English and Korean songs featured in Reply 1988 that were massive hits in Korea

Have you ever watched a drama and felt like someone had quietly filmed your own childhood?

That is what Reply 1988 does to me. For most Koreans of my generation, including me, this drama doesn't feel like fiction. The songs we loved, the way we thought, the jokes we laughed at, our school days, the struggles inside our families, the jobs people worked. We lived all of it, and it's all there on screen, almost untouched.

Take the fights between Deok-sun and her older sister, Bo-ra. The show exaggerates them a little. But the heart of it, a big sister who won't let her little sister wear her favorite clothes, was something many of us knew all too well. My own story was the exact opposite. My older sister let me wear the clothes she loved. I remember showing off to my friends about it, and every one of them was jealous of me.

Even Choi Taek, the Go prodigy, felt familiar. (Go, called baduk in Korean, is a strategy board game played with black and white stones.) His character was inspired by Lee Chang-ho, a real Go genius of that era. Anyone in Korea who followed the news back then knew his name, and people still talk about his legendary five-game winning streak. The same goes for the students who failed the university entrance exam and spent one more year, or even two, studying to try again. In a society where the competition to get into college was fierce, that wasn't a dramatic plot twist. It was ordinary life.

School life in the drama felt just as real. In my school days, boys and girls usually went to separate schools. You can see this in Reply 1988, too. Deok-sun and her girlfriends attend a girls' high school, while Jung-hwan, Dong-ryong, and Sun-woo go to a boys' high school. Many Korean schools are still single-sex today, though more of them become co-ed every year.

Then there was the school trip, called suhak yeohaeng: a three-day, two-night trip taken only by second-year students, once in middle school and once in high school. Every school trip had a talent show, called janggi jarang, just like the one in the drama where Sun-woo, Jung-hwan, and Dong-ryong perform a dance routine. At ours, the biggest surprises often came from the quiet girls nobody expected to perform. They would step up in front of everyone and do Michael Jackson's dance moves, such as the moonwalk. And those girls became the most popular ones on the trip. Michael Jackson's songs don't appear in Reply 1988, but every time I watch the school trip episode, I think of them.

The songs below are part of that same memory. They are the songs my generation loved and lived with.

Part 1: The English Pop Songs Koreans Loved

The Reply 1988 soundtrack captures the emotional, sentimental sound that filled South Korea in the late 1980s. Back then, Koreans heard Western pop music, simply called "pop song" (팝송), mostly through the radio and on cassette tapes. Soft rock and heartfelt ballads were the favorites.

Here are the English songs from the drama that were big hits in Korea at the time.

1. "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You"

This is one of the most memorable English songs in the series.

The Scene: It plays in the episode where the students are on a bus for a school field trip. Sitting in their seats, they sing along to the radio loudly and not quite correctly, mumbling through the verses and shouting the chorus.
Why it was popular: Glenn Medeiros released a well-known cover in 1987, but George Benson's 1985 original was a favorite on Korean radio. Its romantic, easy-to-sing melody made it a song many young Koreans knew by heart.

2. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" – Stevie Wonder

The Context: The song plays in the background throughout the series to set the time period.
Why it was popular: Released in 1984, it had simple English lyrics, so even people who didn't speak English could sing the chorus. It was a common request on Korean radio shows.

3. "Reality" – Richard Sanderson

The scene: The drama parodies a famous moment from the French film La Boum (1980). Deok-sun imitates the scene where the boy slips his headphones over Sophie Marceau's ears.
Why it was popular: La Boum was hugely popular with Korean teenagers in the 1980s. "Reality" became the song of teenage first love, and many Koreans still recognize it within a few notes.

4. "Last Christmas" – Wham!

The scene: It plays during the Christmas episodes, as the year draws to a close in the story.
Why it was popular: Wham! was very popular in Korea, and George Michael was a teen idol to many young fans. Every December, it was one of the songs you seemed to hear everywhere.

5. "Right Here Waiting" – Richard Marx

The context: The song came out in 1989, a year after the drama's story begins, so it appears later in the timeline as the characters move toward the 1990s.
Why it was popular: Richard Marx was much loved in Korea. His ballads matched a feeling Koreans call han, a deep, lingering sorrow mixed with longing. The song is still a favorite at noraebang, Korean karaoke rooms.

6. "Harlem Desire" – London Boys

The scene: In episode 16, Sun-woo, Jung-hwan, and Dong-ryong head to a nightclub so Dong-ryong can enter a dance contest. This song plays as Dong-ryong gets ready to compete. But once he hears that Hyun Jin-young and Park Jin-young are among the dancers, he loses his nerve and drops out. (Both went on to become big names in Korean pop, and Park Jin-young later founded JYP Entertainment.)
Why it was popular: Along with Michael Jackson, London Boys is the first name that comes to mind when I think of 1980s pop. "Harlem Desire" was so famous in Korea that I never needed to set foot in a nightclub to know it by heart. It played on the radio and poured out of the record shops on the street, over and over.

Part 2: The Korean Songs Behind Reply 1988

"Reply 1988" is often described as a love letter to 1980s Korean pop music, known as gayo. The drama uses original hits from that era to move the story along, while the official soundtrack (OST) features new versions by modern singers.

Here are the Korean songs you hear in the show, grouped by the original artists who were the real stars of 1988.

The Voice of the Night: Lee Moon-sae

Lee Moon-sae is one of the most important musical voices in the series. He hosted Starry Night, the radio show the characters listen to at night.

"A Little Girl" (소녀): It often plays during tender moments between Taek and Deok-sun. The original 1985 version is by Lee Moon-sae

"Red Sunset" (붉은 노을): An upbeat pop-rock song that still sounds like late-80s youth to many Koreans.

"Flying in the MidNight" (깊은 밤을 날아서): Used to show the lively energy of the characters' everyday lives.

The College Music Festival Anthem: Shin Hae-chul

"To You" (그대에게) – Infinite Track (Muhan Gwedo): In the drama, the whole neighborhood gathers around the TV to watch the 1988 College Music Festival, and this song wins the grand prize. Its synthesizer intro is instantly familiar to Koreans who grew up then. Shin Hae-chul, the band's lead singer, went on to become one of the most influential figures in Korean rock.

Legends of Folk & Rock

"Youth" (청춘) – Sanulrim (Kim Chang-wan): This aching song often plays when the parents look back on growing older and on everything they gave up. The OST version is sung by Kim Feel, but Sanulrim's 1981 original carries the full weight of that era.

"Don't Worry, My Dear" (걱정말아요 그대) – Jeon In-kwon (Deulgukhwa): This is the drama's main healing song. The OST version is sung by Lee Juck, and the original singer, Jeon In-kwon, is a legend of Korean rock.

80s Dance & Performance

"Story of Last Night" (어젯밤 이야기) – Sobangcha (Fire Truck): The three boys, Jung-hwan, Dong-ryong, and Sun-woo, perform this song's choreography at the school talent show. Sobangcha is often called one of Korea's first idol-style boy groups, and their acrobatic dance moves caused a sensation.

"Rhythm Within the Dance" (리듬 속의 그 춤을) – Kim Wan-sun: Kim Wan-sun is often called the "Madonna of Korea." Her songs play when the girls try to dance or look cool.

Sentimental Ballads

"Hyehwadong" (혜화동) – The Zoo (Dongmulwon): It works almost like the theme song of Ssangmun-dong, the drama's neighborhood, playing over montages of the alley. Its lyrics about leaving your childhood neighborhood fit the show's ending beautifully.

"The Only Thing I Can Give You Is Love" (네게 줄 수 있는 건 오직 사랑뿐) – Byun Jin-sub: Byun Jin-sub was one of the biggest ballad singers of the late 80s. The song plays in the background of shy dates and quiet confessions.

"APT" (아파트) – Yoon Su-il: One of the most beloved Korean pop songs of the 1980s. Its looping melody and cheerful chorus are easy for anyone to sing, from children to grandparents.

The scene: Early in the drama, Ra Mi-ran and two other neighborhood mothers dance to it with wild joy in the living room, while the kids crowd into the room next door. It captures the warmth of life in Ssangmun-dong.

For decades, "APT" has been one of the most-loved songs at noraebang. When ROSÉ of BLACKPINK released her global hit "APT" in 2024, many Koreans thought right away of Yoon Su-il's 1982 original, and it found a whole new generation of listeners.

The "Jo Yong-pil" Craze

You can't talk about 1980s Korea without Jo Yong-pil, often called gawang, the "King of Singers."

"Leopard of Kilimanjaro" (킬리만자로의 표범): Ra Mi-ran, Jung-hwan's mom, sings it with passion at a singing contest, until the backing tape lets her down. It is a long, dramatic song with spoken passages, and it was a huge hit at the time.

Quick tip for listening: On Spotify or YouTube, search "Reply 1988 OST" to hear the modern covers. To hear the originals the characters listened to on their radios, search the artist's name, such as Lee Moon-sae.

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Which song on this list takes you back to a moment in your own life? Or did you have a sister who shared her clothes, or guarded them? Tell me in the comments.