Those who watch dramas and movies frequently recall well-known situations and the associated songs. For example, Aladdin and Jasmine singing "A Whole New World" while riding a magic carpet are well-known. Now, comics lovers can watch webtoons that are accompanied by music from prominent musicians.
The music for webtoons are being written by top Korean singers such as Baek Z-young, Gummy, K.Will, and Kim Jong-kook who have previously written popular songs for drama soundtracks and are now writing songs for webtoons.
With "I'll Talk to You," Gummy made her webtoon OST debut in June, following a long career as a veteran musician who has contributed to several drama soundtracks.
Earlier this month, singers K.Will and Kim released the ballad soundtracks for the Naver webtoons "The Moon that Rises in the Day" and "Joseon's Ban on Marriage," which were both released in August.
Baek, who is known as the OST queen, also released her debut webtoon song on December 2 with Kakao Webtoon's "Nth Romance," which was written by Baek.
In a statement to The Korea Herald, a representative from Kakao Entertainment said that "a wide spectrum of musicians," including members of K-pop idol groups, rappers, and trot singers, are now working on webtoon theme songs.
"Because of the vast fan base for both successful webtoon series and singers, certain songs have risen to the top of the charts on local music streaming platforms. Some people become new webtoon readers after listening to the music of their favorite performers," the official continued.
Fans of webtoons can select to have the tunes played as they scroll down the page. Despite the fact that it is an unique format for most readers, webtoons have already experimented with music.
Horang, a webtoon illustrator and creator, was the first to use non-lyric tunes as the background music for his "Song of the Cloud" comic strip in 2009.
Several webtoon producers attempted a similar endeavor in the early 2000s, employing songs by lesser-known indie bands that had more words to tell their stories. Despite the fact that playing background music for webtoons was deemed an innovative idea at the time, it did not become widely used.
It was only until local broadcaster MBC's variety show "I Live Alone" highlighted webtoon creator Kian84 and musician Henry's cooperation for music for Kian84's new webtoon "Rejuvenation" in 2019 that the public's interest in webtoon stories began to grow.
Webtoons and musicians began to work together more actively after "Slightly Tipsy," a song from the soundtrack of Daum Webtoon "She is My Type" by K-pop boy band B1A4's Sandeul, reached the No. 2 spot on the streaming platform, just after BTS' "Dynamite," and webtoon and music chart success became more closely linked.
One of the key features of the Bucheon International Comics Festival was a webtoon OST concert, which invited musicians to play live as part of the festival's webtoon OST concert.
In an interview with The Korea Herald on Tuesday, a Sogang University student and webtoon enthusiast surnamed Lee, 25, said how he got into the world of webtoons after listening to Sandeul's 'Slightly Tipsy.'
"After listening to such a wonderful tune, I became interested in webtoons." In the present day, I spend more money for webtoons than I do for other over the top content providers, such as Netflix, Tving, and Wavve," Lee continued.
