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success might represent a cultural shift towards Korean sensibilities but Psy naturally falls closer to the U.S. Other K-pop acts who have found some U.S. Psy, a Berklee College of Music student, uses thumping electro-pop beats that fit snugly among other current chart-topping songs. 8 Indeed the eye-catching dance has fueled the video’s viral ascent, but also important is the underlying pop sensibility of the song. 7 Parody and tribute videos abound on YouTube featuring the dance, and Psy himself appeared on the “dance cam” of a recent LA Dodgers game as “Gangnam Style” blared over the loudspeakers. At his VMA appearance, host and comedian Kevin Hart asked Psy, “you’ve got over 100 million on YouTube … how does that feel?” before the duo spontaneously broke into the trademark dance. As with the appearance on Ellen, most of the media attention centers on the song’s dance. The signature horseback-riding dance fed a buzz that pushed the song to the forefront of pop culture relevance. There are several reasons why Psy has been able to overcome the traditional barriers imposed on Korean artists.
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The arrival of Psy and “Gangnam Style” has brought a new level of mainstream success to K-pop, including a number one spot on the iTunes singles chart. Girls’ Generation TTS, a sub-group of the previously mentioned act, was the highest charting K-pop group on the Billboard 200 with their E.P., Twinkle, which only reached number 126. Even the successes of current K-pop groups, however, have highlighted how far the genre has to go. In early 2012, Rolling Stone published “The 10 K-Pop Groups Most Likely to Break in America.” 6 The article cites previous failed crossover attempts including BoA and Se7en, “likely due to the fact that they were molded by American record labels to be presented in a way they saw best to break into notoriously difficult market.”Ī fresh crop of K-pop stars raised the question again earlier this year, with many looking to Girls’ Generation who made appearances on both The Late Show With David Letterman and Live! With Kelly ahead of their debut U.S. K-Pop, short for Korean Pop, has long enjoyed niche success in the U.S., but with little migration into mainstream pop culture.
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Further appearances at the MTV Video Music Awards and on the Today Show, plus attention from music industry heavyweights have solidified the song’s massive impact.
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Numerous celebrities including LMFAO, T-Pain, Robbie Williams, Vanessa Hudgens, and Britney Spears, took to Facebook, Twitter, or their own website to lend their curatorial voices to “Gangnam Style.” After Spears tweeted about her desire to learn the horseback-riding dance, TV personality Ellen Degeneres brought Psy out during her show to teach Spears the dance. While Psy was already a known figure in Korea, social media catapulted him into the international spotlight, circulating the video in a fervent feedback loop across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and the blogosphere. The success of “Gangnam Style” testifies to the immense power of the social media hive-mind. 1 He also spent several weeks leading the Billboard Social 50, and according to Neilsen SoundScan 2, had sold 61,000 U.S. The 34-year-old rapper, born Park Jae-Sang, may seem an unlikely candidate for pop stardom, but at the end of August he entered his fifth week atop the Billboard K-Pop Hot 100, tying the record for most consecutive weeks at number one.
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Despite the fact that few people other than Koreans know what any of the lyrics mean, the video has received a flurry of international attention for Psy’s now-signature horseback riding dance. The comedic song and video refer to the ritzy neighborhood of Gangnam in Seoul, South Korea. Recently boasting over 160 million YouTube views, Korean rapper Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video became a viral sensation after it was released in July.
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