Tamara Khandaker deciphers the meaning of PSY’s ridiculous viral music video
Last year, the song “Kolaveri Di” exploded on YouTube, leaving many of us baffled. People all around the world watched the clip of Tamil singer Dhanush recording the half-English, half-gibberish song in his studio over 60 million times.
With lyrics almost indistinguishable without subtitles, the song was still adored because the words combined with the slow, steady beat, and Dhanush’s soulful voice conveyed a bluesy message of heartbreak, a feeling that can resonate with anyone, anywhere.
But the wild popularity of “Kolaveri Di” at the time of its release does not come even remotely close to the craze surrounding “Gangnam Style,” South Korean singer PSY’s viral pop sensation. Raking in160 million views with his choreographed music video since the mid-July release, PSY (pronounced ‘sigh’) has penetrated North American music charts in an unprecedented way.
The video has received dozens of responses, including (but not limited to) imitation and parody videos on YouTube, some of which have themselves gone viral. News outlets have been covering the spread of “Gangnam Style” over the past two months. A slew of celebrities are talking about it, including Ellen DeGeneres, who featured PSY on her show, teaching Britney Spears the dance moves. Samsung has announced that it will be using the song to sell refrigerators.
There is something about “Gangnam Style” that seems to have permeated all barriers, whether geographical, cultural, or linguistic, sincethe majority of its fans neither live in South Korea nor speak Korean. In the video, 34-year-old PSY, a slightly chubby and not especially good-looking man, struts around Gangnam, a ritzy neighbourhood in Seoul, the South Korean capital, trying to find a girlfriend who meets his requirements.
The video for the fun, upbeat song is fi lled with striking visuals, great editing, and a silly and easily reproduced dance—all the requisite ingredients of a viral music video.
But how and why has a song in Korean become an international phenomenon when the majority of its fans don’t speak the language?
Last month, the Atlantic published an article, “Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea’s Music Video Sensation,” which broke the video down scene-by-scene, suggesting that it serves as a subtle commentary on the culture prevalent in Gangnam.
The video starts out with PSY sitting at what appears to be a white, sandy beach, until the camera zooms out and it’s revealed that he is, in fact, in a child’s sandbox. We also see him sitting in a sauna with gangsters, and not the wealthy businessmen they appear to be at first glance. He parties on a bus with elderly tourists, and it looks like he’s playing polo, until we see that he’s just on a merry-go-round.
Ahrong Lee, professor of contemporary Korean culture at York, points to the scene where PSY struts down a runway in an expensive suit, arm-in-arm with two beautiful models, as trash blows in their faces. It’s a mockery of the typical red carpet scenario, replacing confetti with garbage.
“I think that scene depicts everything the video is about,” says Lee.“On the surface, they look classy and hip, but he is making fun of all of it.”
She compares the neighbourhood of Gangnam to Beverly Hills, or the Upper East Side in Manhattan, explaining that it is home to the headquarters of many large corporations, and is known for its shopping, upscale fashion, and visible wealth.
“It represents a kind of materialistic dream that Koreans have been pursuing,” she says of the Gangnam neighbourhood, which houses a very large concentration of Korea’s wealth in just 15 square miles.
In the song, PSY sings about fi nding a woman who knows how to down a coffee—a strange statement to hear out of context. But as the Atlantic article points out, expensive coffee shops have become a place where Gangnam residents go to dish out ridiculous amounts of money for the sake of appearing wealthy.
The appearance of wealth, and not the actual possession of wealth, is something that, according to the video, many people outside of Gangnam aspire to. PSY’s mockery of the Gangnam lifestyle subtly says it’s not as glamorous and fulfi lling as it appears to be.
“Gangnam Style” is an interesting case study for those trying to understand the nature of viral videos, and in the quest to pinpoint the reason for its popularity, many journalists and media scholars have lumped it together with the recent rise in Korean cultural products seen outside of Korea, or the Korean wave, otherwise known as“Hallyu.” The Korean wave has been said to represent the renaissance of Asian values in the modern world.
Lee is among those Korean-culture-watchers who reject the idea that PSY, who by no means fi ts the typical mold of a K-Pop star, is part of the Korean wave. While most K-Pop stars are designed to be flawless in appearance with high cheekbones and chiseled abdominals, and perform complicated choreographed dances all perfectly in sync, PSY doesn’t hesitate to make himself look like a clown and question the popular culture of South Korea.
Robert Leedham, pop editor at Drowned in Sound, spoke with Metro, a British newspaper, and is quoted saying, “To say that PSY is representative of the rest of K-pop is a bit like saying that LMFAO are the band who best depict Western pop music.”
“Those who know of K-Pop in North America have known of groups like Big Bang, and Girls’ Generation, but not of PSY,” says Lee.
“I think the visuals in the video express the lyrics well enough for those who don’t speak Korean to enjoy it,” continues Lee. Aside from the ridiculous horse-riding dance, hilarious visuals, and catchy beat, she attributes the song’s popularity back to its message, which pokes fun at the conspicuously wealthy and sheds light on the fl aws of the Gangnam culture.
“The message, the impression it leaves on people is not restricted to Gangnam or that specifi c area of South Korea. It’s something relatable, and not Korean culture-specific, but more universal, and can be North-American as well.”
