“Soda Pop” is written to disarm you. On the surface, it’s a boy-band sugar rush with a bright hook, chanty intro, cheeky call-and-response.
Underneath, the language is predatory by design, turning a fizzy crush metaphor into soul-snatching hunger.
That’s not a fan theory; executive music producer Ian Eisendrath says the brief was to make a “super bubblegum-y K-pop boy band” single, à la BTS’s “Butter,” that secretly reads “we’re going to devour you… we feed on souls.”
In the film, the Saja Boys are literal demons masquerading as idols, and “Soda Pop” is their weaponised charm offensive.
Structurally, it’s a classic boy-group showcase: Jinu opens with a need-as-thirst conceit; Mystery, Romance, and Abby escalate it with tactile imagery; the pre-chorus locks the dependency theme; the all-member chorus stamps the slogan (“my little soda pop”).
Verse three hands energy to Baby and Abby before a light, sticky outro. English lines are interlaced with Korean for bounce and colour.
(Verse 1: Jinu; Verse 2: Mystery/Romance/Abby; Pre-Chorus: mixed leads; Chorus: All; Verse 3: Baby/Abby; Outro: Jinu).
The writing plays on appetite, repetition, and ingestion (“every drop,” “fill me up,” “fizz and pop”) to sell a teen-safe crush while subtly alluding to the film’s darker plot.
The double meaning is somewhat obvious, with multiple Reddit threads describing the chorus as a souls-as-soda metaphor (“til my soda pop fizzles out” = draining you), and even non-fandom subs call it an earworm that’s “annoying… in a loving way.”
Vocally, the record leans on clean, boy-band stacks and crisp unisons in the chorus, with just-shy-of-falsetto top harmonies to brighten the hook.
Andrew Choi and Neckwav carry the smooth pop leads; Kevin Woo’s lines add a slightly brighter sheen; Danny Chung and samUIL Lee give the track its rhythmic punctuation.
It’s tight, syllable-dense interjections that land like mini-rap breaks rather than full verses.
The sectioning above lines up with how the voices are credited for each character in the Saja Boys.
Produced by 24 and DOMINSUK with Eisendrath, the palette is bright and deliberately “harmless”: glassy polysynths doing buoyant chord lifts.
A rubbery sub that bumps without growling; clap-snare on two and four with tik-tik hats for forward motion; tiny fizz/psst SFX tucked around the post-chorus to sell the “soda” world-building; and a chant-friendly topline that begs for crowd pickup.
The dynamics are textbook earworm: light verses; pre-chorus tilt-up; a chorus that widens on first hit and returns even broader after the rap-leaning bridge.
Writer credits go to trio Vince (KOR), KUSH and Danny Chung steered the lyric voice, with 24/DOMINSUK/Eisendrath on the desk.
Within the movie, “Soda Pop” is the Saja Boys’ big introduction; an outdoor-marketplace set-piece where their “innocent” appeal stops passersby in their tracks.
It frames the song as weaponised idol pop, seducing a crowd while smuggling in the predatory subtext.
Tudum’s production notes spell this out and tie the cut to the film’s broader musical brief (K-pop as theatrical pop engineered for story beats).
Across the soundtrack, musical moments are often cut to action beats and crowd response; that formal trick (percussive hits syncing to on-screen movement, chants bleeding between diegetic crowd and track).
Commercially, KPop Demon Hunters’ soundtrack has been historic: Netflix touts four simultaneous Hot 100 top-10s and a No. 2 Billboard 200 peak for the album, with billions of streams to date.
Within that, “Soda Pop” itself has climbed into the Hot 100 top five per chart reporting.
Culturally, it’s crossed out of the fandom bubble: 2 Sept 2025 (US Open QF vs Taylor Fritz) Novak Djokovic did the “Soda Pop” dance on Arthur Ashe Stadium for his daughter’s birthday, showing how far the song has travelled.
On r/kpop and r/netflix, you’ll find people admitting it’s “unironically catchy,” “stuck in my head,” and exactly the bright, debut-era boy-group style K-pop fans recognise, right before that sound flips darker elsewhere in the OST.
Threads in the film’s subreddit pick apart the “drink every drop” imagery as literalised demon lore. Parents and teachers also report kids chanting the hook, confirming the earworm status.
There’s pushback too: detractors call it “too cringe,” and some listeners feel the rap break sits awkwardly inside the candy-coated mix.
Even fans who like it acknowledge it’s engineered to be “intentionally annoyingly infectious.”
“Soda Pop” does exactly what it set out to do: deliver a spotless boy-band single that sells romance on the surface and hunger underneath.
The performances are polished, the hook is built for group chant, and the production is shiny without getting glassy.
Whether you love or hate how sticky it is, the record is functioning on two tracks at once: radio-ready bop and narrative trap, and that’s why it has broken out of the film and into everyday life.
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