OkPop Demon Hunters’ fictional bands have change into a number of the hottest musical acts on the planet because the Netflix animated movie launched in June–but earlier than Huntrix and Saja Boys had been tearing up the charts, a quartet of League of Legends characters had been making waves in digital Ok-pop.Even earlier than OkPop Demon Hunters was launched, the movie’s fictional Ok-pop band was seeing comparisons to Riot Games’ digital lady group, Ok/DA. It’s not a stretch to identify the similarities–two animated lady teams releasing catchy Ok-pop anthems in between combating enemies with signature weapons and battle costumes. Even a number of the costumes and shade schemes really feel acquainted, and each teams have collaborated with real-world Ok-pop lady group Twice.Though it feels doubtless that the workforce behind OkPop Demon Hunters was impressed by Ok/DA, it hasn’t commented a lot on the comparability. One of the one official references to Ok/DA comes from OkPop Demon Hunters’ music supervisor Ian Eisendrath, who confirms that Riot’s digital band was “one of our many influences” for Huntrix’s musical sound. Eisendrath provides that Ok/DA was simply one in all “8-12 references” that was primarily used to “envision what these songs could sound like.”No matter what stage of inspiration Ok/DA had on OkPop Demon Hunters, the Riot Ok-pop undertaking proved nearly seven years in the past that followers would get behind a digital lady group.Made up of League champions Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai’sa, every member of Ok/DA is voiced and carried out by a real-world pop artist. American artists Madison Beer and Jaira Burns present the singing voices for Evelynn and Kai’sa, respectively, whereas members of Ok-pop group I-dle (previously (G)I-dle) Miyeon and Soyeon voice Ahri and Akali, respectively. The group is structured like a basic Ok-pop lady group, with every member having a performing power, and so they mirror sure Ok-pop archetypes in character and elegance.Ok/DA was fashioned again in 2018 as a gap act for the League of Legends World Championship–and as a car to promote their shiny popstar outfits as skins. The single and music video launched the identical day as Ok/DA’s debut augmented-reality efficiency in Incheon, South Korea, and rapidly took off.The debut single, Pop/Stars, charted at primary on the Ok-pop music charts and quantity 5 on the general pop charts for Apple Music within the US, in addition to topping Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart. The music video went viral on YouTube, reaching over 100 million views in its first month. Despite being a pretend band, Ok/DA made historical past by turning into the primary Ok-pop lady group to have a single licensed platinum with Pop/Stars. Viranda Tantula, the artistic lead on the opening ceremony efficiency, defined in an interview that Pop/Stars’ success was all about dedication to the “fantasy of the champs being in the real world.” In order to promote this fantasy, Tantula defined, they needed to create a pop music that stands up towards real-world pop music and a efficiency that competes with real-world stadium-level pop.Despite how a lot went into Ok/DA’s debut, it initially wasn’t supposed to be any greater than the one single. “We really went into it wanting to make the singular moment as dope as possible and intentionally weren’t thinking much further into the future than that,” Tantula mentioned in the identical interview. When Pop/Stars began taking off, far eclipsing something the Riot music workforce had launched beforehand, Tantula says the workforce began “chatting about where this could go.”Ok/DA was quiet for some time after their debut, although they remained in style with followers who created artwork, cosplay, and dance covers for Pop/Stars–and spent loads of money on Ok/DA skins. After two years of hypothesis, the group lastly returned with a bang in 2020, releasing the five-song EP All Out and as soon as once more gracing the Worlds opening ceremony with an augmented-reality efficiency of lead single More.While not one of the All Out tracks reached the viral peak that Pop/Stars noticed, the EP carried out effectively as a musical launch in its personal right–with play counts on Spotify similar to Huntrix’s discography on the time of writing.Riot hasn’t revisited Ok/DA because the All Out release–though it did experiment with a boy band, Heartsteel, and an Akali-led aspect undertaking, True Damage, all of which exist in the identical alternate universe of League of Legends lore. The rise of OkPop Demon Hunters appears to have introduced followers again to Ok/DA, nevertheless: The Pop/Stars YouTube feedback are full of people that say they’re watching due to OkPop Demon Hunters, whereas the Ok/DA subreddit is filled with Huntrix/Ok/DA mashups and fan artwork.Some followers who had been launched to Ok-pop by the Netflix movie even seem like leaping to Ok/DA for his or her subsequent fictional Ok-pop repair. Though this might simply be as a result of each bands have an identical sound, there’s an argument to be made that digital acts could also be much less intimidating for first-time followers who aren’t prepared for the complexity of real-world Ok-pop fan tradition. No matter the rationale, each Ok/DA and Huntrix have confirmed themselves profitable gateway artists for followers who’ve by no means engaged with Ok-pop earlier than.The similarities between Ok/DA and Huntrix could also be plain, however there’s one main factor that units the 2 teams aside: Ok/DA is a digital Ok-pop group, whereas Huntrix does not exist outdoors of the narrative of OkPop Demon Hunters–for now. The distinction is the self-esteem that Ok/DA is a band that actually exists in our world–they’ve carried out stadium exhibits, filmed music movies, and even held interviews and addressed followers straight through social media. Riot’s dealing with of Ok/DA as a digital band supplies a template that Netflix may very effectively observe with OkPop Demon Hunters. In a Reddit AMA with members of the OkPop Demon Hunters workforce, a fan requested if Huntrix and Saja Boys may change into bona fide digital bands, and music supervisor Ian Eisendrath replied, “I would love that.”Just like Ok/DA earlier than them, each Huntrix and Saja Boys are blowing up the charts proper now–going face to face with a number of the hottest actual Ok-pop teams. Huntrix surpassed Blackpink because the highest-charting Ok-pop lady group when it hit quantity two on the US Spotify charts, whereas Saja Boys surpassed the likes of BTS and Stray Kids to change into the highest-charting Ok-pop boy group. There’s no phrase but on Netflix’s plans for both fictional group, nevertheless it’s not exhausting to image them promoting out stadiums.
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