The Korean K-pop song, titled "Gangnam Style," became a global hit within months. Listening to it a few times, the lyrics and melody and the funny horse dance posture lingered in your mind for a while. Like "Disturbed" and "The Most Dazzling National Wind" which became popular in China, the birth of a sacred song always seems so inadvertent and inevitable, no matter whether you like it or not, it spreads with the Internet, and even the creator himself finds it inexplicable.
step 1 star effect + grassroots interaction
"Gangnam Style" MV released online on July 15, the end of July, the American teenage super idol Justin Bieber's manager Scott Braun, rapper Tipan and so on tweeted about the "Gangnam Style", and are accompanied by a link to the MV's YouTube video. Tipan marveled at its "awesomeness beyond words."
In early August, parody videos appeared in different versions, including a wedding version, a uniform version, a U.S. election version, and a football version, catering to a wide range of people's entertainment needs. Immediately afterward, netizens began to join in the interaction. Meanwhile, American pop singer Katy Perry also retweeted "Gangnam Style," and Korean fans in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia retweeted it vigorously again, with the number of tweets topping 60,000 in a day.
As the army of celebrity referrals to "Gangnam Style" grows stronger, the number of parody versions around the world is also increasing, with a North Korean Web site parodying a video that satirizes a South Korean presidential candidate. The fusion of celebrity effects and grassroots interaction has finally led to the song's global explosion.
On Sept. 4, the music video surpassed the 100 million YouTube views mark, making PSY the first Korean singer to kick off the 100 million views era on the YouTube site with a single track. "PSY is welcome to come to my office anytime to pick up the Guinness World Records certificate," said the Guinness World Records official.
STEP 2 TV media push
Meanwhile U.S. entertainment programs have kept up with the network's synchronization rate, with PSY appearing on a variety of U.S. shows.
On Aug. 29, Britney Spears tweeted about "Gangnam Style," "I'm super into this music video, it's so funny! I think I should learn this choreography, anyone want to teach me?" Soon after, PSY appeared on the US program "The Ellen Show Stage" with Britney to show off their horse steps together.
PSY was not an overnight sensation. Formerly known as Park Jae-sang, he was born in 1977 to a well-off family and graduated from the music department of the University of Berkeley in the U.S. His unique stage style and humorous and sarcastic lyrics have gained him recognition by the Korean public, and he has enjoyed a high level of popularity in South Korea since his debut. In an interview with well-known American host Ryan Seacrest, who asked him if he knew why "Gangnam Style" was so popular, PSY said in a mouthful of authentic American English, "Actually, I don't know."
From its online release on July 15 to over 100 million views, "Gangnam Style" took about 50 days; however, the number of views rose from 100 million to 200 million in just two weeks. Gangnam Style also broke the precedent of no Korean song reaching the mainstream U.S. market, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard charts.
Critics attribute the song's global popularity to the viral effect of the Internet, where people click on it whether they like it or not. Twitter and YouTube were instrumental in making "Gangnam Style" go from South Korea to the rest of the world, and it proved to be a quick hit in China through microblogging and video sites.
Step 3: Boring and funny vs soft power
People who like it think the lyrics are catchy, the tunes are "mouth-watering", and the horse-riding moves are dynamic and hilarious.
But there are also many who don't like "Gangnam Style," with many saying the song is inexplicably popular. A Brazilian netizen commented, "In my opinion it's not a success, it's just a gimmick to make money by using the internet to grab eyeballs."
The British newspaper The Guardian, in its article "Where's the Funny in Gangnam Style? The article points out that it is unlikely that Western audiences love "Gangnam Style" because of the implicit political message behind it. According to the article, it's nothing more than a fat guy doing a funny dance and singing repetitive nonsensical lyrics. The song's visuals are distinctly American, a hodgepodge and platter of Western pop music, so Western audiences already feel familiarity and déjà vu without needing to know what Uncle Bird is humming.
"Gangnam Style" has become one of South Korea's most successful cultural exports. The New York Times commented that Koreans don't care whether PSY, the most successful cultural spokesman, is highbrow or not. For Koreans, PSY is still a symbol of "soft power" and a way to export Korean culture to the world.
■ Behind the song
Not "Gangnam Style"
At the same time, for South Korea, the MV also contains a rich irony.
The video begins with bright sunshine and beautiful women, and PSY wearing sunglasses and sunbathing under an umbrella. However, as the camera pulls away, he is actually on a children's beach playing field, and the sunny beach bikinis are all just a figment of his imagination.
"Gangnam Style" is a subtle expression of the disparities between wealth and class in South Korea, beyond the ostensible pomp and circumstance of extravagance. Pop music critic Kim Jae-ka (ph) said. "The residents of Gangnam are all high class Koreans, but other Koreans feel they are very self-centered and have no sense of social responsibility at all." In a sense, PSY's song was like pushing a cultural button.
Jea Kim, a Korean living in the United States, said Koreans "really want to be a part of the Gangnam district," and "Gangnam Style" skillfully captures the complex love-hate relationship Koreans have with the district. (