I just got done watching the video again and am wondering if the reason the song is so popular is because its a genuinely great song or the crazy video. What if Psy wasn't Psy, what if he was like the korean Adele? What if there was no crazy video and it was just a concert video someone posted or a random tumblr post; would it still be as popular as it is?
Its probably because is who he is, because the song is catchy and loud, and music video is crazy, if he were the Korean Adele, it probably wouldn't have done as well outside his fan circle.
I would like to say that I enjoyed the song not because of the video but I thought it was overall had a good beat and didn't make me wanna stab my eardrums because of it. Also I can listen to it and not quickly become bored of it.
Let's see...
For me personally I think, Psy ,just played on everyones desire for actual crazy fun. People are too serious and maybe he saw that and wanted to see people go out and live a little.
While I believe it's a nice song who am I kidding, I love it, it wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is right now with out that crazy horse dance. The dance was what made it go viral.
Generic music, generic feel-good lyrics, silly dance that is fun to do and easy to make fun of.
I wonder what contributed most to it's success in the West?
Every other song released nowadays is about shirking responsibility, having fun, being all up in your own ass about how amazing you are, and generally ignoring the fact that you're a giant sack of shit that will amount to nothing in life. This song is really no different.
Read the lyrics to any Pitbull, Ke$ha, Lil Wayne,Nicki Minaj, or whomever else is popular right now. You'll find the same shallow bullshit in their lyrics, the same thumpin' club beats.
They just don't have a horse dance.
Or a Korean guy.
Or the quirkiness of the video.
Or the socially-accepted borderline racism that hovers around the song.
Here's your answer.
Im not sure what the question is
The question is, is Gangnam is genuinely good song or is it because it just has a funky music video?
Is the song quality? Or is it just riding on the coattails of its quirky music video or beats?
Would it be quality if it was done by somebody else? Or if the genre of the song was different altogether? (like if was done by a Korean version of Adele)
i think its the video just because most people cant understand korean
I don't see the song and video as being separate but two versions of the same product. At the end of the day the commercial success of "Gangnam Style" is because of the video. However, that does not mean that it's not a great song.
As a pop Song it's great too It has a catchy tune that sticks in your head and has some great hooks in there that transcend language barriers. Talk to anyone who likes the song and the mass majority probably don't know any or much Korean but they still know how to sing a few lines from this song.
Now personally I see this as one of the advances in modern day media and an example of what the internet is capable of. The main form of revenue in the music industry is not recorded music anymore, what people are looking for is an experience so this "funny video" pushes that across. The laughter and enjoyment you get from watching it hey even live venues play this song, these are all experiences shared between people and can't be purchased or downloaded. Where as this may not have been an intentional plan by PSY and his Label it has worked massively as great viral marketing and advertisement. This has allowed "gangnam style" to move into the western market
Now this is where it gets interesting, Through the combined effort of the internet and the video going viral the main media company's in the west have jumped on to this band wagon as an opportunity to get a bit of the wealth. PSY's Gangnam Style reached No.1 in the UK charts within a month of going viral.
This show's that it can be successful without the video as radio reaches viewers who may not have seen the video or had even heard of the song. All they have is the catchy pop song to listen to and it gets the word spreading. this works both ways, as youtube is a major way of listening to music these days people who get told by the radio listeners will search for it online and send more people to the video.
See this relates to the idea of a "Korean adele" even though adele doesn't have fancy videos or crazy charisma she writes good pop songs that are easily accessible by lots of people (might not be everyone's thing but you can't say she's not popular). Even though a lot of the industry may be more inclined to making money from your product at the end of the day all it comes down to is good songs. if you don't have good songs you're not going to get far, you'll get some of the way but it will end. if i were to say would PSY's video be as successful if it was a bad song? Probably, but only viral success it wouldn't of gained the commercial success of this scale not to mention worldwide number ones and awards.
Also, another example of how gangnam style would be successful without the video is the fact that the video we see now is actually the second version of the music video. the Original video was released in July and receive something like 500,000 views and kept getting bigger. when they saw it was going to be a big deal they re-recorded and released the video you see now.
Other reasons it's successful include, the ability to make stupid and/or silly dancing "cool". the ability to make an average person comfortable listening to korean music even if they might not understand the language, in the sense it could be on the radio and the person would be like "yeah i know this song! eyyyy sexy lady!". before the release you could of given this song to any A&R, Manager or Label and they would of told you it would of been a hit regardless of seeing the video or not.
I first heard the song without the video and found it catchy, the video just drove things overboard.