Frank Kogan

I'm reminded of a quote from Korean rom-com 'My Sassy Girl'

Kyun-woo: They have to kiss in the end.
The Girl: This isn't a melodrama. It's an action movie.
Kyun-woo: You don't know movies. Koreans like melodramas.
The Girl: Why?
Kyun-woo: Know what novel touched us when we were teenagers? 'Shower' by Hwang Sun-won. It shaped our people's sensibility in their teens. Koreans like sad movies all because of 'Shower.'
The Girl: 'Shower'? What's sad about it?
Kyun-woo: It's sad when she asked to be buried in the clothes reminiscent of her love. I couldn't sleep for one week.
The Girl: The ending sucks. Gotta change it.

Applies to the music as well I s'pose. Pretty sure I like a few more (k-)ballad-ballads than you, but have a similar problem defining the requirements. Generally, the problem is that their idea of dynamics and the pitch for their emotional investment is the most annoying giant wailing climaxes, acceptable if well-deserved, not when finishing off a flat melody-less black hole of a song.

The ones I like, I think, are ones with a sense of melody and a sensitive touch. Sometimes I like the artist and will listen to a ballad enough times so that I'll like it(*1). Feels like I fall more easily for cheap tricks when it comes to ballads, familiar chord progressions, instant mood-setters. I generally like ballads, which says a lot about how bad some of the bad ones are for me to hate.

(*1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxcD_kMzsVk

Melodic, and enjoyable because his voice is so impossibly smooth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyp-BBD_aAM

Amazingly dark power ballad:



(At first, it's the men: They trick you, don't mean those sweet words. Then the twist: She never meant it either, no one loves, there is no love, nowhere.)