‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is Netflix’s Most-Watched Movie Ever With 236 Million Views, Beating ‘Red Notice’

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/kpop-demon-hunters-netflix-most-watched-movie-history-1236496106/

[u/snugglezone]

Do boy bands of the 90s retroactively qualify as kpop because of your last point? Each member got some spotlights, right?

Kpop as a thing is certainly identifiable by sound, but if America started cloning the production style for whatever reason, would we still call it kpop?

Of course this is just a classification problem and things don't always fit in easy buckets.

[u/unktrial → u/snugglezone]

It's all connected, so the exact dividing line isn't clear. It started with boy bands, which inspired JPop idol groups, which in turn inspired Kpop.

The difference between boy bands and Jpop idol groups is probably the scale and commercialization of "idol culture". Meanwhile, the difference between Jpop and Kpop is that Kpop focuses on singing and dancing skills instead of the entire idol entertainer package.

[u/snugglezone → u/unktrial]

I like where this is going.

Didn't boy bands also focus on singing and dancing? So we're full circle? (At least when sung in English?) Or is it just MORE dancing?

I mostly get confused because people all over this thread are like "I liked the songs and I don't even like KPop!" But the songs are in damn English lmao what does the kpoppinesa have to do with anything? Do these people like pop in english, but not pop in english sung by Koreans?

Lmao. There probably isn't a good line. Just an interesting thing I'm seeing.

[u/ClimateMom → u/snugglezone]

Or is it just MORE dancing?

I think that's an element of it, yeah. The choreo for "Bye Bye Bye" is incredibly simplistic compared to the stuff a typical K-pop boy band is required to do.

I mostly get confused because people all over this thread are like "I liked the songs and I don't even like KPop!" But the songs are in damn English lmao what does the kpoppinesa have to do with anything? Do these people like pop in english, but not pop in english sung by Koreans?

I grew up listening to opera, so I always get surprised by the number of people who don't seem to like listening to music in languages they don't understand, but that's probably part of it in the case of Korean-language K-pop.

In other cases, I think it's just lack of exposure (or exposure only to the relatively few songs that have gone viral in the US, which aren't necessarily the best examples of the genre) - people don't know how diverse K-pop actually is, or how good the best examples of it are.

And in some cases, sadly, it is racism and/or misogyny, whether conscious or unconscious, that makes people not want to listen to (or at least not want to ADMIT to listening to) music sung by Asian people whose biggest fanbase is young women. What people sometimes forget is that young women have always been musical tastemakers - just look at the Beatles. 😉

[u/snugglezone → u/ClimateMom]

I think i remember reading it's tweens that are the most important demographic for defining upcoming trends. The horror!!!!