{"id":60268,"date":"2025-12-12T15:41:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=60268"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:41:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:41:47","slug":"music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Benjamin Bergey<\/strong> says the three heroines at the heart of Netflix\u2019s latest megahit, <em>KPop Demon Hunters<\/em>, are like allegorical music and peacebuilders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey use their singing to defeat the darkness, the evil,\u201d said Bergey, associate professor of music at EMU and architect of its distinctive\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/music\/peacebuilding\">Music and Peacebuilding<\/a> undergraduate major. \u201cI thought, <em>This is a big hit right now. What if we rewrote the lyrics and made a parody?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s exactly what he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Late one night at the office during EMU\u2019s Fall Break last month, Bergey sat down and, in a flurry of creative inspiration, started writing the lyrics to a parody of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yebNIHKAC4A\">Golden<\/a>,\u201d one of the hit songs from the popular animated film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wrote something up and then thought, <em>It would be even better if we had a video to go with it<\/em>,\u201d recalled Bergey. \u201cI remembered that <strong>Isaac (Andreas) <\/strong>makes parody music videos. I sent him the audio and said, \u2018This is a crazy idea, what do you think?\u2019 And then he got to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe asked me if I would be interested, and of course I was. I was super excited,\u201d said Andreas, who graduated from EMU in 2022 with computer science and mathematics degrees. \u201cThis is the kind of stuff I do for fun, for free, and he was going to pay me for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andreas, a computer programmer and videography hobbyist living in Harrisonburg, produced, filmed, and edited the video. Nearly all of the filming, other than some B-roll footage, was shot from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6. He spent the following three days editing the video using a free tool called DaVinci Resolve. The video released on the EMU Music Department\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EMUDeptMusic\">Facebook page<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@EMUDeptMusic\/videos\">YouTube channel<\/a> on Thursday, Dec. 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to Bergey, who lends his singing chops, the video features EMU students and Chamber Singers members <strong>Elie Hoover<\/strong>, <strong>Ciela Acosta<\/strong>, and <strong>Samuel Castaneda<\/strong> in leading roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some behind-the-scenes trivia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The family seen at the start of the video is that of EMU Professor <strong>Daniel Showalter<\/strong>. \u201c(His two daughters) were the first people to tell me about <em>KPop Demon Hunters<\/em>,\u201d said Andreas. \u201cThey were like, \u2018This is the hit of the summer.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bergey said his two children have been scared to watch <em>KPop Demon Hunters <\/em>but have been watching the parody music video \u201con repeat.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One of the scenes in the music video was filmed in the \u201crave room\u201d of a house near campus. Andreas said his friends, who are renting out the property, let him film at the house for free.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt14205554\/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_kpop\">KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> <\/em>is Netflix\u2019s most-watched title of all time. It spent eight straight weeks at No. 1 in the Netflix Top 10. \u201cThat\u2019s part of why we thought this would be a good idea,\u201d Bergey said. \u201cMany of our videos reach viewers older than college age, but to connect with prospective students, we need to reach younger viewers. This seemed like a fun way to get the algorithm to reach them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Watch the music video below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peaceful (Golden Parody) | EMU Music and Peacebuilding\" width=\"848\" height=\"477\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J-eijzs8Tjw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benjamin Bergey says the three heroines at the heart of Netflix\u2019s latest megahit, KPop Demon Hunters, are like allegorical music and peacebuilders. \u201cThey use their singing to defeat the darkness, <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":60269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,7931,5583,17562,5183,4513,14139,5730],"tags":[5753,17694,18743,18746,18742,17216,18072,18744,18745],"feature":[17427,17426,17241,17422],"class_list":["post-60268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-arts","category-campus-community","category-digest","category-music","category-student-life","category-student-profiles","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-alumni","tag-benjamin-bergey","tag-golden","tag-isaac-andreas","tag-kpop-demon-hunters","tag-music","tag-music-and-peacebuilding","tag-parody","tag-peaceful","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature","feature-news-landing-page-main-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Benjamin Bergey says the three heroines at the heart of Netflix\u2019s latest megahit, KPop Demon Hunters, are like allegorical music and peacebuilders. \u201cThey use their singing to defeat the darkness,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T20:41:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T20:41:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\",\"name\":\"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-12T20:41:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-12T20:41:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":854},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\",\"name\":\"Ryan Cornell\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News","og_description":"Benjamin Bergey says the three heroines at the heart of Netflix\u2019s latest megahit, KPop Demon Hunters, are like allegorical music and peacebuilders. \u201cThey use their singing to defeat the darkness,","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2025-12-12T20:41:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-12T20:41:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":854,"url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ryan Cornell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan Cornell","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/","name":"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-12-12T20:41:46+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-12T20:41:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/12\/12151339\/DSC07883.jpeg","width":1280,"height":854},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/music-departments-kpop-demon-hunters-parody-video-blows-up\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Music Department\u2019s \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parody video blows up"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf","name":"Ryan Cornell"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60271,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60268\/revisions\/60271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60268"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=60268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}