Gangnam Style: Horsing Around Pop Culture
Rodrigo: BTW, how do you feel about Sigur Rós releasing 12 MVs for 1 album?
Amy: I think it’s fine, and an interesting way to promote the album. They’re probably going to release a video version of the album, which is something some Asian groups have already done. My copy of Mayday’s Poetry of the Day After is like that… an MV album.
Rodrigo: It doesn’t feel as shoving as the Kpop way of marketing their acts, though.
Amy: It’s because Sigur Ros gets filmmakers to do it… so it’s not about Sigur Ros but about the collaborations with the other people, so it doesn’t feel like money-driven, but creativity-driven.
Rodrigo: Yeah, I agree. It will be remembered the most for Shia Labeouf getting naked for the Fjogur Piano video [MV], but the concept to promote the album is really interesting.
Amy: Plus, Sigur Rós fans eat up the creativity aspect, so it’s all fine if I will be able to buy it.
Rodrigo: 9 MVs in the span of 4 months. On the other hand, Green Day’s promotion of ¡Uno! has led to 4 MVs in the span on 1.5 months. Something unusual for them, but they’ll have to do it that way to get through the trilogy of albums they’re gonna release.
Amy: It’s like Bjork releasing remix albums of the same songs by other DJs, and selling it like it’s hot potatoes. Well… we live in a ADD day and age. The US market just might be migrating to that Asian set of mind.
Rodrigo: Maybe not. Green Day might be doing an exception because of the distance between their 3 albums.
Amy: Like I said, I like to get different songs in a shorter period of time, that way the song doesn’t get old. I’m still not sure what they’re doing with their trilogy album, though…
Rodrigo: Me neither.
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.