"GANGNAM STYLE" deserves its own thread

look, i'm being glib but not outright trolling –

the song is popular, as far as i can tell, because

1) it's got a funny, replicable, and immediately identifiable dance move
2) it's a sprightly song very much in the same (albeit non-greco but hanguk-in-ian) vein as 'party rock'
3) the accompanying video is bouncy, confectionary, surprising, and oddly lavish
4) the character is a delightfully doughy korean man-child surrounded by models, expensive cars, and gorgeous vistas that clash with his everyman/everyboy affect
5) as far as i can tell, it's entirely, unmistakably parodic.

<i>chubby dorky guy doing silly dance is funny. pretty sure of zach galifinakis had done same song, it'd still be equally (and equivalently) funny and the greeks wouldn't be upset. of course, they probably can't afford to get upset right now.</i>

Well we did have this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2bCc0EGP6U

I wonder if Daniel Dae-Kim is sitting in Hawaii on set going "fuck you, Ken Jeong"

nobody looks at zach galifniakis and thinks "hey look at this greek dude"

Greek ppl do

DD-K is a pretty exceptiony exception, no?

what i'm saying, maybe ineptly, is it's hard for me to believe that the HAHA SILLY ASIAN laughs trump (in cultural currency, or in ranking of people's motivating factors in watching the video) the HAHA SILLY CHUBBO laughs or the HAHA STUPID DANCING or the HAHA WTF ODDBALL laughs or the HAHA I ACTUALLY KIND OF LIKE THIS SONG audience

Oh I have no doubt that "lol funny Asian" is the cornerstone of this song's success; the important part is that this impulse is generating money for Psy and leading to a recognition of the song as a piece of cultural trivia that's going to be a hallmark of future VH-1 broadcasts for decades to come

I'm not sure it's analytically separable xp

it occurs to me at this late date that i haven't seen any translations of this song

― goole, Wednesday, September 26, 2012 12:27 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gonna be a bummer when it turns out to be "BEVERLY HILLS, THAT'S WHERE I WANNA BE"

IOW if the song didn't have anything going for it BUT "lol funny Asian", no one would actually care

I've always been disappointed at the fuss over Old Boy and the lack of love for Grandma Cop
http://pds19.egloos.com/pds/201010/27/03/b0007603_4cc82299e6a54.jpg

xp to soda: then you're an optimistic one. but all of those factors can coexist and they can all serve as major causes behind it becoming a potential #1 hit with a potential 300 million YT views. and if HAHA SILLY ASIAN is one of those factors, that is an important thing that demands commentary. and it's not like those other reasons all lack intersections with SILLY ASIAN.

i can plausibly imagine something similar happening with a non-English pop song by a white European, but there'd still be some element of otherizing 'lol other languages/cultures' element even if you took out race.

true (i remember listening to the streets in high school and certain friends could not stop giggling at the idea of a british rapper) but that doesn't mean that race isn't a big factor with PSY

-people's motives as they approach a complex phenomenon are complex and multitudinous
-not all are necessarily positive, some are sinister and racist
-the benign motives aren't separable from the sinister ones

Where does the commentary go from here?

yelling about it on the internet

i wasn't saying race isn't a factor, just disagreen with Dan's "IOW if the song didn't have anything going for it BUT 'lol funny Asian', no one would actually care"

i mean if an white american guy did basically the same (insane and expensive-looking) video for the same song w/ english lyrics, it might not be the meme of the year but it'd at least be the meme of the week

what's up rebecca black

anyway pretending to pull out discrete & separate reasons why it's a hit is nice and all but there's no denying that in reality, the success is probably due to the totality of all of those factors working together and race isn't really extricable at all

would it surprise me if a majority of americans who love gangnam style would also find this funny?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2f13chid8Y

(from an american tv show currently still in production as of 2012)

anyway pretending to pull out discrete & separate reasons why it's a hit is nice and all but there's no denying that in reality, the success is probably due to the totality of all of those factors working together and race isn't really extricable at all

would it surprise me if a majority of americans who love gangnam style would also find this funny?

i don't know that there are a majority of americans who love gangnam style. there are a bunch who appreciate it as flavor of the week, buut...

a lot of the so-called fans are <18 years old, and like the silly dance.

i still think SILLY CHUBBO IN EXPENSIVE OVERWROUGHT VIDEO is more motivating than SILLY ASIAN but then again, I'm an optimist on these things. (Otherwise I'd be mad about Sofia Vergara)

it really takes an optimist to believe that the truth is as simple as "America loves boobs"

Well, on the HAHA SILLY (ETHNICITY/RACIAL/NATIONAL IDENTITY) front, how come she gets waved under the bar while while chubby dancing Korean guy skips morosely at the back of the line?

i don't really care about this very much, except as it made me sad that i couldn't innocently enjoy the funny chunky-man skipping about like a two-dollar dingus on new year's day

I don't think his weight is a huge part of the video or its appeal either, you seem a bit fixated on it.

haven't there been plenty of lol euro trash memes over the years? I agree w/ remy, could see some eastern european or turkish or indian person doing this exact same song w/ the exact same video.

there's nothing particularly asian about it, even the music sounds like it could be from anywhere. trashy music videos are global.

i find all this discussion strange, he's got a roundish head but you guys are talking about him like he's ceelo or something

i'm not fixated on the weight, it's just that it's a funnier (and more noticable) component than the geographical component, for my money.

(i remember listening to the streets in high school and certain friends could not stop giggling at the idea of a british rapper)

smh at this clown

http://www.stompandflow.com/images/slick-rick-bling.jpg

the point has already been made (and far be it from me to add to this shitstorm) but psy is not overweight

there's nothing particularly asian about it, even the music sounds like it could be from anywhere. trashy music videos are global.

― iatee, Wednesday, September 26, 2012 9:53 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

the point is that it slots really, really easily into preexisting ways in which asians are portrayed in american media

hyper sexed dancers?

I think his charisma is way more of a factor in the appeal of the video than anything HAHA ASIAN. He's got a great swagger about him and pulls of some really hilarious dance moves while maintaining an amazing deadpan.

lol the horsey dance = hyper sexed dance?

dude checking out a girl's ass = basically the polar opposite of how Asian males portrayed in American culture

and that's exactly the part of the video that everybody's miming

I can only speak for myself

fetchboy otm. psy, the guest stars and the whole clip ooze charisma so broad that it neatly appeals to western audiences. there are certainly 12 or so people in the world who are LOOOL AZN but in general people are responding because it's amazing.

dude checking out a girl's ass = basically the polar opposite of how Asian males portrayed in American culture

what is the polar opposite of a dude checking out a girl's ass?

a dude checking out a girl's vagina?
a girl checking out a dude's ass?

ass checking out dude, duh

ass bites man, now that's a story

bingo

i know of not one person who thinks this is funny because, y'know, asians

well, they are on the opposite side of the world so maybe there's like a coreolis effect of ass-checking out and it goes backwards

the brown eye blinks

have at least a decent number of people that showed gangnam style to their friends gone "hey dude check out this crazy asian music video" ? probably, yeah. that seems like de facto evidence for the argument that some of the popularity here is ultimately rooted in racist thinking. the video isn't racist, liking it isn't racist, but some of its popularity in the US is definitely due to some fascination with "the_east" and the fact that a chunky-guy might be less threatening when he's korean.

see also: bringing up gangnam style as a cool thing when you see your [asian] friend! how come you never told me about this, dude?? this is hilarious, watch it, you'll love it!!!

The prejudices are so ingrained in US culture, i'm not sure any funny video with an Asian lead wouldn't be seen by at least some of the audience as a 'lol funny Asian' video in a similar way. At the same time, there has always been an element of suspicion surrounding genuine US / European fan engagement with Asian pop culture - J-Pop and K-pop fans have always been accused of fetishising the culture, and the people, in an unhealthy way which make it difficult to see how any crossover song could escape the issues this one brings up.

I only knew a world where racist douchebags could enjoy pop music equally as the unprejudiced, BUT LO! For I have found this thread!

MTV Hits has taken to playing "Gangnam Style" back to back with a Wonder Girls video