Gangnam Style (music video) explained

Italic Title:no
Director:Cho Soo-hyun
Starring:Psy
Hwang Min-woo
Yoo Jae-suk
Noh Hong-chul
Hyuna
Music:Psy
Production Companies:-->
Distributors:--> YG Entertainment
PolyGram Entertainment
Released: (premiere)
(download)
Country:South Korea
Language:Korean

"Gangnam Style" is the music video by South Korean rapper and singer Psy premiered on July 15, 2012, on the video-sharing website YouTube and was later made available to download digitally on October 19.[1] It was directed by Cho Soo-hyun and was filmed in Seoul in July 2012 over the course of 48 hours. In the video, Psy "pokes fun at the style of Seoul's Gangnam District, a flashy district known for its affluence, high rents, high expectations and a focus on the high-status lifestyle".[2] The video is currently the tenth most-viewed video and the eleventh most-liked video on YouTube, as well as the 19th most-disliked. On December 21, 2012, the music video set a record for the first video to surpass 1 billion views on the platform.[3] It subsequently surpassed 2 billion, 3 billion and 4 billion views in June 2014,[4] November 2017 and March 2021, respectively.

The music video won several accolades from various award-giving bodies, including Best Music Video at the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong, the Music Video of the Year at the 2012 Melon Music Awards in Seoul, and Best Video at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards in Frankfurt, Germany.

Production

The music video is directed by Cho Soo-hyun, who also directed the music video for Psy's follow-up single "Gentleman" and the music video for "This Love" by Shinhwa.[5] It shows Psy performing a comical horse-riding dance and appearing in unexpected locations around the Gangnam District, such as an outdoor yoga session and a hot tub. He wears several distinctive suits and black sunglasses with a "dress classy and dance cheesy" mindset. It features a "skewering [of] the Gangnam image" by the "non-Gangnam Psy"; this parody would be recognizable to viewers familiar with Korean culture.[6] [7] Although there are more than ten different locations featured, only two of the scenes are actually filmed in the Gangnam district. The sauna scene, elevator scene and bathroom scene were filmed elsewhere in the greater Seoul region,[8] and some shots were filmed in World Trade Center Seoul and the Songdo International Business District, which includes Songdo Central Park and International Business District Station.[9] The video was shot over 48 hours in July 2012.

In K-pop, it is routine to have cameos by celebrities in a music video, such as in the dance scenes in the elevator and the parking garage.[10] The guests in the music video include:

The music was composed by Psy and Yoo Gun-hyung, a producer in South Korea who has also collaborated with Psy in the past. Yoo also arranged the song while Psy was responsible for the lyrics.

Synopsis

The video starts out with Psy, who is lounging at what looks like a sandy beach, under a sun umbrella and holding a cold drink, but the camera zooms out to reveal he is actually at a playground.[10] The video then alternates between the playground, where a boy (Hwang Min-woo) dances next to him; and a row of horses in stalls, where Psy performs his signature "invisible horse dance".[14] As Psy and two girls walk through a parking garage, they are pelted by pieces of newspaper, trash, and snow.[15] At a sauna, dressed in a blue towel, Psy rests his head on a fat man's shoulder while another man covered in tattoos is stretching. He then sings in front of two men playing Janggi (Korean chess), dances with a woman at a tennis court, and bounces around on a tour bus of seniors. The scenes alternate quickly until there is an explosion near the chess players (portrayed by Big Bang members Seungri and Daesung), causing them to jump off the bench. Psy immediately walks towards the camera, pointing and shouting "Oppan Gangnam Style". The chorus starts as he and some dancers perform at a horse stable. He dances as two women walk backwards. He dances at the tennis court, a carousel, and the tour bus. He shuffles into an outdoor yoga session and on a boat. The camera zooms in on a woman's buttocks, then shows Psy "yelling" at it.[15] [11]

The chorus ends and he is seen at a parking lot, where Psy is approached by a man (Yoo Jae-suk) in a yellow suit who steps out of a red Mercedes-Benz SLK 200; they have a dance duel. He then appears in an elevator underneath a man (Noh Hong-chul) who is straddling him and thrusting his pelvis. The man in the yellow suit then gets in his car and leaves. The camera pans and it shows Psy in the subway station, where he boards the train and notices a young woman (Hyuna) dancing. At one of the train stops, he approaches the girl in slow motion, and she does the same. They start to embrace. He then tells the girl "Oppan Gangnam Style", and they horse dance along with some others at the train station, commencing the second chorus. He also surfaces from a spa hot tub.[15] [11] [16]

Psy sings to the girl at a night club as people in various costumes walk behind them. He raps in a serious tone in an enclosed space, but when he says "You know what I'm saying" the camera zooms out, and it is revealed that he is actually sitting on a toilet with his pants down.[15] Psy, the girl, and the group of people in costumes do the horse dance and strike a final pose. After a brief reprise of the dance duel, Psy says, "Oppan Gangnam style", and the video finishes with a cartoon graphic of Psy at the stable.

Popularity

Following its July 15 release, "Gangnam Style" overtook Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos during the week of August 28, 2012.[17] On September 1, it overtook Girls' Generation's "Gee" to become the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube.[18] Although "Call Me Maybe" has had unusually strong staying power, averaging over 1.5 million views each day, "Gangnam Style" increased to an average of over nine million views per day within just two months. Sixty-two percent of viewers were male, and those aged between 13 and 17 represented the biggest group.[19]

According to The Wall Street Journal, T-Pain was among the first to have "sent [the video] to the stratosphere" when he tweeted about it on July 29.[20] [21] It was then picked up by Neetzan Zimmerman from the social blog Gawker, who asked "Did this underground Hip Hop artist from South Korea just release the Best Music Video of the Year?"[22] on July 30. This was soon followed by Robbie Williams,[23] Britney Spears,[24] Katy Perry, Tom Cruise,[25] Joseph Gordon-Levitt,[26] and William Gibson,[27] who have either commented about or shared the video with their fans via Twitter.

The earliest video to catch the attention of media networks outside South Korea was "Psy Gangnam Style MV Reaction", which was uploaded by Katie and Mindy Anderson on July 18, 2012. The Andersons were subsequently interviewed by Evan Ramstad from The Wall Street Journal a few weeks later.[28] In his article published on August 6, 2012, Ramstad also included "Kpop Music Mondays : PSY Gangnam Style", a review and parody of "Gangnam Style" uploaded on July 23 by K-pop video bloggers Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul. This makes the Stawski's video the earliest parody featured in an American newspaper.[20] On August 8, 2012, Ramstad appeared on WSJ Live, and he mentioned the Andersons and the Stawskis again, before claiming that "a lot of Koreans are also making their own parodies of 'Gangnam Style'".[29]

On September 3, 2012, the number of daily views generated by "Gangnam Style" went past the five-million mark.[30] By the end of September, it had topped the iTunes charts in 31 countries.[31]

"Gangnam Style" reached the unprecedented milestone of one billion YouTube views on December 21, 2012. A spoof documentary by videographer Simon Gosselin[32] was posted on YouTube and had promoted 2012 doomsday rumors across social media services such as Facebook and Twitter that linked "Gangnam Style" to a fake Nostradamus prophecy.[33] On December 21, at around 15:50 UTC, the video's YouTube page updated with 1,000,382,639 views.[34] YouTube specially marked the video's accomplishments with a cartoon dancing Psy animated icon, added first by the site logo,[35] and later next to the video's view counter when it exceeded a billion views.[36] On April 6, 2013, the video on YouTube reached 1.5 billion views.[37] On June 1, 2014, the music video reached two billion views.[38]

On December 3, 2014, the video reached 2.1 billion views (close to the largest representable number in a 32-bit binary system), and YouTube jokingly wrote on Google+ that it had to change the view counting system to prevent an integer overflow.[39] [40] In fact, YouTube had already updated to a 64-bit integer months before.[41] [42] On January 19, 2016, the video reached 2.5 billion views. On November 25, 2017, the video surpassed 3 billion views.[43]

According to a research by Eötvös University and Ericsson Research in Hungary; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, the geographical source of the viral spread of the video is the Philippines and not in South Korea where the video was produced.[44] [45] The researchers concluded the origin of the viral spread after analyzing data in Twitter and verifying the spreading pattern through Google Trends.[46]

Records

The video has held five records in YouTube history: most-viewed video (held for 1,689 days; surpassed on July 10, 2017, by Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again"), most-rated video (surpassed on February 19, 2017, by "See You Again"), most-discussed video (current), most-liked video (held for 1,444 days; surpassed on August 27, 2016, by "See You Again"), and fastest video to reach 1 billion views (surpassed on January 18, 2016, by Adele's "Hello")

View count

№ 1 Most-Viewed Video (Jan 2012 – Feb 2018)[47]

Critical reception

The music video of "Gangnam Style" has been met with positive responses from the music industry and commentators, who drew attention to its tone and dance moves, though some found them vulgar.[48] Another notable aspect that helped popularise the video was its comical dance moves that can be easily copied, such as the pelvic thrust during the elevator scene.[49] The United Nations hailed Psy as an "international sensation" because of the popularity of his "satirical" video clip and its "horse-riding-like dance moves".[50] As such, the music video spawned a dance craze unseen since the Macarena of the mid-1990s.[51] [52]

The World Bank's lead economist David McKenzie remarked that some of Psy's dance moves "kind of look like a regression discontinuity",[53] while the space agency NASA called "Gangnam Style" a dance-filled music video that has forever entered the hearts and minds of millions of people.[54] Melissa Locker of Time noted that "it's hard not to watch again ...and again ...and again",[55] while CNN reporter Shanon Cook told the audience that she had watched "Gangnam Style" about 15 times.[56]

The German news magazine Der Spiegel attributed the popularity of "Gangnam Style" to its daring dance moves,[57] a sentiment similarly voiced by Maura Judkis of The Washington Post, who wrote, "'Gangnam Style' has made an extraordinarily stupid-looking dance move suddenly cool".[58] The video was also positively reviewed by Steve Knopper from Rolling Stone, who called "Gangnam Style" an astoundingly great K-pop video that has all the best elements of hypnotically weird one-hit wonders and hopes that "PSY gets filthy rich from this".[59]

Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press wrote that Psy's dance moves are "somewhat bizarre" but that the music video is full of colorful, lively outfits.[60] Matt Buchanan and Scott Ellis of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the video "makes no sense at all to most Western eyes" and it "makes you wonder if you have accidentally taken someone else's medication",[61] whereas Deborah Netburn of the Los Angeles Times called it "one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube."[62]

As of January 2015, Billboard named the video as one of the 20 best music videos of the 2010s (so far).[63]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gangnam Style. iTunes. Psy. August 21, 2014. October 19, 2012.
  2. Web site: Pinpointing Five Locations in Seoul from the Music Video, 'Gangnam Style'. Jaunted.com. JetSetCD. August 21, 2014. August 29, 2012. August 26, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140826114501/http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/8/28/13634/0806/travel/Pinpointing+Five+Locations+in+Seoul+from+the+Music+Video%2C+%27Gangnam+Style%27. dead.
  3. Web site: Exclusive: Psy 'Can't Believe' 'Gangnam Style' Broke 1 Billion Views. https://web.archive.org/web/20140805221426/http://www.mtv.com/news/1699329/psy-gangnam-style-1-billion-views/. dead. August 5, 2014. MTV. James Montgomery. August 21, 2014. December 21, 2012.
  4. Benjamin. Jeff. May 30, 2014. PSY's 'Gangnam Style' Hits 2 Billion YouTube Views. October 10, 2020. Billboard. en.
  5. News: Grace Danbi. Hong. Fujii Mina to be Shinhwa's Lady in 'This Love' music video. May 8, 2013. enewsWorld. CJ E&M. August 21, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20130606202748/http://enewsworld.interest.me/enews/contents.asp?idx=35689. June 6, 2013. dead.
  6. News: 'Gangnam style' goes viral . Surh, Jung-min . August 8, 2012 . . The Hankyoreh Newspaper Corp. . August 21, 2014.
  7. News: What's Up with the 'Gangnam Style' Video? . Ramstad . Evan . The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company . August 3, 2012 . August 10, 2012.
  8. Web site: There's No 'Gangnam' Seen in Psy's 'Gangnam Style' MV?! . KpopStarz . September 12, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  9. News: http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/show.asp?idx=2235664. ko:싸이 '강남스타일' 뮤직비디오 촬영지 인기. August 23, 2012. August 21, 2014. No Cut News. 안종훈. ko.
  10. News: Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation . Fisher . Max . August 23, 2012 . . Atlantic Media Company . August 21, 2014.
  11. Breaking down Psy's 'Gangnam Style' . Knopper . Steve . September 14, 2012 . . August 21, 2014.
  12. Web site: Who's the dancing kid in Psy's 'Gangnam Style' MV? . August 29, 2012 . . August 21, 2014.
  13. Web site: Lee . Sungeun . 'Little Psy', 7, Grabs 'Gangnam Style' Spotlight . ABC News . August 21, 2014.
  14. Web site: Invisible Horse Dance: The Business of 'Gangnam Style' . Knowledge@Wharton High School . University of Pennsylvania . September 27, 2012 . August 21, 2014. The signature move of the video has been called the 'invisible horse dance' because it mimics a bouncing/riding movement with hand gestures of alternating holding reigns and lassoing..
  15. Web site: Psy Breaks Down Greatest Assets of 'Gangnam Style' . https://web.archive.org/web/20120918172417/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1693966/psy-gangnam-style-video-scenes.jhtml . dead . September 18, 2012 . . September 17, 2012 . Garibaldi . Christina . August 21, 2014.
  16. In the Rolling Stone interview, Psy says he copied the spa surfacing scene from the music video for Lady Gaga's "Poker Face".
  17. Web site: Charts – Music – YouTube, Most viewed videos, week of August 28, 2012 . August 21, 2014. YouTube.
  18. Web site: Popularity of Psy's 'Gangnam Style' Analyzed Realistically . September 2, 2012 . KpopStarz . August 21, 2014.
  19. News: Psy's 'Gangnam Style' most-viewed video on YouTube. Yonhap News Agency. August 21, 2014.
  20. News: Canadians in South Korea fund expansion of popular website . . Dow Jones & Company . Ramstad . Evan . September 7, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  21. Web site: T-Pain . Words cannot even describe how amazing this video is . Twitter . November 12, 2012.
  22. Web site: Did This Underground Hip Hop Artist from South Korea Just Release the Best Music Video of the Year? . Gawker . Gawker Media . Zimmerman . Neetzan . July 30, 2012 . August 21, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121204042744/http://gawker.com/5930283/did-this-underground-hip-hop-artist-from-south-korea-just-release-the-best-music-video-of-the-year . December 4, 2012 . dead .
  23. Web site: T-Pain, Robbie Williams, Josh Groban, and Gawker Show Love for Psy's "Gangnam Style" . . August 1, 2012 . August 21, 2014 . September 18, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120918024136/http://www.soompi.com/2012/08/01/t-pain-robbie-williams-josh-groban-and-gawker-show-love-for-psys-gangnam-style/ . dead .
  24. News: Day . Lara . 'Gangnam Style's Psy Appears on 'Ellen', Schools Britney Spears . The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company . September 12, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  25. Web site: Tom Cruise Considering Psy as a Future Co-Star? . . . September 5, 2012 . August 21, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120909003125/http://global.mnet.com/news/newsdetail.m?searchNewsVO.news_id=201209051322_14115 . September 9, 2012 . dead .
  26. Joseph Gordon-Levitt . Joseph Gordon-Levitt . hitRECordJoe. 248575172091731969 . September 19, 2012 .
    1. EndlessGangamStyle #Again #AndAgain
    . August 21, 2014 .
  27. Dayal. Geeta. September 15, 2012. William Gibson on Punk Rock, Internet Memes, and 'Gangnam Style'. Wired. August 21, 2014.
  28. News: Ramstad . Evan . 'Gangnam Style' Video Brings Attention to Fan Reaction Videos Too . The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company . August 6, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  29. News: How 'Gangnam Style' Went Viral . August 8, 2012 . The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company . August 21, 2014.
  30. News: Jurgensen. John. 'Gangnam' Mania. August 21, 2014. The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company.
  31. News: Guinness World Records Declares 'Gangnam Style' as 'Most Liked' Video in YouTube History . Hicap, Jonathan M. . . Manila Bulletin Publishing . September 24, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  32. News: End of the world: Gangnam Style?. https://archive.today/20130124205058/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ir9z5-ylpn-yVyeZg8-XIl7pb9MQ?docId=CNG.2129415ee08a005378510985686accf1.241. dead. January 24, 2013. Agence France-Presse. August 21, 2014. The only hiccup is this so-called thesis writer is actually Simon Gosselin, a blogger and videographer who invented everything for fun..
  33. News: Psy's Gangnam Style indicating Dec 21 doomsday?. Agence France-Presse. December 5, 2012. August 21, 2014. An obvious fake, the quote has its origins in a spoof five-minute "documentary" posted on YouTube that has garnered up 1.5 million views and ties Nostradamus and Psy to the December 21 apocalypse prophesied by the Mayans.. India Times.
  34. PSY's 'Gangnam Style' Hits 1 Billion Views on YouTube. Gruger . William. Billboard. December 21, 2012. The video's YouTube page updated with 1,000,382,639 at 10:50 am.
  35. 'Gangnam Style' Leads YouTube's Top Trending Videos of 2012. Gruger . William. December 18, 2012. Billboard. August 21, 2014. While browsing videos on YouTube the past day you may have noticed that the site's icon in the upper lefthand corner has been taken over by a .gif of PSY and his all too familiar dance..
  36. News: Gangnam Style hits one billion views on YouTube. BBC. December 21, 2012. August 21, 2014. The video's YouTube hit counter added a dancing Psy animation after it hit the one billion milestone.
  37. Web site: 싸이 '강남스타일', 유튜브 15억뷰…27일만에 1억 추가 . Choi Ji-Ye . mydaily . April 6, 2013 . April 6, 2013.
  38. News: Conlon. Kevin. Modern milestone: 'Gangnam' hits 2 billion. August 21, 2014. CNN.com. June 1, 2014.
  39. Web site: Gangnam Style got so many views that it nearly broke YouTube. Lee. Timothy B.. December 3, 2014. Vox. May 28, 2016.
  40. Web site: 'Gangnam Style' breaks YouTube with 2.1 billion views. December 3, 2014. Kicker. May 28, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160816165952/http://gokicker.com/2014/12/03/gangnam-style-breaks-youtube-with-2-1-billion-views/. August 16, 2016. dead.
  41. News: No, Psy's 'Gangnam Style' Did Not Break YouTube Video Counter .
  42. No, 'Gangnam Style' Didn't Break YouTube. We Did the Math. Wired . wired.com. June 12, 2015 . Assar . Vijith .
  43. Herman. Tamar. November 26, 2017. Psy Thanks Fans for 'Gangnam Style' Reaching 3 Billion Views on YouTube. October 10, 2020. Billboard. en.
  44. News: Pinoys to blame for Gangnam Style's viral success. Dimacali. TJ. July 26, 2017. GMA News Online. July 26, 2017. TJ Dimacali.
  45. News: How did Psy's "Gangnam Style" video conquer the world in 2012? Researchers now think they know . July 25, 2017. MIT Technology Review. July 26, 2017. Emerging Technology from the arXiv.
  46. Book: 1707.04460 . Video Pandemics: Worldwide Viral Spreading of Psy's Gangnam Style Video . ICT Innovations 2017 . Communications in Computer and Information Science . Springer . 778 . 3–12 . July 14, 2017 . Zsofia . Kallus . Daniel . Kondor . Jozsef . Steger . Istvan . Csabai . Eszter . Bokanyi . Gabor . Vattay . 10.1007/978-3-319-67597-8_1 . 978-3-319-67596-1. 42096978 .
  47. News: Despacito is now the most watched YouTube video of all time, breaking 3bn view barrier. The Drum. September 27, 2017. en.
  48. News: Justin Bieber to record US version of Psy's 'Gangnam Style'? . MediaCorp Interactive . August 14, 2012 . August 21, 2014 . While the music video has been viewed over 28 million times on video sharing site YouTube, and has been praised for its catchy rhythm as well as its wacky 'horse dance', not everyone is impressed – his detractors have labelled his music vulgar. . November 23, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121123121025/http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1220085/1/.html . dead .
  49. News: What's so funny about Gangnam Style? . Mahdawi, Arwa . September 24, 2012 . The Guardian . August 21, 2014 . London.
  50. Web site: From Korean pop music to skydiving to Earth – not-your-typical diplomatic meetings for UN Secretary-General . United Nations . October 24, 2012. August 21, 2014.
  51. News: Apparently This Matters: R.I.P., 'Gangnam Style' . Bellini, Jerrett . October 15, 2012 . CNN . August 21, 2014.
  52. News: Gangnam Style is the latest craze to sweep across dancefloors . News.com.au . September 22, 2012 . August 21, 2014 . December 28, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121228134447/https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/gangnam-style-is-the-latest-craze-to-sweep-across-dancefloors/story-e6frfn09-1226479446978 . dead .
  53. Web site: McKenzie . David . Gangnam Migration: Regression-Discontinuity Impacts of Migrating to Korea . December 17, 2012 . World Bank . August 21, 2014.
  54. Web site: Johnson Space Center Pathways Interns Create 'Gangnam Style' Parody . NASA . August 21, 2014.
  55. WATCH: Psy Brings 'Gangnam Style' to Dodger Stadium . Locker . Melissa . August 22, 2012 . Time . August 21, 2014.
  56. News: Rapper living 'Gangnam Style' goes viral . CNN . August 3, 2012.
  57. Web site: Dank Katy Perry: US-Erfolg für koreanischen Sänger Psy . . de . Spiegel Verlag . August 24, 2012 . September 26, 2012.
  58. News: 'Gangnam Style's invisible horse dance craze: Giddyup . The Washington Post . Judkis . Marua . August 23, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  59. Knopper. Steve. On the Charts: 'Gangnam Style' Is All the Rage. Rolling Stone. October 13, 2012. August 21, 2014.
  60. News: Viral clip gives Korea's PSY a pop culture moment . Huffington Post . Fekadu . Mesfin . Associated Press . August 23, 2012 . August 21, 2014.
  61. News: Hit video may have a subversive message . August 28, 2012 . Buchanan . Matt . Ellis . Scott . The Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media . August 21, 2014. This is an almost Dada-esque series of vignettes that make no sense at all to most Western eyes. Psy spits in the air while a child breakdances, sings to horses, strolls through a hurricane that shoots whipped cream in his face, there's [sic] explosions, a disco bus, he rides a merry-go-round, dances on boats, beaches, in car parks and in elevators and generally makes you wonder if you have accidentally taken someone else's medication..
  62. News: 'Gangnam Style' live: New Psy video blows up on YouTube . August 28, 2012 . Netburn . Deborah . Los Angeles Times . I think we can all agree that K-Pop singer Psy's music video 'Gangnam Style' is one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube. . August 21, 2014.
  63. The 20 Best Music Videos of the 2010s (So Far). Billboard. January 15, 2015.

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