A Brief History
On July 15, 2012, a South Korean rapper with the catchy name of Psy released what would prove to be his first hit song and a viral sensation that would sweep the entire world, “Gangnam Style.”
Digging Deeper
Not only would this catchy tune rocket to #1 in South Korea, its incredibly popular dancing and singing video on YouTube helped propel the song to #1 in 30 countries, including Russia, though only to #2 in the USA.
The theme of the song is based on a K-Pop vision of the lifestyle in the Gangnam neighborhood of the capital of South Korea, Seoul, and of course the video had great influence on singing and dancing around the world, as well as popularizing South Korean pop music.
Also not surprisingly, the Guinness World Record setter to be the first YouTube video with a billion views also spawned numerous parodies of all sorts. The video now has nearly 5 billion views, and has actually been bested on YouTube by the Wiz Khalifa video for “See You Again.”
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Are you one of the many who have watched this video? If so, do you love it?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Ki, Wooseok. K-POP: The Odyssey: Your Gateway to the Global K-Pop Phenomenon. New Degree Press, 2020.
Sooil Ahn, Steven. Gangnam Style Korean Introduction Course. Onenara Publishing, 2012.
