Music director defends Boys Before Flowers soundtrack

by javabeans

We’ve all griped (more or less) about the uber-cheesiness of the Boys Before Flowers soundtrack, and so have Korean viewers.

Complaints have mostly been leveled at the overuse of the songs, rather than the quality of the songs themselves. (In fact, the individual songs are enjoying great popularity on music charts, almost on par with the drama itself.)

But now the drama’s music director, Oh Joon-sung, is coming out to defend his work from detractors.

SONG OF THE DAY

Boys Before Flowers OST – “별빛눈물” (Starlight tears) sung by Kim Yoo-kyung. By the way, I hate this song. I hate how it’s used in the drama (angst! tragedy! Sturm und Drang galore!), and I hate it on its own. On the other hand, I did get repeated requests to upload it, and this post is as good a place to put it as any. [ Download ]

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For the record, Oh Joon-sung has worked on the following dramas: sageuk King and I (which also starred Gu Hye-sun), Get Karl Oh Su-jung, long-running historical Jumong, That Woman is Scary — and yes, as we suspected, PD Jeon Ki-sang’s previous projects Witch Amusement and My Girl. Yes, I think his choices have been awful in many of these shows, but I still have to have respect for anyone who has built up a career like that. Not all series can have stellar soundtracks like Soulmate or Coffee Prince. And yet, I really, really wish someone else had gotten his job.

Oh defends his choices, saying that inasmuch as scriptwriter Kim Soo-hyun uses dialogue to express the emotions of the main characters, the drama also uses its imagery to express its emotions. Okay, point taken, although I would advise Mr. Oh to think twice about using writer Kim as an example of something done right.

He continues: “In cases where the scenes show the characters’ sadness, we increase the gravity of the music.” He particularly addresses Episodes 13 and 14, which included lots of location filming in Macau and portrays the split between characters Jun-pyo and Jan-di: “The intention was to convey their feelings more through the imagery than dialogue.”

Criticism aside, perhaps the real proof is in the pudding — Oh adds, “It’s rare that an OST sees all of its songs becoming so popular. The Boys Before Flowers OST has found all of its songs entering the pop music charts. The soundtrack’s popularity is great, but the drama comes first. A drama soundtrack is just one way of expressing its emotions.”

Hey, nobody’s arguing with the principle of the matter — that a soundtrack enhances the viewing experience. It seems Oh skirts the issue at hand, though, because even if one agrees with everything he says, the fact remains that BBF’s soundtrack has been woefully overused and abused to the extent that it’s losing its punch. It does seem they’re adding a couple new songs into the rotation for Part 2, however, so there is that.

Via Asia Economy

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