On this day in 2012, the music video for Gangnam Style by Kpop artist Psy was published to Youtube. It quickly gained popularity online and became the most watched video on Youtube, an honor which it held for almost 5 years.

The Song

"Gangnam Style" is a South Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip, and exude a certain supposed "class." The term was listed in Time's weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district. Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humor by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class:

People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are—it's only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are "Gangnam Style"—so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying very hard to be something that they're not.

The song talks about "the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild." The song's refrain "오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)" has been translated as "Big brother is Gangnam style," with Psy referring to himself.

The man behind it

Psy (real name Park Jae-sang) was born and raised in the Gangnam district of Seoul, in 1977. In 2001, he released his debut album. He was conscripted into mandatory military service in 2002. That same year, he performed at a concert staged in opposition to 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula. Psy took to the stage in gold-face paint and a glittery red outfit, then lifted a model U.S. tank over his head before smashing it to pieces on the ground. The performance was a response to the death of two Korean schoolgirls killed in an accident with an American military vehicle. The video is here although with an incorrect date.

In 2004, Psy was featured on a song called Dear American in which he rapped in Korean,

"Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives

Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture

Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers

Kill them all slowly and painfully"

In 2007, state prosecutors accused Psy of "neglecting" his work, holding concerts and appearing on local television networks during his period of prior employment. On October 12, 2007, the Seoul Administrative Court decided that Psy must be redrafted. Two months later, Psy was re-drafted into the military where he served as a signalman in the 52nd Army Infantry Division before being released from duties in July 2009.

On April 13, 2013, Psy attended a press conference where he expressed regret about his country's conflict with North Korea and described the situation as a "tragedy". He also expressed hope that North Koreans would one day be able to enjoy his music before elaborating that his job is to make everyone, including North Koreans, laugh. Right before the start of a concert in Seoul, Psy added: "Tonight me and 50,000 Korean people... we are going to sing out loud. We are going to shout out loud and we are really close to them, so they [the North Koreans] can hear."

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Psy was asked to give his take on Kim Jong-un's recent threats against South Korea and the United States, to which he replied: "Well, as an entertainer, I don't want to talk about politics. As a Korean citizen, I want peace. That's all I can say. I want permanent peace."

The Impact

Gangnam Style was certainly the first Kpop song I ever heard. It was the first song not primarily in English that I ever heard played on the radio. It brought Kpop into the mainstream in a very big way and arguably paved the way for more Korean culture being popular in the West. The dance became extremely popular and I remember doing it as part of a school rally. Parodies were made by every celebrity and group under the sun. Of particular note is the parody Mitt Romney Style which while not my personal favorite was a sign of just how much the Internet and pop culture would make its way into elections.

Psy still remains popular today and is on his 9th studio album.

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  • silent_water [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the ER discharged me without doing anything because neurology didn't have a bed for me. I was having focal seizures yesterday and I wasn't losing consciousness so it wasn't major enough for them to give me the EEG. so I have to wait a week for that. in the meantime, I've been trying to do my best to count and I must have had nearly 40 episodes of seizures yesterday into this morning. they're becoming more frequent and they're responding less and less to the meds I have - used to be I could take migraine meds and they'd stop progressing. now they just take on a life of their own. I also can't see my neurologist until the end of the month. and I can't get a sooner appointment with a neurologist at the hospital because my insurance won't let me leave their system for outpatient care. so I'm literally forced to roll the dice - does this get so bad first that they have to do the EEG at the ER (presumably because I've progressed to tonic-clonic seizures), or do I make it without significant progression of the seizures from here, before my neurology appointments.

    fwiw, I've had one generalized tonic-clonic seizure before. I just didn't recognize it for what it was because I was running a high fever and had just had surgery. but I've also had a generalized atonic absence seizure in the last 3 weeks. and 3 bad focal seizures last night. it's fucking up my memory. I have all these holes where I don't know what happened. I lose track of what I'm doing in the middle of these episodes, even when they're mild, and I can't, for example, travel or drive alone. if I get caught out alone, I'm fucked.

    fuck this sucks. I hate our healthcare system so much and I'm starting to despise doctors on principle. even when they show up, they're barely listening to you and they've already made up their mind about what's happening. my neurologist could have caught the seizures last year. but she sees me through an insurance company that books her out so far that I can't have more than one visit every 3 months - we have to do everything else through character-limited DMs. like I know she's trying but god fuck these hospital doctors. they absolutely do not give a shit unless you're in the process of dying.

    hell, we did catch this when I was a kid. I went to a neurologist because I was having myoclonic eye flickering when tired. but we couldn't get it to show up on EEG at the time because the traditional epilepsy triggers don't set those off for me. and my mother didn't want me to miss school to do a sleep-deprived EEG. we'll deal with it if it becomes a bigger deal later, she said. well, the piper has called his due, and my seizures have gone unrecognized and untreated for 20 years, as a result.

    sorry for the long ass vent. I'm sleep deprived and just got through a very painful night. and I'm going back into my migraine/seizure loops so yippee.

      • silent_water [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        tbh in some cases it has been better for me to look up the diagnostic criteria myself and play dumb but cite the by-the-book criteria to let the doc feel like they figured it out themselves. then they can perform whatever tests are necessary to confirm or reject that hypothesis.

        this is basically what I do. the problem is that sometimes they just take your reasoning without adequately testing that it's true. I have a convincing demeanor so this is a real problem for me. I don't know how to find doctors that will both listen to me and test what I'm telling them so that I can learn when I'm wrong. so far, I've literally had to figure both out for myself in every single occasion that's mattered. and I'm so deeply tired of trying to figure this out and getting it wrong. I can't know everything. but the way things stand, I have to or the doctors hurt me.