Gangnam Style: Horsing Around Pop Culture
Amy: Speaking of change… the Kpop industry does the complete opposite each time their idols do comeback stages. First you can be sweet, four months into your new song release… you’re somehow dark. It irks me. It’s not natural.
Rodrigo: Didn’t you said something like that once?
Amy: Like what? About their image change? I think Julyssa has called on some groups…
Rodrigo: I meant this.
“Unlike the wishy-washy term the Kpop music industry likes to use every time one of their music acts (cough or any of their several idol groups) reappears after a mere four months away from stages.”
Amy: Oh, it just irks me that it takes 4 months to call it “a comeback.”
Rodrigo: Yeah.
Amy: but it’s also that they have PR image changes~
Rodrigo: “Oh, they’re back! YAY!” “Bitch, they were gone for only 4 months!”
Amy: Yeah, call it a comeback after a long period of time…. more than one year at least.
Rodrigo: From the little I learned about Kpop, the Kpop industry seems to be OCD-style.
Amy: ADD more than OCD. Must not be gone for more than 6 months, or they might forget us!!!
Rodrigo: They have a band release singles like they’ve been breeding gnomes… or breeding Weasleys.
Amy: Pooping idols groups. I feel sad for the members in the idols groups, though… because I know it’s not them, and they train hard to be able to debut…
Rodrigo: I prefer singles from bands being released once every month or two… or even 3-4 months. But not every f*cking week.
Amy: The thing about the Asian music industry, though… it’s that it releases all the videos in two months. It could be between 4 or 6 singles in that period because there’s always a re-packaged version to buy. And for fans, it works… I don’t mind the singles been released one week after the other because I get bored of the same song playing for 4 months every single day of the week on radio and TV. And I know there are fans that buy more than one copy of one album because it’s got extra things….
Rodrigo: But the fans like them that way, if I’m not mistaken.
Amy: It works like that everywhere though… Pink’s latest comes with some extra songs if you buy it on iTunes. Two extra songs more if you buy the Japanese version, and some other extra songs if you buy I don’t know what other version.
Rodrigo: I know.
Amy: It works for hardcore fans that buy it all, but it’s ultimately detrimental for the album.
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.