Our Ballad Season 2 - Episode 1

A pop ballad that Won Mi-yeon released in 1991 as the title track of her second album. Kim Ki-ho wrote the lyrics and Shin Jae-hong composed the music. Its lyrical words, sorrowful melody and Won Mi-yeon's powerful vocals came together to win wide popularity, and it is still counted among the singer's signature songs. It is sometimes called the original 'sad pop ballad' of the early 1990s.

• The emotional drop from verses that begin calmly to a chorus that swells as if bursting
• The texture of an arrangement layered with synthesizers and strings, true to early-1990s pop ballads
• A chorus where resignation over a parting and lingering attachment cross within a single melody

Sung by Jung Il-young as part of the OST for the 2000 KBS drama 〈Autumn in My Heart〉. Choi Hee-jin wrote the lyrics, and Jung Jin-soo composed and arranged it. It became widely known along with the drama and came to stand as the defining OST ballad of the early Korean Wave; reinterpretations followed, including an acoustic special version later sung by Miyeon of (G)I-DLE.

• A dramatic, string-centered arrangement that underpins the mood of earnest supplication
• A melodic design that holds back in the low register before lifting to a high-note climax
• The narrative development typical of an OST, calling drama scenes to mind

The title track of Harim's first album, 《Multiple Personality》, released in December 2001. Harim composed it, and the lyrics are credited to 'Tak Young', known to be a pen name of Yoon Jong-shin. It is the signature song that introduced Harim to the public, and in 2022 Bumkey remade it as R&B built around synth and piano.

• How the title's metaphor — likening an unforgettable love to 'an illness that will not heal' — spreads into the mood of the whole song
• Harim's characteristically acoustic, unadorned sound and delicate placement of instruments
• A density of feeling built up quietly rather than belted out

Track 2 on Kim Jang-hoon's fourth album, 《1998 Ballads For Tears》, released in February 1998. Lee Sang-ho wrote the lyrics and Yoo Young-suk composed the music. It was the only original song on an album otherwise made up mostly of re-recordings and remakes. It went on to become a widely loved song, and a version by Kim Gun-mo was included on composer Yoo Young-suk's 20th-anniversary album.

• A simple but lingering melodic line, true to melody maker Yoo Young-suk
• A structure in which a consoling warmth for the weary gradually fills the chorus
• Dynamics that build step by step over piano and band

The title track of Kim Sung-ho's first album, released in September 1989. According to Kim Sung-ho's own account, the plan was to call it 'Reminiscence', but there were already many songs with that title, so it became 'Kim Sung-ho's Reminiscence', which also helped make the singer's name known. It was included again on the fifth album in 2001, and when a broadcast performance drew renewed attention, it reached a new generation as well.

• A folk-pop sensibility that unfolds the lonely mood of looking back on time gone by with plain simplicity
• The open space characteristic of late-1980s Korean pop, created by a melody laid over guitar accompaniment
• The contrast between verses that flow unexaggerated, almost murmured, and a chorus where longing deepens

The debut song Wheesung released on making a solo debut with the 2002 first album 《Like A Movie》. Written by composer Lee Hyun-jung, it is said that the album deal came about while Wheesung was handing out promotional CDs featuring this song. It won great popularity even amid World Cup fever, made Wheesung's name known to the public, and remains a landmark of Korean-style R&B ballads.

• The grammar of early-2000s Korean R&B ballads, joining R&B groove with ballad melody
• Ad-libs and delicate ornaments filling the spaces between the melodic lines
• A refrain that builds through repetition, returning again and again to an urgent question

Yang Hee-eun released this song in 1991 on the album 《Yang Hee-eun 1991》. Yang Hee-eun wrote the lyrics, while the guitarist Lee Byung-woo composed the music and played it. The song found its audience only a few years after its release, and its lyrics, which contemplate the loneliness that lingers once love has passed, made it Yang Hee-eun's signature song, sung across generations.

• Restrained, transparent accompaniment from Lee Byung-woo's acoustic guitar
• A composed vocal texture that regards the end of love with contemplation rather than passion
• A structure in which a melody that flows like speech builds up to leave a deep resonance at the end