Over the previous few weeks, I’ve been requested a minimum of a dozen instances whether or not I’m going to evaluate the songs from the favored Netflix film Okay-Pop Demon Hunters. The reply continues to be “no,” although with this submit I suppose it’s form of a semi-“sure.”

I need to apologize to anybody who acquired an more and more dismissive response from me when asking this query. Don’t take it personally and it wasn’t my intent to be impolite. It’s simply that it’s come up so typically that it’s grow to be a working gag within the feedback part. Now, there’s a full submit to comprise all of the discourse!

Anyhow, as I posted on Twitter/X final week, I’m not a fan of those songs general. What’s wonderful to me is how many individuals on social media took that as an important offense, defending this mission with the identical fervor they’d decide to a flesh-and-blood idol group. I suppose I’m glad the mission has hit such a nerve, even when the music isn’t for me.

The factor is, the songs are… positive. They’re very generic and constructed upon comparatively sturdy Okay-pop tropes. There are just a few huge obstacles I can’t get previous. First, I’m not an enormous animation fan to start with — particularly this newer CGI type that merely jogs my memory of characters in an commercial for tub tissue. So, I haven’t watched the film and am probably lacking lots of essential context. Second, I dislike when huge tent tasks like this easy over any intricacies of an artwork kind (and at its greatest, Okay-pop is artwork!) to create essentially the most palatable product potential. Regardless of the preliminary intentions had been behind these songs, that sanitized high quality is what I hear at first.

Of the favored songs on the soundtrack, I suppose Soda Pop is my favourite. However because the web’s resident lover of vivid boy group ideas, I’ve heard a whole lot of songs on this soundscape and Soda Pop doesn’t do something enjoyable or fascinating sufficient to face out. It appears like a survival present competitors observe.

In the meantime, I get that followers are liking Golden as a result of it sounds a bit like IVE’s greatest hits, however to me the execution and pretend self-empowerment message really feel extra in step with Rachel Platten’s Battle Tune — a observe I’ve a severe distaste for. I simply can’t get previous this. I discover it actively annoying.

Then there’s Your Idol, which is simply too cringe for me to take pleasure in. If an precise idol group had carried out it, I would be capable of look previous the lyrics however it simply appears like the obvious Okay-pop pastiche in an eye-rolling method.

So… yeah. In some methods I needs to be the target market for this complete mission however the music has fallen flat for me and I don’t actually see why it’s grow to be so well-liked (past the plain attain of Netflix).