Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” Becoming a Global Cultural Phenomenon and Entering History

Netflix’s animated series “KPop Demon Hunters” has established itself as a global cultural phenomenon since its release in June. The film’s OST “Golden” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking the first time a girl group achieved this milestone in 24 years since Destiny’s Child in 2001. The series is currently Netflix’s most-watched animated series of all time and the second-most popular film overall, having accumulated over 210.5 million views. On the UK Official Singles Chart, “Golden” reached number one as a K-pop song for the first time in 13 years since Psy’s “Gangnam Style” in 2012, becoming the K-pop track to remain at the top of the chart for the longest duration in British chart history. On the Australian ARIA Chart, the film’s soundtrack held the album number one position for six weeks, setting a record as the longest-running number one for an animated film since the chart’s official inception in 1983. The series is praised for its originality in combining Korean Musok culture with K-pop. The concept of the HUNTRIX girl group members being evil spirit hunters descended from shamans seamlessly integrates traditional Gut culture, which uses music and dance to exorcise evil spirits, with K-pop performances. Director Maggie Kang (Kangmin) explained that she focused on accurately depicting Korean-specific details such as the habit of placing napkins under chopsticks, public bath culture, and scenes of eating kimbap. She stated, “Although it appears to have a superhero narrative on the surface, the ultimate theme this work aimed to address was ‘shame.’ When audiences empathize with the characters’ inner struggles, a true emotional blockbuster is created.” The core storyline revolves around Rumi, the leader of the HUNTRIX girl group, experiencing shame and fear due to her mixed-race identity. “Golden” was finalized after going through seven to eight demo versions. The production team explained that high-pitched vocals were required musically because the song had to convey the protagonist Rumi’s aspirations while also delivering the growth stories of all characters to the audience. In addition to “Golden,” several other OST tracks from the film, including “Soda Pop” (number 3), “Your Idol” (number 6), and “Takedown” (number 31), also reached the top ranks on British official charts. The film has also gained popularity through sing-along events. Netflix is holding sing-along screenings in theaters across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. On August 22, the Empire State Building in New York hosted a “Golden Weekend” event featuring a lighting show synchronized with “Golden.” Australia’s HOYTS cinema chain also held exclusive sing-along screenings in all of its theaters across Australia and New Zealand. According to Billboard, three tracks from the film’s soundtrack—“Golden,” “Your Idol,” and “Soda Pop”—entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making this the third time a film soundtrack has achieved such a feat since “Waiting to Exhale” in 1995 and “Saturday Night Fever” in 1977. UK official chart statistics show that the film’s soundtrack recorded 27 million streams per week, becoming the most-streamed soundtrack in British history. Director Maggie Kang visited South Korea, appeared on a TV program alongside President Lee Jae-myung, and talked about the prominence of K-pop and the potential of global content with TWICE members Jeongyeon and Jihyo, who sang the insert song “Takedown.” She praised the potential of K-content by saying, “From the very beginning of my work, I always wanted to create an animation that could showcase Korean culture. There is endlessly much in Korean culture that can be presented to the world.” Regarding the possibility of a sequel, she stated, “There are many stories and ideas we haven’t shown to fans yet. If a sequel is made, I would like to include various Korean music genres such as trot and heavy metal.” She left things open-ended about Leader Jinwoo of Sazaboyz’s fate by saying, “We don’t know what the next story will be.”