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PSY’s Gangnam Style was one of the first tracks that popularised and trended Korean culture worldwide. Fans even stated that GangGnam Style paved the way for K-Pop industry. Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ MV has 4.4 billion views on YouTube, the song even fell under the most viewed YouTube video on July 15, 2012.
Psy, a South Korean musician and rapper, made his global music debut on July 15, 2012, with a vivid blue suit, an iconic horse-riding dance, and an exciting beat that fell to the catchy song “Oppan Gangnam style.”
Gangnam Style quickly became viral sensation, causing vibrations all over the world. The song took over the radio, the music video swamped Facebook timelines. Even a trend was set just after the dance Psy performed in the song. Psy’s also appeared on late-night shows in the United States. The song first charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in September, rising to number one two weeks later. It was also the first video on YouTube to receive 1 billion views.
Psy was already a famous artist in Korea itself, citizens knew him for his up beat and catchy songs, but he was not known much globally, quickly changed overnight when he released the song Gangnam style and became one of the most recognisable artist in the world. He had broken three Guinness World Records and was performing at New York’s Madison Square Garden with Madonna.
However, the song’s influence extended well beyond the music business. In reality, the popularity of “Gangnam Style” is seen as a significant trigger in the “Korean wave,” or “hallyu,” a phrase representing the current global expansion of Korean culture, which the South Korean government has been striving to promote through music and media since the 1990s.
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According to Gyu Tag Lee, an associate professor of cultural studies specialising in K-pop and hallyu at George Mason University’s South Korean campus, “Gangnam Style” was the song that first brought Korean pop culture to the attention of people outside of East Asia.
“These viral-on-the-internet media outlets, (such as) YouTube, made K-pop and hallyu incredibly popular and enormous internationally,” he explains.
Fast forward, K-Pop has been slowly taking over the music industry and South Korean talents have reached new levels of global popularity and fandom. One of such talents is BTS, the Korean pop band is one of the widely boy bands known and was the world’s best-selling musical act in 2021, has subsequently played at the Grammys and visited the White House to discuss Asian representation and anti-Asian hate crimes. These are no ordinary achievements!.
Hence Lee feels that by creating shareable video material to reach global audiences, these very successful K-pop performers are following in Psy’s footsteps.
Now Psy is also the owner of the company P NATION, under who work famous artist’s such as Hyuna, Crush, Dawn, Heize, Penomeco, Swings, TNX.