| "Gangnam Style" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Psy | ||||
| from the album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 | ||||
| Released | July 15, 2012 | |||
| Format | ||||
| Recorded | 2011–12 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:39 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) |
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| Psy singles chronology | ||||
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| Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 Disc artwork | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Gangnam Style" on YouTube | ||||
| "Gangnam Style" | |
| Hangul | 강남스타일 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 江南스타일 |
| Revised Romanization | Gangnam seutail |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kangnam sŭt'ail |
"Gangnam Style" (Korean: 강남스타일, IPA: [kaŋ.nam sɯ.tʰa.il]) is the 18th K-pop single by the South Korean musician Psy. The song was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1, and debuted at number one on South Korea's Gaon Chart. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views.[7] The song's music video has been viewed over 3.1 billion times on YouTube,[8] and was the most viewed video on YouTube from November 24, 2012, when it surpassed the music video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris,[9] to July 10, 2017, when it was surpassed by the music video for "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth.[10]
The phrase "Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul. The song and its accompanying music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide since then. "Gangnam Style" received mixed to positive reviews, with praise going to its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dance moves (which themselves have become a phenomenon) in the music video and during live performances in various locations around the world. In September 2012, "Gangnam Style" was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most "liked" video on YouTube. It subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards held later that year. It became a source of parodies and reaction videos by many different individuals, groups and organizations.
By the end of 2012, the song had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. As the song continued to rapidly gain popularity and ubiquity, its signature dance moves were attempted by many notable political leaders such as the British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who hailed it as a "force for world peace".[11] On May 7, 2013, at a bilateral meeting with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye at the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama cited the success of "Gangnam Style" as an example of how people around the world are being "swept up" by the Korean Wave of culture.[12]
Contents
[hide]Background and release
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"Gangnam Style" is a South Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District[13] of Seoul,[14] where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed "class". The term was listed in Time's weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district.[15] Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humor by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class:[16]
The song talks about "the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild".[18] The song's refrain "오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)" has been translated as "Big brother is Gangnam style", with Psy referring to himself.[19][20] During an interview with The New York Times, Psy revealed that South Korean fans have huge expectations about his dancing, so he felt a lot of pressure. In order to keep up with expectations, he studied hard to find something new and stayed up late for about 30 nights to come up with the "Gangnam Style" dance.[21] Along the way, he had tested various "cheesy" animal-inspired dance moves with his choreographer Lee Ju-sun,[22] including panda and kangaroo moves,[23] before settling for the horse trot, which involves pretending to ride a horse, alternately holding the reins and spinning a lasso, and moving into a legs-shuffling side gallop.[24]
During an interview with Reuters, Psy said that "Gangnam Style" was originally produced only for local K-pop fans.[25] On July 11, Psy and his music label YG Entertainment started releasing several promotional teasers for "Gangnam Style" to their subscribers on YouTube.[26][27][28] On July 15, 2012, the full music video of "Gangnam Style" was uploaded onto YouTube and was immediately a sensation, receiving about 500,000 views on its first day.[29] However, at the time of its release in Germany, a dispute between YouTube and the GEMA (the country's performance rights organization) regarding copyright issues has led to thousands of music videos including "Gangnam Style"[30] being blocked in the country.[31]The music video, along with other music videos from GEMA-protected artists released on YouTube would later be unblocked in Germany on October 31, 2016 after YouTube reached an agreement with GEMA on copyrights and royalties.[32]
K-pop and the Korean Wave
According to the news agency Agence France-Presse, the success of "Gangnam Style" could be considered as part of the Korean Wave,[33] a term coined by Chinese journalists to refer to the significant increase in the popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture since the late 1990s.[34]
Korean popular music (K-pop), considered by some to be the most important aspect of the Korean Wave,[35] is a music genrethat relies on cultural technology to adapt to the tastes of foreign audiences and has now grown into a popular subcultureamong teenagers and young adults in many places around the world.[36] Although it has spread to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of South America,[37] its reception in the Western world has so far been lukewarm.[38] However, social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have made it easier for K-pop musicians to reach a wider audience in the West.[39] According to Mark James Russell from Foreign Policy, while the Korean Wave "may not (yet) turn heads in Los Angeles or London", this could soon change because of "Gangnam Style".[37]
Reception
Critical reception
The song has received mixed to positive ratings from music critics. Music journalist Bill Lamb from About.com praised the song for "spreading smiles and pure fun around the world in record time." He then writes, "take one part LMFAO's synth-based party music, another part Ricky Martin's Latin dance party and the rest a powerfully charismatic South Korean showman and you have the first worldwide K-Pop smash hit." Billboard K-Town columnist Jeff Benjamin became one of the first music critics to review the song when he published an article and reported that "Gangnam Style" has gone viral on the Internet. In his article, Benjamin introduced the reader to a couple of popular K-pop songs and wrote that "Gangnam Style" in particular, plays all the right moves sonically while "borrowing from LMFAO along the way".[14]
Hallie Sekoff of The Huffington Post quoted from the video's official YouTube video description that the song is characterized by its "strongly addictive beats", and wrote that this is not too far-fetched, considering "how obsessed we've found ourselves."[40] London's mayor Boris Johnson considered the song to be the greatest cultural masterpiece of 2012.[41]
Despite its popularity, a few music critics including Robert Copsey from Digital Spy criticized the song for being monotonous. Cospey wrote that "you could slap an LMFAO tag on the cover and few would know the difference"[42] and Paul Lester of The Guardian similarly labelled it as "generic ravey Euro dance with guitars". Lester described the song as "Pump Up the Jam meets the Macarena with a dash of Cotton Eye Joe"[43] while Robert Myers of The Village Voice dismissed "Gangnam Style" as an "inspired piece of silliness".[44]
South Korea and Japan
Cha Woo-jin, a South Korean music critic, told The Chosun Ilbo that "Gangnam Style"'s sophisticated rendering and arrangement has made it very appealing to the general public.[45] Choe Kwang-shik, the South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told reporters that "Gangnam Style" had played an important role in introducing the Korean culture, language, and lifestyle to the rest of the world.[46] However, some have criticized the song for failing to accurately represent South Korean culture. Oh Young-Jin, managing editor of The Korea Times, wrote that the dance has more to do with Americans than Koreans.[47]
In Japan, the song has met with considerable criticism. When "Gangnam Style" first appeared in Japanese TV shows in July, the reaction from viewers was negative. As a result, Psy's Japanese record label YGEX cancelled a previously planned Japanese language re-release of "Gangnam Style".[48] According to The Dong-a Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, the song's lukewarm reception in Japan could have been caused by a diplomatic conflict between the two countries[49] and the newspaper accused the Japanese media of keeping its people "in the dark".[49] However, Jun Takaku of the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun explained that "Gangnam Style" had caused "barely a ripple in Japan" because Psy does not conform to the image of other "traditionally polished" K-pop acts popular in Japan such as Girls' Generationand TVXQ.[50] Erica Ho from Time magazine similarly noted that despite the K-pop musical genre being very popular in Japan, the country seemed to be "immune to PSY Mania" and she advised her readers who dislike the song to "pack your bags for Japan".[51]
Immediately after its release, "Gangnam Style" was mentioned by various English-language websites providing coverage of Korean pop culture for international fans, including Allkpop[52] and Soompi.[53] Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul who were among the first to parody "Gangnam Style" in late July, wrote that the song has the potential to become "one of the biggest songs of the year".[54] However, during an interview with Al Jazeera a few weeks later, Martina Stawski claimed that the worldwide popularity of "Gangnam Style" has been viewed negatively by some K-pop fans, because "they [the fans] didn't want K-pop being liked by other people who don't understand K-Pop".[55][56] This view is also supported by the British journalist and K-pop fan Promi Ferdousi, who wrote that the song has managed to "find its way into our clubs" while the best K-pop songs are limited to niche groups on social media websites.[57]
Music video
Synopsis
The video starts out with Psy, who is lounging at what looks like a sandy beach, under a sun umbrella and holding a cold drink, but the camera zooms out to reveal he is actually at a playground.[58] The video then alternates between the playground, where a boy (Hwang Min-woo) dances next to him; and a row of horses in stalls, where Psy performs his signature "invisible horse dance".[59] As Psy (and two girls) walk through a parking garage, they are pelted by pieces of newspaper, trash, and snow.[60] At a sauna, he rests his head on a man's shoulder, dressed in blue, while another man covered in tattoos is stretching. He then sings in front of two men playing Janggi (Korean chess), dances with a woman at a tennis court, and bounces around on a tour bus of seniors. The scenes alternate quickly until there is an explosion near the chess players, causing them to dive off the bench. Psy immediately walks towards the camera, pointing and shouting "Oppan Gangnam Style". The chorus starts as he and some dancers perform at a horse stable. He dances as two women walk backwards. He dances at the tennis court, a carousel, and the tour bus. He shuffles into an outdoor yoga session and on a boat. The camera zooms in on a woman's butt, then shows Psy "yelling" at it.[60][61]
The chorus ends and he is seen at a parking lot, where Psy is approached by a man (Yoo Jae-suk) in a yellow suit who steps out of a red Mercedes-Benz SLK 200; they have a dance duel. He then appears in an elevator underneath a man (Noh Hong-Chul) who is straddling him and thrusting his pelvis. The man in the yellow suit then gets in his car and leaves. The camera pans and it shows Psy in the subway station, where he boards the train and notices an attractive young woman (Hyuna) dancing. At one of the train stops, he approaches the girl in slow motion, and she does the same. They start to embrace. He then tells the girl "Oppan Gangnam Style", and they horse dance along with some others at the train stop, commencing the second chorus. He also surfaces from a spa.[60][61][note 1]
Psy sings to the girl at a night club as people in various costumes walk behind them. He raps in a serious tone in an enclosed space, but when he says "You know what I'm saying" the camera zooms out, and it is revealed that he is actually sitting on a toilet with his pants down.[60] Psy and a large group of dancers do the horse dance and strike a final pose. After a brief reprise of the dance duel, Psy says, "Oppan Gangnam style", and the video finishes with a cartoon graphic.
Production
The music video is directed by Cho Soo-hyun, who also directed the MV for Psy's follow-up single "Gentleman" and the MV for "This Love" by Shinhwa.[62] It shows Psy performing a comical horse-riding dance and appearing in unexpected locations around the Gangnam District, such as an outdoor yoga session and a hot tub. He wears several distinctive suits and black sunglasses with a mindset of "dress classy and dance cheesy".[63] It features a "skewering [of] the Gangnam image" by the "non-Gangnam Psy"; this parody would be recognizable to viewers familiar with Korean culture.[64][65] Although there are more than ten different locations featured, only two of the scenes are actually filmed in the Gangnam district. The sauna scene, elevator scene and bathroom scene were filmed elsewhere in the greater Seoul region,[66] and some shots were filmed in World Trade Center Seoul and the Songdo International Business District, which includes Songdo Central Park and International Business District Station.[67] The video was shot over 48 hours in July 2012.[60][61]
In K-pop, it is routine to have cameos by celebrities in a music video, such as in the dance scenes in the elevator and the parking garage.[58] The guests in the music video include:
- 4Minute member Hyuna, who dances in the subway car and attracts Psy's attention.[61][65]
- Hwang Min-woo, a 7-year-old boy who dances at the beginning of the video. During an interview with CNN, Psy stated that "the night before the music video shoot, I was watching Korea's Got Talent and saw him dance to Michael Jackson. His moves were ridiculous. So we called him up and asked him to be in the music video, which was shooting the very next day, and he came and it all worked out."[17][61] He has been praised for his eye-catching dance moves that have received a lot of attention from viewers.[68][69]
- Comedian/television personality Korea's Nation emcee Yoo Jae-suk, who engages in a dance duel with Psy.[61][65]
- Comedian/television personality Noh Hongchul, who does his trademark pelvis-thrusting dance in an elevator while Psy raps underneath him.[61][65]
The music was composed by Psy and Yoo Gun-hyung, a producer in South Korea who has also collaborated with Psy in the past. Yoo also arranged the song while Psy was responsible for the lyrics.
Viral spread
Following its July 15 release, "Gangnam Style" overtook Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos during the week of August 28, 2012.[13][70] On September 1, it overtook Girls' Generation's "Gee" to become the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube.[71] Although "Call Me Maybe" has had unusually strong staying power, averaging over 1.5 million views each day, "Gangnam Style" increased to an average of over nine million views per day within just two months. This is mainly because "Call Me Maybe" remained largely a North American trend, whereas the popularity of "Gangnam Style" is not confined to the United States.[72] 61.6 percent of viewers were male, and those aged between 13 and 17 represented the biggest group.[73]
According to The Wall Street Journal, T-Pain was among the first to have "sent [the video] to the stratosphere" when he tweeted about it on July 29.[74][75] It was then picked up by Neetzan Zimmerman from the social blog Gawker, who asked "Did this underground Hip Hop artist from South Korea just release the Best Music Video of the Year?"[76] on July 30. This was soon followed by Robbie Williams,[77] Britney Spears,[78] Katy Perry,[43] Tom Cruise,[79] Joseph Gordon-Levitt,[80] and William Gibson,[81] who have either commented about or shared the video with their fans via Twitter.
The earliest video to catch the attention of media networks outside South Korea was "Psy Gangnam Style MV Reaction", which was uploaded by Katie and Mindy Anderson on July 18, 2012. The Andersons were subsequently interviewed by Evan Ramstad from The Wall Street Journal a few weeks later.[82] In his article published on August 6, 2012, Ramstad also included "Kpop Music Mondays : PSY Gangnam Style", a review and parody of "Gangnam Style" uploaded on July 23 by K-pop video bloggers Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul. This makes the Stawski's video the earliest parody featured in an American newspaper.[74] On August 8, 2012, Ramstad appeared on WSJ Live, and he mentioned the Andersons and the Stawskis again, before claiming that "a lot of Koreans are also making their own parodies of 'Gangnam Style'".[83]
On September 3, 2012, the number of daily views generated by "Gangnam Style" went past the five-million mark.[84] By the end of September, it had topped the iTunes charts in 31 countries.[85]
"Gangnam Style" reached the unprecedented milestone of one billion YouTube views on December 21, 2012. A spoof documentary by videographer Simon Gosselin[94] was posted on YouTube and had promoted 2012 doomsday rumors across social media services such as Facebook and Twitter that linked "Gangnam Style" to a fake Nostradamus prophecy.[95]On December 21, at around 15:50 UTC, the video's YouTube page updated with 1,000,382,639 views.[96] YouTube specially marked the video's accomplishments with a cartoon dancing Psy animated icon, added first by the site logo,[97] and later next to the video's view counter when it exceeded a billion views.[98] On April 6, 2013 the video on YouTube reached 1.5 billion views.[99] On July 5, 2013 the view counter updated with 1,710,619,528 views, which was 15 million higher than same time the previous day. This increased the average number of views per day from 4,787,807 to 4,818,647 (views divided by the number of days since release).
As of February 22, 2018, the video is the fourth most viewed video on YouTube,[100] having earned over 3.1 billion views.[101]
Review
The music video of "Gangnam Style" has been met with positive responses from the music industry and commentators, who drew attention to its tone and dance moves, though some found them vulgar.[102] Another notable aspect that helped popularise the video was its comical dance moves that can be easily copied, such as the pelvic thrust during the elevator scene.[103] The United Nations hailed Psy as an "international sensation" because of the popularity of his "satirical" video clip and its "horse-riding-like dance moves".[104] As such, the music video has spawned a dance craze unseen since the Macarena of the mid-1990s.[105][106]
The World Bank's lead economist David McKenzie remarked that some of Psy's dance moves "kind of look like a regression discontinuity",[107] while the space agency NASA called "Gangnam Style" a dance-filled music video that has forever entered the hearts and minds of millions of people.[108] Melissa Locker of Time noted that "it's hard not to watch again ...and again ...and again",[109] while CNN reporter Shanon Cook told the audience that she had watched "Gangnam Style" about 15 times.[110]
The German news magazine Der Spiegel attributed the popularity of "Gangnam Style" to its daring dance moves,[111] a sentiment similarly voiced by Maura Judkis of The Washington Post, who wrote, "'Gangnam Style' has made an extraordinarily stupid-looking dance move suddenly cool".[112] The video was also positively reviewed by Steve Knopper from Rolling Stone, who called "Gangnam Style" an astoundingly great K-pop video that has all the best elements of hypnotically weird one-hit wonders and hopes that "PSY gets filthy rich from this".[113]
Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press wrote that Psy's dance moves are "somewhat bizarre" but the music video is full of colorful, lively outfits.[114] Matt Buchanan and Scott Ellis of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the video "makes no sense at all to most Western eyes" and it "makes you wonder if you have accidentally taken someone else's medication"[115] whereas Deborah Netburn of the Los Angeles Times called it "one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube." Kim Alessi from Common Sense Mediaconsidered the music video for "Gangnam Style" worth seeing for its caricature of contemporary Asian and American urban lifestyles, but also warned that "Gangnam Style" contains sexually suggestive images and "degrading messages" which could be inappropriate for children and teenagers.[116]
Cultural impact
After the release of "Gangnam Style", the American talent manager Scooter Braun, who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube, asked on Twitter "How did I not sign this guy (Psy)".[117] Soon afterwards, it was reported that Psy had left for Los Angeles to meet with representatives of Justin Bieber, to explore collaboration opportunities.[13] On September 3, Braun made a public announcement that was later uploaded onto YouTube, saying that he and Psy have decided to "make some history together. [To] be the first Korean artist to break a big record in the United States." On September 4, it was confirmed that Psy was signed to Braun's School Boy Records.[118]
The music video for the song has gone viral and is an Internet meme.[119] Although Psy attributed the song's popularity to YouTube and his fans while at the same time insisted that he is not responsible for the song's success,[120] the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the singer for "increasing the world's interest in Korea" and announced its decision to award Psy with a 4th Class Order of Cultural Merit.[121]
The phrase "Oppan Gangnam Style" was entered into The Yale Book of Quotations as one of the most famous quotes of 2012.[122]
Social
As the song's popularity continued to rise, it caused the share price of the song's music label YG Entertainment to gain as much as 50% on the Korea Exchange. DI Corporation, whose executive Chairman Park Won-Ho is Psy's father, saw its share price increase by 568.8% within a few months of the song's release despite making a year-over-year loss.[123][124] Soon, "Gangnam Style" began to attract the attention of several business and political leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who recognized the song as a "force for world peace".[11] During his meeting with Psy at the United Nations Headquarters, he commented, "We have tough negotiations in the United Nations. In such a case I was also thinking of playing Gangnam Style-dance so that everybody would stop and dance. Maybe you can bring UN style."[125][126]
Through social networks like Facebook, many small, unofficial fan-organized flash mobs have been held in universities and colleges throughout the world. The earliest flash mobs were held in Pasadena, California,[127] and Sydney, Australia.[128] On September 12, Times Square in Manhattan was filled with a dance mob dancing to the music of "Gangnam Style" during ABC's Good Morning America.[129] Major flash mobs (those with more than 1,000 participants) were also held in Seoul (South Korea),[130] South Sulawesi (Indonesia),[131] Palermo (Italy), Milan (Italy),[132][133] and Paris (France).[134]
| Date | Location | Country | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 6, 2012 | Seoul | South Korea | 15,000[130] |
| October 14, 2012 | Makassar, South Sulawesi | Indonesia | 12,000[131] |
| October 21, 2012 | Piazza del Duomo, Milan | Italy | 20,000[133] |
| November 5, 2012 | Jardins du Trocadéro, Paris | France | 20,000[134] |
| November 10, 2012 | Piazza del Popolo, Rome | Italy | 15,000[135] |
The song has been tweeted by the United Nations,[136] the United Nations Children's Fund,[137] the American space agency NASA,[138] mentioned by a reporter during a U.S. State Department briefing[139] and referenced by the President of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-Hyun during his speech in front of the UN Security Council.[140][141][142] On October 9, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson held a speech at the 2012 Conservative Party Conference where he told the audience that he and the British Prime Minister David Cameron have danced "Gangnam Style".[143] A few days before the conference, they had performed the dance at Chequers Court in Buckinghamshire.[144] During a Google Earnings call, Larry Page, the CEO and co-founder of Google, hailed the song as a glimpse of the future of worldwide distribution through YouTube.[145]
The American Council on Exercise estimated that dancing "Gangnam Style" will burn 150–200 calories per half-hour[146] and the song was used by Northampton General Hospital to promote hand washing as part of the 2012 Global Handwashing Day on October 15.[147] Swype, an input method for Android operating systems, included "Gangnam Style" in its list of recognized words and phrases.[148]
U.S. President Barack Obama revealed possible plans to privately perform "Gangnam Style" for his spouse Michelle Obama.[149][150][151][152]
In November 2012, a Māori cultural group from Rotorua performed a version of the Gangnam Style dance mixed with a traditional Māori haka in Seoul, celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between South Korea and New Zealand.[153]
In Thailand, officials from the Dan Sai municipality in Loei Province shot a video of people wearing masks and performing "Gangnam Style" during the Phi Ta Khon "ghost" festival. According to the Thai newspaper The Nation, villagers and spiritual leaders from Loei province felt "uneasy" and also "greatly offended" about this "Gangnam Style" performance which tarnishes the image of a 400-year-old tradition.[154] Another controversial incident was sparked by a "Gangnam Style" parody by officers from the Royal Thai Navy, which was not well received by some high-ranking commanders. Although Vice Admiral Tharathorn Kajitsuwan from the Third Naval Area Command insisted that "we had no intention to insult or make fun of navy officers in uniform", some senior officers have called it "improper". Kajitsuwan claimed that his subordinates had the right to upload the video to YouTube, although he did not expect them to do so. On October 1, 2012, he issued an apology to his colleagues. Commander Surasak Rounroengrom believes an investigation is unnecessary because the video caused no damage to the Navy, but he admits that there was some impropriety about military officers doing their "fancy stepping in uniform".[155]
Popular culture
...it has taken over the world,
it has taken over the intrawebs (sic),
and now it's time for it
to take over Times Square.
it has taken over the intrawebs (sic),
and now it's time for it
to take over Times Square.
“
”
Music
- In mid-September, the Brazilian singer Latino released the song "Despedida de solteiro" ("The Bachelor's Party"), which is supposed to be a cover of "Gangnam Style". Many felt offended by his disrespectful lyrics,[157] and some have called it a plagiarized copy of "Gangnam Style".[158] While Psy's original lyrics talk about the lifestyle of the Gangnam people, Latino's version is about a man that is enjoying his bachelor's party in a club, wanting (and having) sex with many women, so drunk that he says he does not know if he's really going to get married the next day.[159] Latino had stated that it was an authorized version.[160]
Sports
Since September 2012, the dance has been performed by athletes in international competitions. These people include:
- Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic[161]
- Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle, who danced "Gangnam Style" twice during the West Indies' match against Ireland and then repeated the act during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 match against England.[162][163] Bangladesh national cricket team also celebrated their ODI series win against West Indies with "Gangnam Style" dance on December 8, 2012.[164]
- Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao[165]
- Uruguayan footballer Edinson Cavani[166]
Television
- In Fall 2012, a cover version of the song was performed on the Fox TV show Glee in the episode "Thanksgiving".[167]
- The dance was also shown on the Argentine TV series Graduados, performed by the Argentine-Korean actor Chang Kim Sung.[168]
- District3 and Rylan Clark, finalists of the British music competition The X Factor, lip-synced and danced to "Gangnam Style" in a promotion.[169]
- In July–August 2016, Indonesian soap opera actor Aliando Syarief parodies the song as "26 Style" at the 26th anniversary of SCTV.
Other
- On September 27, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google was reported to have danced "Gangnam Style" when he visited the company's office in Seoul. Nick Carbone from TIME described it as cringe-worthy because "It's the same reason why you'd never want to see your dad planking on top of the family car".[170]
Political and environmental activism
On September 18, 2012, the North Korean government became the first to use "Gangnam Style" for political activism when it uploaded a parody with the title "I'm Yushin style!" onto the government website Uriminzokkiri.[171] The parody mocks the South Korean ruling conservative party presidential-elect Park Geun-hye. It shows a Photoshopped image of the presidential candidate performing the dance moves of "Gangnam Style" and labels her as a devoted admirer of the Yushin system of autocratic rule set up by her father, Park Chung-hee.[172][173] A few weeks later, "草泥马 style" (literally, "Grass Mud Horse Style"),[note 2][174] was uploaded onto YouTube and other Chinese websites by the political activist and dissident Ai Weiwei. In his parody, Ai Weiwei dances "Gangnam Style" with a pair of handcuffs as a symbol of his arrest by Chinese authorities in 2011. According to the Associated Press, government authorities had removed the video from almost all Chinese websites the next day.[174]
South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office on February 25, 2013. At her inauguration Psy performed "Gangnam Style" and "Champion", one of his first hits in his native country.[175]
In order to show his solidarity with Ai Weiwei and to advocate the freedom of expression, the British sculptor Anish Kapoor produced the video Gangnam for Freedom, which features other prominent British artists as well as human rights activists from various international organisations including Index on Censorship and Amnesty International.[176] A few days before, the global grassroots network Students for a Free Tibet had uploaded a parody of "Gangnam Style" to show its support for the Tibetan independence movement. According to Max Fisher from The Washington Post, this parody of "Gangnam Style" was likely to be filmed in Dharamshala, the home of Tibet's government-in-exile in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.[177]
Greenpeace announced that it was "Going Gangnam, Greenpeace Style" in order to raise public awareness about illegal and unsustainable fishing practices off the coast of Mozambique. Activists from Greenpeace had parodied "Gangnam Style" on board the organization's excursion yacht Rainbow Warrior.[178]
Songdo, a ubiquitous city 40 miles (65 km) west of Gangnam, was among five cities vying for the right to host the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a project developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to channel $100 billion a year from developed countries to help developing countries combat climate change.[179] During its campaign to win the right to host the GCF, the country's Presidential Committee on Green Growth produced a promotional video entitled "GCF Songdo Style by Psy" in which Psy recommends Songdo as the host city for the GCF. He announces that a "new paradigm" will begin at Songdo with the GCF and the video heralds "The beginning of Songdo Style" while "Gangnam Style" plays in the background.[180][181] On October 20, 2012, the Board of the GCF announced that Songdo had won the right to host the fund.[182]
In December 2012, the Department of Health in the Philippines launched a "Gangnam Style" dance campaign against the use of firecrackers to celebrate the New Year.[183] Janine Tugonon, 2012 Miss Universe 1st runner-up, joined and danced on one of their campaign at Pandacan, Manila.[184]According to the Department's Assistant Secretary, Dr. Eric Tayag, the popularity of the song will attract people especially children to use safer means of celebration such as dancing "Gangnam Style".[183] In contrast, the Philippine National Police was confirming intelligence reports about a firecracker named "Gangnam bomb", which supposedly produced by illegal firecracker makers in Bocaue, Bulacan and apparently riding on the popularity of the song.[185] According to Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, director of the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police, he did not know what the possibly dangerous[186] "Gangnam bomb" looks like.[185]
Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, a close associate of Osama bin Laden currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, had also used the song to demonstrate his ability to gain access to popular cultural trends despite being confined within a top secret prison. In a letter to his lawyer, Muhammad wrote, "I like this new song Gangnam Style. I want to do the dance for you but cannot because of my shackles."[187]
Other parodies and covers
Reaction videos and parodies have been made for or with the music respectively. Some of these user generated videos have received international media recognition. "Gangnam Style"-related videos have also been uploaded by the CPDRC Dancing Inmates,[189][190] Cody Simpson,[191] Seungri,[192] Latino,[193] Fine Brothers,[194] Barely Political,[195] and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders.[196]
College campuses have spawned numerous parodies. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's version ("MIT Gangnam Style") featured Donald Sadoway, recognized in Time Magazine as one of 2012 "Top 100 Most Influential People in the World", Eric Lander, who is co-chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and linguisticspioneer Noam Chomsky.[197][198] The Maccabeats, an a cappella group from Yeshiva University, parodied the song as "What's Next? Sukkos Style?" with group members waving the four species.[199] In addition, there are parodies from The Ohio University Marching 110,[200] York University,[201] McMaster University,[202] Cornell University,[203] University of Oregon,[203] University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign,[203] Boston University,[204] Dartmouth College,[204] Stanford University[205] Colegio de la Preciosa Sangre de Pichilemu,[206] Eton College,[141] and the University of Michigan.[207]
The American space agency NASA uploaded an educational parody shot by its students at its Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. The video features cameo appearances by astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mike Massimino, Michael Coats, Ellen Ochoa, and the International Space Station's Expedition 15 flight engineer Clayton Anderson, who dances "Gangnam Style" halfway through the video.[208][209] Shortly after its upload, the parody was re-tweeted by the European Space Agency[210] and the SETI Institute.[211]
The song was also parodied by cadets from the United States Military Academy,[212][213] United States Merchant Marine Academy,[214]United States Naval Academy,[215][216] United States Air Force Academy,[217] and the Royal Military College of Canada;[218] soldiers from the 210th Fires Brigade, the 2nd Infantry Division, servicemembers from an undisclosed unit and location in Afghanistan,[219] servicemembers from the China Coast Guard's Jiangsu division,[220] 150 officers from the People's Liberation Army Air Force,[221] as well as high-ranking officers from the Royal Thai Navy.[222]CollegeHumor uploaded Mitt Romney Style; while What's Trending uploaded Obama Style.[223] During the two weeks before August 7, nearly 1,000 videos with the word "Gangnam" in the title were uploaded onto YouTube.[29]
Psy parodied his own video of the song, in an advertisement for pistachio nuts (Wonderful Pistachios) during Super Bowl XLVII.[224]
The Portuguese public broadcaster RTP1 spoofed the song in its late-night show 5 Para A Meia-Noite as Gamar com Style, sung by the comedian Pedro "Pacheco" Fernandes, criticizing the Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, the European Union, the IMF and the 2010–13 Portuguese financial crisis.[225]
There are many "Gangnam Style" parodies used for education. One such parody includes "Conjugation Style", a parody used to teach students about the conjugation of -er verbs in the French language.[226]
Live performances
Asia
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Following the release of "Gangnam Style", Psy made several performances on television and at concerts in Korea. Early performances included his appearance on the weekly South Korean music program, The Music Trend.[14] Psy also performed at several concerts prior to his departure to the United States, including during "The Heumbbeok Show"[227] and the Summer Stand Concert in Seoul.[228] After returning to South Korea, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" during a free concert that he held outside the Seoul City Hall. More than 80,000 fans attended the event, leading to the closure of part of the city center and an increase in subway operations.[229][230] While Psy was in the US, it was announced that he, as ambassador of the Formula One Korean Grand Prix, would perform "Gangnam Style" at the event during the 2012 edition.[231] At the event Psy taught Formula One drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel how to perform the dance.[232]
On November 28, Psy visited Thailand and held his concert "Gangnam Style Thailand Extra Live" at the SCG Stadium in Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok. At the show, a part of celebration for the 85th birthday of Thai's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, he performed the song along with his other hits.[233][234] During the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards held in Hong Kong on November 30, he performed the song on stage, joined by the video's co-star Hyuna and Yoo Jae-Seok look-alikes in yellow suits.[235] The track was one of three-song setlist on Psy's free showcase, held at the Marina Bay Sandsin Singapore on December 1, 2012.[236]
On February 11, 2013, Psy arrived at the Malaysian state of Penang and performed "Gangnam Style" at a concert in front of more than 100,000 guests, including the Prime Minister of Malaysia Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as well as other high-ranking politicians from the country's ruling Barisan Nasional party.[237]
Australia
In early October 2012, Psy travelled to Sydney, Australia and performed "Gangnam Style" on The X Factor, a reality TV music competition, where Melanie Brown joined him in performing the "horse dance" on stage.[238] The following day, he performed on breakfast TV show Sunrise in Martin Place, Sydney.[239]
Europe
Psy's first public performance in Europe was on November 5, 2012 in France, where he and 20,000 fans danced "Gangnam Style" in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris during a flashmob organized by NRJ Radio.[240] Then, he travelled to Oxford and performed a short rendition of "Gangnam Style" with students from the Oxford Union, before moving on to the Yalding House in London where he danced "Gangnam Style" with the BBC's radio DJ Scott Mills.[241] Shortly afterwards, Psy left for Cologne and met up with the German comedian and television host Stefan Raab during the popular late-night show TV total, where Psy gave an interview and performed "Gangnam Style" for Raab.[242] During the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Frankfurt on November 11, Psy delivered a performance of "Gangnam Style" which featured a David Hasselhoff appearance and backup dancing of Psy look-alikes.[243]
In early 2013, Psy returned to France for the 2013 NRJ Music Awards at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, where he began performing "Gangnam Style" on the red carpet before finishing the rest of the choreography on stage and leaving the ceremony with 3 awards.[244]
North America
Following the viral success of his music video, Psy left for the United States and performed "Gangnam Style" in various locations. On August 20, Psy posted on Twitter "Bringing #GangnamStyle to the Dodgers–Giants game this evening". Dodger Stadium presented a segment called "Psy Dance Cam" where they showed clips of the music video, followed by live shots of baseball fans dancing, and then Psy, who waves and does the dance.[245] Two days later, Psy appeared on VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live show, and taught television hosts Carrie Keagan and Jason Dundas how to dance "Gangnam Style".[93][246]
On September 6, Psy appeared at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performing his "Gangnam Style" dance alongside comedian Kevin Hart.[247] After the event, he would make several more appearances on US TV programs. On September 10, he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in Burbank, California, introducing himself as "Psy from Korea", before teaching Britney Spears the dance. He described the dance as "pretending to bounce like riding on an invisible horse"[63][248][249] and when Ellen told Britney she would have to remove her high-heeled shoes to perform the dance Psy protested that no, the point was, 'to dress classy, and dance cheesy.' On September 14, he appeared on NBC's morning program Today in New York City for its Toyota Concert Series, where he performed the song and also taught the anchors the dance.[250][251] The September 15 season premiere episode of Saturday Night Live featured a sketch based on the song and its video. Bobby Moynihan portrayed Psy, but was joined mid-sketch by Psy himself.[252] He also made his second appearance on The Ellen Show's September 19 episode to perform the song along with his backup dancers.[253] On September 22, Psy made an appearance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival to perform "Gangnam Style".[254] Psy, dressed in a black jacket, blue pants, two-tone shoes and his signature shades, appeared on the US national TV show The View on October 25 and performed the song for Barbara Walters and the ladies of the show who donned sunglasses and got out of their seats.
On November 13, he joined the American recording artist Madonna on stage during her concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City and they performed a mashup of the song and her 2008 hit "Give It 2 Me". Psy later told reporters that his gig with Madonna had "topped his list of accomplishments".[255][256] On November 18, Psy, who rocked out in traditional Hammer pants, closed out the 40th American Music Awards show with a performance of "Gangnam Style", joined by surprise guest MC Hammer who brought in his own moves and Psy's horse-riding dance as the song mashed into his 1990s hit "2 Legit 2 Quit".[257] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard commented that "Psy's feverish rendition of 'Gangnam Style' accomplished what so few award show performances can: a palpable sense of excitement. The combination of the K-pop star and MC Hammer...was a stroke of genius that very few could have seen coming", choosing it as the best performance of the night.[258] The Tonight Show with Jay Leno did a special Thanksgiving broadcast with an all-military audience on November 22, and Psy dropped by as the musical guest. The singer sang the song and danced alongside the soldiers, going into the crowd for part of his performance.[259]
Psy performed "Gangnam Style" during the second night of KIIS-FM Jingle Ball concert at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 3, 2012.[260] He―wearing an all-red outfit including a sparkling, sequined top―sang the song at TNT's Christmas in Washington special, attended by the US President Barack Obama and his family, and held at the National Building Museum On December 9.[261] On December 16, he performed the song at the halftime show of the NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks in Toronto.[262] During the Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve event at Times Square in Manhattan on December 31, 2012, more than one million people witnessed a live "Gangnam Style" performance by Psy as he was joined on stage by characters (Yoo Jae-Seok, Noh Hong-chul) from the song's video for the first part of the performance, before MC Hammer appeared to perform a mash-up of the song and "2 Legit 2 Quit".[263][264][265]
South America
During the five-day Carnival in Rio attended by more than 5 million people, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" with singers Claudia Leitte and Gilberto Gil to mark the 50th anniversary of Korean immigration to Brazil.[266]
Legacy
The success of "Gangnam Style" is a result of the build-up of South Korea's music industry that has been in the works for over 20 years,[267] and it has led to other K-pop artists positioning themselves for a similar breakthrough in the U.S. music industry.[268] Frances Moore, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, brought up Gangnam Style as an example of how South Korea became one of the "most successful exporters of repertoire".[269]
Increased interest in the Korean Wave
According to the news agency Agence France-Presse, the success of "Gangnam Style" has led to the further rise and spread of the Korean Wave to other countries.[270] As the song continued to attract worldwide media attention, it also led to various broadcasting networks and national newspapers focusing its attention on K-pop and other aspects of Korean culture. For example, The Daily Telegraph published an article recommending its readers to try out everything from K-Pop to "K-Cars", "K-Phones" and "K-Cuisine".[271] The British multinational grocery and retailer Tesco reported that its total sales of Korean food had more than doubled as a result of the popularity of "Gangnam Style".[272] Kim Byoung-gi, the Korean Ambassador to Lebanon, wrote that "Gangnam Style" has helped bridge Lebanese and Korean cultures.[273] The French-born political commentator Tim Soutphommasane, a Research fellow at Monash University, agrees that the Gangnam phenomenon is "something worth studying". According to Soutphommasane, the world is only beginning to appreciate Gangnam Style as "part of a broader hallyu cultural wave coming out of the country [South Korea]".[274]
South Korea
In 2012, the South Korean government announced that "Gangnam Style" had brought in $13.4 million to the country's audio sector, and it subsequently launched a campaign to further expand the K-Pop music industry overseas.[275] According to the Bank of Korea, the country's services account recorded a surplus of USD 2.3 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared to a deficit of USD 4.5 billion last year. This was mainly due to the growing influence and popularity of K-pop songs such as "Gangnam Style".[276] However, the American journalist John Seabrook noted that by "satirizing standard K-pop tropes in Gangnam Style", Psy may have subverted the music genre's chances of making it big in the West.[277]
Music industry
Record executives in the music industry believe that music charts will increasingly be filled with YouTube-driven globalised acts from foreign countries. Sean Carey, a research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton, wrote that the flow of popular music will no longer be a single traffic route from North America and Europe to other parts of the globe, but will also move the other way as well.[278] According to Adam Sherwin from The Independent, the global web demand for Gangnam Style had short-circuited the "traditional reluctance" of radio stations to play foreign-language songs.[279] The song is also underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business.[280] Although Psy earned more than US$60,000 from music sales of "Gangnam Style" in South Korea alone, he and his music label YG Entertainment have raked in almost US$1 million from advertisements which appear on YouTube videos identified for using "Gangnam Style" in its content. The Harvard Business Review published an article written by Kevin Evers, who explained how "Gangnam Style" had changed Billboard's ranking methodology of its music charts. Instead of relying solely on radio plays and paid purchases, Billboard started to place a heavier emphasis on digital sales and YouTube views.[281] As a result of the change, Gangnam Style moved up to the top position of Billboard's Hot Rap Songs music chart.[282] According to the British Phonographic Industry's report based on Official Charts Company sales data, thanks to Psy's song and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", pop became the UK's favourite musical genre of the year, taking the lion's share of the singles market (38.5%) in 2012.[283]
Track listing
| Digital download[284] | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | "Gangnam Style (강남스타일)" | 3:39 |
| [show]Digital download – 2 Legit 2 Quit Mashup[285] |
|---|
| [show]Digital download – Remix EP[286] |
|---|
| [show]CD single[287] |
|---|
Credits and personnel
- Psy – vocals, producer, songwriter (lyrics and music)
- Yoo Gun-hyung – producer, songwriter (music), arrangement
Credits adapted from Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 EP liner notes and YG Entertainment official website.
