Gangnam Style: Horsing Around Pop Culture
Rodrigo: Anyways, I’m watching The Borgias is on tv, but that’s not related to music or PSY. And it’s not like Jeremy Irons will do the dance moves on Season 3, but try could try an inside joke by having any of their cast members riding a horse. Speaking of horses… why does it annoy you that around here Gangman Style gets called as “El Baile Del Caballo“?
Amy: It bothers me because it somehow shows me people don’t care enough to even learn the name of something. It’s like me referring to a person as “that person” instead of learning their first name or last name.
Rodrigo: I see.
Amy: I could take the Psy Song or the Oppa Song.
Rodrigo: But it’s easier to popularize the song with that nickname around Latin America.
To think that 40 years ago it would have been forbidden.
Rodrigo: But do you think Gangman Style will remain popular here during the summer?
Amy: It depends on how much they milk it in the US, I think. If the US gets bored by December (which is a long way from now), it might never make it to summer.
Rodrigo: Ai Si Eu Te Pego was released in October 2011 and Mr. Saxobeat was released earlier in 2011, but both got massively played during the 2012 summer in Lima.
Amy: I don’t spend enough time in clubs to know if they’re playing the song now, though. Maybe by the time summer hits, clubs in Asia will be playing the song non-stop.
Rodrigo: I don’t club much, but when I was employed earlier this year, those songs were pretty popular. I fucking hated the Teló song, but I did like the Stan song despite her album being repetitive. Dunno why I liked it at first, lol.
Amy: You know what I would hate the most from the popularity of Psy, though? Imagine if any asian person for some reason is wearing a fitted suit and sunglasses. I would hate it if people would ask me or them to do the dance.
Rodrigo: LOL
Amy: It wouldn’t matter if you’re Chinese or Japanese… just because you’re Asian.
Rodrigo: Imagine an Asian guy cosplaying as Don Draper from Mad Men that gets asked to do Gangman Style instead.
Amy: That’s my biggest fear, specially for Asian men who have been the stereotypical funny Asian dude… and every time there seems to be some small chance of breaking, something pop culture happens and it goes back to that.
Rodrigo: CBS’s 2 Broke Girls had easily the worst Asian stereotyping I’ve seen in years.
Amy: Oh, I’ve seen it. Just last night.
Rodrigo: The Asian guy is the worst.
Amy: I don’t watch enough of the show, but I do kinda laugh with the two girls. I don’t care about the other related characters, like their creep boss.
Rodrigo: 2BG would be better if they have the girls leaving the restaurant. The Asian guy was problematic because earlier during the season, the writing team poked at his race. But by the end of the season, they’ve been kinder towards him, like poking fun at his height.
Amy: See, I feel bad for Asian guys because everyone thinks they’re all nerdy Asian men who are supposed to make people laugh or, worse, be laughed at. While Asian women (or any minority women) have been made sex symbols to be desired by white men.
Rodrigo: And non-good looking Asian women made to be nerdy, right?
Amy: So while we’ve had Tina on Glee and Dr. Park in House M.D. for some nerdy girls. Shows for like some hot type Asian men weren’t good.
Rodrigo: Jenna Ushkowitz looks f*ckable. Glee mostly follows The CW rule: not casting ugly people. Almost.
Amy: Jenna is fine. Charlyne Yi and Keiko Agena are fine. They’re all great, so it’s a tiny bit better for women than it is for minority men. Having said that… I miss Lucy Liu so much. Hahahaha. Just an aside. xD
Rodrigo: She guested on Southland, but she’s starring on Elementary (the CBS show about Sherlock Holmes) next week.
Amy: Daniel Henney, Daniel Wu, even Leehom Wang – all hot Asian-American men that deserve a chance.
Rodrigo: I lol’d with that scene were a criminal had a Lucy Liu tattoo.
Amy: I saw her on Southland, it was dramatically hilarious as my mother and I were reminded of my cousin, haha. I lol’d when she was in a pissy mood and gave some dude parked a ticket just ’cause.
Rodrigo: She should have been nominated for guest star at the Emmys, but she got ignored. On the other hand, Martha Plimpton won for guesting on The Good Wife.
Amy: Ohhh so that’s where the Emmy Warner commercial comes from haha. That’s probably a consolation price for not givin her lead comedy, no? xD
Rodrigo: I still would have put Plimpton on the Lead Actress race instead of Lena Dunham (Girls) or Zooey Deschanel. By the way, I find it funny how Warner Channel LA hypes Melissa McCarthy, Jim Parsons and Jon Cryer by showing a marathon of their shows. Yet, the episodes they got nominated for won’t be screened at that moment. LOL.
Amy: Hahahaha, that doesn’t surprise me though. It’s like TNT showing a Oscar marathon for an actor, and not showing their best work but their three latest movies.
Rodrigo: Hahaha. That’s Latin America for you.
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What do think about Gangman Style? Do you like it or not?
Do you think PSY will become more than just a one-hit wonder?
Considering I must be one of annoying friends that share all the Gangnam in facebook, yes I did like the song. It was catchy and funny, and that’s how I like my music lately (besides the music I already like or anime songs).
I think all the social commentary people talk about, it’s mostly for its title, what with Gangnam being the most wealthy district in South Korea. But the lyrics of the song itself is about this (upper-class) guy who tells all what he wants in a (upper-class) woman, and then describes himself as a match for said woman?
@Mirella, hahaha and that’s in contrast to Rap and Hip Hop saying that they drink the most expensive booze, drive the coolest cars, but want them hos ? xD
@Mirella, The difference between you and the other friend that posts Gangman Style non-stop is that the other person I know is more of an “Asian pride” type of person and would probably like Gangman Style almost by default. You like it because it’s catchy and funny.
Checking Facebook at the moment, now there’s like 6 persons that I know who like the GS song.
I forgot to mention that some of the videos that turned “viral” lately have been Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s PONPONPON [MV] as well as Hyuna’s Bubble Pop [MV], but they never made it past the 50M views or never reached the status of “people that don’t listen to it have watched it”
I remember that “Asereje” got quite a bit of airplay on the Latino outlets here in the US, but it never got as big as I heard it got in Europe. I think I saw something about it on the German news (Deutsche Welle)…
anyways, Gangnam Style is fun and I hope that since it’s intentionally funny, that it doesn’t come across the same mean “make fun of the Asian guy” way as the William Hung business sort of turned out in the USA…
@chrryblssmninja, Aserejé got pretty popular among hispanic countries and Europe, yes. I remember one of my university teachers briefly singing a bit of the song and it was lulzy.
I have no idea how long Gangman Style’s staying power will last in the States, but it’s catchy right now. Even members of my family talked about it briefly (they know it as “El Baile del Caballo”), and they know jackshit about Kpop (in my case, I am aware of Kpop thanks to YAM’s shoving promotion and talks about it).
William Hung… lol, I forgot he existed until Amy and I chatted about GS.
With the 2012 Emmy Awards airing tonight, does anyone thinks that the song will be used somehow and/or the song being danced by anyone? I guess Psy himself could do a cameo and teach it to Jimmy Fallon in the intro segment… or maybe Rex Lee or Ken Jeong imitate Psy.
@Rodrigo, did they? I didn’t watch the show. xD
@amy, Nope. 0 GS references. Opening segment was Jimmy Kimmel (who fucking sucked as a host) inside the women’s bathroom getting punched by a good amount of female Emmy nominees including a naked Lena Dunham.