<\/p>\n
As it turns out, \u201880s pop star Kate Bush<\/a> and fictional girl group Huntr\/x from \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d<\/a> have a lot in common.<\/p>\n Over the last several years, Netflix<\/a> has positioned itself as one of the few video streaming services focused on making an impact in the music industry. <\/p>\n From the surprise revival of older songs like Bush\u2019s \u201cRunning Up That Hill\u201d<\/a> and Metallica\u2019s \u201cMaster of Puppets\u201d in shows like \u201cStranger Things,\u201d<\/a> to streaming the most originally produced music documentaries, there\u2019s no doubt Netflix\u2019s audience is musically in tune.<\/p>\n Last summer Netflix hit another level with the overwhelming success of \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/a> The animated movie, featuring fictional K-pop idols who fight the forces of evil, has become the most streamed Netflix movie<\/a> with more than 480 million views since its release in June. But its success wasn\u2019t limited to the viewership. <\/p>\n The soundtrack, full of punchy K-pop melodies and inescapable earworms, is the first to top the Billboard charts since 2022, when Disney\u2019s \u201cEncanto\u201d created a similar frenzy. Huntr\/x is also up for five Grammys at the awards ceremony Sunday. <\/p>\n The breakout single, \u201cGolden,\u201d which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is nominated for song of the year, the first time a Netflix production has been nominated in one of the Grammys\u2019 big four categories.<\/p>\n Music and movies always have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Think of classic tunes like \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d and \u201cMy Heart Will Go On\u201d in \u201cTitanic\u201d that became generational hits. <\/p>\n Now, Netflix and other global streaming platforms have taken the synergy to another level, creating new opportunities for recording artists to showcase their music.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, people are discovering music they didn\u2019t know before,\u201d said Ian Eisendrath, the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d music supervisor. \u201cI think that people got hooked on the film, which hooked them on the soundtrack, which led to the discovery of other music.\u201d<\/p>\n Eisendrath said the movie, produced by Culver City-based Sony Pictures Animation, was not expected to be \u201ca slam dunk commercial success. It was a risk.\u201d <\/p>\n Though geared toward children, the movie drew a vast audience of all ages. <\/p>\n \u201cIt hit all kinds of angles, the music, the story, the characters, the visuals \u2014 [Netflix] was very interested in a film that would have wide-ranging appeal to all the quadrants of movie watchers,\u201d Eisendrath said.<\/p>\n In the streaming era, music supervisors like Eisendrath play an increasingly important role in the success of projects like \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d said Robert Fink, the chair of music industry programs at UCLA\u2019s Herb Alpert School of Music.<\/p>\n He said over the last 10 years, the role has become about more than just finding a song to match a scene..<\/p>\n \u201cThey nurture artists in the way that record labels used to do,\u201d Fink said. \u201cThey have artists that nobody knows about, or can get some people to write songs for [the project], which might then become a way that those artists and those songs become successful in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The singing voices behind Huntr\/x aren\u2019t those of the lead actors. They belong to rising musicians Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. Ejae has written songs for major K-pop groups like Twice, Le Sserafim and Red Velvet, while Nuna and Ami have experience as solo artists. <\/p>\n Though they weren\u2019t a group before the film, they have since performed together on the \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,\u201d \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d and in the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade.<\/p>\n The soundtrack earned global appeal, with more than two thirds of its streams originating from outside the U.S., according to data from entertainment industry analytics firm Luminate. \u201cGolden\u201d scored a record 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global charts. The popularity of the movie and its music helped boost music consumption on a global scale. <\/p>\n \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d already is faring well this awards season: It won two Golden Globes and received two Oscar nominations<\/a> for best animated feature and original song.<\/p>\n Justin Kamps, the music supervisor on \u201cBridgerton,\u201d<\/a> noticed a similar trend when new seasons of the Regency-era<\/a> romance series drop. The period piece is famous for playing quaint orchestral covers of contemporary pop artists such as Billie Eilish, Pitbull and BTS. Its latest season is set to feature covers of Third Eye Blind, Coldplay and Usher. <\/p>\n According to Spotify, both the Vitamin String Quartet, the group behind the covers, and the original artists\u2019 songs, like Eilish\u2019s \u201cHappier Than Ever\u201d and BTS\u2019 \u201cDynamite,\u201d experienced spikes in listening after the show\u2019s release.<\/p>\n \u201cMusic and streaming has grown together. It\u2019s great for artists, because the moment that a song is featured in a project, it could be an incredible boost to their streaming numbers and get them discovered,\u201d Kamps said.<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the most memorable examples of this dynamic happened in 2022, when \u201cStranger Things\u201d<\/a> featured Bush\u2019s \u201cRunning Up That Hill.\u201d Overnight, everything changed for both Bush and Netflix<\/a>. <\/p>\n Nora Felder, the show\u2019s music supervisor, called the moment \u201cthe perfect storm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt exploded through the stratosphere. We didn\u2019t expect that. We were focused on looking for something that told the narrative. It felt like it had been bigger than ever before,\u201d Felder said. <\/p>\n \u201cRunning Up That Hill\u201d received roughly 22,000 daily streams on average before it was featured in the show, according to Luminate. Following its star turn, the song it peaked at 5.1 million streams in a single day \u2014 nearly 40 years after its release. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and hit 1 billion streams in 2022. The track then spawned viral trends on TikTok and pulled the \u201880s star into contemporary pop culture.<\/p>\n