Gangnam Style
My personal impression of the song:
I don't really mind the similarities, although of the three songs, "Gangnam Style" is the weakest. This is largely because Psy raps in a much more monotone voice on GS than in the pushy bravado of "Right Now," and that low-key voice in GS just pales next to the powerful sharpness of 2NE1's "I Am The Best" vocals, or Big Bang's blend of deep, bendy, and soaring "Fantastic Baby" vocals.
GS is passive, to "Sexy and I Know It's" passive aggressive, to "Right Now's" aggressive. Yet GS is also able to be passive because it has the most confidence and swagger of the three. SaIKI doesn't really believe in its own joke, and is really a petty revenge for that fact, rubbing their unsexy bodies in our faces and getting off on our disgusted reactions. RN's aggression comes from a place of change. You aren't partying, but you should be right now! And through that act of change, become who you want to be, someone who can party RIGHT FUCKING NOW, no matter the setting. But GS doesn't need that. GS is at a lower temperature than RN and SaIKI because in it, Psy is genuinely assured of his current identity, with no need or desire to change.
Furthermore, GS isn't a true fulfillment of an "I'm sexy and I know it" message, because Psy (in GS) is so assured of himself that he doesn't even need to be sexy. Instead, he's so compelling in all of his dorky glory that the sexy people will instead join him, and not in a mocking way. In Psy's performances with idol guest stars, it's not a "lol attractive idols with this fugly old man" joke, (which is the kind of humor Shindong does for his Strong Heart parodies, in contrast) but genuinely just having a blast with this dance that doesn't even need nostalgia to offset its dorky nature. It helps that Kpop idols often cultivate dorky personas for variety, and thus when doing these things are simply bringing that endearing side of them to the stage, and don't show any signs of embarrassment that would make their guestings feel more gimmicky and obliged.
Wondering how many non-Kpop-fans will recognize "the girl from Bubble Pop," or if they'll think she's just a professional loli backdancer. Speaking of which, there's another entire discussion to be had about why Psy's "Have enough self-confidence, and your dorkiness will become awesome" message doesn't seem to apply to females, who still need to be smoking hawt.
But while he grabs onto models in his videos, when he has Kpop female stars guest in his performances, I don't get "creepy old lech" vibes from him. There's a real sense of sincerity to Psy's call to simply have fun that isn't asexual, but isn't pervy in tone, either. He's having so much fun that he nearly seems oblivious to the girls who join him on stage, and in turn, the girls are simply following his lead, not acting as objects of desire. Or is that his brand of superior aloofness, with eyecandy at his beck and call because he is that awesome? It's his persona at least for GS, if that interpretation is true. He did give little fanboy looks of admiration after his "Right Now" perf with SNSD.
(Concerning the just released "ft. Hyuna" version: the fuck is wrong with her voice!? With that and her babyface, it's like if Selena Gomez started dancing all up on Cee Lo Green. Squick. Otherwise, Hyuna is still Hyuna, which means that she makes the dancing look like it's both easy to make look good, and the most fun thing in the world to do. And despite my crack about her babyface, she does manage to capture the maturity that Disney starlets strive for and often fail to achieve, and she does it without trying to dismiss her youth. But fuck, that voice is annoying. Even in Jpop when they go that squeaky it's in parody.)
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Would any of you say that the "Gangnam Style" international craze has any potential to expand, or will it simply be Kpop's "Pon Pon Pon?" In just a few days, GS has racked up 29.74 million views, whereas Ponx3's year-old upload is at 32.39 million. GS will easily outstrip Ponx3 at this rate. Ponx3 didn't exactly achieve mainstream international popularity, but still remained more of another instance of the "lolJapan" phenomenon, whereas GS seems less "lol wtf is this acid trip" and more "lol wtf this is awesome" to its non-Apop familiar audience.
Comments on their Youtube pages show a difference in the mode of reception: Psy gets comments on how awesome/fun/funny/catchy the song and dance are, Kyary gets endless quips about drugs. (Somehow the top comments for the GS MV are now all outrage over people assuming that Psy is the wrong Asian ethnicity. :\) Both MVs employ "weird" imagery, but Psy's is still in relatively conventional settings, (with a comedic twist) and accompanied by a very familiar "let's partay!" narrative, compared to Ponx3's MV world that is a celebration of Kyary's unique brand of Harajuku fashion, a subject not accessible to many.
On the other hand, from the music critic side, GS has its LMFAO sound working against it, whereas very few can deny that Ponx3 is a Nakata masterpiece. But is this another reason GS is getting less of a dismissive reaction? After all, it's the ultimate example of language being irrelevant to music, the removal of Psy's voice rendering the song no different from LMFAO. Meanwhile, Ponx3 is completely and utterly of the Jpop aesthetic, and Perfume's recent foray into the western aesthetic did make me make a skeptical face until the usual Nakata-isms made their appearance and brought the song back onto familiar ground, which in turn might turn off new listeners who dismiss it as too cutesy. (Has a polyrhythm song ever been a hit in modern mainstream American music?)
Why was Psy the act to receive international attention over the likes of Norazo, DJ Doc, or Mighty Mouth? Was it the balance of comedic imagery with a song that plays it relatively straight? A brand of humor better appealing to internet culture? That his guest stars look more believably like they're enjoying being there and not just getting paid? Or, especially considering Norazo, was the fact that his music was more "western generic" the real advantage?
Ponx3 largely did not become a gateway to Jpop's international exposure. Perhaps it was because it was Kyary's first song, and the rest of Jpop doesn't really sound like Nakata, except for Nakata-produced artists. GS, on the other hand, has already led many first-time listeners to praise Right Now, and as pointed out at the beginning of this post, they can definitely find more of the same style of sound in Kpop.
Psy himself isn't optimistic. I can see his point. For all of their tonal differences, GS and Ponx3 share that spirit of oddball fun that make them perfect meme-fodder. And as Rebecca Black can tell you, music memes don't guarantee returns at all. Arguably, the Spice Girls recently achieved insta-meme status on tumblr as gifs of their Olympic closing ceremony performance cropped up, but did anyone mention any songs other than Wannabe? (Insert obligatory Kyu Sakamoto argument)
Speaking of memes, these comment threads are very illuminating: 1, 2, 3, 4
What with this and Jessica's internationally infamous baseball skills, maybe SM should drop those low-exposure music shows and instead increase their focus on this avenue of overseas promotion.
Are there any grounds for further comparison between Psy and Kyary (and sure, Lady Gaga) in how they capture attention beyond the normal mainstream type artists (R&B soloists for America, idols elsewhere) through their twisting and celebration of original and pop culture imagery? What other aspects of attraction do they share with meme culture? What about The Lonely Island, who release straightforward comedy songs, but still managed to make "I'm On a Boat" into a pop hit? Can comparisons be drawn in the music style of "I'm On a Boat" and "Gangnam Style" as to why they have gone viral?
Random video I couldn't find a good place to put in the post, because it is amazing.
(Made by The Aprils for April Fools Day. Oaky, going to stop now before I get sucked into pimp-posting The Aprils.)
Click to viewI don't really mind the similarities, although of the three songs, "Gangnam Style" is the weakest. This is largely because Psy raps in a much more monotone voice on GS than in the pushy bravado of "Right Now," and that low-key voice in GS just pales next to the powerful sharpness of 2NE1's "I Am The Best" vocals, or Big Bang's blend of deep, bendy, and soaring "Fantastic Baby" vocals.
GS is passive, to "Sexy and I Know It's" passive aggressive, to "Right Now's" aggressive. Yet GS is also able to be passive because it has the most confidence and swagger of the three. SaIKI doesn't really believe in its own joke, and is really a petty revenge for that fact, rubbing their unsexy bodies in our faces and getting off on our disgusted reactions. RN's aggression comes from a place of change. You aren't partying, but you should be right now! And through that act of change, become who you want to be, someone who can party RIGHT FUCKING NOW, no matter the setting. But GS doesn't need that. GS is at a lower temperature than RN and SaIKI because in it, Psy is genuinely assured of his current identity, with no need or desire to change.
Furthermore, GS isn't a true fulfillment of an "I'm sexy and I know it" message, because Psy (in GS) is so assured of himself that he doesn't even need to be sexy. Instead, he's so compelling in all of his dorky glory that the sexy people will instead join him, and not in a mocking way. In Psy's performances with idol guest stars, it's not a "lol attractive idols with this fugly old man" joke, (which is the kind of humor Shindong does for his Strong Heart parodies, in contrast) but genuinely just having a blast with this dance that doesn't even need nostalgia to offset its dorky nature. It helps that Kpop idols often cultivate dorky personas for variety, and thus when doing these things are simply bringing that endearing side of them to the stage, and don't show any signs of embarrassment that would make their guestings feel more gimmicky and obliged.
Wondering how many non-Kpop-fans will recognize "the girl from Bubble Pop," or if they'll think she's just a professional loli backdancer. Speaking of which, there's another entire discussion to be had about why Psy's "Have enough self-confidence, and your dorkiness will become awesome" message doesn't seem to apply to females, who still need to be smoking hawt.
But while he grabs onto models in his videos, when he has Kpop female stars guest in his performances, I don't get "creepy old lech" vibes from him. There's a real sense of sincerity to Psy's call to simply have fun that isn't asexual, but isn't pervy in tone, either. He's having so much fun that he nearly seems oblivious to the girls who join him on stage, and in turn, the girls are simply following his lead, not acting as objects of desire. Or is that his brand of superior aloofness, with eyecandy at his beck and call because he is that awesome? It's his persona at least for GS, if that interpretation is true. He did give little fanboy looks of admiration after his "Right Now" perf with SNSD.
(Concerning the just released "ft. Hyuna" version: the fuck is wrong with her voice!? With that and her babyface, it's like if Selena Gomez started dancing all up on Cee Lo Green. Squick. Otherwise, Hyuna is still Hyuna, which means that she makes the dancing look like it's both easy to make look good, and the most fun thing in the world to do. And despite my crack about her babyface, she does manage to capture the maturity that Disney starlets strive for and often fail to achieve, and she does it without trying to dismiss her youth. But fuck, that voice is annoying. Even in Jpop when they go that squeaky it's in parody.)
-----------
Would any of you say that the "Gangnam Style" international craze has any potential to expand, or will it simply be Kpop's "Pon Pon Pon?" In just a few days, GS has racked up 29.74 million views, whereas Ponx3's year-old upload is at 32.39 million. GS will easily outstrip Ponx3 at this rate. Ponx3 didn't exactly achieve mainstream international popularity, but still remained more of another instance of the "lolJapan" phenomenon, whereas GS seems less "lol wtf is this acid trip" and more "lol wtf this is awesome" to its non-Apop familiar audience.
Comments on their Youtube pages show a difference in the mode of reception: Psy gets comments on how awesome/fun/funny/catchy the song and dance are, Kyary gets endless quips about drugs. (Somehow the top comments for the GS MV are now all outrage over people assuming that Psy is the wrong Asian ethnicity. :\) Both MVs employ "weird" imagery, but Psy's is still in relatively conventional settings, (with a comedic twist) and accompanied by a very familiar "let's partay!" narrative, compared to Ponx3's MV world that is a celebration of Kyary's unique brand of Harajuku fashion, a subject not accessible to many.
On the other hand, from the music critic side, GS has its LMFAO sound working against it, whereas very few can deny that Ponx3 is a Nakata masterpiece. But is this another reason GS is getting less of a dismissive reaction? After all, it's the ultimate example of language being irrelevant to music, the removal of Psy's voice rendering the song no different from LMFAO. Meanwhile, Ponx3 is completely and utterly of the Jpop aesthetic, and Perfume's recent foray into the western aesthetic did make me make a skeptical face until the usual Nakata-isms made their appearance and brought the song back onto familiar ground, which in turn might turn off new listeners who dismiss it as too cutesy. (Has a polyrhythm song ever been a hit in modern mainstream American music?)
Why was Psy the act to receive international attention over the likes of Norazo, DJ Doc, or Mighty Mouth? Was it the balance of comedic imagery with a song that plays it relatively straight? A brand of humor better appealing to internet culture? That his guest stars look more believably like they're enjoying being there and not just getting paid? Or, especially considering Norazo, was the fact that his music was more "western generic" the real advantage?
Ponx3 largely did not become a gateway to Jpop's international exposure. Perhaps it was because it was Kyary's first song, and the rest of Jpop doesn't really sound like Nakata, except for Nakata-produced artists. GS, on the other hand, has already led many first-time listeners to praise Right Now, and as pointed out at the beginning of this post, they can definitely find more of the same style of sound in Kpop.
Psy himself isn't optimistic. I can see his point. For all of their tonal differences, GS and Ponx3 share that spirit of oddball fun that make them perfect meme-fodder. And as Rebecca Black can tell you, music memes don't guarantee returns at all. Arguably, the Spice Girls recently achieved insta-meme status on tumblr as gifs of their Olympic closing ceremony performance cropped up, but did anyone mention any songs other than Wannabe? (Insert obligatory Kyu Sakamoto argument)
Speaking of memes, these comment threads are very illuminating: 1, 2, 3, 4
What with this and Jessica's internationally infamous baseball skills, maybe SM should drop those low-exposure music shows and instead increase their focus on this avenue of overseas promotion.
Are there any grounds for further comparison between Psy and Kyary (and sure, Lady Gaga) in how they capture attention beyond the normal mainstream type artists (R&B soloists for America, idols elsewhere) through their twisting and celebration of original and pop culture imagery? What other aspects of attraction do they share with meme culture? What about The Lonely Island, who release straightforward comedy songs, but still managed to make "I'm On a Boat" into a pop hit? Can comparisons be drawn in the music style of "I'm On a Boat" and "Gangnam Style" as to why they have gone viral?
Random video I couldn't find a good place to put in the post, because it is amazing.
(Made by The Aprils for April Fools Day. Oaky, going to stop now before I get sucked into pimp-posting The Aprils.)