The Era Of Simplicity: Drama With Plain Stories And K-pop With Easy-listening Songs

tvN’s hit “Queen of Tears” gathers all the materials that are considered cliché in dramas, such as chaebol fights, incurable diseases and secrets of birth. As a result, its developments are rather obvious. Taking a closer look, viewers can find some nonsense details but they keep watching it and the rating has even exceeded 21.6%.

It’s the same as Netflix’s series “Chicken Nugget”. It’s a comic mystery project about the girl Choi Min-ah accidentally turns into a chicken nugget and the journey of her father Choi Seon-man and intern Go Baek-joong, who has a crush on her, trying to turn her back into a human. Despite the absurd story of a human becoming a chicken nugget in the webtoon, the director followed the original work closely and created such unrealistic content. However, the drama became viral and ranked No.3 in the fourth week of March on Kinolights.

Dramas with plain stories are eventually watchable because they tend to provide endings that satisfy viewers’ fantasies and expectations. In the modern day, where people are already tired of their work, these kinds of dramas help them forget about the worries in reality and feel a sense of liberation. 

In the music industry, “easy-listening songs” has also become a new trend in recent years. This year, singers such as BIBI, HYBE’s new boy group TWS, and RIIZE have been competing fiercely. All of them are currently dominating the top spots. BIBI’s “Bam Yang-gang” topped real-time and daily charts in major Korean music charts, while TWS’s “plot twist” won four music shows and entered Top 10 in music charts. With “Love 119”, RIIZE continued to rise on charts for five consecutive weeks since its release and ended up reaching No.4 on Melon’s weekly chart.

Apart from the focus on fandom and performance-oriented music, creating trendy songs that listeners cannot forget is also important. In the case of solo artists, IU and Taeyeon were the only singers who could sweep the charts, while boy groups failed to maintain high positions for a long time. With the success of BIBI, TWS, and RIIZE, the public has begun to prefer songs with easy-listening melodies.

This is also why more and more singers are “sampling” music from the 2000s because those melodies have been so familiar to the public. NewJeans, Fifty Fifty, etc. are examples of this method. NewJeans emerged as a rising star with their retro sensibility through “Ditto”, “Hype Boy”, etc. Although easy-listening songs receive mixed reviews from K-pop lovers in general, it is undeniable that its effect is significant.