La Musica

In learning about telenovela musical accompaniment, it stands out as completely unique and potentially more creative to me than most American soap operas (though we have, as a class, clearly established how different these two industries really are). The Grey's Anatomy (though not a soap opera, the following is similar to that of telenovelas) soundtrack is a compilation of popular artist's songs. Every season the soundtrack could be a substitute for the "NOW ...87" CD.
Telenovelas, on the other hand, have artists create unique songs specifically for a telenovela. I think this reflects the overlapping circles in latinamerican culture of actors, musicians and models, for example. Roque Valero, like many telenovela actors before him, became a musical performer, two times famous for his talent.
Each telenovela has a characteristic song that sets the tone for the telenovela's theme or a specific lead character in it. Good directors put much timem and energy into choosing an artist for this song, and Pedron even went so far as to write his own poetic lyrics for one such song.
While some American shows do have a catchy tune for the intro, it hardly every repeats in the middle of each episode, and never will an artist take the song on musical tour.
Granted, the "suspense" and "romance" musical segments produced for each episode of a telenovela seem somewhat immature, the shows put more energy into creating unique complete songs for their shows than American series do.