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Park Shin-hye's Song Picks

Park Shin-hye [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

It is though the small screen that viewers have watched Park Shin-hye grow up. The little girl who first drew people's attention with her innocent expressions on the music videos of Lee Seung-hwan's "Are You in Love" and "Flower" in 2003, soon caught on the radar of famed TV directors such as Lee Jang-soo and Hwang In-roi. She did not have much acting experience nor did she undergo training, but she left a strong impression with her role as the younger version of actress Choi Ji-woo's character in SBS TV series "Stairway to Heaven" which earned her the reputation as a promising teen actress. She then took on roles with more weight in her succeeding productions but failed to fall under the pressure and rather showed steady development.

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That is how she made a headstart into the world of acting not as an adult but this was why her decision to become Go Mi-nam in SBS TV series "You're Beautiful", her first role after getting into college last year, was all the more interesting. Like Park's explanation that the drama "was about people my age and my character Mi-nam was a lot like who I actually am", Park played a never-before-seen unique female character who in disguise as her twin brother, acts as a member of a top idol group. Odd moments in the drama blended well with Park's stable acting to create humor and Mi-nam's way of dealing with pain or conflict -- facing up to it with sincerity rather than distorting the other person's intention -- was exactly like Park's simple nature. Park, who cheerfully said the long shoots and cold weather "is tough" but feels "happy to see everyone once on set and more energetic after goofing around with them" recommended songs which perk up her mood when on set.


1. Victor View "Oil Painting"
"I'm not picky about the genres I listen to but I prefer music with acoustic sounds like the acoustic guitar or harmonica over electronic sounds. I tire out quickly when I have to go to set early in the morning after not getting much sleep because of the shoots. That's when I listen to this music, when I want to cheer myself up. The name of the songs too are 'I Have a Dream' or 'In the Dreaming'."He may come off as a European musician but he's actually a Korean one-man band who creates lyrical melodies and various sounds by using instruments such as the jazz guitar, harmonica and loop station. He also took part in the Pentaport Rock Festival last year after being chosen as rookie of the month in June.

2. Kings of Convenience "Riot on an Empty Street"
"While I was taking a break from acting last year, I exercised, learned pottery and Chinese characters. This is the music that my Chinese teacher turned on then and I liked their peaceful ambience so much that I sought out their music from then on. If you listen to the lyrics for 'Cayman Island', it talks about 'the happiness of spending time with you'. That left a strong impression on me too". Kings of Convenience, often compared to Simon and Garfunkel or Belle and Sebastian, is a Norwegian folk duo composed of Erland Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, both born in 1975. They have enjoyed steady global popularity since releasing their first album "Kings of Convenience" in 2000 and received heated response for their Korea concerts held in 2008 and this year.

3. ByJun "Today, One Day is the Gift!"
Park Shin-hye's third recommendation was yet-to-become-popular new age jazz pianist ByJune's album "Today, One Day if the Gift!" "I like acoustic and electronica. And I have a lot of friends that like music so when I went to one of my friend's webpage account, I came across a song called 'I Don't Love Anyone Right Now' whose piano melody I loved so I ended up looking up the entire album. When I was working on drama "Minamishineyo" in particular, it wasn't easy trying to show the emotion of how my character Mi-nam, who likes Tae-kyung but knows she shouldn't, gets hurt and feels frustrated by the smallest things that he says to her. So this is the music that helped me a lot in expressing those emotions".

4. Loveholic "In The Air"
She may look like someone who does not have an ounce of darkness to her personality but the Park Shin-hye in dramas cries quite a lot. It was not only in melodramas like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Tree of Heaven" but also in close-to-romantic comedy series "Minamishineyo" that Park often shed tears over emotions that were hard to bear. "I liked Loveholic's music even before they sang the soundtrack to film 'Take Off. In particular, the lyrics like 'You are endlessly dim to me, like a dream, you linger around me like the air, but I cannot touch you', from song 'To me you are', shows Mi-nam's toward Tae-kyung well. Because this is the first time Mi-nam is experiencing love and she realizes that the person who had seemed so distant has become a huge existence to her. That's why I was also able to empathize a lot with the song 'Hurt' also".

5. Lee Seung-hwan "Hwantastic Friends - Lee Seung-hwa's 20th Anniversary Album
Park, who was with Lee Seung-hwan's agency Dream Factory from her debut in 2003 to last year, still calls Lee 'factory manager'. I heard the factory manager's music for the first time at his concert in sixth or seventh grade. From then on, I think I became influenced a lot not only by his music but the music that he likes. I bought his 20th anniversary album as soon as it was released but I haven't had time to get his autograph on it because I've been so busy with filming. The title track 'Good Day II' in particular is a lot of fun to listen to when traveling to and from locations far away. "

Reporter : Choi Ji-Eun five@
Photographer : Chae ki-won ten@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@
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