![]() ![]() And just as someone who is garishly dressed can still communicate a sense of style, one doesn’t need to understand a word of Psy’s raps to recognize that he’s sneering for a reason. ![]() ![]() What makes “Gangnam Style” unique is its acerbic, self-aware edge, which is something of a novelty in earnest, unsarcastic K-pop. As a circa-2012 dance tune, it rations out its drama with loud-quiet-loud efficiency, the wall-of-buzz-saw wallop giving way to Psy’s brash-in-any-language sneers. ![]() There are the aspects of the video that translate well through any screen: the eccentric fashions and swirling visuals, the horseback-drummer dance steps and seemingly absurd set pieces, the sense that the song’s vigorous euphoria is the attempt by someone who’s never been on uppers to imagine what that must feel like. Many of Psy’s 264 million (as of this posting) views came from the United States. Which makes the song’s triumph beyond Asia so fascinating. Today, the influence of Korean pop culture throughout Asia interests Lou Pearlman–type aspirants, economists, and politicians alike. But it emerged in the early nineties as something distinct: Under its sleek angles, R&B hooks, and dance beats, K-pop was omnivorous to the point of all-at-once, Technicolor delirium. Polished, ballad-driven Japanese and Chinese idols ruled the region from the eighties on, and K-pop could have easily remained a minor tributary in the Asian music scene. To underscore the accident of “Gangnam Style”: Prior to all this, Psy - who grew up in South Korea but attended Boston University and Berklee College of Music - was a bit player in the world of K-pop. But there’s a point, somewhere between the 10 millionth view on YouTube and the appearances on Ellen, Saturday Night Live, and the Today show, when such a question becomes irrelevant. Is “Gangnam Style” any good? Anything involving a pompadoured 5-year-old channeling Michael Jackson is probably good. Within a couple of weeks, the clip - in which the portly Psy struts and gallops through Seoul’s poshest quarter, playing Korean-pop video tropes for psychedelic camp - had colonized the rest of the world too. It was an instant hit when South Korean rapper Psy released the video to YouTube on July 15. We hope that each virus might immunize us from the next one, but then something like “Gangnam Style” happens. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |