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What the Heck Is This ‘Gangnam Style’ Video Craze You’re Hearing About? We Explain

Sep. 19, 2012 11:22am Jonathon M. Seidl

You’ve probably been hearing the tune — and at least the name — all over the place. It’s called “Gangnam Style” by South Korean rapper PSY. The video already has 220 million YouTube views and counting — and it’s in Korean.

You’ve likely seen the dance on the “Today” show:

ABC’s “Good Morning America”:

Even “Ellen”:

And here’s the original video:

But what exactly is it all about?

“Beneath the antic, funny surface of his world-conquering song, however, is a sharp social commentary about the country’s newly rich and Gangnam, the affluent district where many of them live,” the Associated Press says. “Gangnam is only a small slice of Seoul, but it inspires a complicated mixture of desire, envy and bitterness.”

In fact, the AP has published a lengthy piece exploring the ins and outs of the video. We’ve included it below.

“Here’s a look at the meaning of ‘Gangnam Style,’” the AP says, “and at the man and neighborhood behind the sensation:”

THE PLACE:

Gangnam is the most coveted address in Korea, but less than two generations ago it was little more than some forlorn homes surrounded by flat farmland and drainage ditches.

The district of Gangnam, which literally means “south of the river,” is about half the size of Manhattan. About 1 percent of Seoul’s population lives there, but many of its residents are very rich. The average Gangnam apartment costs about $716,000, a sum that would take an average South Korean household 18 years to earn.

The seats of business and government power in Seoul have always been north of the Han River, in the neighborhoods around the royal palaces, and many old-money families still live there.

Gangnam, however, is new money, the beneficiary of a development boom that began in the 1970s.

As the price of high-rise apartments skyrocketed during a real estate investment frenzy in the early 2000s, landowners and speculators became wealthy practically overnight. The district’s rich families got even richer.

The new wealth drew the trendiest boutiques and clubs and a proliferation of plastic surgery clinics, but it also provided access to something considered vital in modern South Korea: top-notch education in the form of prestigious private tutoring and prep schools. Gangnam households spend nearly four times more on education than the national average.

The notion that Gangnam residents have risen not by following the traditional South Korean virtues of hard work and sacrifice, but simply by living on a coveted piece of geography, irks many. The neighborhood’s residents are seen by some as monopolizing the country’s best education opportunities, the best cultural offerings and the best infrastructure, while spending big on foreign luxury goods to highlight their wealth.

“Gangnam inspires both envy and distaste,” said Kim Zakka, a Seoul-based pop music critic. “Gangnam residents are South Korea’s upper class, but South Koreans consider them self-interested, with no sense of noblesse oblige.”

In a sly, entertaining way, PSY’s song pushes these cultural buttons.

What is Gangnam Style? Heres an Explanation and the official video

In this photo taken on Sept. 14, 2012, South Korean rapper PSY performs his massive K-pop hit "Gangnam Style" live on NBC's "Today" show in New York. His "Gangnam Style" video has more than 200 million YouTube views and counting, and it's easy to see why. Gangnam is only a small slice of Seoul, but it inspires a complicated mixture of desire, envy and bitterness. It's also the spark for PSY's catchy, world-conquering song. Credit: AP

THE GUY:

More mainstream K-Pop performers, already famous in South Korea and across Asia, have tried and failed to crack the American market.

So how did PSY — aka Park Jae-sang — a stocky, 34-year-old rapper who was fined nearly $4,500 for smoking marijuana after his 2001 debut, get to be the one teaching Britney Spears how to do the horse-riding dance on American TV?

“I’m not handsome, I’m not tall, I’m not muscular, I’m not skinny,” PSY recently said on the American “Today” TV show. “But I’m sitting here.”

He attributed his success to “soul or attitude.”

PSY, whose stage name stems from the first three letters of the word psycho, has always styled himself as a quirky outsider. But he is from a wealthy family and was actually raised and educated south of the Han River, near Gangnam.

He’s an excellent dancer, a confident rapper and he’s funny, but another reason for his breakthrough could be that less-than-polished image, said Jae-Ha Kim, a Chicago Tribune pop culture columnist and former music critic.

South Korean music has scored big in Asia with bands featuring handsome, stylish, makeup-wearing young men, including Super Junior and Boyfriend. But seeing such singers “makes some Americans nervous,” Kim said.

“People in America are comfortable with Asian guys who look like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, who are good-looking, but they’re not the equivalent of Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves,” Kim said.

Part of the initial interest in “Gangnam Style,” Kim said, was a kind of “freak-show mentality, where people are like, ‘This guy is funny.’ But then you look at his choreography and you realize that you really have to know how to dance to do what he does. He’s really good.”

South Korean rapper Psy performs his massive K-pop hit "Gangnam Style" live on NBC's "Today" show, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, in New York. Credit: JASON DECROW/INVISION/AP

THE SONG:

PSY, at times wearing sleeveless dress shirts with painted-on untied bowties, repeatedly flouts South Koreans’ popular notions of Gangnam in his video.

Instead of cavorting in nightclubs, he parties with retirees on a disco-lighted tour bus. Instead of working out in a high-end health club, he lounges in a sauna with two tattooed gangsters. As he struts along with two beautiful models, they’re pelted in the face with massive amounts of wind-blown trash and sticky confetti. The throne from which he delivers his hip-hop swagger is a toilet.

The song explores South Koreans’ “love-hate relationship with Gangnam,” said Baak Eun-seok, a pop music critic. The rest of South Korea sees Gangnam residents as everything PSY isn’t, he said: good-looking because of plastic surgery, stylish because they can splurge on luxury goods, slim thanks to yoga and personal trainers.

“PSY looks like a country bumpkin. He’s a far cry from the so-called ‘Gangnam Style,’” Baak said. “He’s parodying himself.”

The video abounds with ironic, “not upper-class” images that ordinary South Koreans recognize, said Park Byoung-soo, a social commentator who runs a popular visual art blog. Old men play a Korean board game and middle-age women wear wide-brimmed hats to keep the sun off their faces as they walk backward — a popular way to exercise in South Korea.

PSY’s character in the video is modeled on the clueless heroes of movies like “The Naked Gun” and “Dumb & Dumber,” he told Yonhap news agency earlier this year. He has also said his goal is to “dress classy, but dance cheesy.”

Others see more than just a goofy outsider.

“PSY does something in his video that few other artists, Korean or otherwise, do: He parodies the wealthiest, most powerful neighborhood in South Korea,” writes Sukjong Hong, creative nonfiction fellow at Open City, an online magazine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Comments (109)

NothingToLose
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 10:03pm
will smith WildWildWest video + michael jackson’s wind-blowing moves, nothing new

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mikenleeds
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:43pm
what a goofy d ic k , he reminds me of the wang choag from America idol

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SojuNTaegu
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:26pm
Please kill me. I live in South Korea and I have to live with this every day. Every KT or Olleh commercial, there is PSY. Refrigerator commercial? PSY. Kimchee commercial? PSY. I hear the song about 15 times a day. Even the Armed Forces Network, AFN, plays it! WHAT?

Having been in Korea now for almost 9 years, this is the worst…

Please help to stop this from spreading further! LOL

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purecolorartist
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:20pm
Wow, this kind of reminds me of the occupy moves.

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trickyric
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:14pm
Come on people!
It has no political angle. it’s pure fun! The guy is saying enjoy the high life, party like a rock star! It is just fun and entertaining dancing.
Sheesh!

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gosutag
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:59pm
Holy crap, so many racists in here. Can’t people just enjoy music for what it is instead of caring about some associated agenda? Those who think like the aforementioned viewpoint are clearly party poopers and people who spend all their time wondering why the world is so bad, when it is indeed them ruining the world.

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- trickyric
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:15pm
  You are on the money!
  I love the song and the video. Psy teaching Britanny was classic!
  
  Report this comment
- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 20, 2012 at 9:47am
  This site has more racists on it than Stormfront, despite the fact I sometimes I agree with Conservative positions, all my comments on this site have turned into almost parental shaming of kids.
  
  If the story is about Chinese, prepare for racism against them. If it’s about Muslims prepare for EXTREME racism against them. Mexicans – the same. People don’t really talk about the issues, instead it’s just gossipy church-talk about how bad people are or worse; groups of people are.
  
  Report this comment
Emanuel Goldstein
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:33pm
Palm to my forehead. This is just sad. We are doomed morons.

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freedomnetworker
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:16pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceVBroKj6W4&feature=share&list=UUoraMikfXRAM1iETaLFPEsQ :: Please pass this on and lets see how many like we can get. This should be taught in schools so we do not wind up with another Obama.. I found this video from the early 50′s can you say future telling…

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Ragnars Repos
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:03pm
We’re easily amused these days, I guess.

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racegirl
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 5:59pm
I love this dude! Catchy stuff.

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Patriot Z
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 5:46pm
Irony: a guy getting rich and famous by making a stupid video critisizing others who got rich by sitting on a certain piece of land

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politicianssuck
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 5:34pm
I watched all of it and I am still unsure what a condom star is…

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JACKTHETOAD
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 4:52pm
Is it any coincidence the word GANG is in there? Why not PyonGANG? You’re full of it. Jive on back home, turkey. (…why do I think it’s no accident that mtv jammed that cRAP down the throats of young America? Violent misogynist filth that doesn’t require any talent to write or package. Hell, we used to make up not-so-nice-stuff to a beat when we were in GRADE SCHOOL !!)

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REVERE69
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 4:40pm
Awesome, now talk about the d/a\m/n World burning to the ground, NBC

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 4:13pm
…
Have to admit, it’s catchy.
Every time I hear this song, I smile and do a little dance.

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raecampus
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 4:00pm
Catchy?

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jas0707
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:43pm
Here today, gone tomorrow.

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mcellu
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:39pm
who knew David Gregory has better moves than Al Roker?
Sometimes music is just fun. Americans have no idea what the guy is actually saying (and if they did, they’d have to research Gagnam). It’s just the beat and the quirky video that hooks them. I don’t see this as any different than LMFAO.
Anything to take our minds off the Middle East.

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Misha
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:31pm
It’s so stupid to go into lengthy analysis of this guy, his music, and why it/he appeals to people. He is very funny, very talented, and I love the song/video. I think he’s awesome.

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48Straights
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:02pm
Stories the MSM “Blaze” missed while distracting you with the cool “look at the dancing guy” link.
—————–
Panetta: New Asia focus not aimed to contain China….
http://news.yahoo.com/panetta-asia-focus-not-aimed-contain-china-042922761.html

‘Homeland Security’ Purchases 200 Million More Rounds of Ammunition…
http://www.infowars.com/dhs-purchases-200-million-more-rounds-of-ammunition/

Deputy takes fall in ‘Fast and Furious’ probe…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/19/major-report-released-on-fast-and-furious-doj-official-resigns/

AND THE ONE GLENN BECK MENTIONED on his radio show this morning that every media outlet should post, well other than his…
Speaking to the 47%: The $105,000 champagne tower featured at Obama fundraiser hosted by Jay-Z and Beyonce
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205541/280-000-champagne-tower-Obama-fundraiser-Jay-Z-Beyonce-Manhattan-night-club.html
___________________
Glenn get your own house in order before you criticize other media outlets for not reporting stories the embarrass Obama. The Blaze will not report stories you say every media outlet should post. I guess The Blaze is no longer under your control.

Now back to the two week old dancing oriental guy story…

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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 20, 2012 at 9:49am
  You’re hilarious, not only did they report those stories, they reported them BEFORE you posted your comment. And, “Orientals”? Jesus Christ, dude.
  
  Report this comment
- 48Straights
  Posted on September 20, 2012 at 4:40pm
  No they did not:
  
  1. The “Panetta: New Asia focus not aimed to contain China….” has still not yet been reported. But what is the big deal if China and Japan go to war? Obviously the Blaze thinks this is no big deal>
  
  2. The article on ammunition states that HS purchased 200 Million MORE Rounds of Ammunition than a month ago bringing the total to a billion and a half bullets. I wonder how many that is for every man woman and child in the USA?
  
  3. The Fast and Furious was reported.
  
  4. The Jay-Z and Beyonce story remains not reported even though Beck himself said the every news media outlet should be reporting on it in his radio show.
  
  So who is more hilarious, you for not investigating before posting, Glenn Beck for criticizing the MSM for not reporting stories damaging to Obama EVEN THOUGH is own Blaze hides the stories Glenn wants posted? Or me for investigating, and questioning everyone including you, The Blaze and Glenn Beck.
  
  Report this comment
grayling646
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:50pm
He’s probably made a few bucks off of this. Good for him. I personally didn’t care for it but then I’m 57 years old (old fart).

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trinity76
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:49pm
I’m not surprised at KPOP hitting it big in the U.S.

I don’t think the Korean music scene is necessarily better than ours, but I’ve come to believe in the last several months that their television is much better than what we currently have. At least, the scripted series are. They tell a story beginning, middle, and end, in 16 to 28 episodes. They know how to do romantic comedy in a television series (although they also do action, historical, and family dramas). Most of them are pretty clean, and the few that aren’t are no more racy than an average prime time show in the U.S.

And if you haven’t noticed, they’ve been exploding on Hulu Plus, are continually being added to Netflix, and licensed for U.S. viewing by dedicated services such as DramaFever and Viki, with episodes being subtitled and posted within a few days after airing in Korea.

If you haven’t ever watched a Korean TV series before, I recommend the recently aired “Bridal Mask,” which is sort of like the Korean version of Zoro, set in the decade before WWII during which Japan occupied Korea. It’s darker and more violent than the typical Korean action series, but I think it should be an appealing show for both male and female audiences.

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scrapadapolis
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:45pm
How soon you people forget! The fresh prince of belair and his cousin carlton did the “pony dance” in the mid 90s.At a fund raiser.In Korea their just getting our repeats..This guy is a rippoff artist.

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THX-1138
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:23pm
Best. Video. Ever.

Upbeat, clean, full of energy, and self deprecating humor. PSY is clearly having a ball making the video and it shows. Best of the K-Pop brand.

200 million well deserved hits and rising. I saw this weeks ago and downloaded (shhhh) a copy to play over and over. So addictive….

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hi
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:22pm
I would LOVE to see Glen Beck do this! I love this guy!

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