Melodrama, in musical terms, work in which a spoken text is integrated with music. The form, which began in the ancient Greek theatre, became popular in the 18th century; a notable example is The Begger's Opera (1728) by the English dramatist John Gay. Sections of melodrama have also been incorporated in works by such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven (Fidelio, 1805), Carl Maria von Weber (Der Freischütz, 1821), Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss (Enoch Arden, 1898), and Arnold Schoenberg (A Survivor from Warsaw, 1947).

By extension, the term melodrama has come to be applied to any play with a romantic plot in which the author manipulates events to act on the emotions of the audience without regard for character development or logic. Prime examples are such works as The Stranger (1789; trans. 1798) by the German dramatist August von Kotzebue, and the popular melodramas of the later 19th and early 20th century, also known as potboilers or tearjerkers—works such as Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon (1859) or the dramatization (1853) of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Twentieth-century melodrama includes motion picture serials and most recently television soap operas.