{"id":4128,"date":"2025-08-17T04:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T04:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/4128\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T04:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T04:57:15","slug":"how-the-netflix-hits-golden-finally-topped-the-hot-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/4128\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Netflix hit\u2019s \u201cGolden\u201d finally topped the Hot 100."},"content":{"rendered":"

In the late summer of 1969, a song debuted on Billboard\u2019s Hot\u00a0100 that would emerge as the year\u2019s biggest hit. The final year of the \u201960s had already produced some stone classics\u2014literally: from Sly Stone<\/a> to the Rolling Stones<\/a>, plus the Beatles<\/a>, Marvin Gaye<\/a>, the 5th Dimension<\/a>, and Tommy James and the Shondells<\/a>. But this newer group\u2019s hit topped all of them. And the \u201cgroup\u201d didn\u2019t even exist.<\/p>\n

The Archies were an animated garage-rock combo. As comic-book characters, the high schoolers of the Archie universe\u2014including Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica\u2014date all the way back to the Second World War. But in 1968 and \u201969, they were also the stars of The Archie Show, a CBS Saturday-morning TV series. The Archies, the band\u2014made up of real-life session musicians, including singer-songwriters Ron Dante and Toni Wine\u2014was created to promote the TV cartoon. And like the Monkees before them, the Archies scored real hits on the Billboard charts. Co-written by Brill Building songwriter Jeff Barry<\/a> and future \u201970s hitmaker Andy Kim<\/a>, \u201cSugar, Sugar\u201d sold more than 3\u00a0million copies in 1969 alone and commanded the Hot\u00a0100 for four weeks. In December, Billboard named it the year\u2019s No.\u00a01 song<\/a>. To this day, pop critics still consider \u201cSugar, Sugar\u201d the high-water mark<\/a> of \u201960s bubblegum pop.<\/p>\n

Five and a half decades later, the dog days have once again been livened up by a cartoon combo serving up high-gloss bubblegum. In what has turned out to be an extremely dull 2025 musical summer<\/a>, we needed a rescue\u2014and South Korea has sent us, quite literally, some superheroes: the stars of Netflix\u2019s smash animated movie KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>, a power-vocalizing, monster-slaughtering girl-group trio who call themselves Huntr\/x (stylized in all-caps as HUNTR\/X and pronounced \u201cHUN-tricks\u201d). Like the Archies, Huntr\/x does not technically exist, even though actual flesh-and-blood humans performed the group\u2019s songs. That includes \u201cGolden,\u201d the soundtrack\u2019s lead single, which hit No.\u00a01 on the Hot\u00a0100<\/a> this week after a steady climb through most of the summer. Like the TV movie it came from\u2014the sleeper hit of summer \u201925, and now Netflix\u2019s second-biggest movie of all time<\/a>\u2014the stirring \u201cGolden\u201d is a reminder that televised confections have generated some of our sturdiest hits<\/a>. Synthetic pop can nourish the soul.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not claiming that \u201cGolden\u201d is a classic on par with \u201cSugar, Sugar.\u201d I\u2019m not even sure it\u2019s the best song on the KPDH soundtrack album\u2014which, like its lead single, has done serious business on the American charts this summer. Currently No.\u00a02 on the Billboard\u00a0200<\/a>, the Demon Hunters soundtrack is packed with bops: No fewer than nine of its dozen songs are currently on the Hot\u00a0100, and seven of them are in the Top\u00a040<\/a>. Some pop fans I know ride harder for the bangers from Saja Boys, who are Huntr\/x\u2019s rivals in the movie, including the all-demon boy band\u2019s infectious \u201cSoda Pop<\/a>\u201d and \u201cYour Idol<\/a>.\u201d Personally, I prefer \u201cFree<\/a>,\u201d the soulful love-ballad duet from Huntr\/x front woman Rumi and Saja Boys leader Jinu. Rather than filing this article under our regular Slate series \u201cWhy Is This Song No.\u00a01?<\/a>,\u201d I might more aptly answer the question, \u201cWhy Is This Album No.\u00a02?\u201d\u2014the movie, the soundtrack, and the whole KPDH phenomenon are what blew up our charts this summer, more than \u201cGolden\u201d per se.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not sell its flagship single short, because \u201cGolden\u201d is well-crafted inspirational pop. It\u2019s a common music-writer clich\u00e9 to describe a song as \u201csoaring,\u201d but soaring is quite literally what \u201cGolden\u201d is about, in its musical structure as well as in the lyrics of its chorus: \u201cWe\u2019re goin\u2019 up, up, up!\/ It\u2019s our moment\/ You know together we\u2019re glowin\u2019\/ Gonna be, gonna be golden.\u201d It\u2019s like an American Idol coronation song<\/a> or a Disney \u201cI want\u00a0\u2026\u201d song<\/a> run through the K-pop machine, an empowerment anthem tailored for fans to relate to it both individually and parasocially<\/a>\u2014a big theme running through KPDH, the movie, wherein pop stars\u2019 fans are their most precious asset.<\/p>\n

Huntr\/x\u2019s real-life voices are Seoul-born singers Ejae and Rei Ami and the New Jersey\u2013born Audrey Nuna\u2014all of them of South Korean descent\u2014but \u201cGolden\u201d is mostly a showcase for the supple voice of Ejae, who sings as the tormented half-demon Rumi. As with any soundtrack song derived from a musical, \u201cGolden\u201d serves as a stand-alone ditty but also contains a hint of plot. In the movie, Rumi is undergoing an identity crisis\u2014as a secret monster and as Huntr\/x\u2019s bandleader\u2014and she sings about that confusion in both English and Korean<\/a>. But even if you haven\u2019t bothered to watch the movie or don\u2019t speak Korean, the drama is self-evident. And that \u201cup, up, up!\u201d chorus will give you a boost, even if it\u2019s just to get out the door to work or summer camp, or to finish another lap on your Peloton.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp, up, up!\u201d can also describe the escalating chart performance of \u201cGolden\u201d as well as the movie soundtrack, which has been quite unusual by modern standards. In the digital era and especially the streaming era, most albums and many singles debut in their peak position and drop off from there. But that has not been the pattern for either KPDH or any of its singles. The soundtrack debuted at No.\u00a08 in early July<\/a> and has climbed to No.\u00a02 (that damned Morgan Wallen album<\/a> just keeps getting in its way<\/a>) in a seven-week chart run. The singles began their Hot\u00a0100 infiltration well below the Top\u00a040\u2014Huntr\/x\u2019s \u201cGolden\u201d started at No.\u00a081 and took another six weeks to reach No.\u00a01, while Saja Boys\u2019 \u201cYour Idol\u201d opened at No.\u00a077 and is now a Top\u00a010 hit, sitting this week at No.\u00a08.<\/p>\n

The main reason for this snowballing chart run: again, television. As a word-of-mouth hit that viewers can easily, belatedly catch up with on Netflix\u2014reportedly, its TV ratings are, amazingly, still growing<\/a>\u2014the movie feeds consumption of the songs, which spurs more movie rewatches by the young fan base and more music consumption in a virtuous cycle. Most of this consumption has occurred, predictably, on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music\u2014the biggest of the three components that make up the data for the Hot\u00a0100. On Billboard\u2019s Streaming Songs chart<\/a>, \u201cGolden\u201d has already been No.\u00a01 for three weeks and has never left the Top\u00a010. On the Digital Song Sales chart<\/a>, \u201cGolden\u201d has climbed as high as No.\u00a03 in downloads. The lagger, predictably, is the third Hot\u00a0100 component, radio. American program directors are notorious for their aversion to K-pop<\/a>, but they\u2019re gradually accepting that \u201cGolden\u201d is a for-real hit. The song still hasn\u2019t made the all-genre Radio Songs<\/a> chart, but on the Pop Airplay<\/a> list, which focuses exclusively on Top\u00a040 stations, \u201cGolden\u201d has cracked the top 20.<\/p>\n

The chart pattern this most resembles is that of the Encanto soundtrack three and a half years ago\u2014and not just because the product\u2019s main appeal is to kids. Billboard reports that \u201cGolden\u201d is the first No.\u00a01 by a fictional ensemble since the cast of Encanto\u2019s \u201cWe Don\u2019t Talk About Bruno<\/a>\u201d in the winter of 2022. Though Encanto was a 2021 theatrical movie first, it was only after the film became a televised staple on Disney+ that the Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2013penned song flew up the Hot\u00a0100. In short, you can think of Huntr\/x as a hybrid of the Encanto cast and the Archies. Like the Archies in \u201969, the fictional K-pop trio is presented as an established group worthy of real-life fandom. And like Encanto, KPop Demon Hunters is showing how streaming TV has changed the game for soundtracks as sleeper smashes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Angelina Mazza
\n Netflix\u2019s Ingenious New Hit Movie Is an Unlikely Mashup of Two Very Different Genres
\n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

By reaching the top of the Hot\u00a0100, \u201cGolden\u201d and Huntr\/x also realize several milestones<\/a> that span both fictional and nonfictional groups. It\u2019s the first No.\u00a01 in America by a female K-pop act, and the first not affiliated with seven-man boy band BTS. (The septet scored half a dozen Hot\u00a0100 No.\u00a01s, from \u201cDynamite<\/a>\u201d in 2020 to \u201cMy Universe<\/a>\u201d in 2021, as well as two more toppers in 2023, during the band\u2019s hiatus<\/a>, by soloists Jimin<\/a> and Jung Kook<\/a>.) Huntr\/x\u2019s success reinforces that K-pop has reach on the American hit parade beyond that boy-band juggernaut\u2014and, like most of BTS\u2019s hits, \u201cGolden\u201d is sung in both English and Korean, which is important to devoted K-pop fans<\/a>. And finally, \u201cGolden\u201d is the first No.\u00a01 by a girl group\u2014any girl group, of whatever nationality\u2014in nearly a quarter-century, since \u201cBootylicious<\/a>\u201d by Destiny\u2019s Child in 2001. It\u2019s sad that girl groups, which are legendary in the history of rock and soul<\/a>, have been so out of favor on the charts this century that you have to go back before Beyonc\u00e9 was a soloist to find the most recent one with a chart-topping hit. However prefabricated their origins, the ladies of Huntr\/x are part of a proud tradition.<\/p>\n

Honestly, though, the main reason we should be grateful to the Demon Hunters army is what they\u2019ve done to save us\u2014not from underworld beasties but from the summer of our discontent. To say the least, 2025 has not been 1969, hit songs\u2013wise; we needed Huntr\/x far worse than the summer of \u201969 needed the Archies. All year, the Top\u00a010 of Billboard\u2019s Hot\u00a0100 has been clogged with aging holdovers from 2024 (\u201cA Bar Song (Tipsy)<\/a>,\u201d \u201cDie With a Smile<\/a>,\u201d \u201cLuther<\/a>\u201d) or even 2023 (\u201cPink Pony Club<\/a>,\u201d \u201cLose Control<\/a>\u201d). These unkillable streaming and radio favorites won\u2019t move out of the way. And the undisputed 2025 Song of the Summer<\/a>\u2014on paper, anyway, if not in the heart of any actual carbon-based life-form\u2014is Alex Warren\u2019s snoozy, churchy ballad \u201cOrdinary<\/a>,\u201d which has racked up nine weeks atop the Hot\u00a0100<\/a> from June through early August. Even if you are the one American actually excited by Warren\u2019s wife-guy schlock, the damning thing about 2025\u2019s charts has been their predictability. As I said when \u201cOrdinary\u201d rose to No.\u00a01, Warren was expected to fill the role of Teddy Swims in 2024, and that\u2019s exactly what he did. At a time when the news headlines are often depressing, pop music has provided comfort but little joy.<\/p>\n

Well, except for KPop Demon Hunters, the one left-field pop surprise of 2025. Even its creators are gobsmacked by its success. Soundtrack supervisor Ian Eisendrath told the Hollywood Reporter that he\u2019d \u201choped for like 2\u00a0percent of the reception that we\u2019ve had<\/a>.\u201d The film and its soundtrack were a collaboration between Eastern and Western creators\u2014besides producer Eisendrath<\/a>, \u201cGolden\u201d was written by Ejae in collaboration with stage-musical songwriter Mark Sonnenblick<\/a>\u2014in a bid for global conquest. But even if the movie had succeeded with Netflix\u2019s loyal K-drama\u2013watching audience<\/a>, there was no guarantee the music would do this well with American listeners.<\/p>\n

    \n
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    I Suspected Something About Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Watching Their Podcast Only Confirmed It.
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    And Just Like That\u2026 Goes Out With One Final Turd\u2014Literally
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    More than two years after BTS took a break so its members could fulfill their mandatory South Korean military service, K-pop had been waiting for its next galvanizing crossover catalyst. Other K-pop troupes\u2014from Stray Kids<\/a> to NewJeans<\/a>\u2014have sold truckloads of collectible CDs and merch to their respective fan armies. But other than Blackpink soloist Ros\u00e9<\/a>, who scored a No.\u00a03 hit late last year dueting with Bruno Mars on the spunky \u201cApt.<\/a>,\u201d K-pop was not really penetrating the radio airwaves or the attention of the non-converted. This summer, Huntr\/x reopened the floodgates.<\/p>\n

    And\u00a0\u2026 OK, Rumi and her bandmates Mira and Zoey<\/a> are figments of our imagination\u2014but couldn\u2019t we all use a little imaginary fun right now? The fall will be dominated by the return of Taylor Swift<\/a>, but don\u2019t expect Huntr\/x or \u201cGolden\u201d to fade anytime soon. Netflix ensured the Oscars eligibility of the film and its songs by putting KPop Demon Hunters in a handful of theaters before its streaming debut<\/a> earlier this summer. So don\u2019t be surprised if Ejae, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna are taking to the Dolby Theatre stage next winter, in the hunt (ha!) for a golden (ha again!) statue. I\u2019ll be rooting for them.<\/p>\n

    Get the best of movies, TV, books, music, and more.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the late summer of 1969, a song debuted on Billboard\u2019s Hot\u00a0100 that would emerge as the year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[746,18,117,19,17,327,337,4512,127,4513,2428,4514],"class_list":{"0":"post-4128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-animation","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-musicals","16":"tag-netflix","17":"tag-pop","18":"tag-south-korea","19":"tag-why-is-this-songno1"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}