With the fall in K-drama ratings on television the last few years, with it I feel has also been the lack of mega hit OST songs, the kind that sweeps the nation and you can hear on every single cafe, restaurant, and store. I still encounter OST songs I like but don’t recall any in recent years that had the same height of popularity as some of the now classics during the heyday of K-drama ratings, most of which were performed by either songstress Baek Ji Young or balladeer Sung Shi Kyung. The two were on a variety program this weekend and was asked by the host on what their criteria is in picking songs because they always seem to generate songs that become big hits. Baek Ji Young has only 1 reason – the female lead – if she likes the actress she will agree to do the OST such as when Ha Ji Won in Secret Garden or Kim Tae Hee in Iris. For Sung Shi Kyung, he does a more calculating three prong reasoning – he looks at the screenwriter, then looks at the two leads, and finally asks to read the script to see if he thinks it will be a hit drama. If so then he agrees to do the OST. In addition to the aforementioned Iris and Secret Garden, here are the dramas Baek Ji Young did the OST for: Mr. Sunshine, Memories of Bali, Moonlight Drawn by Clouds, Arang and the Magistrate, The World of the Married, Producer, and Gu Family Book. Shin Shi Kyung performed the main OST song in: You From Another Star, Legend of the Blue Sea, Answer Me 1994, and he also did Secret Garden and Moonlight Drawn by Clouds.