)

Physical Singles

• AD MARE (February 22nd, 2022)
• ENTWURF (September 19th, 2022)
• A Midsummer NMIXX's Dream (July 11, 2023)

Digital-Only Singles

• GABBY'S DOLLHOUSE X NMIXX (May 2, 2022)
• Funky Glitter Christmas (November 22nd, 2022)

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Their Youtube channel is here. Their Instagram is here. Their twitter is here.

Check Out NMIXX and Zero-Coke…:

Tropes that apply to the members

• The Ace: Discussed and defied. JYP stated before NMIXX's debut that every member would be an Ace, a so-called 7/7/7 — seven vocalists, seven dancers, seven visuals. This is the major reason why no member except Haewon (The Leader as noted above) has an officially designated role.
• Animal Motifs: Even at debut time, some members associated themselves with animals in shows and social media posts. The group itself uses a baleen whale as its symbol.
  • Lily = Koala
  • Haewon = Bear
  • Sullyoon = Fawn, Bunny, Hamster
  • Jinni = Tiger
  • Bae = Chick
  • Jiwoo = Dog/Puppy
  • Kyujin = Cat
• Blatant Lies
  • Jinni and Bae invoked this when they held a livestream titled "We Are Seoul Girls Who Speak In Seoul Dialect". This would seem completely normal if not for the fact that they are (or were in Jinni's case) the only members who did not hail from anywhere near Seoul.^note  Jinni's hometown is Busan, which is located on Korea's southeastern coast, literally closer to Japan than to Seoul (which is in the central-west of the peninsula), while Bae was born in Yangsan, a city immediately north of Busan.
  • Bae and later Lily did this when they had extensions weaved into their hair. Bae insisted on a livestream that she went to sleep and her hair grew over 30cm overnight. Lily said much the same thing in one of her Instagram captions.
    "I woke up and my hair was long all of a sudden? Help?!"
• Blind Without 'Em: Haewon openly admits her eyesight is terrible and has been basically all her life. Fans managed to find a video from when she was in elementary school (she took part in an English-speaking competition) and wore very thick glasses even then. On-camera, she wears prescription contact lenses and refuses to show herself in glasses. She briefly put on one pair during a 2023 "Nice To MIXX You" Vlog shot during their American showcase tour but said she didn't like how small they made her eyes look. That doesn't stop other members from occasionally posting candid photos on social media of her in glasses.
• But Not Too Foreign: Lily was born and raised in Australia and is half-White half-Korean. English is her native language. Despite this, she had the longest training period of any of the members at nearly seven years and now speaks Korean fluently (though other members poke fun at her odd pronunciation of certain words).
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Unlike other JYPE groups (TWICE, NiziU), NMIXX didn't start out with official colors. Haewon was asked by a fan shortly after their debut to come up with associations on the spot, and did, to the members' approval. Later, the official JYP store released pouches that gave each girl her own color, not always matching what Haewon had thought of. Listed below are the "official" colors with Haewon's earlier declarations in parentheses if different.
  • Lily - light blue (green)
  • Haewon - white
  • Sullyoon - dark blue (pink)
  • Jinni - purple
  • Bae - yellow
  • Jiwoo - red (light blue)
  • Kyujin - pink (red)
• Cuddle Bug:
  • Discussed by the other members and shown in live performances and vlogs, Jiwoo is one to a near extreme. She's most likely to attach herself to Bae or Kyujin, although she began to gravitate towards Sullyoon following Jinni's departure (Sullyoon and Jinni were known to be close). Jiwoo has also been caught more than once trying to kiss the other members' cheeks but stopping before contact… except with Bae.
  • While she is loathe to admit it, Haewon is also one, mostly to Lily. During one It's Live performance, Haewon (with absolute deadpan expression) walked up behind Lily with her arm outstretched and pulled her into a hug while she sang her own lines – Lily, for her part, danced to the music. Later, during Jiwoo's 19th birthday livestream, she locked eyes with Lily and patted her leg once, to which Lily nodded and sat in Haewon's lap.
• Does Not Like Spam: Two different examples discussed on their "PICK NMIXX" videos, one of which became the subject of a debate that quickly descended into chaos.
  • The above link goes to a discussion about Mint Chocolate, which is Serious Business. For the record, Sullyoon and Jinni hate it, most other members like it (especially Haewon), and Jiwoo is neutral.^note  Jiwoo started the discussion on the "anti" side, then when informed that a chocolate given to her by Bae (whom she greatly admires) was mint, decided to switch teams.
  • Jiwoo rarely eats her vegetables, and the other members poke fun at her for it. She insists she's trying to be better about it… but she still cried when forced to eat some during a competition.
  • Sullyoon has an intolerance/allergy to flour. Nonetheless, she still likes baking cookies for the other members – she has someone else taste-test for her.
• Fangirl: Lily is known to be a huge Swiftie. She even admitted that she used to own a fan account on Twitter with over 2000 followers.
• Fun with Acronyms: Their debut showcase stated that the official name for the NMIXX fandom, "NSWER", is an acronym for "North South East West Route", an indication of their desire to reach people all over the world.
• Funny Background Event: Jiwoo has become known for these in behind-the-scenes or backstage uploads. Find a video with the entire group present and chances are high Jiwoo will be doing something silly.
• Important Haircut: Discussed and lampshaded. Immediately before the NMIXX University concert in October 2023, Haewon had her waist-length hair chopped into a short shag style. Not long after, commenters on her livestream along with Shuhua of (G)I-dle asked her point-blank, "Who did you break up with?", referencing the tradition in East Asia of a girl cutting her hair after the end of a relationship. Haewon was not amused. This was the first time since debut over a year earlier that any member had significantly changed her hairstyle other than dyeing and/or use of extensions.
• Mature Younger Sibling: Although Kyujin is the youngest of the group, she has demonstrated in many of NMIXX's vlogs to be an extremely responsible and prepared person. She is also considered by many fans as the unofficial "main dancer" of the group (for those who don't recognize Jiwoo as technically holding that position). This perception is validated by Haewon during their one on one episode of the "Tingle Salon", where Haewon expresses appreciation for Kyujin being the "dance leader" since their debut.
• Meaningful Name: The "n" in the group's name is stated to simultaneously mean "New", "Now", "Next", and the mathematical variable n.
  • That last one got a reference in the "DICE" MV with a playing card that read, "One minus one is none. What is none minus one? Don't answer with numbers."
• Must Have Caffeine: Discussed by the members. Haewon loves coffee, specifically Americano style. Her "TMI" during her 19th birthday livestream was that she'd already had four large cups that day before going on-stream. She had a fifth cup next to her the entire time.
  • On her first "Monthly Oh Haewon" stream, she had a coffee cup next to her and sipped from it every few minutes. At the end, she turned the cup to the camera and showed she had been drinking water the whole time.
  • During their first American Showcase Tour, Haewon brought an entire baggie full of Americano packets just in case she wasn't able to get her fix. Note that their first stop was Seattle, America's coffee capital. And the packets were Starbucks brand.
• Never Bareheaded: A downplayed example. Jiwoo often (though not always) wears cool hats during performances, such as the Artsy Beret in the photo at the top of this page for the "O.O" MV, or a wide-brimmed hat in their cover performance of Stray Kids' "Thunderous" at KCON, or a beanie. Kyujin is the next most likely to do this.
• Pun-Based Title: Haewon uses a bilingual one for some of her livestreams, entitled "Monthly 5️⃣☀️1️⃣". The number five is pronounced "oh" in Korean, sun is "hae", and "1" uses the English pronunciation, thus being her full name "Oh Haewon".
• Punny Name: The official name of NMIXX's fandom is "NSWER" (pronounced EN-ser). This sounds a lot like "answer", as in fans responding to the group.
• Shrinking Violet: Discussed. Sullyoon is the only member who took the MBTI test pre-debut and didn't rank as some level of extrovert. She doesn't talk much and rarely takes part in the other members' chaotic moments. Comparisons to TWICE's Tzuyu (for both this and looks) abound. In a bit of irony, she said her favorite TWICE member is Sana, for a long time that group's only true extrovert.^note  Jihyo had tested as an introvert for years but retested as ESFP in late 2022. This made Sana, whose clinginess towards Jihyo is legendary, very happy. Sana was even happier to learn that Sullyoon biases her.
  • Other members insisted Jinni is also this due to her shy-at-first nature, but she loudly denied it in her first solo livestream, claiming she's an extrovert.^note  In July 2022, Jinni retook the MBTI and said it sorted her as ISFP instead of ENFP. This is the same category as Sullyoon, but everyone agreed Jinni is not that introverted. Additionally, she had mentioned losing a lot of confidence since debuting, which would certainly have an effect on an MBTI. Later, in 2023, Jiwoo and of all people Haewon tested as introverts despite being obviously not; however both had been subject to very focused hate from Koreans – Jiwoo for her weight and Haewon for alleged attitude problems.
• Sleepy Head: Sullyoon is one, and the other members love ribbing her for it. Bae and Jinni both said Sullyoon regularly sleeps through her alarms so someone has to physically wake her up.
• Spell My Name with an 'S': When she was still a trainee, signs from JYP Trainee Showcases show Kyujin's name was previously spelled "Gyu-jin" – this is closer to how it's pronounced in Korean including by her, but by the time her Qualification video came out she'd switched to the more common Romanization.
• Stage Names: Lily pointed out that every member of the "‘04 Line" uses an actual stage name instead of the usual JYP standard of just going mononymously by their given name. Inverted with Lily herself, who uses a native Korean name – "Park Jin" – as her legal name while in Korea.^note  It's not uncommon for East Asian countries to require citizens adopt a native name; Japan does it too. Through her Korean mother, Lily automatically had South Korean nationality at birth. "Jin" is Lily's middle name, derived from her mother's given name Jinhyi (진희); "Park" is her mother's maiden name. Yes, Haewon has poked fun at the similarity of Lily's Korean name to JYP's.
  • Sullyoon's is a combination of her family name (Seol) and the first syllable in her given name.
  • Bae uses her family name with an "i" added in Korean ("Baei") but as-is in English, often in all-caps.
  • Jinni's is a nickname derived from her given name, Yunjin. After her departure, she dropped one "n".
• Teen Idol: Oh so much. Every member but one was still in high school as JYPE teased their debut – the exception is maknae Kyujin who was in middle school. Shortly after debut – and Haewon's 19th birthday – the group's official channel posted graduation vlogs for Lily & Haewon (high school) and Kyujin.
• Those Two Girls: Lily and Haewon have shown multiple times they're capable of extremely tight live harmonizing, invariably leaving the younger members (and anyone else watching) shook. They finally got to show it off on one of their own songs with "Love Me Like This".
  • Haewon can do this with almost every other member, as she proved during their set at KCON-Chicago.
  • Increasingly, Bae will join one of the main singers as a low harmony, like here.
  • Outside of songs, Bae and Haewon together is a recipe for hilarity, while Bae with Jiwoo is a recipe for loud cuteness due to Jiwoo's emphatic adoration. Jiwoo also became clingy towards Sullyoon following Jinni's departure.
• Verbal Tic: Haewon has one whenever she's asked a question in English, saying "Wow" before answering, even if neither the question nor answer are wow-worthy. She also sometimes does this in Korean when put on the spot.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Jinni's activity as a debuted member of NMIXX only lasted about 9½ months, and by that point the group only had two physical releases, both singles, plus a few digital-only songs.

Tropes that apply to their discography and music videos

• B-Side: Aside from main track "O.O", AD MARE also features the song "TANK". Snippets of the song were previously used for the group's debut trailer video.
• Call-Back:
  • One of Jinni's lines in "DICE" name-checks their first song "O.O" in its lyrics.
    O.O I’m stoked
  • The "DASH" music video has a visual one to "O.O", which the girls helpfully noted when reacting
• Caps Lock: The titles of their first two singles (and both songs within those singles) are written this way.
• Country Matters: Whoever was in charge of costuming for "Young, Dumb, Stupid" Failed a Spot Check because Haewon was given a yellow top that read, top to bottom, "Charisma Uniqueness Nerve Talent". In a couple of close-up shots where Haewon's jacket is open and the whole acronym is visible, its bottom half is edited out.
• Cover Version: They've performed several since debut but only one commercially – their song "Kiss" is a cover version of the same song by Rainbow.
  • They covered Blackpink's "Kill This Love" on their second It's Live appearance
  • They've performed Stray Kids' "Thunderous" at least three times, with Jiwoo covering Changbin's rap
  • They covered TWICE's "The Feels" at KCON-LA 2023 (and did so with better English)
• Creative Closing Credits: The "DASH" video has rolling credits that can't pass the top of the screen, instead creating a pile of letters that falls through the bottom of the screen at the end.
• Double X: If the heading at the top of the page didn't make it clear enough. And yes, JYPE did name the group with the intent of invoking this trope. However, it's averted in the original Korean – while Korean does have some double-consonants, the name is 엔믹스 (Enmikseu).
  • The genre of most of the group's title songs is called "Mixxpop". See Song Style Shift below for more explanation.
  • The third track on EXPÉRGO is titled "PAXXWORD" — pronounced "password", of course.
• Foreign Language Title: Played with a lot.
  • The super-title of their song "TANK" is "占", a character used in Sinitic languages and Japanese. In Mandarin it's pronounced zhàn and means "take up (adopt)". In Japanese the same character is pronounced uranai or sen and means "fortune telling". It's pretty obvious they used the character simply for its resemblance to a tank rather than any actual meaning.
  • Their first two singles do this too. "Ad Mare" is Latin for "to the sea" (fittingly, "O.O"'s music video opens at a foggy port with a pirate's galleon in the background. "Entwurf" is German for "design" (it can also translate to "plan", "concept", and other words associated with creation)… and the single doubles down on the musical styles from the debut.
  • Their first EP continues this. "Expergo" is Latin for "Awaken"^note  Specifically, "I awaken". Latin also does not traditionally use accent marks, although this EP's official title does to help with pronunciation.
  • The pre-release single for their second EP is titled "Soñar (Breaker)". "Soñar" is Spanish for "to dream".
• Genre Roulette: While they mostly stick to realms of pop, hip-hop, and R&B, the group's "Mixxpop" concept allows them to dabble in a wide variety of genres, such as house, UK garage, pop-rock, pop-punk, and much more.
• Gratuitous English: They're a K-Pop group so expect nothing less. However, since Lily is a native Anglophone, her English lines typically avert this.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: The "Young Dumb Stupid" video has pink glasses that display an augmented reality.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language:
  • As noted in Foreign Language Title above, their first three physical releases play this trope straight.
  • For "O.O", though which language is up in the air. During the chorus, the word "baila" (Spanish for "he/she/it dances") repeats, though pronounced incorrectly and its meaning not totally meshing with the surrounding Korean or English lyrics. It could also be a corruption of the Brazilian Portuguese "baile" (same root), meaning "party", which makes a lot more sense as some critics (and Kyujin) noted the first verse's nod to baile funk.
    • Haewon, who has taken Spanish classes, noted during her 19th birthday V-Live that she intended the Spanish meaning of the word, which either as a noun or the imperative should be "baile".
  • Also noted above, the pre-release track for their 2nd EP is titled "Soñar (Breaker)", Spanish for "to dream", and the chorus is a mix of questionable Spanish and Lily or Haewon belting in English. The end of its music video contains two Spanish sentences alongside the title…
    Todo lo que puedes imaginar es real. Todo lo que puedes soñar es real.
• Laser Blade: Haewon's and Sullyoon's golf clubs turn into lightsabers in the "Young, Dumb, Stupid" video.
• Lyrical Cold Open: Two in Fe₃O₄:BREAK
  • "DASH" cold-opens with Lily saying "Dash, I wanna dash, I wanna run it."
  • "Run For Roses" starts with Bae singing acapella, including a Title Drop, before the music joins in.
• Meaningful Name: Their second EP, Fe₃O₄:BREAK starts with the chemical formula for magnetite, the most magnetic naturally occurring mineral on Earth (and what clued humans in to the concept of magnetism to begin with), which the group in its lore intends to break apart by force.
• Mondegreen: For the longest time people were convinced that "TANK" contained the lyrics "Freaky fishy fishy" but it turned out to actually be "Freaky fresh fresh". Fans often prefer the former.
• Precision F-Strike: No actual f-bombs, but instances close enough to count by JYP group standards.
  • When Jiwoo covered Abir's "Tango" she left "shit" uncensored. This is in stark contrast to when TWICE's Jihyo covered the same song a few weeks later on Lee Mujin Service – Jihyo did censor herself.
  • At the very end of the "DASH" music video, a paper sign reading "Hey you bastards, I'm still here". More on that one below.
• Product Placement: Two so far…
  • "O.O"'s music video was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and Coke Zero appears in two key shots as well as the original lyrics^note  "Check out, Popcorn and Zero Coke / Got ‘em all? Come in". Sometimes, in order to get around this on TV, the lyric is changed to "Zero Cup".
  • "Party O'Clock" has the girls using the ReFa Heartbrush (heart-shaped hairbrushes) which they had already cut ads for before the music video dropped. Here's Haewon's.
• Shout-Out: It's not uncommon for their music videos to pay homage to other videos or films.
  • That sign at the end of the "DASH" music video, along with much of the video itself, is a reference to the 1973 film Papillon.
• Singer Name Drop: This is a key component of MIXXPOP, usually used to signal the Song Style Shift.
  • Jinni shouts "NMIXX!" right before the abrupt tempo/style change in "O.O".
  • In "DICE", Jinni outright announces the transition by rapping "NMIXX, change up, let's go!" Later, right before the final chorus, all the girls shout "We NMIXX!!"
    • Note: After Jinni's departure from the group, Jiwoo inherited these parts.
  • In "Soñar (Breaker)", the entire group shouts "NMIXX!" to signal its style shift-back.
  • The full "NMIXX, change up!" appears in "DASH".
• Song Style Shift: This is evidently a key part of "Mixxpop", the group's signature sound, with songs switching genre and tempo at the drop of a hat (typically after the first chorus) and then changing again near the end.
  • "O.O" starts off as extremely heavy EDM song before abruptly jumping to pop-rock and then jumping back to the first style for the ending. Its tempo also drops from 133 beats-per-minute down to 100. The near total lack of transition between the radically different styles, especially in the music video (the studio/live cut lacks the long pause and as a result has some transition), is the main reason for critical backlash against the song.
  • "DICE" has a similar shift in style and tempo, transitioning from trap-infused jazz-pop to hip-hop. They even go as far as to announce the first transition in its lyrics (a not-so-subtle jab at those who complained about "O.O")
  • "Soñar (Breaker)", after two releases in a row of no overt Mixxpop, doubles down on their original style by going from Latin-styled hip-hop to UK garage and back again, lyrically announcing BOTH transitions.
  • "DASH" sees the song go from old-school hip-hop to pop punk for its bridge before transitioning back for its final chorus. It also has a single-bar slowdown in the middle of the song to simulate time dilation
  • "BOOM" sees its last chorus transition from minimalist hip-hop to house, with its tempo ratcheting up significantly.
• Space Whale:
  • A flying whale is briefly seen at the end of the "Soñar (Breaker)" video.
  • A spotted whale is seen flying in a pink-tinted space in the "change-up" interlude of the "DASH" video.
• To the Tune of...: The chorus of "Young, Dumb, Stupid" is sung to the tune of children's song "Frère Jacques"
• Visual Title Drop: Haewon runs on Super-Speed in the second segment of the "DASH" video, causing the street paint to be rearranged to make "DASH" appear.

Tropes that apply to their variety appearances

• Cut Short: This video, originally labeled with a "1", was clearly intended to be a multi-week promotion for the group's digital single "Funky Glitter Christmas". However, the departure of Jinni from the group just four days after its upload caused any subsequent episodes filmed to be scrapped.
• The Quiet One: Sullyoon, being by far the most introverted member, never speaks much, preferring to observe the other girls' chaos. She admitted she still isn't sure how she landed a job as co-host of Show! Music Core.

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