Gangnam Style is a 2012 K-pop single by the South Korean rapper Psy. It has been featured in broadcasting networks such as CNN and Bloomberg, mentioned by numerous celebrities, and has also led to various user-generated parodies and reaction videos from all over the world. According to the German national daily newspaper Die Welt, "Gangnam Style" is spreading like a "Lauffeuer" (wildfire),and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation writes that millions around the globe have become "obsessed". "Gangnam Style" is widely praised for its humour, catchy rhythm as well as Psy's unusual dance moves that have introduced many people to K-pop. First released on July 15, 2012, it entered the Gaon Chart singles chart at number one upon release, and it has the most views as a K-Pop song on YouTube.
BACKGROUND
"Gangnam Style" is a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district, an affluent and trendy area of Seoul. The music video depicts Psy dancing at various locations in Gangnam. The song is about "the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild."
In colloquial Korean, "오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)" may be translated as "I love the Gangnam style" or literally "Your big brother is Gangnam Style". The Korean word 오빠 (oppa) means "a female's elder brother" but can be also used as a first-, second- or third-person masculine pronoun to designate a male who is elder or older than a female. Based on more recent cultural norms, the term has typically been used to refer to a boyfriend or male spouse. It is used as a first-person pronoun in this phrase. 오빤 (oppan) is an abbreviation of 오빠는 (oppaneun). 는 is a topic marker, which in this case means the implied subject of the sentence is the singer (오빠). The verb "to be" is omitted, as is often the case in such short Korean sentences. Thus the literal translation of "Oppan Gangnam style" is "Your big brother [is] Gangnam Style".
The lyrics are by Psy, music by Psy and Yoo Gun-hyung, and it was arranged by Yoo Gun-hyung, who is a well-known producer in South Korea and also collaborated with Psy in the past.
MUSIC VIDEO
Making appearances in the music video are:
- 4minute member Hyuna playing PSY's love interest and appearing in the two final dance sequences
- Comedian/television personality Yoo Jae-Seok in a dance duel with PSY
- Comedian/television personality Noh Hong-cheol dancing in an elevator with his trademark pelvic- thrusting
- Hwang Min-woo, a 5 year old boy who is seen dancing 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."
VIDEO PERFORMENCE ON YOUTUBE
Another indicator of the song's immense growing popularity is its performance on the video sharing platform YouTube. The Los Angeles Times calls it one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube.
Uploaded on July 15, 2012, "Gangnam Style" has been viewed over 89 million times and 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.On the 1st of September, it overtook Girl's Generation's Gee to become the most viewed K-Pop video on Youtube. About 47% of the views came from the United States, 7% from the United Kingdom, 6.8% from Canada and 4% from South Korea.
INFLUENCE ON OTHER CELEBRITIES
One important factor that has led to "Gangnam Style" being so well known is its popularity among many notable celebrities, this has caused it to receive attention from numerous fans in and outside the United States. When "Gangnam Style" was first released, it was only known to fans of K-Pop, and in particular those of Psy's record label the South Korean management agency YG Entertainment. However, K-Pop fans started to share it on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and it was not long before internet users outside the K-Pop community began to notice it. Soon, even celebrities in and outside the United States started mentioning about "Gangnam Style" on Twitter and elsewhere, which led to a snowball effect further increasing Gangnam Style's already growing popularity.
For example, on August 16, 2012, Nelly Furtado performed the song in her concert in the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
During the late night comedy talk show Chelsea Lately, the American stand-up comedian and actress Chelsea Handler tells the audience that she is assembling a task force to expand the search for the lucky man to marry. She excludes the Russians and the natives of Galápagos from her search, and calls Psy a "surprising person that has pricked my interest", as well as a "revolutionary musician, dancer and sex symbol". She also compares Psy with the latino pop singer Ricky Martin, before revealing that she had discovered "Gangnam Style" "only after 43 million people have watched this video on Youtube." Shortly after, she exclaims "Oppa Gangnam Style!" and the programme ends with the "Gangnam Style" dance performed by 6 backstage dancers.
Other notable artists such as the British singer Robbie Williams, actor Simon Pegg as well as Josh Groban have also mentioned about the music video on Twitter. While Rapper T-Pain praised “Gangnam Style” because "Words cannot even describe how amazing this video is."[40], Britney Spears indicated her interest in "Gangnam Style"'s choreography. She tweeted "I am LOVING this video – so fun! Thinking that I should possibly learn the choreography. Anybody wanna teach me?”
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)". Soon afterwards, it was reported that Psy had left for Los Angeles to meet with representatives of Justin Bieber, to explore collaboration opportunities.[45][4] During The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the American stand-up comedian Jay Leno danced to "Gangnam Style" during a parody of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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