Series about love with an infinite number of episodes today there are many. However, where did the name “soap opera” come from?
Why are such series called so? It turns out that this question can be answered if we pay attention to how the first such works appeared, and how they gained popularity.
Have soap operas always been on TV?
Initially, multi-part works about love went on the radio. In the 1930s, people had not dreamed about a TV in every kitchen, but almost everyone had a radio. And on the radio there were audio shows that women eagerly listened, doing their household chores. Broadcasts of the series were interspersed with advertising breaks, and since the audience of the listeners was quite defined, they selected ads that were relevant for them.
During these breaks, products were advertised by manufacturers of detergents, and in particular soaps. Advertising brought huge success, sales due to advertising breaks “in soap operas” were able to increase at times. And at the same time, the audience of the audience, like other people who had to somehow hear these performances, they began to be associated with advertising detergents. Hence this popular name went.
Soap operas these days
In the future, long series about love and relationships began to be broadcast on television. The audience they have remained the same.Some women watched them willingly, discussing the series, despite the simple and straightforward plot, while other people, on the contrary, expressed their negative attitude towards them.
Their very name “soap operas” was firmly rooted in the philistine consciousness, and was no longer associated with the advertising of detergents, but with the viewing process itself, which did not capture everyone.
This epithet began to indicate the plot of the operas themselves, the long sentimental scenes that became boring, causing an association with the process of washing, soaping something. The name finally stuck thanks to the words of one of the American film critics, and in America it sounds exactly the same: soup opera (soap soap in English).
Subjects of soap operas
Almost all plots of soap operas or series are unpretentious, associated with love stories. As a rule, we are talking about a young poor girl with whom a rich guy falls in love. At the same time, relatives are against, weaving intrigues.
The quality of the plot can be quite low, because the love line stretches over many episodes. The plot lines are usually quite predictable, and love should prevail in the finale. But before the victory of this love, several seasons can pass.
Many women who readily watch soap operas are attracted by their emotional fullness, they empathize with the main character, sincerely hate her rivals and enemies. Emotional fullness replaces the complexity of the storyline, the high criteria for which simply disappear.
So soap operas become hits that you can really watch without breaking away from household chores, just for fun. And despite all the criticism that this direction has received since its inception, such series will hardly ever come to naught, because the audience is always there to watch them.
Thus, soap operas got such an epithet due to the fact that they came from love operas on the radio, which were listened to by housewives. During the breaks, there was an advertisement aimed specifically at a female audience, at housewives engaged in household chores, and various detergents, and in particular, soap, were advertised in the first place. Therefore, long, usually uncomplicated in the story, works of love began to be called soapy, as were the series that began to appear later.
