Aw, I watched this for the first time recently because I wanted a good music youth drama. I liked the gayageum moments, and I didn't get bored until episode 12 (after that I just skipped to the end, too much unnecessary angst). If I'd watched it years ago maybe I'd feel like you, but as it is, I'll remember it for Park Shin Hye. My favorite thing about this drama was actually seeing her looking so comfortable in her artsy clothes and not as skinny as most actresses. I usually don't notice weight, but it struck me that she looked normal, so that means other Korean actresses must be extremely thin.

Ah, Heartstrings =) One of my first dramas too, it came as a natural follow-up to You're Beautiful.
At the time I also loved it - I was yet unfamiliar with the k-drama clichés, typical storylines etc so it felt like a breath of fresh air to me, but I agree I'd probably not have appreciated it the same if I watched it now.

Still, the OST is amazing (the instrumental Carmen Fantasy was my ringtone for the longest time!) and PSY x Yonghwa were too cute for words despite the awkwardness. So much BTS goodies as well!
And let's not forget Minhyuk. He was seriously the cutest then. I can barely believe he's the same guy as the mature and fit Minhyuk of nowadays =)

I love this! A friend recommended this show to me back when I wasnt into korean dramas and this show made me fall in love with Jung Yong Hwa. I remember marathoning this series and swooning over Jung Yong Hwa. Now that I'm a kdrama addict, I know so many shows that are better than this but it still has a special place in my heart that I'm afraid to rewatch it.

My God, I first watched this drama when they aired this drama. I was in my senior year of high school back then. I LOVED this drama simply because I had SLS when I watched You're Beautiful and it gave me some kind of imaginations on the college romance that I wanted in my college life. ? Now that I've finished my college and when I think about the some scenes in this drama, it's true that it's full of cringe-inducing moments! It makes me kinda afraid to rewatch this drama because I'd laugh all the way when it gets too cringey. Nevertheless, this drama is apart of my highschool memory, and this drama has its own place in my heart. I LOVE the songs they sing in this drama and the fusion of traditional and modern music is kinda cool to me.

What an interesting choice! I honestly remember very little from this drama. I remember the general plot and small snippets but beyond that it was pretty forgetful to me. Plus, I don't really like either of the leads (I'm sorry as you seem to be a big fan of both!). I really like how you presented what you liked about it in the past and what you like and dislike about it now.

the plot is just so so but i found kim Suk-Hyun (the professor) and Hyun Ki-Young (the sunbae) were handsome back then so i still watched it hahaha
aaah this month theme give so much nostalgic feels

This is also one of my first youth drama. (The other one being To The Beautiful You, which just make this one seems extra good and shiny and make sense at the time). I remember how much I love the OTP's progress from being frenemy to friends then eventually lover. But you are right, they could do with less angst and serious, dramatic moments.

And you are so brave, @sailorjumun, to rewatch this one. Because I wouldn't want to taint the nostalgic glow, as you put it, that surrounded this drama. May this one forever become the sweet memory of my early college years.

I just love how all three of the guys in You're Beautiful get the girl eventually, since Hong-ki and Park Shin-hye "dated" in his music video "Insensible" (Check it out if you haven't. Such a good song and I enjoyed their chemistry).

Oh my goodness. The first thing I thought upon reading the title and before reading this actual post was: "Good lord WHY would you do this to yourself? W-H-Y???" Lol, this is a lake I would not have jumped into.

This was one of the first shows I watched, but I definitely think it would have been better without all the extra angst. I think if you skip through all of that, it'll be such a good light hearted drama plus the OST makes it even better!

What I mostly remember of this dramas is that he was supposed to have a super popular band, but the on-campus venue always seemed to have a small group of people watching.

I watched this drama twice and were not able to finish it both times. I don't know why but for some reason I stop at around episode 12-14 (not really sure) and didn't bother to finish it. Might be because I was a hardcore Hwang Tae-kyung - Go Mi-nam shipper lol

I watched this after You're Beautiful, but weirdly not because I wanted to see these two together as leads -- I just liked Park Shin-Hye and without Dramabeans to guide me I tended to pick dramas at random. This one always stuck with me for two reasons: the fluff, and more importantly, the soundtrack.

Oh my God, I LOVE this OST more than I can explain coherently. I think this was the first show where I went out and actively looked for the music to download. This isn't even my favorite drama OST (that honor belongs to the Shut Up Flower Boy Band OST which is perfection), but it is the first one I stopped and really payed attention to. I'd watched You're Beautiful too early in my drama heyday so I didn't get into that OST until much later, and love it now, but hadn't been able to appreciate it on first watch.

But something about this OST spoke to me. In retrospect, I think I was in a transition between young adulthood and proper adulthood when I watched this, so the youthful and fun vibe just spoke to the part of my grumpy, jaded self that wanted to hold onto something pure. I was in law school, living alone for the first time, constantly stressed and dramas were my newfound escape for a few hours a week. I had been (and still am) a music junkie, and constantly have music playing and am always thirsting for something more. I missed my university life of constantly being bombarded with new music from my roommates and friends. This was exactly the breath of fresh air I needed.

I'm not even joking when I say "You've Fallen For Me" is one of my (extensive) music library's most played songs, and I was listening to it this morning. I don't know what it is about that song that just makes me happy. But even the rest of it is wonderfully nostalgic: the "Carmen Fantasy" is fun with its mix of modern and traditional instruments; Kang Min Hyuk's "Star" with its simple instrumentals is so effective at just giving me a peaceful feeling; Park Shin-hye's "The Day We Fall in Love" is sweet and simple and so youthful; and Young-hwa's "Because I Miss You" was such a great song to have for the storyline with his birth father.

So, while I know now that the drama isn't very good and it really doesn't hold up, I can't ever bring myself to hate it because there is something in it that brought me joy at a strange transition in my life. Excuse me while I go off and listen to it again.

ok so I watched this without watching you're beautiful (this was my first psh show too) and purely because I was in the mood for a lighthearted show+i listened to the ost beforehand
the story rly sucked haha but I kept watching for 1 reason only: JUNG YONGHWA
it's mad cos I've never fallen head over heels for a kdrama character (there was always some part of them I didn't appreciate) but yonghwa's character here was my ideal man (minus the noble idiocy in the last episode) in terms of looks, his dressing, his cold personality, his musical ability...and the list could go on. I'm not the kind who ever rewatches or rewinds scenes but I rly couldnt stop myself when it came to this guy...ahh good times

I like re-watching the earlier hints of romance in this, before they were a couple when Shin had discovered his feelings and was trying to win Gyu-won over, but that's about it.

Can I be your friend, @SailorJumun ? I love Yong-hwa too!
I found him through this drama and the rest can be explained with a folder that have many of his pictures in my old computer ( but the old computer is gone now T_T

I can't even remember anything from this drama except who are the leads and this is musical drama, as I think I stopped watching it after first half. I don't know if I ever want to pick up this drama again, but it's a good choice @sailorjumun to bring back some good old memories.

I LOVED this show when it first aired~ It definitely was the youthful atmosphere and fun laif back setting that was really enjoyable. It had potential, but the writing really went nowhere, I do remember being a bit disappointed by the plot. I mean that singer guy was introduced and I thought he'd really be more important to the story than he turned out to be.

Her outfits and style were such a major draw for me, lol I loved her casual/maxi skirt look and tbh...yeah I cut my hair short, but with less successful results heh~

I'll be honest, this show gave me unrealistic expectations of what college would be like...my campus was definitely not that pretty and there were less guitar playing cuties?

@SailorJumun,

Thanks for your essay on YOU'VE FALLEN FOR ME / HEARTSTRINGS. I've been vaguely aware of it, and also YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL, which was recently mentioned in this month's Revisiting Dramas feature. Even if a drama isn't the greatest, if the music is good, I'll give it a shot. I'm long past high school age. The good thing about being a backwardly-compatible old fogey is that I can still remember being that age. In my own high school and college days, so much awkward, cringe-inducing stuff happened that I'll probably just nod my head in recognition. Been there, done that, still have the t-shirt. Even though it no longer fits. ;-)

A fellow Beanie introduced me to FT Island and CN Blue a while back when I mentioned my preference for rock. Dang, these guys are good. Just the kind of stuff I would have played on the air on my college radio station if I'd had access to it, assuming I could have hopped into a time machine to retrieve it from the future. ;-)

FYI: The film ROCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR aka PASSIONATE GOOBYE also has excellent music. It's set in a hospital, not a school. FT Island's Lee Hong-ki is in it.

Oh, this drama. I started it loving both Park Shin-hye and Jung Yong-hwa and getting excited that I'll see those two as a pairing (thanks to You're Beautiful of course:)). Well... By the end, I loved Park Shin-hye even more, but as for Jung Yong-hwa, I decided not to watch any more dramas with him. Dunno if I'm correct (I was still a drama newbie at that time), but I remember his acting as very stiff, I hated it. And the terrifying cringefest that were all romantic scenes, I thought I was going to die during the kiss scenes. All of those scenes were screaming FRIENDS! FRIENDZONE!, seriously they seemed so uncomfortable at times it was hard to watch. For me, leads in a drama are the most important factor. Sometimes even if drama itself is pretty bad, good chemistry can, to some point of course, redeem it. But in Heartstrings, I just couldn't watch the otp without sighing in disappointment.

This drama is always one of my happy pills. But every time I watch it again, I fast forward all the school board and teachers' meetings ? And I always stop at the point where Kyu-won sang the lead's part in that rehearsal. In my world, that was the drama's ending. Nothing else comes after that. No more hand injury, breakup, sudden rise to fame. ???

I thought this drama was the dumbest thing, Jung Yong-hwa's embarrassingly cringe-inducing acting and the very, very bland story made me give up in the middle of episode 4. On the other hand, I found Geum Jan-di absolutely hilarious in BOF but I don't think that show could hold up to a rewatch because of the cringe factor and seeing Kim Hyun-joong's face sickens me now. Plus, I remember how bad his acting was too.

This drama is just urg..cringe cringe and just I can't even remember what else is good about it at all BUT I would re-watch every so often just to see them together. The only thing was I wished that Jung Yong-hwa and Park Shin-hye had more chemistry here. Anyway, it's still fun for me with a fast forward button. lol

I have to give you credit, I couldn't make it through the whole series. I love Yong-Hwa, but the poor guy wasn't given much here to work with (IMHO). And Park Shin-Hye... *sigh* After You're Beautiful, I wanted to like her, but why does she kiss like someone just goosed her? "You kissed me? What do I do? What do I *do*??" The band scenes were great, the music is good, but for the love of the Drama Gods this could have been much better.

Oh, this show! I really liked this one for the music (particularly the traditional-modern fusion) and the main couple (believe it or not). I think this was one of my earlier dramas, so I was grateful for what others considered bad acting. I thought Park Shin Hye and Jung Yong Hwa seemed very natural compared to some of the exaggerated performances in series like You're Beautiful and the sageuks I had seen. I think this is one of the few dramas in which I really liked Park Shin Hye (not that I dislike her, but I thought this role suited her).