Gangnam Style: Horsing Around Pop Culture
Amy: But why get so huge? Koreans don’t get it, they’re following the ‘wave’ because I think they find it as interesting as I am.
Rodrigo: Dance moves? Dance moves can make you bigger. Remember Beyoncé’s Single Ladies? It was all about the dance moves more than “if you like it, then you should have put a ring on it”.
Amy: But there’s a lot of great dancing in Kpop.
Rodrigo: Yes, and even better than Gangman Style.
Amy: But Gangnam Style is silly dance, like Mirella likes to point out [1] — dress classy, dance cheesy. Let’s take a look at some of the songs that have become popular and party staples… Las Ketchup’s Asereje was pretty big in Latin America, but not in America. I blame that because the song makes no freaking sense and it’s so fast it’s hard to sing along to. LOL
Rodrigo: You’re describing Asereje as if it was Ai Si Eu Te Pego, but Asereje got bigger in Europe.
Amy: Was it Europe or just Spain? I really can’t remember…
Rodrigo: Spain.
Amy: Then that’s not Europe! LOL that’s one country PLUS All of Latin America.
Rodrigo: Las Ketchup are from Spain, but the song got big around that region. Europe liked them too.
Amy: Spanish speakers have a lot of these songs — don’t like to call them guilty pleasures, it’s more like people are guilty for listening to them. xD
Rodrigo: They embrace what makes them dance.
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.