Image: Netflix Tudum / X (Twitter)

For the second time in history, after a 13-year gap following PSY’s viral success with ‘Gangnam Style’, a K-pop single has climbed to the Number 1 spot on the UK charts. The difference this time, however, is that the group behind the chart-topping track does not exist.

Huntr/x, the animated girl group at the heart of Netflix’s original film KPop Demon Hunters, have taken the UK by storm. Their breakout single ‘Golden’ has now spent five consecutive weeks at Number 1, marking a historic achievement not only for K-pop but also for fictional, animated acts in the music industry.

Huntr/x’s chart run comes at a time when K-pop has been steadily rising in global influence over the past decade. Groups like BTS, BLACKPINK, and Twice have headlined stadium tours, topped Billboard charts, and brought the genre firmly into the Western mainstream. Acts such as Stray Kids and NewJeans are also helping expand K-pop’s reach, drawing in new audiences with each release.

Released in June, KPop Demon Hunters quickly became Netflix’s most-watched animated film of all time, ranking as the platform’s fourth most-streamed film across all genres. The movie follows Rumi, played by Arden Cho of Teen Wolf, Mira (Kim Hong), and Zoey (Yoo Ji-yeon) as they balance life as international pop stars with a secret identity as demon hunters battling supernatural forces. Within the narrative, Huntr/x share the stage with their fictional rivals, boy band Saja Boys, whose track ‘Your Idol’ currently sits at Number 3 in the UK charts.

Much of this success reflects the changing landscape of music consumption. Where chart dominance once relied heavily on radio play, today’s trends are shaped by streaming platforms and the viral momentum of TikTok. ‘Golden’ currently boasts over 575m streams, and a remix by David Guetta has added further fuel to its global reach.

Behind the fictional facade of Huntr/x are some of the biggest real-world names in pop production. Teddy Park of THEBLACKLABEL — known for his work with BLACKPINK — and Grammy Award-winning producer Lindgren, who has collaborated with John Legend, Dua Lipa and BTS, crafted the tracks. Vocals are provided by Korean singer-songwriter Ejae, whose credits include Red Velvet and EXO, alongside American-Korean artists Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, both known for genre-bending projects and collaborations with the likes of Jack Harlow and Aminé.

This is not the first time a virtual band has made waves in the charts. Gorillaz pioneered the concept of a fictional band with real-world impact in the early 2000s, while the novelty hit ‘Axel F’ by Crazy Frog reached Number 1 in the UK in 2005. Yet Huntr/x’s success feels distinct, arriving at a moment when digital culture, streaming platforms and global fandoms are more powerful than ever.

K-pop has always emphasised carefully crafted idols, and Huntr/x take that idea a step further. As animated characters, they cannot age or stray from the image fans expect, which only adds to their appeal. In today’s streaming-driven music world, where digital culture and fandom shape the charts, their success shows how fictional acts can now compete with — and even surpass — real artists.

KPop Demon Hunters is more than a film soundtrack. It represents a full-fledged transmedia phenomenon, blurring the line between reality and fiction while reshaping the possibilities of what it means to be a global pop act.

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]]> https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/animated-k-pop-group-huntrx-tops-uk-chart-for-fifth-week/feed/ 0 https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/radiohead-back-on-the-billboard-after-17-years-with-tiktok-smash-hit/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/radiohead-back-on-the-billboard-after-17-years-with-tiktok-smash-hit/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2025 16:01:16 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=112552 28 years after its release, ‘Let Down’ has entered the Billboard Hot 100 at 91 this week. This comes after the song has gone viral on TikTok with people tapping into the raw unfiltered emotion behind Thom Yorke’s voice and lyrics. 

The irony of this is that ‘OK Computer’ is an album which plays on many themes, one being the feeling of technology moving too fast to keep up with. How captivating it is, that this very thing has recycled ‘Let Down’ into the Hot 100 once again.

TikTok is fast moving, constantly updating and changing, possibly leaving many in society in a grey area about the current trends or the channels through which something becomes popular. The title of the album itself is a play on words, it suggests that there’s a false narrative that computers make things ok, but the album dives deeper and leaves you feeling the opposite.

Speaking to The Rolling Stone in 2017 Yorke spoke about writing the album “I was getting into the sense of information overload…Which is ironic, really, since it’s so much worse now.” 

The 90s music scene was dominated by positivity. The rise of Britpop, bands like Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Suede echoed the changing of the times with bouncy tracks to get people on their feet and celebrating life. Radiohead were different. It was the opposite for the band from Oxfordshire, they instead thought life was going too fast, spiralling out of control. Listening to Radiohead you aren’t told to roll with it, instead you’re the person looking through the window from the inside out, windows big enough to see out of, but small enough hat people can’t see you within. The band are highlighting an imperfect existence in what Yorke thought was an overwhelming reality. Instead of looking forward to waking up in the year 2000, there’s this idea of worry and anxiety about what form the next century will assume.

‘Let down’ itself is a beautiful track, a journey into melodic intimacy,  oscillating through the toils of the 90s as the person who spectates as life passes by. The opening line of the song “Transport, motorways and tramlines” immediately delves into the overwhelming abundance of transport options, it’s significant that this comes first, as a listener you’re being thrown into the deep end immediately, bombarded with routes of travel.

The song is calm in its melody but builds and builds, until the floor collapses and you’re falling, crushed like a bug in the ground. The single glimmer of hope on the lyric sheet “one day i am gonna grow wings” is buckled by Thom Yorke’s melancholic tone.

Today’s younger generation are connecting with the song and the band, likely because of the relation to not knowing what direction to turn next, or feeling a lack of significance in such a fast paced society. The song was also featured in hit Disney Plus series ‘The Bear’, during a scene centred around confessing feelings. This further introduced it to an unexposed generation of Radiohead fans in waiting.

Radiohead’s last music success came in 2016 with their album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool.’ The band don’t currently have any plans to go back on tour,  but after a surprise release of a live album this month, maybe we can all hope to see ‘Let down’ live on stage again soon.

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