Lee Chang-seop‘s long-term rule and Haewon Challenge craze... The key is ‘Webtoon OST’

MUSIC Nov 14, 2024

Translation

The unique collaboration between K-pop stars and webtoons is on the rise. Singer Lee Chang-sub, who is ‘long-dominating the charts’ with his collaboration song from the webtoon ‘The Tale of a Fairy’, and Nmix’s Haewon, who is causing a ‘challenge craze’ on SNS with the OST of the webtoon ‘Maru is a Gangjwi’. (Clockwise from the top left) Photo courtesy of Toon Studio, Fantagio, Most Contents
The unique collaboration between K-pop stars and webtoons is on the rise. Singer Lee Chang-sub, who is ‘long-dominating the charts’ with his collaboration song from the webtoon ‘The Tale of a Fairy’, and Nmix’s Haewon, who is causing a ‘challenge craze’ on SNS with the OST of the webtoon ‘Maru is a Gangjwi’. (Clockwise from the top left) Photo courtesy of Toon Studio, Fantagio, Most Contents
‘Webtoon OST’ is emerging as a new music icon.

OSTs are mainly used in dramas and movies, but recently, their use has been gradually expanding to webtoons as well to help readers immerse themselves. In this regard, BTOB‘s Lee Chang-sub, Nmix’s Haewon, and others are attracting attention by creating a whirlwind on the music charts with OST songs they collaborated on with popular webtoons.

Lee Chang-sub has been maintaining the upper ranks of Melon‘s ‘Top 100’ for 10 long months with the collaboration song ‘Heavenly Love’ for Naver webtoon ‘Fairy Tale’. It was released in February and rose to #4 on the chart, and has remained there steadily since, settling at #19 as of the afternoon of the 13th.

‘Cheon Sangyeon’ is the theme song for writer Hyo-bin’s ‘Fairy Story’, which has been serialized since October 2022, and is a remake of the title song of the same name from the group Can‘s first full-length album ‘Version 1.0’, released in 1998. Lee Chang-sub used his heartfelt voice to express the fairy’s story of revenge and love based on the traditional fairy tale ‘The Fairy and the Woodcutter’, and performed a rock ballad genre with a deep resonance. The song stimulated both the public‘s nostalgia and fresh charm, and even achieved a ‘long-term hit on the charts’.

Ive Ahn Yu-jin passionately singing ‘Dreaming’, the OST of the webtoon ‘The Great’. Photo courtesy of Kakao Entertainment
Ive Ahn Yu-jin passionately singing ‘Dreaming’, the OST of the webtoon ‘The Great’. Photo courtesy of Kakao Entertainment
‘Maru is a Gangjwi’ sung by Haewon is an OST of a webtoon of the same name that has been serialized on Naver Webtoon since June 2022. The song is an impressive song with cute lyrics like ‘Sniff’ ‘Jjonggeut’ and a pure melody reminiscent of nursery rhymes that fit the webtoon’s comical depiction of the daily life of Maru, a pet dog who has now turned 5 years old.

The song is easy for anyone to follow and is great for taking videos with your pet dog, creating a ‘Maru is a Gangjwi Challenge’ craze that is taking SNS by storm. With idol groups such as Seventeen, Stray Kids, and (G)I-dle‘s Shuhua participating in the challenge, over 100,000 videos were uploaded to SNS.

The solid overseas popularity of ‘K-webtoons’ and the influence of K-pop, combined with ‘Webtoon OSTs’, are being recognized as another factor for success, and idol stars are participating one after another.

Ive’s Ahn Yu-jin ranked high on the real-time popularity charts with ‘Dreaming’, the OST of the webtoon ‘The Great’, released on the 12th. SHINee‘s Onew also garnered attention from fans by releasing ‘To the Beautiful You’, the OST of the webtoon ‘Office Romance Reject!’, on the 6th.


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com
  • 0
  • 0