Kpop demon hunters 

Undoubtedly, one of my hyperfixations this year is K-pop demon hunters. And I’m far from the only person. At the time of writing this, one of the songs, “Golden,” has spent its fifth week at number 1 on the Billboard charts. And it’s broken records left and right. I’ve watched the movie myself multiple times, and it’s just a beautiful and fun movie all around about friendship and being who you are. It’s a movie that has really resonated with me and millions of others. The soundtrack itself is just addictive as well. A batch of very catchy, well-crafted pop songs. The movie’s themes of friendship, trust, connection, and being yourself are well represented through the soundtrack. 

Alongside its animation and music. I really fell in love with the characters and their stories. As the main girls are so well defined and relatable, it’s kinda hard not to fall in love with these characters. 

In a soundtrack like this, pretty much every song is a fan favorite. I’ve talked to many friends about what their favorite songs are, and every friend’s list has been different. But all the songs slap that even though ones I put at the top of mine were near the bottom of others didn’t matter. Cause they all fucking slap. 

For a bit of context, K-pop Demon Hunters is a movie about a K-pop girl group called Huntr/x who are exactly as the title suggests, demon hunters. Using both the power of song as well as their own special weapons, they protect the world from demons seeking to feast on the souls of humans. They use song to power the “Honmoon,” a barrier of sorts that restricts demons from entering the world. The movie focuses on the three girls, Rumi, Zoey, and Mira, as they finish their world tour and discover that they might be able to seal the honmoon for good. All is well until a boy band of demons starts climbing the charts and damaging the barrier. And cause conflict between the members of Huntr/x.

One of my favorite things about this soundtrack is also one of my favorite things about Pop Music in 2024. It was the return of the bridge. The typical pop song structure is verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus done. I have come to the conclusion that the bridge is what really separates a great pop song from a good one. For example, possibly the best song of last year was Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck Babe.” My first bit of exposure to that song was through the bridge blowing up on TikTok. And it’s that part of the song that makes the song as unforgettable as it is. I feel that K-pop demon hunters excels at this as well. For example, fan favorites like “How It’s Done” and “Your Idol” use their bridge exceptionally well. 

On “how it’s done” they bring things back as the song’s verses and choruses are these very lively, high-energy sections filled with rapid fire phrases as the girls trade lines coming together in the chorus. The bridge is just Rumi’s voice, building tension up to its climax, which shows what a powerhouse her singing voice, EJAE, is. The instrumental mostly bows out to build up to the absolute money note that EJAE/Rumi hits. This leads into the final outro chorus. The chorus of this song, and really just the whole song, scratches an itch in my brain I can’t describe. It’s fast, and in your face, it starts the movie on such a high energy high adrenaline moment. But what I think really makes this song come together is the way the music and the action sequence it’s attached to complement each other. Pieces of the song land perfectly on the downbeat and accent the visuals. This makes the downbeat much heavier, thus giving it more weight. 

Your idol is probably the most iconic of the bridges in this movie. The production on the song itself is super tight and has a lot more moving parts than you would think. Stabbing strings, menacing brass, chanting, the drums drive the song and lay the foundation for everything else to bounce off of. It’s a trap beat through the verses, but in the pre-chorus changes for a more dramatic build. The drama of this song is such a major part of what sells it. Considering this song plays just after the climax of the film. This song fucking opens by quoting “dies irae,” the Latin poem used in Mozart’s requiem. All of this is happening before and underneath the lead vocals. The song is performed by the Saja boys, the aforementioned demon boyband. This is one of two songs that they have in the movie, and it is definitely the better of the two. All of them get to shine on this track, with them all splitting time through the verses while the leader takes over for the choruses. But it’s when they all sing in the bridge that really makes this song. A quick interlude plays before the bridge comes smashing through. Funny enough, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this song when I first heard it. But this is possibly the most fun song to sing of them. So much cool stuff happens vocally in the song. The notes in the bridge, the chorus itself. It’s all just good fun. 

I’ve said a lot already, and I have a lot more to say. I’ve talked about how much I fuck with the bridges in some of these songs. But generally, I think this movie’s soundtrack strikes such a chord with me because it’s just generally strong pop songs with real weight behind them. 

“Golden” is the big hit from this movie. And while I think it’s suffering a bit from overplay to me. It’s a definite smash hit, which we’re certainly starving for this year when it comes to mainstream pop. This song just does the formula right. Everything down to the verses is executed with such precision and energy that it’s hard not to get caught up in the music. While on the surface its lyrics aren’t that special, I think in context these lyrics are actually really interesting when the song is contrasted with the movie’s finale song. Which I’ll really dive into later in the spoiler territory. The production is crisp on all these songs. It’s got all the sheen and polish that pop as this should have. But I think that the production does a good job of not being so polished that it becomes soulless, at least for my tastes. I love the synth sounds on this song, and I love the execution of those classic looping four chords that have defined pop since the 80s. I’m eternally a sucker for a classic I-V-vi-IV chord progression. And this song to me does it well. This is probably THE track from the soundtrack that highlights the aforementioned EJAE’s vocal prowess, and that performance is, I think, why this song has had its impact. 

“Free” is the soundtrack’s token ballad. A duet between two characters, I find its production to be sparse but dreamy and ethereal, giving the vocalists space to explore the emotions of the song and their voices to fill the room. I love the atmosphere of this song, the reverb, the drums, and guitars that pop in on the chorus, just help sell this song to me. It’s another fantastic performance from not just EJAE but also Andrew Choi. Listening to them sing in harmony tickles my brain in a good way. And that bridge is just immaculate, the back and forth between them, it’s a wonderful climactic moment to bring us down the brief outro. Songs like these are all about dynamics, and those dynamics steadily build throughout the song from a soft, quiet confession into a big, full resolution. The verses are questions, an offering of hope to be found together, by facing your demons and confronting everything. And the bridge is the answer, it’s the acceptance of the bond these two characters have formed, and it functions as their resolve. 

Lastly, the song I’m gonna yap about most is my personal favorite in the movie’s soundtrack. Which is absolutely “What It Sounds Like”, an incredibly vulnerable and climactic finale to the movie’s soundtrack. The lyrics in particularly cut deep as they highlight the protagonist Rumi’s feelings at the movie’s grand finale. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

I think for me to really talk about this song, I’m gonna have to gush incomprehensibly, and I’m gonna have to dive headfirst into spoiler territory. “What it sounds like” to me is the centerpiece of the movie’s message. And its place in the film’s final act hits a home run as to why this movie resonates with so many people. This film as a whole has not only just been an entertaining movie that families can watch together that kids can love for the action, humor, and animation. But the emotional core of the film’s themes is all about being oneself. It’s a movie about rejecting the expectations people put on you and refusing to hide who you are. 

The final act of the film sees the members of Huntrix fail. Their relationship with each other is crumbling, and their attempts at trying to take down the major threat that the saja boys have become have failed. Rumi’s secret about her being half-demon has torn apart the group and reached its breaking point. Rumi’s secret gets revealed by a trick the saja boys play on them. A great betrayal after Rumi and lead saja boy Jinu had been building a significant trust with each other. With trust broken all around, Huntrix splits up after learning Rumi’s secret, and Rumi’s trust in Jinu is broken. The honmoon that they have sworn to protect is gone, and the saja boys are making their final move to feast on as many souls as possible (this is the performance of “your idol”). Just before this happens, we get a dialogue where Rumi confronts Celine, the iconic “why couldn’t you love me?” Scene. This scene has particularly struck a chord with the fans of this movie, as if you’re queer or autistic or grew up Asian. This movie’s themes of hiding and the weight of people’s expectations definitely hit. I myself have mentioned seeing myself a lot in Zoey, particularly as she’s very “me coded,” but I not only resonate with her personality but a lot of her insecurities as well. Similar to Rumi, I also carried a lot of guilt and shame around for a long time over a secret, and it absolutely destroyed me over time. Just like it does her. But I ultimately and actually in the past year have begun to open up to the people I love a lot more, and that guilt I felt has subsided. This leads us to the film’s finale. The honmoon is gone, but Rumi still chooses to confront Gwi-ma. This is when “what it sounds like” begins 

This song is all about no longer hiding from yourself. Which is also what “golden” is about. But the difference between these songs is that “what it sounds like” is truly not hiding. What makes the live performance of golden in the movie so great is that even with how much the song seems to resonate with the audience. Rumi herself isn’t being as sincere as she thinks she is. She’s singing “no more hiding” while she continues to hide. But in “What It Sounds Like,” she is literally unable to hide the part of her she’s spent years hiding. This song is a beautiful song about rising anew. It’s about breaking, seeing the damage it’s done to you, and accepting your scars. Every line of this song clicks with me on a personal level. Particularly the lines “I don’t know why I didn’t trust you to be on my side” “now I’m seeing all the beauty in the broken glass” “why did I cover up the colors stuck inside my head” “dive in the fire and I’ll be right here by your side” all of these lines get me choked up. Lyrically, this song paints a great picture of the members of Huntrix finding each other and accepting each other. And it’s them doing it in front of a stadium full of fans. It’s done publicly; they truly aren’t hiding anymore.  

Lyrically, this song is amazing, to me at least. But lyrics aren’t the only thing the song has. The performance of it from all three vocalists is incredibly emotional and sells the song’s themes incredibly well. The instrumental begins sparsely with piano quietly accompanying the verses. But the song continually builds into its climactic choruses, the crowd joins in, the three members lock into their harmonies, and synths and strings become louder and clearer. My favorite part of this instrumental is entirely the last thirty seconds. The quiet, somber but hopeful strings at the end just make me weep. It’s that simple.  The build in this song seems to be its strongest asset. What makes the line “but dive in the fire and I’ll be right here by your side” my favorite is its place in the build. It’s the end of the build to the first full chorus we get in the song, and the way the song’s progression seems to resolve on that line just makes the happy chemicals flow.  The other members entering during the first chorus is one of my favorite moments in the entire song. This part of the song helps show that there’s an understanding between the three of them, they all have regrets, they all let their doubts and shame cause them to hide. The harmonies entering on the lines “show me what’s underneath, I’ll find your harmony” is such a beautifully arranged way to show the girls come back together. 

The second verse is quite possibly the best part of the entire song. It’s the build to that resolution I talked about earlier on the lines “dive in the fire and I’ll be right here by your side” but the lead vocals and lyrics as awesome as they are, of course aren’t the only thing that’s so good about this part. The staccato backing vocals, slow, building arpeggios in the strings. The building drums make such an effective and strong build.

As I already have, I could talk A LOT about what this song specifically means to me. It’s wonderfully arranged, filled with meaning, and performed with such power and gusto. It closes the movie perfectly. 

I think this might be the time to wrap this behemoth up. To put things succinctly, this is one of my favorite releases of the year and one of my favorite movies of this year. It means a lot to me on a personal level. Watching it, I see myself and some of my own personal traits and struggles in the characters. It’s been a way for me to bond with my niece, who loves and adores this movie. It’s been a way for me to get closer to the people I call my best friends. It will always mean a lot to me for these reasons, and it luckily just has a stellar soundtrack that I can’t get enough of. I’m finally finishing this article months after starting it. I started writing this in like September, and since then it’s gotten Grammy nominations, Oscar nominations. I’m wrapping this up on Thanksgiving, and the singers for Huntrix performed at the Thanksgiving Day parade this morning. It’s been a huge cultural moment for this year. This will definitely be mentioned (but definitely not talked about as long) on my favorite releases of this year. Which will be the last big post of this year (assuming I start and finish it by the end of the year). 

Thanks to any friends, family, or complete strangers who decided to read this thing. It’s a very long and personal write-up, and I appreciate anybody who took the time to dive in with me. I hope to see you again soon.