I'll admit that there have been times I've been listening to those hour-long music videos (but not "music videos" you know) on YouTube, and only thought to check they were AI later. I was very disappointed to find out they were. Really wish there was attribution to the training material. The good news is that it doesn't look like this is AI, so we may just be returning to a time where physical appearance of the artist doesn't matter vs their talent.
There have been fictional bands before like the Archies or Sabrina and the Pussycats. What's old is new again. Why pay some human who will often get a big ego and a drug abuse problem too?
K-pop is probably the most commercial genre that ever existed, song written by some specialist in a studio like all the other ones targeting a very specific audience. This time there is no band with dances or whatever being used to promote the songs, that's the only difference.
I would have found it more interesting if the song topping the charts was from a VTuber or something completely computer-generated, not much like this.
Honestly, I'm not too surprised. "Fictional" bands have existed for a while and gotten a lot of attention, for example Gorillaz, and they've gotten lots of awards. Feel Good Inc. has charted extremely well in the past (apparently it only got to number 14 in the us? though they are English so maybe it didn't translate perfectly). K-Pop is also becoming more widely popular outside of Asian countries (see BTS), so I think it was inevitable. Pop/Stars by K/DA is very similar, being a kpop song by a "fictional" group, and that has had similar success in the past
I think "fictional band" is mildly clickbait when really it's "movie soundtrack". One of which goes into the charts every few years.
The film is somewhat interesting because although the premise is very anime, the animation style isn't at all. Combined with the massive resources of Sony and Netflix that makes it pretty accessible to a Western audience.
The article fails to mention that some of the songs including the lead single have vocal performance by members of Twice, consistently one of the most popular kpop groups in the past decade. So these also come with a built-in audience and not exactly out of nowhere.
It's a bit like Mariah Carey singing the soundtrack to an animated movie in the aughts or something: Yeah, that sells.
It's a little more surprising that in 2025, the BBC couldn't find a knowledgable music editor to fill this piece with relevant detail.
The vocals are typically still provided by human performers (often not named), but they've held "fan events" or given interviews using AI voice generation with models trained on the human speakers I believe.
I did not expect 2025 to be the year K-pop finally hooked me.
Completely see why Demon Hunters has taken the US charts.
I watched it for the animation (same Sony Pictures Animation studio as the Spider-Verse movies). It's breathtaking to watch if you're an animation junkie, but I was unexpectedly blown away by the soundtrack.
Every song's beautifully written and performed. It's catchy in a way that Disney stuff used to be. Yes, it's cheesy boy-vs-girl finding-yourself ultra-produced pop — but it's also just uplifting to watch. And it's full of cheek, personality, and nice production touches (like the triplet can-pull fills on Soda Pop).
The blending of English and Korean is a nice touch too, even more noticeable in the lyric videos that Sony Pictures has put out than the movie itself, which have each blown through 15-30 million views over the weekend, most of that from me.
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I would have found it more interesting if the song topping the charts was from a VTuber or something completely computer-generated, not much like this.
The film is somewhat interesting because although the premise is very anime, the animation style isn't at all. Combined with the massive resources of Sony and Netflix that makes it pretty accessible to a Western audience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F...
It's a bit like Mariah Carey singing the soundtrack to an animated movie in the aughts or something: Yeah, that sells.
It's a little more surprising that in 2025, the BBC couldn't find a knowledgable music editor to fill this piece with relevant detail.
This is lampshaded in the movie where HUNTR/X is a clear number one, Twice is #2 and then the others are WAAAY behind :)
https://youtu.be/1wGOHbcQKIc as one of various examples.
The vocals are typically still provided by human performers (often not named), but they've held "fan events" or given interviews using AI voice generation with models trained on the human speakers I believe.
Completely see why Demon Hunters has taken the US charts.
I watched it for the animation (same Sony Pictures Animation studio as the Spider-Verse movies). It's breathtaking to watch if you're an animation junkie, but I was unexpectedly blown away by the soundtrack.
Every song's beautifully written and performed. It's catchy in a way that Disney stuff used to be. Yes, it's cheesy boy-vs-girl finding-yourself ultra-produced pop — but it's also just uplifting to watch. And it's full of cheek, personality, and nice production touches (like the triplet can-pull fills on Soda Pop).
The blending of English and Korean is a nice touch too, even more noticeable in the lyric videos that Sony Pictures has put out than the movie itself, which have each blown through 15-30 million views over the weekend, most of that from me.
Golden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yebNIHKAC4A
How It's Done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGsevnbItdU
Soda Pop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=983bBbJx0Mk
Didn't expect to have the biggest laugh I've had for a movie this year (the popcorn eyes bit) and almost teared up at the end because of the music.
...And now the kids are obsessed with finding more Kpop that sounds like HUNTR/X :D