If anything, he says, the video has become a source of national pride for the South Koreans as it has become a global hit and the most popular YouTube video ever.
So in addition to a silly dance and a funny video, Gangnam Style is a sarcastic comment on South Korean society, but according to Jacob Ki Nielsen this is unlikely to bring about any major change, since after all it’s just a music video. “K-pop is an extremely sexualised aesthetic universe, and that’s one of the things that Psy is poking fun at in the video.” It has also turned into a culture in a country which boasts the world’s highest number of plastic operations per capita. It’s sparked a global craze for crazy horse-riding dance. Aided by a dance video that went viral on YouTube (480 million views and counting), the song has topped the iTunes, UK and Australian charts and hit number 2 on the US’ Billboard Hot 100 chart. For 48 straight hours in early July, Korean pop star Psy and his crew drove Seoul’s crowded highways in search of absurdist settings for his. K-pop is more than just an export article. They are all gaga for Gangnam Style, the contagious pop song by South Korean rapper Psy. It wasn’t just because products were cheap at the time, but it’s also a result of creativity and flair,” says Jacob Ki Nielsen, adding that Koreans are a well-educated people and consequently well-equipped for facing the economic challenges. “K-pop emerged as a result of the 1997 crisis. The so-called K-pop (Korean pop) is far cheaper than for instance Japanese pop products.
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In the liberalised South Korea, pop music and TV have become export articles that are sold to the other Asian countries. ”Class differences are growing in South Korea, just like they are elsewhere in the world. The video-featuring Psy's meme-ready dance moves-has racked up more than 815 million views since it was uploaded to YouTube on July 15. This resulted in formerly large, state-controlled companies such as Samsung becoming liberalised.Īccording to Jacob Ki Nielsen, the economy has now developed into what’s known as neoliberalism, and in South Korea there is now practically no social safety net at all. ' Gangnam Style ,' the unlikely smash hit by South Korean rapper Psy, has surpassed Justin Bieber's 'Baby' to become the most-watched YouTube video of all time. South Korea was a poor country in the aftermath of the Second World War and up to the ‘70s and ‘80s, when the country experienced an economic boom.īut in 1997, the country came close to bankruptcy. He reckons that the South Koreans, just like the Westerners, laughed at the dance and the silly universe portrayed in the video.īut in South Korea the video has an added dimension: it’s a satire poking fun at the so-called Gangnam ‘wannabes’ – those who try to emulate the exclusive lifestyle in Seoul’s Gangnam district, where the rapper and comedian Psy grew up. Jacob Ki Nielsen says that initially the video was a local hit in South Korea and that it turned into a hit in the West when an American rapper by the name of T-Pain shared it with his celebrity friends, who subsequently shared it with their followers on Twitter.