Gangnam Style by Psy

Every New Zealand #1 single…

Psy

He doesn’t fit the standard K-pop idol image of being incredibly young, good-looking, and able to carry a melodramatic note.

Beth Hong, The Scene

K-pop is now a well-established cultural phenomenon. But the first South Korean artist to break out in the West was a stocky, 34-year-old Freddie Mercury fan.

Psy was born into a wealthy family in the Gangnam District in Seoul. His love for music was sparked by watching Queen’s 1986 performance at Wembley. He travelled to Boston to study business administration, but spent his tuition fees on musical equipment. He instead studied at Berklee College of Music, but also dropped out, and pursued a music career in South Korea.

Gangnam Style

Psy released his debut album, Psy from the Psycho World!, in 2001. He became well-known in Korea, especially his song ‘Champion’, which tied in with South Korea’s hosting of the football World Cup. But he also faced setbacks – his music career went on hold while he served in the Korean army.

‘Gangnam Style’ featured on his sixth album, Psy 6 (Six Rules). It unexpectedly went viral, fuelled by a T-Pain tweet. It was also fuelled by a goofy video with Psy’s awkward dancing and skewering of the nouveau rich.

The song pokes fun at South Korean social norms. Psy explained that “people who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are—it’s only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are “Gangnam Style”—so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying very hard to be something that they’re not.”

On 1 December 2014, the YouTube video for ‘Gangnam Style’ reached over 2³¹ − 1 views. This caused a malfunction where the YouTube counter displayed a negative number. Google/YouTube released a statement: “We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY.”

My verdict

‘Gangnam Style’ is gimmicky, but it holds up well. The video admittedly outshines the song. ‘Gangnam Style’ takes a few cues from LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem’, released the previous year, but there’s a distinctive Korean flavour too. It’s not something I want to hear often, but it’s fun.

The Aftermath

Psy’s next single, ‘Gentlemen’, was also successful, pulled through in the wake of ‘Gangnam Style’. But he’s effectively a one mega-hit-wonder.

He donated ₩100 million through the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association to help people affected by the 2022 South Korean floods 

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