THE BEST MUSIC YEAR
About
Gangnam Style (강남 스타일) is a 2012 dance pop single written and performed by Korean pop singer Park Jae Sung, better known by his stage name PSY.
Since its release in mid-July 2012, the highly entertaining music video
has spawned hundreds of parodies and copycat dance videos on YouTube
and surpassed Justin Bieber’s single “Baby” as the most watched video on
YouTube with over 826 million views, as of November 26th, 2012.
Origin
The song “Gangnam Style” was written, produced and recorded as the title single of the sixth studio album PSY 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 by South Korean singer and rapper PSY,
who is best known for his quick-witted sense of humor and comical dance
moves. The song was released on July 15th, 2012, along with the music
video which made its online debut via PSY’s official YouTube channel on
the same day.
Upon
its release, the song took off on virtually all Korean billboard
charts, portal search sites and online music stores, but it began
garnering international attention after the music video went viral on
YouTube during the third week of July 2012. The video continued gained
viral momentum at an average rate of more than 9 million views per day
in the span of two months, surpassing Carly Rae Jepsen’s
“Call Me Maybe”
to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos
chart during the last week of August. By mid-September, PSY’s “Gangnam
Style” overtook LMFAO’s
“Party Rock Anthem” as the most liked video on the site with more than 1.6 million likes.
The Horse Dance
The
mass appeal of the music video has been attributed to its signature
dance move known as “the horse-riding dance,” which combines the
stylistic elements of
shuffle dancing and hand movements resembling the posture of a horseback rider.
PSY Doing the “Horse Riding Dance” in “Gangnam Style” M/V
During
its onset, speculations arose in the Korean internet communities that
the dance may have been pioneered a year earlier by a Korean pop group
Girls’ Day in their 2011 debut single
Tilting Head. However,
PSY later revealed in interviews that he came up with the dance during a talent contest at a post-concert event in August 2011.
The Lyrics
The
basic premise of the song is about a self-proclaimed hotshot looking
for “the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get
wild.” The refrain of the song, “Oppan Gangnam Style,” can be
translated as “Your Boy’s Gangnam Style” with PSY
referring to himself as such. The song’s unexpected popularity has also
led to more in-depth readings of its lyrics in the news media,
including the widespread assertion
that the song is a satire about South Koreans’ materialist obsession
with Seoul’s Gangnam district, a symbol of opulence and socioeconomic
status. PSY has expressed conflicting views regarding this interpretation in multiple interviews.
Romanized:
Oppan gang-namseutayil
Kang-namseutayil Naje-neun ttasaroun inkanjeo-gin yeoja
Keopi hanjanye yeoyureuraneun pumkyeok i-nneun yeoja
Bami omyeon shimjangi tteugeowojineun yeoja
Keureon banjeon i-nneun yeoja
Naneun sana-i
Naje-neun neomankeum ttasaroun geureon sana-i
Keopi shikgido jeone wonsyas ttaerineun sana-i
Bami omyeon shimjangi teojyeobeorineun sana-i
Keureon sana-i
Areumdawo sarangseureowo
Keurae neo hey keurae baro neo hey
Areumdawo sarangseureowo
Keurae neo hey keurae baro neo hey
Chigeumbu-teo kal dekkaji kabol-kka | English Translation:
Oppa’s Gangnam style
Gangnam style
A girl who is warm and graceful during the day
A classy girl who knows how to enjoy a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist
I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who downs his coffee before it cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end |
Terminology
“Gangnam
Style” is a Korean neologism referring to the upscale fashion and
lavish lifestyle associated with trendsetters in Seoul’s Gangnam
district (강남), which is considered the most affluent part of the
metropolitan area. In colloquial usage, it is comparable to the English
slang terms
“swag” or
“yolo”.
Spread
The
video earned the title of “viral video” within days after its release
and received intensive coverage from various English-language music
blogs and K-POP news sites like AllKPop, KPopStars and KoreaBoo, as well as other regional Asian news sites including Yahoo! Philippines News and New Zealand music sites Mai FM and George FM. In the following weeks, the music video picked up notable mentions from internet humor and pop music sites, from Gawker, BuzzFeed and FunnyJunk to Metafilter and PopDust among others.
By the first week of August, PSY’s Gangnam Style had been praised as a viral YouTube sensation by major U.S. news outlets like
CNN,
ABC News and The Wall Street Journal,
further boosting the popularity of his music video. In addition, the
song’s chorus hook “Oppan Gangnam Style” quickly became an in-joke among
the English-speaking audiences for its
misheard lyrics erroneously referred to as
“Open Condom Style” or
“Open Gundam Style,” which also went onto inspire several image macros and top-voted comments on the YouTube video page.
Between
late July and early August, the song picked up numerous endorsements
from high-profile celebrities and musicians on Twitter, including
British pop singer Robbie Williams,
American rapper T-Pain and American singer Josh Groban. Weeks later in
mid-August, Korean and U.S. news outlets reported on a rumor that
Justin Bieber
has also shown interest in PSY’s work and a potential between the two
singers was in progress. On September 20th, 2012, “Gangnam Style” was
officially recognized by the Guinness World Records as the most liked
video in YouTube history with 2,141,758 likes at the time of
announcement.
Reaction Videos
Meanwhile on YouTube, viewers began uploading their reaction videos to the bizarre music video, praising it as a prime example of “Asian WTF
humor” that has proven to fare well in the Western blogosphere. The
YouTube community’s reaction to the music video in turn led to extensive
coverage and analysis of its international popularity in the Korean
news media, bringing hundreds of thousands of views to some of the most
notable response videos. All three videos shown below received over
40,000 views within the first week of upload.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b-KX6GB5oCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWSVfyvOego&feature=player_embedded
Spin-off Music Video
On August 14th, PSY released a spin-off version of the song and the music video starring Hyun-A, a member of the K-POP
group 4Minute who appeared in the original music video as PSY’s muse in
the subway. Titled “Oppa Is Just My Style,” the music video sets itself
apart by putting the female pop singer on the center stage and removing
the original chorus “Gangnam Style” altogether.
PSY Signs with Schoolboy Records
On September 3rd, PSY’s Seoul-based record label YG Entertainment announced on its official blog
that the K-
POP artist has signed a contract with Schoolboy Records after being approached by Scooter Braun, the manager of
Justin Bieber.
The press release was also confirmed by Braun in a video (shown below)
uploaded to his YouTube channel. The announcement of PSY’s expansion
into the United States, along with his scheduled U.S. debut appearance
at the 2012
MTV Video Music Awards, was widely reported in the Korean news media.
Notable Examples
Parodies
Dozens
of music video parodies have been created in tribute to PSY’s “Gangnam
Style,” ranging from regional Korean parodies like “Daegu Style” and
“Hongdae Style” to lip-synched tributes created by K-POP music fans in Singapore, the United States and elsewhere overseas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL2zpgzju8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL2zpgzju8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL2zpgzju8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmIlbyLIcKg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0olKZXJtLMc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvMw6e9T85M&feature=player_embedded
GIF Images
The
video also caught on with Tumblr’s K-pop fanbase, spawning numerous
reaction GIFs and image macros depicting PSY’s horse dance or other
memorable scenes from the music video under the tag “Gangnam Style.”
MY POSTING : WENNY GILLIANI
