Gangnam Style nearly at 2 billion views

[Idsertian]

Anyone remember Gangnam Style? Stupid question, of course you do, you couldn't get away from it back then.

What's that? You've been living down a hole for the past 18+ months? In the dark? In the rain? With an owl?! Well, ok I guess those few of you who don't know/remember deserve an explanation.

Gangnam Style was the song released by South Korean artist, Psy, that became bizarrely popular here in the west in 2012. Scant months after it was released on YouTube, it became the first ever video in the site's history to amass 1 billion views.

Now, in March of 2014, the video sits at less than 70 million away from hitting 2 billion, and I felt that some sort of marker for this milestone, perhaps a thread here on Escapist, was necessary. What made this video so massively popular? Hell if I know, but the song is as catchy as a dose of the squits.

Anyway, I thought some people might like a fond smile at a memory of 2012, as well as a bit of trivia info.

So, how about it, Escapist? Care to dance?

 

[mitchell271]

Last year at Head of the Trent (my univeristy's big rowing regatta) there was a beer garden. All the school's rowers had to work at least one shift there during the day, and then cleanup. Didn't even get a free beer out of it, it's bullshit! Either way, there was a DJ as well playing music for the day drinkers and he played Gangnam Style a couple of times because that was during its height in popularity. During cleanup, when he played, all of the cleanup people literally dropped what they were doing and did the dance.

Anecdotes aside, it's because of the dance. That's it really.

 

[Queen Michael]

As far as I can tell, there are 70 million views needed to reach that magic number, not 30 million.

 

[Idsertian]

As far as I can tell, there are 70 million views needed to reach that magic number, not 30 million.

My bad, I brain-farted. I have fixed that up, thanks.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I despise that damn song.

Mostly because I can't understand Korean, can't even read Hangul, and don't really care to learn, I just don't see the appeal in it. It's just an ear worm with a slightly interesting dance.

Besides... where is that guy? Has anyone even heard of him since mid 2013? ...Did the some ever kick off in its home country?

That's the beauty of memes. When it runs out, nobody ever fucking cares about it again. Oh, silly internet!

 

[Vicarious Reality]

It just got a million downvotes, lol

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Besides... where is that guy? Has anyone even heard of him since mid 2013?

He released a second video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ] and got confused for a North Korean [http://mashable.com/2013/02/27/dennis-rodman-psy-twitter/] by a complete imbecile [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rodman].

 

[krazykidd]

I despise that damn song.

Mostly because I can't understand Korean, can't even read Hangul, and don't really care to learn, I just don't see the appeal in it. It's just an ear worm with a slightly interesting dance.

Besides... where is that guy? Has anyone even heard of him since mid 2013? ...Did the some ever kick off in its home country?

That's the beauty of memes. When it runs out, nobody ever fucking cares about it again. Oh, silly internet!

One of the things that annoyed the hell out of me during this fad. Is that no one even took the time to look up what that song was really about. It was a parody. But to most people ( and i have heard several people actually say this) it was :" look at this video with the dumb looking asian guy doing a silly dance!". I have since forgotten what the song was actually parodying, but i do remember everytime i tried to tell people they didn't care.

 

[Idsertian]

-snip-

IIRC, he's taking the piss out of the better off class, the kind that buy a certain brand of coffee because it's more expensive, etc. I'm a very music oriented kind of person, however, and just enjoy it for its catchy tune.

 

[Queen Michael]

le snip

It's a parody of people who want to look like the flashy people in the Gangnam district, and try to reach that goal by borrowing money to afford expensive coffee and other things that'll make them seem more affluent than they really are. That's why, in the vid, Psy's chillin on the beach... except it's just a playground. He walks into the stable... but has to settle for the horse in a roundabout.

 

[Idsertian]

le snip

It's a parody of people who want to look like the flashy people in the Gangnam district, and try to reach that goal by borrowing money to afford expensive coffee and other things that'll make them seem more affluent than they really are. That's why, in the vid, Psy's chillin on the beach... except it's just a playground. He walks into the stable... but has to settle for the horse in a roundabout.

I stand corrected, then. Have a hat tip, your majesty. I either remembered wrong, or misunderstood the point in the first place.

 

[C F]

I'm going to be honest, I don't find that as impressive as being the first video to hit one billion views.

But hey. It did it again (which would make it both the first and third video to amass one billion views?) so that's cool.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I never actually listened to the song, as I have no interest in the genre. Still, it is somewhat baffling that it got so popular. Random pop/electronic music from Korea with some kind of trademark dance doesn't seem like it'd be that massive. I'm, however, curious as to how many people became genuine fans of the band and how many only know that one song.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

To me it was a pop-sounding song that when you actually dissected the video (as previously mentioned) had some deep social commentary. I give PSY credit for getting over on that song AND actually having something significant wrapped in pop-style. I never say I hate pop music, just most of the soulless crap that comes out. I have a feeling if this guy had happened in the 90's he'd have been a huge star probably judging Korean Idle or So You Wanna Be a K-Pop star or some shit, but since this is the 21st century, people's attention spans are short as hell.

 

[FPLOON]

Dammit... I thought I forgot all about that song a long time ago...

Wait a minute...

Spoiler: This isn't 100 percent Linkin Park!

Nevermind...

Anyway, on one hand, the song's a parody just like most of Psy's work, especially my personal favorites like "Right Now" and "Gentleman"... On the other hand, that [damn] dance...

So, yeah... You can choose to understand the song... or you can pretend to "understand" the song... or realized that this is not the first (or last) song to break the spoken language barrier with a universal-sounding song... Pick your poison choice(s), I guess...

 

[Darks63]

Too bad the Mortal Kombat Version wasnt what reached 2 billion views now that vid was a fun watch.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Ah, good times. Best part of a pretty mediocre year for me actually.

And before everyone starts jumping on the hate bandwagon, consider this: if Psy didn't have the most views, it would be Baby. Baby...

I'd rather have a middle aged Korean artist have the honor of most views than giving it to Biebs.

 

[Private Custard]

I have a theory that all but about 5-700 million views, are merely people popping by to see how many views it has!