Over the previous few weeks, I’ve been requested at the very least a dozen instances whether or not I’m going to overview the songs from the favored Netflix film Okay-Pop Demon Hunters. The reply remains to be “no,” although with this submit I assume it’s type of a semi-“sure.”
I wish to apologize to anybody who obtained 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 usually that it’s turn into a operating gag within the feedback part. Now, there’s a full submit to include all of the discourse!
In any case, as I posted on Twitter/X final week, I’m not a fan of those songs total. What’s superb to me is how many individuals on social media took that as an excellent offense, defending this venture with the identical fervor they’d decide to a flesh-and-blood idol group. I assume I’m glad the venture has hit such a nerve, even when the music isn’t for me.
The factor is, the songs are… fantastic. They’re very generic and constructed upon comparatively sturdy Okay-pop tropes. There are just a few massive 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 a number of vital context. Second, I dislike when massive tent tasks like this clean over any intricacies of an artwork type (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 firstly.
Of the favored songs on the soundtrack, I suppose Soda Pop is my favourite. However because the web’s resident lover of shiny boy group ideas, I’ve heard tons of of songs on this soundscape and Soda Pop doesn’t do something enjoyable or fascinating sufficient to face out. It seems 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 keeping with Rachel Platten’s Struggle Music — 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 get pleasure from. If an precise idol group had carried out it, I’d be capable of look previous the lyrics however it simply looks 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 venture however the music has fallen flat for me and I don’t actually see why it’s turn into so standard (past the apparent attain of Netflix).