What's Going on with KPop Demon Hunters?

From Baby Shark to Squid Game, the same strategy is producing huge overseas successes. Can others learn from the Korean model?

KPop Demon Hunters just became the most popular Netflix movie of all time. In the first ten weeks after launch, people watched it 236 million times.

Of course, you might not notice here on Substack. This platform is filled with culture pundits, but they’ve blissfully ignored the biggest streaming hit of the century.

That’s one of the trademarks of the Korean creative miracle. It succeeds despite the critics. Or let me put it more accurately: It bypasses them.

We might all learn something from that.

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Consider the case of the most popular music video of all time—the “Baby Shark” song, promoted by Seoul entertainment company Pinkfong. This maddening earworm has generated more than 16 billion views. No other video even comes close. (Number two on the list, “Despacito,” only has 8.8 billion clicks.)

I follow music criticism closely, but I’ve never read a single review of “Baby Shark.” That doesn’t matter. It flourishes in a world beyond criticism.

I’ve written extensively about lullabies—a subject I started researching 25 years ago— and know firsthand that critics don’t think much about the impact of music on children. Who knows, maybe they’re not parents.

But there’s another incongruity here. This song is targeted at babies and toddlers. But South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world—with fewer than 250,000 births per year.

So how do they get 16 billion views for a kids’ song? Why do they even try?

But they do, and succeed marvelously. This is a huge mystery, and deserves investigation.