The Biggest Name in K-Pop Isn't BTS. It's Netflix.

Fictional idol bands in 'KPop Demon Hunters' have hit heights never achieved by their human counterparts

- Timothy W. Martin & Soobin Kim

After nearly a decade in a K-pop boy band, Kevin Woo returned home to the U.S. four years ago, looking to expand his musical career outside South Korea. His monthly Spotify listeners, until recently, stood at about 10,000.

Now, it's around 20 million.

The reason? Netflix's No. 1 movie globally, "KPop Demon Hunters," an animated film with girl-group protagonists and boy-band baddies. Two of the film's tracks have sat atop the U.S. Spotify's most-streamed songs—feats never before achieved by BTS, Blackpink, or any other K-pop group, real or imagined.

That's delivered a harsh reality to a genre seeking reinvention: Fictional bands have gotten popular faster in the U.S. than humans ever did.

The triumph comes as the broader music industry grapples with unconventional entrants, like bogus hits created by AI claiming to be authentic.

Woo provides the singing voice for Mystery, one of the five members of the film's soul-stealing Saja Boys. On a recent day, he was relaxing with a friend at a hotel pool in the Los Angeles area when a Saja Boys song started playing.

Some children began dancing, prompting Woo's friend to ask: "Do you want to meet the actual Saja Boy?"

They shrieked and asked for an autograph, which Woo obliged. He signed his own name next to Mystery Saja.

"It feels very surreal because I play a fictional character," said Woo, 33. "They don't recognize me as Kevin Woo or a K-pop artist."