Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked at least a dozen times whether I’m going to review the songs from the popular Netflix movie K-Pop Demon Hunters. The answer is still “no,” though with this post I guess it’s kind of a semi-“yes.”
I want to apologize to anyone who received an increasingly dismissive response from me when asking this question. Don’t take it personally and it wasn’t my intent to be rude. It’s just that it’s come up so often that it’s become a running gag in the comments section. Now, there’s a full post to contain all the discourse!
Anyways, as I posted on Twitter/X last week, I’m not a fan of these songs overall. What’s amazing to me is how many people on social media took that as a great offense, defending this project with the same fervor they’d commit to a flesh-and-blood idol group. I guess I’m glad the project has hit such a nerve, even if the music isn’t for me.
The thing is, the songs are… fine. They’re very generic and built upon relatively sturdy K-pop tropes. There are just some big stumbling blocks I can’t get past. First, I’m not a huge animation fan to begin with — especially this newer CGI style that simply reminds me of characters in an advertisement for bath tissue. So, I haven’t watched the movie and am likely missing a lot of important context. Second, I dislike when big tent projects like this smooth over any intricacies of an art form (and at its best, K-pop is art!) to create the most palatable product possible. Whatever the initial intentions were behind these songs, that sanitized quality is what I hear first and foremost.
Of the popular songs on the soundtrack, I suppose Soda Pop is my favorite. But as the internet’s resident lover of bright boy group concepts, I’ve heard hundreds of songs in this soundscape and Soda Pop doesn’t do anything fun or interesting enough to stand out. It sounds like a survival show competition track.
Meanwhile, I get that fans are liking Golden because it sounds a bit like IVE’s best hits, but to me the execution and faux self-empowerment message feel more in line with Rachel Platten’s Fight Song — a track I have a serious distaste for. I just can’t get past this. I find it actively annoying.
Then there’s Your Idol, which is just too cringe for me to enjoy. If an actual idol group had performed it, I might be able to look past the lyrics but it just feels like the most obvious K-pop pastiche in an eye-rolling way.
So… yeah. In some ways I should be the target audience for this whole project but the music has fallen flat for me and I don’t really see why it’s become so popular (beyond the obvious reach of Netflix).
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Im crying about the way you had to post a review on why you wouldn’t be reviewing them properly😭. People just hate it when you can express your opinion freely don’t they☠️? Oh and also these songs… Are all trash☠️
floptastic is the word in use💋💯
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I’ve been critiqued in a group chat for saying the melodic a capella at the start of the film is the only interesting music bit to me. I wouldn’t call the songs trash, just… like ai generated versions of pre-existing songs. Butter, I AM, and Mama come to mind, specifically in that order.
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the songs work better in the movie. I was upset that of all different sounds and concepts they could’ve use on the groups they decided to go with the current boring trends. I’ve seen people discuss saja boys being inspired by exo but even their weaker songs are far more interesting then the whole soundtrack of this movie
Also EXO already have a song about soda that is way better than soda pop
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Funnily when you mentioned how Your Idol could be a bit passable if an actual idol sang it, I got reminded of A.C.E’s Junhee’s cover of the song and I actually liked his version better than the original! (And funny enough, Your Idol, with some tweaks, could also serve as Favorite Boys’ decent successor, but maybe it’s just me)
Anyways, as I said before under your tweet, all the songs are super generic, like rejected demos for popular acts. Soda Pop’s the best out of all the songs, but even that is pretty generic and doesn’t do much. And when I first heard Golden, I immediately guessed that you’d not like it for the lyrics cause of how Fight Song-like it is. And I also find the chorus almost shrill-like as well, so it lowkey grinds my gears. Your Idol’s alright, the pre-chorus is really good, but still doesn’t do much overall.
So yeah, none of the OSTs do much to warrant a review. And idek why they’re so popular, but again, HYBE also has mostly been pushing overly polished songs and look how fans eat that up!
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I enjoyed the movie–a solid exploration of the Jungian shadow with some well-executed metaphors for mental health, queerness, and more–which may be why I like the songs, even though I don’t love them or think they’re groundbreaking.
They’re melody-driven with dramatic climaxes, which I won’t lie, I miss, and that’s why I was surprised you weren’t into them, but to each their own! They are generic and sanitized, I don’t think anyone can say that critique isn’t valid, though how much it bothers depends on the person.
Regarding Golden, though, funnily enough, that’s exactly what it is in the movie: a platitude that the character doesn’t actually believe or embody.
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Oh, that’s interesting about Golden! I could see how that would work in the context of a film. Without that context, it’s exactly what it was intended to be: a generic, empty platitude.
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Yeah the whole point is that they know it’ll be a hit, but the MC can’t actually sing it live because it’s got no real meaning for her. Lol.
And that’s completely fair for the melodies! They are perfectly pleasant, but I’d agree they’re not particularly interesting.
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RE: the melodies. I just don’t think they’re that good. They all have that insipid “Can’t Stop The Feeling” corporate sheen imo. Either you like it or you don’t I guess, and this has never been an approach I enjoy.
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To be honest there is nothing interesting about this movie to me at all. I don’t like the CGI nor the concept. Now if they did some kind of action movie or anime with an actual real life Kpop group then that would be something else not whatever the frack these characters or this group they have in it is supposed to be.
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Same thoughts on the songs, they’re pretty generic overall and I can’t remember a melody besides Soda Pop. The only thing I like about this whole project is Saja Boys because both Soda Pop and them do a nice job on making a funny take on boy groups. Just naming the members Baby, Mistery, Romance and Abby is enough to me lmao, and Soda Pop being as hollow but catchy as it is just makes perfect sense. The other songs just didn’t do whatever it was they were trying to do.
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I live in a cave so I only just finished the 100-chefs Korean cooking show last week. I think Nick’s post here is all I am going to watch of this show.
“Soda Pop” sounds like every formula kpop song ever these days. It demonstrates how easy AI could infiltrate kpop … … maybe it has already.
“Golden” may as well include “I’m on my way ay ay ay ay” and drop into the full chorus of IVE “I am”. The voices are nice though; the range is impressive.
The hanbok in “Your Idol” has been done wayyyyyyyyy better. Speaking of ACE, mentioned in a comment above, ACE did the Best Ever hanbok performance in “Goblin”. The water pictures are STUNNING. (… …. ok, VIXX “Shangri La” also great.) There was a great commentary on the mythological meaning by DKDK back when.
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for me I enjoy these songs. A lot actually. Golden is my favorite song from the track (an in terms of TEDDYs recent work)
I completely understand if you don’t like these songs though. It’s the internet. Not everyone is gonna have the same opinion. With that I sincerely hope the fans don’t find out about this post because it’s gonna be a riot if they do find out.
the movie itself is fine. I like the animation and humor, but found the plot kinda lackluster considering this was from the company that made the spider verse. Definitely better than whatever open season, emoji movie, and the smurfs contained but not the best it could be.
I give the soundtrack an 9.5/10 (9, 10, 9, 10) and the film overall a 7/10
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Pretty much agreed on the songs, which I wasn’t surprised by when I watched it – it felt very Valorant/e-sports adjacent to me, which tracks given all my Valorant friends loved the music.
I’m a much bigger fan of the animation and the writing. It was made by the same studio that did Spiderverse, and I think their style translated to more standard 3D CGI very well, and the comedic beats felt fresher and cheesy-but-fun to me compared to other family animated movies I’ve seen from the last few years.
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Same studio ≠ same team (some people in the comments seem to have confused the two). Sony animation also made The Michael vs. the Machines, and that series, along with Spider-man into the Spider-verse are leagues above in storytelling. It’s not as much the studio, but the team of people that work in a project that give it its quality. Personally, I felt that the movie’s writing and world building were lackluster and not fleshed out properly. I think it would’ve benefited from being a limited series. Everything moved so fast it felt like I was in an acid trip. Looking at Spider-Man, every movie is 2 hours + with quieter sections, buildup, and payoff. In contrast, this movie was barely under 2 hours and you could feel that in the rushed paced (I did not connect with a single emotional beat because of how fast, short, and sudden they were). The animation was pretty, but it felt rather generic and glossy, in a sense, poetically reflecting the quality of the music 😭.
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I really do think your enjoyment of the song’s hinges greatly on your enjoyment of the movie. As my 9 year old and I enjoy Kpop together, this was a must watch for her, and seeing her geek out about the movie as we watched it was really fun, as she doesn’t have a lot of ways at her age that I let her interact with the Kpop scene, as I rarely let her have screen time beyond watching a movie/episode or playing videogames here and there.
On another post I gave my ratings for the songs, but in general they were in the 7s and 8s ranges… which were better than they would have been without the necessary context of the movie. As others have noted, most songs only work in the context of the movie. I see the songs more as tributes than any actual intention to progress the art form. You can get away with not being very fresh with the music, but the movie would have completely flopped if audiences felt it didn’t sound like kpop at all.
That being said, I’ll still jam to playlist every time my daughter asks me to play it, and even if they are just tributes to better versions of these types of songs, I’m glad they exist so we can have this moment.
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There are many times when a kpop song is played a lot for or because of my darling daughter too.
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Musically, Your Idol reminds me of Mama by EXO but a severely toned down and boring version of it (I love Mama it is my fav EXO song). Esthetically, the hanbok performance coupled with the song title, reminds me of that BTS MMA 2018 performance of “Idol” in hanboks and traditional instruments, but that one had more of a bite. I do like Soda pop though.
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*aesthetically, the shift between languages is hard sometimes 😬
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glad my little joke in the somi review in the comments ended up coming to life in this post
anyway, just got done watching the movie and imma say its quite decent, the animation is probably the best part of the movie (considering it was made by the same ppl that made spiderverse) and im always a sucker for original animated movies that gain success
as for the songs, imma make an unpopular opinion and say that soda pop might be the most annoying song on the planet, its insipid, the lyrics are super cheesy and i’ve heard this type of song a hundred times before and it doesnt do anything to stand out. i cant decide whats my favorite song out of the soundtrack yet
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also i highly doubt that shipper during the fanmeeting scene would be shipping rumi and jinu, she would be shipping the saja boys together
let our fujoshis shine netflix!!!
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The only real positive I have off the movie is the visuals and humor. The characters were pretty flat and the plot had a lot of tropes in it. I assume this was made for a younger audience and if that’s the case they made a good product for that demographic. The music makes sense in context but with only four (?) original songs and none of them being outstanding it’s a bit of a let down. Soda pop is the only one I would probably listen to again, but I don’t think I would seek it out in the first place. With the songs being mostly in English and sounding like something lyre would try to make.
The girl group is in a line of demon hunters. They have several generations yet we couldn’t get a variety of kpop sounds? They didn’t even need to sound like songs I like, just diversify. Its a total harmless watch with the music being what you’d expect, bland. The movie is a missed opportunity
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yeah the character development was definitely my biggest issue with the movie, particularly with the other two girls in huntrix, they had potential to be developed outside of just being rumi’s support girls
i also thought celine, rumi’s foster mother should’ve gotten more screen time and development considering rumi’s mother had her with a demon and celine was trying to help her hide it
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Oh, the target audience was likely tweens, I’m guessing preteen girls or boys who have just enough brain to understand the plot and nuances of it, but not enough to figure out the plot holes and weak characterisation. Common tropes + insecurities does not a complex character make.
Since my nephew greatly enjoyed it, while I was only there for the songs, I think it was fine.
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The only thing I’ve got to disagree with here is people’s disregard for animation. Sad, because it’s turned into 3D slop in the recent years instead of the actual art it was once known for.
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Have you seen scavenger’s reign from max? Beautiful 2D Animation
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I have! 2D animation is my passion, and I love finding intricate cartoons.
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3D animation has been going through a lot of really nice innovation though with how much they’re going for a 2.5D look. They incorporate a lot of 2D in 3D and I don’t think it’s fair to disregard 3D animation as slop since there it’s still art and its creation is still impressive :”D
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It is definitely impressive as a medium in and of itself, and was a huge leap for animation studios. However, I’m more talking about recent 3D animation like this movie, many Pixar/Dreamworks animations, etc. Very rarely do any of them feel unique because it’s difficult to stylise 3D animation in your own special style. It’s why I like Spiderverse despite not caring or liking the plot/characters at all– I watch that over and over on mute solely to appreciate the animation.
My favourite 3D animation, that I always recommend to people like me, is likely Flow, a French-Belgian animated movie showing a forest flood from the point of view of a cat.
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I’ve had Flow on my to-watch list for a long time!
I don’t think anyone commenting here disparaged animation as a medium lol… I think it’s because I enjoy animation that I have opinions about what looks good and what doesn’t. I am speaking from an informed perspective when I say this shit is so ass
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Do watch. A similar film is Minuscule… if I spelt that right.
Nobody commenting did, no. 😉 And I responded to your other comment in agreement of the ridiculous designs. You’d think I’d forgive Jinu’s because he was supposedly based off of Cha Eunwoo and I’m some rabid aroha, but no, it did not even do that man justice. Mira looked like a bad caricature of my wife, who was not amused when I informed her of this.
What I did like was the first 5 or so minutes of the movie where it has a montage showing how the first hunters formed and then went on to show brief clips of every generation. Nicely executed. One of the two good parts of the film, aaaaand it lasted for less than 10% of it. Tragic. (The other good part was every second the frame was solely fixed on the tiger. The only character I enjoyed was him.)
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Same here. I gave them a listen and felt very underwhelmed. I’ve been making Kpop playlists for friends who enjoyed the movie and soundtrack so I can recommend similar-sounding songs (e.g. progressive house Kpop songs for the “What It Sounds Like” playlist) if they wanted some actual Kpop music.
Golden was my favorite, I think, but it sounded like a ripoff of IVE’s “I Am,” so I don’t know why I wouldn’t just listen to that song instead lol.
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The character design for this movie is the ugliest damn thing I’ve seen in a while. It’s a hard pass for me.
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Finally someone said it. I’m having trouble finding what’s appealing about them.
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Bobby was the only hot person in it.
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I haven’t watched more than these music videos, but yes, much of it was just creepy in a boring way.
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No more table flipping? 😔
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The tables are safe for now.
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Having watched the movie, there’s a reason the songs are generic I feel – they embody the tropes that the movie is trying to lampshade. Soda Pop is an empty cute trend calculated to go viral on TikTok because the Saja Boys need to get immediate TikTok-esque attention, and they’re playing specifically into boy group-related things with the design of the members – the abs, the baby-faced rapper, the flirty member, the ‘mystery’ around their public personas. Golden is, as another comment above mentioned, calculated for technically awards bait and pushes a self-empowerment message that’s explicitly contrasted with the braggy kind of kpop songs through its contrast with Takedown. Your Idol is meant to be “demonic” in its lyrics and presentation because that’s like them finally taking their masks off, so to speak.
They showed a few glimpses at the beginning of the movie about past trios of girl groups, who seem to have different styles as well, so the fact that the songs in the movie are so explicitly catered to current trends seems very calculated. I’m not saying the movie did it very well, it’s a bit too on-the-nose and I’d take the original kpop inspirations over these songs. But within the context of the movie, I liked them because it makes so much more sense as to why they are the way they are!
I’m really surprised by how much these songs are blowing up too, because I don’t think they’re anything special as a long-time kpop fan. But perhaps it’s working to introduce someone to the actual gems behind these – I’ve seen people asking for ‘boy group songs like Soda Pop’, so if that leads to someone actually discovering early Seventeen, Astro, TWS, B1A4, TXT etc. for the first time then all the better, I say!
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I enjoyed these for what they were; easily digestible songs that straddle the line between Kpop and musical theater. It’s interesting to compare their success to Kpop the Musical, which featured original songs sung by real-life Kpop idols (like Kevin Woo, who’s also in KPDH) but sounded dated. One thing KPDH does very well is harness current trends, although I don’t know whether that will translate into actual new fans.
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I enjoyed these for what they were; easily digestible songs that straddle the line between Kpop and musical theater. It’s interesting to compare their success to Kpop the Musical, which featured original songs sung by real-life Kpop idols (like Kevin Woo, who’s also in KPDH) but sounded dated. One thing KPDH does very well is harness current trends, although I don’t know whether that will translate into actual new fans.
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wow this is surprising. Nick is constantly telling us how much he dislikes beige soft music and misses the big bold music of yore, so i assumed he would enjoy how big and old-fashioned Kpop Demon Hunters is.
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For the life of me I could not understand the hype of these songs at all (not the animation).
Yes, the songs quality are quite decent for music-based animation but it really did not deserve the popularity compared to other KPOP songs musically wise.
Maybe netflix reach really did wonders and the songs are quite friendly to general public so it did achieve it purpose of making KPOP more mainstream
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i mean i personally really loved these songs and the movie itself. as an animator myself, all the really cool details especially from concept design, to animation, down to the final product is really amazing. it’s a bit sad to see the work put into the creation of this film not be appreciated by this blog and its readers especially since animation of this level is so impressive and difficult to create.
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You are talking about a movie that is beloved all over the world right now, trust me when I say no one’s going to suffer because I say that pink haired guy looks like 2x pimpy 3x bape
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I know he’s a side character with barely any lines, if I remember right, but pink-wolf-cut-guy had an absolutely diabolical design. I felt like I was looking at a heavily photoshopped Ryujin on steroids. No offence, Ryujin.
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I can’t believe they got Joel Kim Booster to voice that abomination LMAO
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Glad Nick finally wrote a post even though the content is not all too surprising. I really liked the film and the song, exactly as a pastiche, wink wink nod nod to kpop fans, nothing more or nothing less.
The opening sequence with « how it’s done » and ramyeon was both goofy and strikingly reminiscent of Blackpink. It’s only when I saw the names of Teddy & Co that I understood it was as close as possible to the real deal. Good enough for its purpose in my opinion.
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on the topic of Golden, what do you think I Am does that separates it from the Fight Song-like execution from that song and Rebel Heart? could it be that I Am showcases genuine empowerment and confidence with its thrilling production and performance?
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Loved the very fun movie. Loved the songs as part of the movie. Like them OK without the movie. Love all the social media covers. Ordered the blue tiger plushie.
Having said that, the music is more like a Grease (imitation 50s) than That Thing You Do (excellent originals in the right style) or The Harder They Come (great reggae records recorded at a peak in the genre). However, KPDH is already better than Grease because I don’t absolutely hate it with every fiber of my being. I can put Soda Pop in between Astro’s Baby and Wei’s Too Bad and it complements them.
And people are bringing up EXO, VIXX, Viviz, A.C.E, Monsta X, and Astro and non-K-pop people are curious. I think it’s good.
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Holy hell a lot of you are so gate-keeping in something that you have no ownership just because you stan a kpop group. This was a lot of people’s intro to kpop, and just to see how negative you guys are despite a lot of people saying that they are happy that this got them in. Unbearable lot.
Maybe just accept that this might help kpop break the mainstream, but no, just hipster it away!
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This comment comes quite late to the party but I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I thought I would. One of my favorite Exo songs makes a cameo (albeit too short…) ! + the translation of the songs in my first language works well, which surprised me a bit because I had this idea that the translated version of most kpop songs would always sound unbearably cheesy. As an initially wary watcher, I would recommend it.
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