Psy’s official music video “New Face” in his album 4X2=8 was released in May 2018. This music video is narrative-based including a story, which is basically about Psy saw a girl, tried to draw her attention, and finally get that girl. Cooperating with Apink’s Son Naeun, Psy approached her in the video through playing different roles in the hotel. Through analyzing this video, it shows that how Psy gain popularity internationally in different aspects.
First of all, Psy used trot with a fast pace in the song which is a common genre of K-pop. He also mixed some Western genres and styles such as rock and Hip Hop. Cultural hybridization between Korean and Western was widely applied in this video. Hare and Baker mentioned that “culture hybridization has a cultural focus and emphasizes cultural interplay” (2017: 3). Apart from focusing on the Korean culture, Psy also utilized other cultures in the video. In one of the scenes, two girls wore Chinese cheongsams and danced with Psy in a Chinese restaurant. Psy also made noodles starting from making the dough with flour which was originated from China. The hybridization of Chinese culture and Korean song suggested the intention to expand the market to China or other parts of Asia.
Moreover, Psy usually has a simple and repeated dance movements with an easy melody. Epstein and Turnbull stated that “Memorable images from music videos and signature dances for songs become touchstones in Korean popular culture and circulate widely” (2014: 317). K-pop industry emphasizes on visual perception in music video. This can greatly attract foreign people even they do not know any Korean language at all. Psy’s hilarious dances in this video only have four simple steps and keep repeating throughout the entire song. This can let people easily remember and imitate the dance movements.
Furthermore, this music video was shot in a foreign city called Macau which is part of China. The main venue took place in the Venetian Macao hotel, and this video was filmed in different locations of the hotel including lobby, corridor, casino, swimming pool, the great hall, and the San Luca canal. They also went to the streets and restaurant in Macau for shooting. Psy danced with many people in these places. This definitely shows the ideas of controlling the space and dominating the city. This also implies that they want to expand their market to China.
In addition, many foreign girls with bikini joined the dance with Psy in the swimming pool. This suggested the concepts of sexual objectification. Lin and Rudolf mentioned that “Sexism…which largely stem from traditional stereotypes about gender roles” (2017: 29). They also stated that “women are more likely to be sexually objectified and held to stricter appearance standards” (Ibid., 30). Males have a high desire towards females, and the appearance of these girls with sexy bodies in the video can serve as a sexual pleasure for the viewers. On the other hand, Naeun appeared in the video whenever Psy fawned over her and expressed his feeling of heart pounding.
Lastly, some simple English lyrics were used repeatedly throughout the entire song. For example, Psy kept singing “new face, new face, new new new face” for couple times to emphasize that he never saw that girl before and it was his first time to meet her. Jin and Ryoo argued that “K-Pop singers appropriating English mixing of lyrics emphasize a similar rhythm, light sexuality, and Americanized tropes” (2014: 126). These repeated lyrics can allow the Western people to understand the basic ideas of the song even they do not know any Korean words.
In conclusion, Psy utilized the concepts of cultural hybridization to attract many people around the world. This proved the success of Psy being famous internationally through this music video “New Face”.
Bibliography
Hare, Sarah, and Andrea Baker. “Keepin’ It Real: Authenticity, Commercialization, and the Media in Korean Hip Hop.” SAGE Open (2017): 1-12.
Epstein, Stephen, and James Turnbull. “Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-pop.” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader, edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe. 314-336. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2014.
Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54.
Jin, Dal Yong, and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society 37, no. 2 (2014): 113-131.