The Best Song From ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

Is “K-Pop Demon Hunters” just “Kidz Bop” K-pop? Get in. Let’s talk about it. The most popular music in America right now is coming from the film “K-Pop Demon Hunters.” It’s an animated Netflix movie about a girl group charged with saving the world and defending it against an evil boy band. I want to talk about the finale song, which is called “What It Sounds Like.” This is the song that has the most ambition, the biggest scale and maybe the most heart in all the film. You’re hearing an R&B intro sung a cappella by Rumi, the main character. It almost has a Mary J. Blige tragic heaviness to it. And then as the other singers come in, Zoey and Mira, what you end up with is something like an up-tempo club number. It doesn’t quite go full EDM, but it does feel like it’s designed for a Hamilton- esque chant along. What started as a tender, warm, introspective ballad ends up as a powerful fight song. The movie essentially focuses on a face off between Huntr/x, the good girl group, and Saja Boys, the evil demon boy band. Huntr/x has “Golden.” Saja Boys has “Soda Pop.” These songs have leapt off of the Netflix screen onto the Billboard charts. When I listen to these two main songs, I do feel like there’s something missing. The K-pop of the last 10 years has been sonically aggressive, chaotic, adventurous. But in the context of a film designed for children, that’s probably a little too much. They do feel like almost a children’s-music take on what K-pop has been, but when I hear what it sounds like, I’m hearing something different. I’m hearing what happens when folks who come from a K-pop background sense the scale of an audience that’s waiting out in the world and are trying to reach it using any tool in their tool kit.