\n\t\ts 2025 draws to an end, the year\u2019s biggest albums will feature some familiar names \u2014 Morgan<\/a>, Taylor<\/a>, Sabrina<\/a> \u2014 and one out-of-nowhere smash. KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>, the soundtrack to the Netflix<\/a> animated film about a fictional, evil-slaying girl group, is poised to land in the top 20 of the most-consumed albums in the U.S. As K-pop<\/a> hits go, the soundtrack has outpaced the genre\u2019s superstar artists, racking up more streams in its first 11 weeks of release than the highest-performing songs by BTS and Blackpink did in theirs. And it\u2019s all been buoyed by a passionate audience that helped to make the movie Netflix\u2019s biggest title ever.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat the plot of Demon Hunters centers on superfans \u2014 in the movie\u2019s colorful world, Huntr\/x use their voices to battle enemy boy band Saja Boys, each supported by an army of devotees \u2014 is somewhat ironic, considering there was no fan base to speak of before the movie\u2019s June release. And that\u2019s exactly what helped the franchise succeed. While K-pop is a multibillion-dollar global business, it\u2019s often troubled by so-called \u201cantis,\u201d who pit musical groups \u2014 and their respective companies \u2014 against one another in what\u2019s become an impediment to wide acclaim.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film plays with the expression of fandom realistically: passionate, screaming, consumerist, maybe even a little fickle in deciding which group they love more. To make the story fully work, the music needed to be pretty believable. With songs that boast writing credits<\/a> from the likes of Ejae, Teddy Park, Jenna Andrews, and more K-pop hitmakers, the soundtrack delivered just that: Both Huntr\/x\u2019s \u201cGolden\u201d and Saja Boys\u2019 \u201cSoda Pop\u201d sat in the Top 10 of Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 for weeks, with the former beginning its reign at Number One in mid-August.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe success of the film, and its accompanying soundtrack, provides an interesting case study following a summer where new music failed to make its usual impact on the charts,\u201d says Lexi Chicles, senior manager of insights at Luminate. \u201cIt illustrates a growing transmedia ecosystem, one where streaming<\/a>-video content on a platform like Netflix might have more influence on music consumption than more traditional marketing campaigns heard on radio or seen on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Luminate, the soundtrack had become \u201csingle-handedly responsible for around 43 percent of U.S. K-pop streaming volume\u201d by early August, meaning that the songs from a film few had heard of when 2025 began were nearly as successful as every other K-pop artist combined this year.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNothing\u2019s ever gone this big off of a Netflix property,\u201d a high-ranking K-pop executive tells Rolling Stone, noting how little marketing had been done around the film at the time of its release. Much of the discovery happened through word of mouth, leading up to a mid-July spike in album streams. \u201cIt\u2019s pure K-pop. There are no fan wars. There are no label wars. There\u2019s no artist drama. There\u2019s none of the issues that groups face amongst each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDemon Hunters\u2019 soundtrack does exist more or less completely outside of the K-pop machine. While it features two songs by real-life heavyweights Twice<\/a>, it was released on Savan Kotecha\u2019s Visva Records in partnership with Republic (home to Taylor Swift), and not a big K-pop company like Hybe or YG. The film itself was made by people who had been longtime fans of the genre. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans were inspired to make the film after watching BTS<\/a>\u2019 livestreamed concerts during the pandemic. \u201cWe were thinking about how we dramatize the idea of music as a way to fight against bad things in the world,\u201d Appelhans says. As K-pop hits go, this success was notably Western-made.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tIn the fantasy-tinged world they created, Huntr\/x are the latest in a long lineage of demon-hunting trios who use their voices to create a barrier between innocent souls and the underworld. They meet their foes in the Saja Boys, a group of demons who are trying to take down Huntr\/x once and for all.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tBoth directors have observed stan-worthy deep dives on social media, especially in TikTok videos, where fans are combing through moments of foreshadowing or character details that the filmmakers weaved into the story with love.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt feels pretty similar to any other K-pop fan base, which is incredible,\u201d Kang adds. \u201cI\u2019ve seen fans just embrace this movie as K-pop content and even talk about Huntr\/x as if they are real idols.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tBuilding a phenomenon\t<\/p>\n \n\tBut even as demon-hunting trio Rumi, Mira, and Zoey face their own pressures in the film, those don\u2019t mirror the real-life responsibilities of idols who, as the name implies, are expected to present as well-behaved and controversy-free. The mental-health struggles of idols have been well-documented since K-pop\u2019s explosion, leading some artists to speak out or to avoid a public life at all.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe romantic component of this story couldn\u2019t happen in K-pop,\u201d the industry insider continues, referring to the flirtation between Rumi and Saja Boys\u2019 Jinu. \u201cRelationships aren\u2019t discussed. It\u2019s different [from] being a [Western] pop star.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOutside of individual pressure, the wars between K-pop labels have bled into how superfans of the genre interact online, sparring over their favorites\u2019 chart positions and successes. At times, the division has created toxicity in the overall community, making some hardcore fans feel the need to devote their energy to just one act above all else.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get online and say certain things, but I think it\u2019s just fans being so proud of their band,\u201d says Stephen Kirk who co-wrote two songs for the soundtrack. \u201cWe\u2019re so divided as a planet right now. This movie felt so unifying. It just goes to show that people want to be connected. We don\u2019t want to be against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKPop Demon Hunters is proving that a genre once \u2014 rightly or wrongly \u2014 deemed too niche to crossover in the Western market can create a monocultural moment. By September, the film had reached nearly 300 million views, outperforming every other title in the history of Netflix. A sing-along version was released in theaters this August, topping the box office and bringing in $19.2 million across 1,700 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, making it Netflix\u2019s most successful theatrical release to date. By October, it was big enough to be parodied by Bad Bunny<\/a> on SNL.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis could be like Star Wars or Frozen,\u201d Kirk\u2019s co-writer, Jenna Andrews, says. Netflix is rumored to be planning a sequel. \u201cHopefully, it continues for the next dec\u00adade,\u201d Andrews adds.<\/p>\n \n\tEven in South Korea, the crossover success of the film can be felt. \u201cThe K-pop community is very excited about it,\u201d says the industry source. \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to a label that\u2019s not trying to get involved in some way, shape, or form. The artists think it\u2019s great because it\u2019s showing a casual listener that you can listen to a song that\u2019s in part Korean and part English and love it and stream it every day. It creates opportunities for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Production Credits<\/p>\n Prop Styling CATHERINE PEARSON. Photographic assistance VINCENT TULLO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A s 2025 draws to an end, the year\u2019s biggest albums will feature some familiar names \u2014 Morgan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,10069,2744,341,1316,5131],"class_list":{"0":"post-247063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-k-pop","12":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-netflix","15":"tag-streaming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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