RIIZE, TWS, and NMIXX Define Music in Their Own Languages [HT Focus]

The strategy of “genre naming” is taking root in the K-POP scene.

As RIIZE announced their comeback with their second mini album ‘II’ on June 15, the “Emotional Pop” they have promoted since their debut is drawing attention once again. The way a group creates its own genre name and grows within it is not a story limited to RIIZE alone.

RIIZE introduced “Emotional Pop” as their own genre with their debut in September 2023. It is RIIZE’s unique genre that expresses the members’ various emotions through music. At the time, KIM HYUNG GUK, executive director of SM Entertainment’s Wizard Production, said, “Emotional Pop began from the idea of capturing the various experiences and emotions the members go through as they grow.” Through ‘Get A Guitar,’ ‘Talk Saxy,’ and ‘Love 119,’ RIIZE recorded 1,797,267 copies in initial chodong sales with their first studio album ‘ODYSSEY’ last May and became a million-seller for the third consecutive time. With this mini album ‘II,’ they will once again expand the scope of Emotional Pop through six tracks, including the title track ‘Do your dance.’ As the group, now in their fourth year since debut, has described it as “an album that most intuitively captures RIIZE as they are now,” attention is focused on how far Emotional Pop will expand.

TWS, who debuted around a similar time, put forward “Boyhood Pop.” Meaning music that accompanies the growth cycle of boyhood, the members personally defined it at debut as “fantastical and sensory music that evokes beautiful impressions in everyday life.” TWS, who proved their public appeal with the “aengtal challenge” craze for ‘OVERDRIVE,’ the title track of their fourth mini album, opened a new chapter of Boyhood Pop with their fifth mini album ‘NO TRAGEDY,’ released last month. It marked their transformation from fresh-faced boys into “youth Romeos” charging straight toward love. U.S. economic magazine Forbes commented that they “maintain their refreshing and energetic Boyhood Pop color while creating excitement through an expanded image,” while Bandwagon Asia defined TWS as “not following trends, but creating them.” This album recorded 1,112,770 copies in initial chodong sales, giving TWS their first million-seller title.

NMIXX is the earliest precedent in this trend, and also a case with a slightly different texture. “MIXX POP,” which they have promoted since their debut in 2022, defines the sound structure itself rather than an emotion or worldview, unlike Emotional Pop or Boyhood Pop. The essence of MIXX POP is the fusion of two or more genres within a single song, and since first being introduced through their debut song ‘O.O,’ it has evolved by intricately layering elements of electronic music such as trance, acid, and drum and bass over pop. ‘Blue Valentine,’ the title track of their first studio album released last October, crossed melancholic synth sounds with boom bap rhythms and swept No. 1 on Melon’s Top 100, daily, weekly, and monthly charts. With their fifth mini album ‘Heavy Serenade,’ released on the 11th, they continued their musical expansion while maintaining their MIXX POP identity. U.S. Billboard described NMIXX as making “an artistic declaration that they will proudly protect their own identity.”

Although the way they name their music differs, the essence of the strategy shared by the three teams is the same. Genre naming is a device that compresses a team’s identity into a single keyword to expand the scope of its fandom, while allowing the music to maintain consistency within that framework even as it changes and grows. Whether defining an emotion or a sound, the logic is that there must be a declaration of “This is the kind of music we make” for the public to remember and follow a team. The three teams also share the common result of achieving million-seller status while building their activities around their own genres. RIIZE became a million-seller for three consecutive releases starting from their debut album, TWS entered the million-seller ranks for the first time with their sixth album, and NMIXX is expanding global recognition through consistent musical experimentation since debut, including ranking No. 2 on Billboard’s ‘The 25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2025 (So Far).’

In a saturated K-POP market, declaring “This is the kind of music we make” is currently one of the most effective strategies.