Music Keeps Us Together. Pop Songs in Korean Television Dramas

Abstract

In the early 1990s the “trendy drama” became part of Korean TV programming. Mainly focused on a younger audience, it not only showed the modern urban life style of its protagonists searching for love, but also integrated newly composed pop music into the series, first as theme songs and later by playing musical pieces at crucial moments in the developing relationships of the young couples.This article analyzes the crucial part these songs play both in marketing a Korean series (or K-Drama), as well as in the development of its narrative, exemplified by the musical concepts of three recent series, Dokkaebi: The Lonely And Great God (2016-2017), While You Were Sleeping (2017) and Because This Is My First Life (2017). Similar to the concept of a leitmotif, once established as a song for a character, a couple or a mood, pop songs are used throughout the run of a series. They, therefore, add a new layer of meaning to a scene, not only through lyrics and music, but especially by referring to past developments and incidents, thus holding the whole series together and giving it an individual character.