How Korea Took Over the World

Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Growing up in Toronto, Maggie Kang felt she needed to conceal her obsession with H.O.T., the mid-1990s idol group whose tightly synchronized choreography, chantable hooks and lurid crimson hair — sometimes topped with ski goggles — helped define the template for modern K-pop. “I had to hide that I liked K-pop,” says Kang, co-writer and co-director of KPop Demon Hunters . “Even my Asian friends thought it was lame. But it was just part of me — it wasn’t escapism, it was identity.” These days, Kang no longer is hiding. On March 15, her hyperkinetic animated Netflix hit — in which a K-pop girl group, Huntrix, juggles global superstardom while slaying soul-eating demons disguised as a rival boy band — made history by winning best animated feature at the Academy Awards. Its self-affirmation anthem, “Golden,” currently being belted by 10-year-olds and their parents from Los Angeles to Osaka, became the first tune by a K-pop act ever to win best original song. Related Stories TV "BTS 2.0 Is Just Getting Started": K-pop Supergroup Makes Grand Return to Global Stage With Netflix Event Movies German Star Christian Ulmen Accused of Revenge Porn Against Ex-Wife Accepting the award, Kang tearfully apologized that it took so long “for those of you who look like me” to see themselves represented in such a film. It wasn’t the Academy’s first encounter with K-culture — Parasite won best picture six years ago — but Sunday’s wins felt different, as if a wave that had been building for years had finally crested. Korean culture has been filling stadiums, with BTS and Blackpink drawing crowds once reserved for Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Industry analysts put K-pop net export revenue — including album sales, touring receipts, streaming royalties — at an estimated ...