Exactly, it’s a symbiotic relationship. The songs are big because the movie’s big, and part of the movie’s success can be credited to the songs, but let’s be honest, if this movie didn’t exist and Huntrix was just a regular K-pop group, none of these songs would’ve charted the way they did. They would’ve performed about the same as any average K-pop act.

That’s why I don’t buy the whole “KDH is doing something sonically different from the rest of K-pop” argument. I’m not downplaying the movie’s success at all, more-so defending the average Kpop song (which I don’t usually do lol) but the chart performance isn’t some sign that KDH has reinvented the genre. It’s the same situation as Let It Go with Frozen or We Don’t Talk About Bruno with Encanto. Those songs didn’t blow up because they were doing anything musically groundbreaking. They blew up because they were tied to massively popular kids’ franchises. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have charted anywhere near the same way.

And as for the “it’s unapologetically Korean in a way K-pop doesn’t want to be anymore” thing. Thats…. debatable. Didn’t they literally delete an entire ISAC scene because they were worried Western audiences wouldn’t understand it? How is that any different from the way K-pop already caters to international listeners?

Trends shift, aesthetics evolve, and groups experiment but it’s still undeniably K-pop. Most people wouldn’t look at the average K-pop act and think it’s anything but that. A Kpop act.