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(As he told the crowd at his Seoul concert, he always thought a K-pop star would make it, he just never thought it would be him.) As such, he is closer to his audience than most K-pop idols. Psy is a kind of people's pop star whose dreams accidentally came true. Gangnam Style owes its success to YouTube and trend-spotter sites like - and to the social media users whose word-of-mouth endorsements carry much more weight than any slick marketing strategy. His rise owes more to the capacities of social media users to find, share and promote otherwise little known acts than it does to a carefully managed campaign. It took him six albums to become a superstar along the way he gathered famous showbiz friends, many of whom make cameos in the Gangnam Style clip. He did not come up through the famed K-pop star system, instead writing his own material and building a large local fan base on the strength of legendary performances for Korean university students and those serving in the military. He's not blessed with the brooding good looks and lithe athleticism of most Korean pop (K-pop) stars. More soap opera, or Oprah, than opera.ĭespite his privileged background, Psy's appeal lies in part in his apparent ordinariness. Herein lies a second explanation: the song is a playful and kitsch celebration of what Professor Lee Dong-yeun of Korean National University of the Arts calls ''B-class culture'', the kind that wallows in being gauche, melodramatic and unsophisticated.
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He celebrates Gangnam style and its foolishness he is one of them.
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Rather, he has compared himself on CNN to Austin Powers and Mr Bean and says his motto is ''dress classy, dance cheesy''. Psy himself is the face of marketing campaigns for mobile phones and washing machines, and has been recruited to boost flagging sales of the most expensive tickets to the Korean Formula One Grand Prix. But I suspect the appeal of this form of analysis has more to do with giving those like me a reason to like and discuss a funny song than it reflects Psy's intentions or the song's reception by Koreans.įor one thing, Psy and his family are known to be quite well off Gangnam locals. This is a fair analysis the song does make fools of those flashy gadflies. As articles in The Atlantic Monthly and New Matilda outline, the lyrics and the film clip highlight and ridicule the pretensions of these elites. So, in the likely case that it comes up at a dinner party, parents' group or executive board meeting any time soon, here are some ways to talk about Gangnam Style.įirst, is the song a piercing critique of inequalities in Korean society that have arisen out of the past few decades of rapid economic growth? Gangnam is a flashy area, home to most of Seoul's nouveau riche who profited greatly by getting in early on a real estate boom that hasn't (yet) busted. Some of them are further from the mark than others.
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Psy is alternatively interpreted as a class-conscious satirist (not really), a people's choice social media phenomena (certainly), a self-referential clown celebrating trashy kitsch culture (yes), the beginnings of a Western appreciation for Asian pop (probably not) and a threat to every other aspect of Korean culture, either traditional or avant-garde (possibly, but that's how culture works).Ĭraze … Psy performs on NBC, New York. (One lady about, ahem, a generation older than me insisted I join her in Psy's signature ''horsey dance'' who could say no?)Īs Psy's star has risen, it has been accompanied - both here in South Korea and internationally - by a constellation of experts, pundits and ordinary fans seeking to explain his song and its success. Koreans young and old, kids and grandparents, enthusiastically sang and danced along to familiar numbers. Among the fireworks and razzle-dazzle, it was impossible not to be struck by the Korean superstar's immense crossover appeal.
#Open gangnam style new song free#
Last week, I spent a couple of crowded, heaving hours with 80,000 others at Psy's free concert in central Seoul. He is the most successful Asian pop music act ever, and as close to an international household name as South Korea can claim. He's been ubiquitous on television worldwide and is due to appear on Sunrise and The X Factor next week. The YouTube clip views are approaching half a billion. 1 in Australia and almost made it to the top of the US Billboard.