The Immortality of Gangnam Style

It's been roughly 5 months since the PSY's one hit wonder "Gangnam Style" blazed the airways like a meteor over Russia. In fact, one hit wonder is putting it mildly, it's more like a one hit atomic drone strike. Despite PSY's lack of appreciation at the 2013 Grammy Awards, his song Gangnam Style will be what I remember as the defining song of 2012. Perhaps the song's popular appeal has waned in the states, but across the entire continent of Asia, the Gangnam style craze is still going on..and on…and on. 

I would argue that Gangnam Style is the most culturally defining pop song since Nirvana's Smell's Like Teen Spirit, at least for a good 3rd of the world's population. Every day when I walk to the grocery store, I hear the din of "Hey Sexy Lady!" emitted from the internet connected sound system. When I ask the cashier why the same song is repeated daily (and I assume multiple times daily) she says the children like it. By children she means 2-5 year old toddlers. When I teach class and slip in a picture of PSY performing some of his signature dance moves, the whole class erupts in laughter and pleasure. I hear it again at the subway station as I am passing a flamboyant female accessory store. There it is again on my driver's radio during my ride to Chinese class. 

The people of China, young and old, love Gangnam Style. It's not even about the lyrics or the subject matter. The song itself is a critique on the lavish style of Seoul, Korea's wealthy neighborhoods on the south side of the Han River, hence Gangnam (south of the river) Style. It's a social message that sounds more like Wood Guffery or John Lennon as opposed to pop icons such as Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber. And yet the Chinese keep listening and dancing. Why? 

And the crazy thing is, IT'S NOT JUST CHINA!! In his native South Korea, PSY is already a favorite son. There is even a video of him teaching UN Secretary General Ban Kai Moon how to do the horse dance from the music video. In the Philippines I met some friends in a slum neighborhood who invited me to Salsa Dance with them. After a few Salsa rounds, they decided to switch the music to fit a general party theme. What is played first? Gangnam Style. In Malaysia I saw many funny and inappropriate T shirts, but after coming across a Gangnam Style shirt, I couldn't resist the purchase. During Chinese New Year when I visited my girlfriend's  Chinese/Singaporean family in Indonesia, her cousin played me a Chinese New Year's version of Gangnam Style which served as a free online gift card to send family and friends. Upon our return to Shenzhen, my friend Kevin told me that on his vacation, when he was riding is bike in the middle of nowhere Cambodia, he came across a house built on stilts with five large speakers. What were the owners blasting from those speakers to kingdom come? Gangnam Style. The song is unavoidable in Asia. It's become a legitimate part of the landscape, blending in with the sights of crowded streets and unbearable traffic, the sounds of car horns and sizzling grills, the smells of raw sewage and Chou Dofu. It's all glazed over with a little Gangnam Style. 

I can't say for sure why Gangnam Style has had such a lingering effect in Asia. Perhaps the antics of the song's video are too irresistible not to play on repeat for over a half year period. Perhaps the song's beats generate the desire to move and the energy to work for one's daily bread and bed. Perhaps the song's lyrics really do reflect the selfishness and ridiculousness of the times in a contemporary Asia on a collision course towards consumer society. Or perhaps it's out of a sense of pride that a fellow Asian has made it to the big time, knocking Justin Bieber off his Youtube throne and rising to the heights of the Pop Music Pantheon with Michael Jackson, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and Green Day. Whatever the case, PSY has accomplished a great feat not seen every year. He has succeed in shaping the popular culture of an entire generation in the East Asian region. This soft spoken Korean had a song that was played in cyberspace more than  We Are Young, Call Me Baby, or any of that Bieber shit. He exploded on he world stage and left behind a pop culture legacy, and he did it all with just one song. Some songs are passing fads, but others will truly remain immortal.