Hey everyone,
I'm sorry I've gone a week without posting anything - I've been busy, as well as at a loss as to where to start with this whole thing!!! But after listening to the lovely OST tracks from Mary Stayed Out All Night, I decided to start with the music for the drama. That and I write a blog about music (mostly Korean pop music at the moment), called Mixtapes and Liner Notes (go visit please! :D), so I figured this would be a good place to start.
Now, if any of you read Dramabeans, you may remember a comment by girlfriday about the drama's OST, and how it wasn't very indie for a drama about an indie band. She also compared the OST to that of Coffee Prince, which was very indie pop. (I don't remember when/where she said it, but I think it was in their last podcast). I remember disagreeing a little because Absolute Mu-gyul is an indie band by definition, even though they mostly play rock music. Also, indie is a very broad term, and can encompass everything from dreamy indie pop a la Coffee Prince to hard rock to alternative electro music, so I don't really see how they're not indie. Finally, I actually listened to the Coffee Prince soundtrack, and I realized that Absolute My-gyul sounds very much like Tearliner, who have a number of songs on the OST.
That being said, the drama's OST overall is not very indie: save the original songs written for Absolute Mu-gyul/Mu-gyul to play, everything else was done by a pop artist. So I see her point. And now I'm wondering what kind of music would have been better for the drama. I definitely would have hired an indie producer to be the sole producer of the music, and left off featuring big names like TRAX and KARA's Seung-yeon in favor of lesser known artists. I recently gushed about the My Princess OST, which is mostly indie, and one band in particular, Every Single Day, seemed like they would be a good fit (check out their song for My Princess, Sunset) - or Tearliner. Also, for a cute song to suit Maeri's character (though I'm thinking of changing her characterization slightly, so cute might not be appropriate), I would have gone with Yozoh and had her write the song herself. And I would have gotten rid of the creepy marriage song, and cut out the meows in the song called "Mu-gyul's Theme" which I think is absolutely adorable.
Finally, I honestly wish that the band had more songs. While I love "Take Care Of My Bus" they played it so often that it got old real fast. In reality, if a band has such a limited repertoire (which seemed odd since they managed to perform in packed clubs every time they had a gig) they do cover songs. Imagine the awesomeness of a Boohwal cover, or the hilarity of a k-pop cover in a karaoke bar. (I am totally writing a scene for that now :)
Anyway, those are my thoughts - what do you think? Which artists would you have liked to see on this drama's OST? Do you think the music concept as a whole could have been better utilized in the drama? Or did you like the music as is?
