Kpop Demon Hunters arguably gave us not just the song of the summer, but the soundtrack of the year. Sound like hyperbole? It's been months since the animated musical was released this summer and it shows no signs of slowing down. Thanks to word-of-mouth and some early guerrilla-style marketing, viewership for the film snowballed so unexpectedly and so quickly that it now holds the distinction of being Netflix's most-watched original title ... EVER, with more than 236 million views as of late August.
Now, with Halloween upon us, it seems kids everywhere are eager up to dress up as Rumi, Mira, Zoey, or any of the other memorable characters from the film. At the same time, the singing voices of HUNTR/X have been making the rounds on late night TV ahead of what is arguably a campaign to get in front of the voting bodies during awards season next year. Last but not least, we have the release of EJAE's new single, "In Another World."
It's about time time we finally dove into what exactly makes KPOP Demon Hunters so successful and so sticky in pop culture.
Listen to hear our discussion on:
How Kpop Demon Hunters capitalized on fandom culture
The power of word-of-mouth and YouTube reactors
Kevin Woo's marketing advantage as a real-life K-pop idol
The choice of original songs vs. needle drops from existing K-pop groups
EJAE's career in K-pop mirroring Rumi's character arc story
Kids, families and keeping K-pop accessible
Our takes on the real inspo for HUNTR/X and Saja Boys
It's a K-pop Thing is hosted by two journalists and longtime K-pop stans, Alexis Hodoyán-Gastélum and Theresa Avila.
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