When the whole world dances in „Gangnam Style”: reaching the 1st billion Andrei E., Toma Wageningen University “Gangnam style ” 2 „Gangnam Style ” is… [601852]

"Gangnam Style "

When the whole world dances in "Gangnam Style": reaching the 1st billion
Andrei E., Toma
Wageningen University

“Gangnam style ” 2
"Gangnam Style " is a single released by South Korean rapper Park Jae -sang ( Psy) on July 15,
2012. It has achieved widespread international recognition and became the most viewed
YouTube video, gaining a billion views on December 21, 2012. "Gangnam Style"'s
unprecedented worldwide popularity was acknowledged by YouTube, who called it a "massive"
hit at a global level "unlike anything we've ever seen before" while Billboard noted that
"Gangnam Style" was nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon. As a result, it has influenced
worldwide popular culture in many aspects, charming people from all parts of the world and
make them adopt and adapt the moves created by PSY in his video .
The question that arises is “How that happened? What made this particular single a worldwide
success? ”
Looking at the video and listening to its lyri cs what looks simple and funny is in fact complex
and more serious than we might think . Gangnam is a district resisting on the south bank of Han
River in Seoul. Developing from the 1980s, Gangnam district has beco me one of the most influential
business centers in South Korea, famous for its concentrated wealth and high living standard.
Accordingly, ‘Gangnam style’ becomes a neologism in Korean language, describing the affluent and
trendy lifestyle associated with t hat district. Psy explains simply the “Gangnam style ” in his motto:
“dress classy, dance cheesy. ” It draws on the brand -name, expensive, cutting -edge clot hing
favored by wealthy youth from the Gangnam , where an edgy, young, urban aesthetic has sprung
up from that area ’s new money. The signature move of the video has been called the “invisible
horse dance ” because it mimics a riding movement with hand gestures of alternating holding
reigns and lassoing. Wharton marketin g professor David Bell, an expert in K -pop, attributes the
universal appeal of “Gangn am Style ” to its parallels with modern thinking : “Being stylish,
having a good time, but also poking fun at yourself is emblematic. Gangnam could not only be a
physical place, but a metaphor for a state of mind. ” Bell argues that Psy ’s accessible image, not

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his message, has made the song so popul ar, adding that “Gangnam Style ” plays on materialistic
themes in rap videos, but without an aggressive attitude that ma ny find offensive in the rap
genre .
When asked during interviews how he found this original recipe of success , Psy
attributed the song's popularity to YouTube and his fans while at the same time mentioned the
amount of work and research that together with his team did to have th e final version. They spent
more than 30 night s analyzing moves and gestures from animals all over the world . When he
talks about the way he feels while performing on stage, Psy says: "It's between feeling shame a nd
feeling the same – when I do this the very first time I feel a little shame, but if people feel the
same then they do the same moves from that time on."
Besides the “most viewed video ” title “Gangnam Style ” and Psy received other important
acknowledgments and rewards like the 4th Class Order of Cultural Merit from the South Korean
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism who recognized the singer for "increasing the world's
interest in Korea". The phrase "Oppan Gangnam Style" was entered into The Yale Book of
Quotations as one of the most famous quotes of 2012 .
The Harvard Business Review notes how “Gangnam Style ” strays away from the traditional
manufacturer -to-consume r marketing strateg y in favor of a “social network -oriented playbook in
its medi a use, content development and message . From the beginning , the song intentionally
lacked a copyri ght so that people would be encouraged to create their own online parodies, in
essence their own style ’” Such an idea could be seen as revolutionary for marketing, especially
nowadays when companies are struggling to protect the patents on the ir products.

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Since the video release Psy has been welcomed with open arms, and has been spotted teaching
several celeb rities his iconic "horsey dance ", making the moves more and more popular.
The rise of K-Pop is the bellwether of a variety of trends that are changing the global economy
(and emerging mar kets in particular) in fundamental ways. Its success as a product and even
more importantly, as a cultural brand promoting Korean exports ranging from soft drinks to
cosmetics to consumer electronics suggests that Western countries are open for such a wave .
More generally, it illustrates the new reality that the North -South pattern of trade and cultural
exchange that has dominated the world since the ascendance of European colonialism is giving
way and making room for unexpected soft power.
Experts argue that while “Gangnam Style ” has all the key elements of a pop hit – including a
catchy hook – its success is the sum of many elements, producing a "fluke" that will be tough
to duplicate any time soon. "I think just having that kind of hit song is such a freak incident. To
have a song of this scale, it doesn't create any kind of precedent. It's a scientific fluke. A kind of
perfect storm of pop music comes together every once in a while to create this ki nd of song, "
said Jason Anderson, arts writer and film critic for The Grid newspaper in Toronto. “Gangnam
Style ” is not the first international pop track to capture a global audience. Some of its
predecessors include Los del Rio's “Macarena from the '90s that also featured a signature
dance, and Austrian musician Falco's Rock Me Amadeus , in the 1980s.
The song also has a catchy hook with just e nough English – "Heyyyy, sexy lady" – to keep those
who don't understand Korean interested, while the song's beat is in line with the European –
style techno sounds that are ever -present on Top 40 charts in Western markets.
As mentioned before the horse dance is a key element that triggered more than 900 imitations
and got viral on several social media channels.

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As described by Hall (2005), popular culture is easily accessible, generates income to its
producers and its artifacts are recognized and known by the masses. In the case of Ps y, he is not
a typical pop star. The way he looks or even the dance itself is different from a regular pop icon.
Taking a clo ser look at the video, one might notice that the song's lyrics poke fun at the posh
district of Gangnam in Seoul . There is a four minute flow of ridiculous scenes ranging from the
South Korean rapper riding a children's carousel to emphatically rapping while seated on a toilet ,
but that kind of clips tend to go viral onl ine. “It's the fact that he's both adopting pop culture and
mocking [it] at the same time. In a way, it's a very ironic video. The kind of thing that plays
really well on YouTube ” said Mark Simos, songwriting professor at Berklee College of Music in
Boston.
Going back to the process that the video has be trough , digital agency 10 Yetis has revealed the
results from its review into how the music vi deo “Gangnam Style ” became so popular online,
finding that the campaign was an organic natural hit with little if any “gaming ” (false
manipulation) of traffic volumes and online mentions. Overall the report found that, rather than
being celebrity tweets whic h drove the popularity, it was a well-structured and meticulously
executed campaign by the South Korean label company behind the song; YG Entertainment.
Driven by the record label behind Psy (the star of Gangnam Style), YG Entertainmen t, the video
formed part of a wider business goal to push into the US and UK music industry.
The report found that YG Entertainment had spent a significant amount of time, before the song
came along, setting up an office in America and exploring partnershi ps with various artists . The
company also invested in organicall y growing an engaged audience, so that when the right song
came along, they had a large platform on which to seed the campaign to ensure maximum
exposure and a surefire online hit.

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They had the platforms and audiences to seed a viral campaign when the right opportunity came
along.
Taking a closer look at the song and associated video, this too had the factors to not just become
an on line hit, but an online hit across multiple genres, territories and sectors. The video for
Gangnam Style used a mix of high profile and topical characters such as a dancing boy from
popular show South Korea has Talent, alongside two well -known South Korean
entertainers/comedians.
The report suggest s that these three characters, combined with Psy ’s own successful track record
in the South Korean music industry, added to how “shareable ” it was online.
Media outside Korea was slow to pick up on the video. An article in Gizmodo on July 26
followed by a feature in Telegraaf in Holland (July 27) c aused a slight upward trend in video
views. The next big push came via Gawker, which wrote a story on the song and video that
generated 19,00 Facebook Likes/Shares for the article (July 30) which was followed by articles
in Billboard, Huffington Post, and TV news pieces from CNN and Sky News.
The spike in traffic and views of the video caused YouTube Trends to write a post on Gangnam
Style, making it their Video of the Month in terms of views and likes (Aug 7). Celebrity support
via tweets, from the likes of Katy Perry and Josh Grogan, came much later into the campaign,
but when they did they gave a further push in the video views.
The very final peak was when Guinness World Records issued a release relating to Psy breaking
all known records for the number of views that the video has had. At this point, everything slows
and a slow decline begins.
Journalist Irene Berg Petersen describes the phenomenon in her articles as : “The most popular
YouTube video ever is more than just a weird -looking Korean with a funny dance. In South

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Korea, “Gangnam Style ” went from being poisonous satire to becoming a global pop hit that the
locals are proud of ”.
To conclude what was aimed t o be illustrated in this essay we can say that “Gangnam Style ”
might be seen as a perfect example of popular culture. How ever, this iconic video, with its catchy
beats and funny dance is more than a simple single release. It implied loads of work, research
and not less passion, things that materialized into a massive success triggered directly by regular
people who kept sharing the video via the social media channels. This childish, yet satiric dance
was adopted by an extended range of fellows from children to celebrities , presid ents or even
university students and staff from Harva rd, Oxford or Massachusetts Institute of Technology .
The interesting fact is the context they all used the moves: al ways as advocacy meaning for
positive and participatory change. Psy was invited several ti mes to moderate motivational
debates at the ment ioned universities student unions or to teach other celebrities the moves as a
“friendship dance ” globally accepted by everyone.

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References

"Invisible Horse Dance: The Business of 'Gangnam Style'" . Knowledge@Wharton High School.
University of Pennsylvania. September 27, 2012
Ravina, Mark. "Introduction: Conceptualizing the Korean Wave" . Southeast Review of Asian
Studies (SERAS) .
Russell, Mark. "The Gangnam Phenom" . Foreign Policy
Hall, B.J. Among Cultures. The Challenge of Communication (second edition), Belmont, USA:
Thomson Wadsworth, 2005, chapter 10

Mingyi Hou . The Semiotics of Interne t Celebrity: Gangnam Style Case . Tilburg University , 2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style