'Gangnam Style'

[Gob]

Now, Gangnam Style, by the South Korean pop star Psy, has inspired a West Side Story-esque show of rivalry between two Bangkok gangs who are said to have had a dance-off before engaging in a gun battle.

The Independent News Network website reported the two gangs were dining in the same restaurant when ''the younger members of both groups danced provocatively at each other in the manner of top hit Gangnam Style''.

The dance-off escalated into an argument and a shoot-out.

No one was injured in the incident.

The shoot-out has stoked debate about growing school-based gang violence in Thailand, where students seek to defend their school's honour with guns, knives, machetes and even home-made grenades.

.

[The Hen]

Bring on those K-Pop dance moves.

[The Hen]

.... And now for Mr Solo's take on it all.



Psy lives.

[The Hen]

Eh .... Sexy Marching Band. Oh. Oh. Oh.

[The Hen]

Thai sailors have a go. Stick through the credits at the beginning, they are a tad long winded.

The smiling faces, yet shabby dancing ability, make this clip quite adorable.



PS Over 300,000,000 views now. Go Psy.

[Gob]

Rapper Psy has become the first South Korean pop star to make it to the top of the UK singles chart with his song Gangnam Style.

The track has become a global phenomenon and the video featuring his famous horse-riding dance is YouTube's most "liked" of all time.

It entered the top 40 at number 37 two weeks ago, jumping to number three last Sunday.

Gangnam Style knocked The Script's Hall of Fame off top spot.

The Irish band are now at number two, with US rapper Flo Rida at number three with his single I Cry.

The highest new entry was DJ Fresh's The Feel at number 13.

Mumford & Sons' new album, Babel, has gone straight to the top of the UK album chart.

[loCAtek]

It's the La Macarena for the New Millennium;

[MajGenl.Meade]

..and they said cricket is boring?!

[Gob]

[Gob]

[Gob]

Best. Ever. Remix!!

[Sean]

Am I the only one who hears that 'Gangnam Style' is a rip-off of 'Pump up the Jam' musically?

[Scooter]

I can see the similarity, but I wouldn't call it a rip-off, exactly. There's only so many variations of that underlying beat to a rap-like vocal.

On the other hand, that crescendo at the end of the chorus sounds almost exactly like a Ricky Martin song to me (don't ask me to remember the name, it's a part of music history I'd just as soon forget).

[Gob]

GANGNAM STYLE in ENGLISH Misheard Lyrics (Open Condom Star) Parody of PSY

Absolutely cracking!!

[Sean]

Seems it's not just me...



It's not just the underlying beat Scoot. There's an identical riff used throughout both tracks (even using the same synth sound) and the bass is also virtually identical.

He's headed right into 'The Verve' territory and as he and his producer claim to have written the entire track themselves I can see the possibility of a lawsuit in his future...


Edit to change 'himself' to 'themselves'...

[Gob]

Nice mash up!!

[Gob]

Gangnam Style - a reflection on the philosophy of horsey dance

So Psy's Gangnam Style has hit No. 1 in Australia and almost made it to the top of the US Billboard. The YouTube clip views are approaching half a billion. He's been ubiquitous on television worldwide and is due to appear on Sunrise and The X Factor next week. He is the most successful Asian pop music act ever, and as close to an international household name as South Korea can claim.

Last week, I spent a couple of crowded, heaving hours with 80,000 others at Psy's free concert in central Seoul. Among the fireworks and razzle-dazzle, it was impossible not to be struck by the Korean superstar's immense crossover appeal. Koreans young and old, kids and grandparents, enthusiastically sang and danced along to familiar numbers. (One lady about, ahem, a generation older than me insisted I join her in Psy's signature ''horsey dance''; who could say no?)

As Psy's star has risen, it has been accompanied - both here in South Korea and internationally - by a constellation of experts, pundits and ordinary fans seeking to explain his song and its success.

Psy is alternatively interpreted as a class-conscious satirist (not really), a people's choice social media phenomena (certainly), a self-referential clown celebrating trashy kitsch culture (yes), the beginnings of a Western appreciation for Asian pop (probably not) and a threat to every other aspect of Korean culture, either traditional or avant-garde (possibly, but that's how culture works).

Some of them are further from the mark than others. So, in the likely case that it comes up at a dinner party, parents' group or executive board meeting any time soon, here are some ways to talk about Gangnam Style.

First, is the song a piercing critique of inequalities in Korean society that have arisen out of the past few decades of rapid economic growth? Gangnam is a flashy area, home to most of Seoul's nouveau riche who profited greatly by getting in early on a real estate boom that hasn't (yet) busted. As articles in The Atlantic Monthly and New Matilda outline, the lyrics and the film clip highlight and ridicule the pretensions of these elites.

This is a fair analysis; the song does make fools of those flashy gadflies. But I suspect the appeal of this form of analysis has more to do with giving those like me a reason to like and discuss a funny song than it reflects Psy's intentions or the song's reception by Koreans.

For one thing, Psy and his family are known to be quite well off Gangnam locals. Psy himself is the face of marketing campaigns for mobile phones and washing machines, and has been recruited to boost flagging sales of the most expensive tickets to the Korean Formula One Grand Prix.

Psy is no Bob Dylan or Bob Marley. Rather, he has compared himself on CNN to Austin Powers and Mr Bean and says his motto is ''dress classy, dance cheesy''. He celebrates Gangnam style and its foolishness; he is one of them.

Herein lies a second explanation: the song is a playful and kitsch celebration of what Professor Lee Dong-yeun of Korean National University of the Arts calls ''B-class culture'', the kind that wallows in being gauche, melodramatic and unsophisticated. More soap opera, or Oprah, than opera.

Despite his privileged background, Psy's appeal lies in part in his apparent ordinariness. He's not blessed with the brooding good looks and lithe athleticism of most Korean pop (K-pop) stars. He did not come up through the famed K-pop star system, instead writing his own material and building a large local fan base on the strength of legendary performances for Korean university students and those serving in the military. It took him six albums to become a superstar; along the way he gathered famous showbiz friends, many of whom make cameos in the Gangnam Style clip.

His rise owes more to the capacities of social media users to find, share and promote otherwise little known acts than it does to a carefully managed campaign. Gangnam Style owes its success to YouTube and trend-spotter sites like gawker.com - and to the social media users whose word-of-mouth endorsements carry much more weight than any slick marketing strategy.

Psy is a kind of people's pop star whose dreams accidentally came true. (As he told the crowd at his Seoul concert, he always thought a K-pop star would make it, he just never thought it would be him.) As such, he is closer to his audience than most K-pop idols. Heck, we can even dance like him!

Psy's horsey dance seems destined to join the moonwalk and the Macarena as pop cultural touchstones, but surpass them as subjects of debate. The quasi-Marxist analysis claims it is a satirical reference to the equestrian interests of elites of America's north-east, where Psy attempted degrees in business and then music.

Patrons of Seoul nightclubs from the days of Psy's youth claim it is one of the kind of dance moves that were common back there and then. Professor Lee in The Korea Herald simply argued that "people were stressed and the horseback-riding choreography was easy to dance to and gave a few giggles. But that's the end".

Not everyone is a fan. In The Korea Times, editor Oh Young-jin came out against Psy's ''vulgarity'' and his horse dance, fearing that international audiences would confuse Koreans (traditionally farmers) with Genghis Khan and his marauding Mongols.

The backlash doesn't end there. Cultural bloggers koreaBANG reported on a recent performance by Korean rapper Tiger JK, requests for him to ''shut up and do the horsey dance'' were met with a barrage of invective. "F--- all yall who think Asian are here to make you laugh by dancing my asses off.''

Charming language aside, Tiger JK's views express a fear that Psy's success will over-shadow everything else that there is to know and love about Korea, its traditions and passions and eccentricities and dynamism. I hope he's wrong.

Moreover, as cultural blog Racialicious outlines there is a degree of orientalism in play when Western audiences accept only those acts that meet their expectations and then go about explaining their success and appeal on our own terms.

Of course, none of these critiques prevent us from enjoying Psy's music and celebrating his achievements.

Damien Spry is a University of Sydney academic based in Seoul.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mus ... z298OwqdCS

[MajGenl.Meade]

"F--- all yall who think Asian are here to make you laugh by dancing my asses off.''

Horses you silly person. Horses.

[Sue U]

Gangnam Style is now in regular rotation on all the pop radio stations in the Philly and NYC markets. A one-hit wonder? Maybe not; interesting story on NPR yesterday says K-pop has a plan, and aims to rule the world.

[Gob]

Why do you think we've done all these posts Sue? We're fifth columnists for Psy!!