When I was in the US a few weeks ago I posted this
picture from the clean-up "party" after the first night of Brooklyn Beta (more on that to come in another post, but
here's a great compilation of highlights). One of my followers posted a comment that said, "
Looks like Gangnam Style!" To that my response was, what's that? It turns out indeed I had heard the song seen the music video in France but had no idea it was such a worldwide phenomenon where people did the "horse-riding dance."
The music video is ridiculously enthralling. Psy (aka Park Jae-sang) is the artist, and the first South Korean artist to have a top-selling U.S. single (he just signed with the guy who made Justin Bieber famous). According to TIME, the video mocks materialism in Seoul.
Where are you from? Is 'Gangnam Style' a big hit there too?
It is so strange to have a place I was so familiar with in my years in Korea become so mainstream in the months after moving back to the States.
ReplyDeleteI think last month it was more popular. Similar to the Macarena, I think this song will live its life as a must-play song at parties and weddings.
ReplyDelete@Lauren, how interesting. I bet the video has whole other levels of meaning for you having spent so much time there.
ReplyDeleteGC, agreed. ~3 weeks ago they were already saying it was the "IT" thing a couple weeks prior.
A
It was incredibly popular here in Australia, my students annoyingly would get up in class start doing the dance and singing "heeeyy sexy lady" but like most kids they have already forgotten about it. As GC said it is very much like the Macarena :)
ReplyDeleteHere is a really good article talking about the meaning of the video: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/gangnam-style-dissected-the-subversive-message-within-south-koreas-music-video-sensation/261462/?fb_action_ids=10100681306902457&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
ReplyDeleteI found out about the video while on a trip to Thuringia, Germany in a very random way from a 12 year old. Needless to say we danced our hearts out the whole weekend with this song, and it appears to be rather popular with German teens already since summer time ;-)
Funny...yes is is HUGE. Getting so tried of hearing the song actually ;)
ReplyDeleteA few more links that came my way after this post:
ReplyDelete* http://www.vulture.com/m/2012/09/psys-k-pop-crossover.html
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpgzn7KuzE
* http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/12dssq/noam_chomsky_goes_gangnam_style_in_mits_parody/
Living in Paris, I had the same reaction as you. I just assumed it was another weird Euro thing. Little did I know it was a worldwide phenomenon!!!
ReplyDeleteAhhhh! PSY was in Paris yesterday for a flashmob and I missed it!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TQcFBCovBnk