KPop Demon Hunters OST Scores Historic feat with 4 Tracks in Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 Simultaneously

The soundtrack for Netflix’s animated series “KPop Demon Hunters” has achieved a historic milestone on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track “Golden,” performed by the virtual girl group HUNTR/X, regained the number one spot and held it for a total of two non-consecutive weeks. “Golden” becomes the third K-pop song to top the Hot 100 for more than two weeks, following BTS’s “Butter” (10 weeks) and “Dynamite” (3 weeks). Notably, “Golden” is the first song ever to reach number one performed by a K-pop female singer. Prior to this, the highest ranking for a K-pop female singer on the Hot 100 was third place for Rosé’s collaboration with Bruno Mars titled “Apartment.” It also marks the first time in 24 years since American girl group Destiny’s Child topped the Hot 100 with “Bootylicious” in August 2001 that a song by a female group of three or more members achieved the number one position. Songs from the rival group Lion Boys in the movie also made it onto the chart. “Your Idol” retained its fourth place, while “Soda Pop” rose five spots from 10th last week to reach fifth place. Another HUNTR/X track, “How It’s Done,” climbed four spots from 14th last week to finish in 10th place, marking its first entry into the top 10. This created a scenario where the rivalries depicted in the animation are reflected in actual chart performance. “KPop Demon Hunters” is now the first soundtrack in history to have four tracks simultaneously enter the Hot 100 top 10. Only four other works had previously achieved this milestone: the “Waiting for Love” soundtrack from 1995–1996 with five tracks, “Saturday Night Fever” from 1977–1978, “Grease” from 1978, and the soundtrack for the 1984–1985 film “Purple Rain.” Billboard stated that “the rival groups HUNTR/X and Lion Boys each sent two tracks into the Hot 100 top 10, resulting in a tie.” From August 15 to 21, “Golden” recorded 33.8 million streams in the U.S. (a 3% increase from the previous week), 16.2 million radio airplay exposures (a 39% increase), and 8,000 physical sales (an 11% increase). It has held the first place on the Streaming Songs chart for five consecutive weeks and remains in second place on the Digital Song Sales chart, its highest ranking to date. “Golden” also topped the UK Official Singles Chart top 100 for two consecutive weeks, totaling three weeks at number one. This makes it the first K-pop artist’s song to reach the summit of the Official Singles Chart since Psy’s “Gangnam Style” in 2012. This case demonstrates how virtual content can function as a real musical group in the actual music market. The singers who actually performed “Golden” are of Korean-American descent and include EJAE, a former Trainee at SM Entertainment who is also a composer, REI AMI, a rapper and singer-songwriter, and O.de. Billboard officials commented that “those who saw the movie first became fans of the songs, while those who heard the songs first became fans of the movie,” and they predicted that HUNTR/X’s tracks will remain in the upper ranks of the Hot 100 until the end of the year.