M4M (Mystical Formula), is a

Mandopop Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Standard Chinese, Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; with later influences coming from Japanese enka, Hong Kong's Cantopop, Ta ...

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

formed in 2013 by South Korea's

Cube Entertainment Cube Entertainment Inc. () is a South Korean entertainment company. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production company, and music publishing house. Cube are known for h ...

and China's Xing Tian Media. The group consists of four members; Alen, Jimmy, Vinson, and Yu Bin. The group debuted on March 13, 2013 on

M! Countdown ''M Countdown'' () is a South Korean music program broadcast by Mnet. The show features appearances by popular music artists who also perform live on stage. It is broadcast from CJ E&M Center Studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul. Bro ...

with the Korean version of Sadness. In March 2014, M4M announced that they are going to terminate their contracts with Chinese company Xing Tian Media, due to a lack of activity.

History

Name origin

M4M is an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

for Mystical Formula. The name is used to describe passion, mystery and infinite possibilities, whilst the number 4 is representational of the number of members in the group.

2009–2012: Formation

In 2009, Xing Tian Media started to scout four individual talents to make up a new group. Although they were originally due to début before fellow labelmate

BtoB } BtoB ( ; ; acronym for Born to Beat; often stylized as BTOB) is a South Korean boy band formed in 2012 by Cube Entertainment. The group consists of Seo Eun-kwang, Lee Min-hyuk, Lee Chang-sub, Im Hyun-sik, Peniel Shin and Yook Sung-jae. Or ...

, the departure of member and leader Park Jung-jong set back their début until the arrival of Alen.

2013: Début

In February 2013, Cube Entertainment announced that the group, which had been training for 1,460 days, would be making their début although they didn't specify a date. On 12 March, they released the single for "Sadness" followed by their formal debut on M! Countdown and the uploading of the single's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

on YouTube on the following day. Two months later, they went on to release their first

mini album A mini-LP or mini-album is a short vinyl record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A ...

, the self-titled "Mystery Formula" of which both a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

version and a Korean version were released.

2018: Idol Producer

After a long hiatus, Bin became a trainee for NewStyle Media, and participates in ''

Idol Producer ''Idol Producer'' (), is a 2018 Chinese reality boy group survival show, which premiered on January 19, 2018 on iQIYI. It is presented by Lay Zhang with Li Ronghao, Jackson Wang, MC Jin, Cheng Xiao and Zhou Jieqiong serving as mentors. On April ...

''.

Members

Current members

* Alen (Fang Yilun 方逸伦) - China * Jimmy (Zhu Zhaofeng 朱兆豐) - Hong Kong * Vinson (Luo Yusheng 罗宇胜) - Taiwan * Yubin (于斌) - Macau

Former members

* Park Jung-jong *Kang Jae-Min

Discography

Extended plays

* Mystery Formula

Filmography

* 20 Once Again * A Different Kind of Pretty Man * Tian Mi Sheng Huo * Qing Chun Wan Wan Sui

Awards and nominations

References

{{authority control Mandopop musical groups Chinese musical groups Chinese boy bands K-pop singers Cube Entertainment artists Mandarin-language singers K-pop music groups Musical groups established in 2013 Musical quartets South Korean boy bands South Korean dance music groups