Category: Literature Application

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.

In the article, Dal Yong Jin and Woongjae Ryoo presented the ideas of K-pop hybridization through the usage of English mixing in the songs. Jin and Ryoo suggested that K-pop becomes a culture phenomenon “because of its rapid penetration in the global market and culture” (2014: 115). This concept also applied to Psy in different aspects.

Psy used an English name abbreviation instead of a Korean name when debuted, which is easier for people to recognize him. Also, almost all of his song names are in English. He widely used some simple English lyrics in the songs with repeated melody, which allows people to memorize and sing even they do not know Korean languages. For example, the lyric “mother-father-gentleman” in “Gentleman” has been repeated many times throughout the song. He also mixed the Western genres and styles such as Hip Hop and rap into the songs.

Jin and Ryoo stated that the application of English is because the entertainment companies want to “penetrate the Asian market, and eventually the Western market” (Ibid., 120). Psy cooperated with American artists such as Snoop Dogg in “Hangover”. He also appeared in American variety shows like the American Idol. He held concerts and attended award ceremony in America in 2012 too.

With the development of social media, K-pop artists use English to “target young generations who seek entertainment embedded in new media” (Ibid., 121). Psy became famous internationally because of his song “Gangnam Style” which was uploaded on YouTube. The social media connect to the world and make it accessible for the Western countries.

Cultural hybridization through English mixing plays an important role in K-pop industry. The success of Psy supported the ideas of what Jin and Ryoo said.

Bibliography

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.

Literary Analysis- Joel Yap

Shortly after release, “Psy”’s Gangnam Style took the world by storm, subsequently breaking the YouTube record number of views for a single video at the time. Although the popular music video was able to resonate with audiences worldwide, it retains certain elements that distinguish it as distinctly Korean. As written in Hee-Eun Lee’s Koreanness in K-pop, such distinct elements can be traced back through the history of K-pop, and how globalization and modernization continue to impact the development of Korean music.

In Lee’s writing, the importance of the presentation of music through music videos is emphasized. Traditionally, cultural context has played an important role in the reception of music, however, with music videos there is a “disengagement from contexts” (24)¹. Essentially, music videos present much more than just an audio track with lyrics to an audience, which provides the artist with a multitude of ways by which they can express themselves.

Lee writes that the “performance appears visually global, while their Korean lyrics and vocal effects are acoustically local” (11-12)². In the Gangnam Style video, the most obvious feature is “Psy’s” now instantly recognizable dance move. Despite a global audience most likely not being able to understand the majority of the (limited) lyrics, other elements within the video work to retain their interest.

As a result, although the song is mostly in Korean and centered around a single area in Seoul, it was still able to garner a large international audience. It closely follows Lee’s writing that k-pop cultivates “mediation of global and local”(29-30)³.

 

 

1. Lee Hee-Eun, “Seeking the “others” within us: Discourses of Korean-ness in Korean popular music” in Medi@sia:Global media/tion in and out of context (London, Routeledge, 2006)
2. , 138
3. , 139

 

In Jung’s article, “K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave,” it illustrates how K-pop industries are a strong believer of the success behind social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as a generator of new waves to reach out to the American markets.  In reference to this wave that Jung has mentioned, it is called Hallyu. His focus is determined on four Korean wave formations and in particular, Psy’s fame resonates within the fourth wave of the social media explosion era.

In accordance to Jung’s explanation of the fourth wave, the emergence of Psy’s popularity is referred as the latest Hallyu K-pop idol within the late 2000s to present. During this wave, K-pop idols embodied “music and dance styles, visual stylistic emphasis, and multimedia presence” as a way to “generate new waves and reaching different shores, including America and Europe (Jung 2015, 80) This was followed by the introduction of a contributing factor that have progressed Hallyu within the American markets. Through the “intense development of information and communication technologies,” it has allowed many fans to video-share and to exploit “new social media to the maximum, including K-pop flash mob…and K-pop cover dances (Jung 2015, 81).”  Hence, Psy’s signature horse dance in “Gangnam Style,” has enabled fans from all over the world to use these technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to communicate and to generate “a greater circulation” all over the world (Jung 2015, 82).

In conclusion, Psy is one of the K-pop idols that has ever reached in such epic crossover success. There is no doubt that Psy’s fame is solely based on Hallyu K-pop as the facilitation of technological advances in site-sharing spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube has enabled him to reach new shores.

Bibliography

Jung, Eun-Young. Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media. Edited by Sangjoon Lee and Markus Nornes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Going Viral for Success of Psy

The reading:Cho, Lee, Yoo and Chu, TV Singing Competitions in K-pop, 2018, J of Cultural Economics

Psy became the most popular Korean artist in the world after his song “Gangnam Style.” It became the most viewed video on YouTube after release. The success of Psy shows how going viral on the internet is the best way to become a success artist.

Becoming viral on social media was the most important reason for Psy’s international success. His video was watched billions of times on YouTube (Cho et al. n.p.). This made him popular not just in South Korea but rest of the world. Because of this, the song became number 1 on iTunes and not just in South Korea. It was so popular that students and other young people copied his dance and made their own parody video (Shin n.p.). If Psy’s video was not a viral hit on YouTube, nobody would know about him outside of South Korea.

The importance of viral exposure to musical success in Korea and rest of world is proven by research. For example, a study by Cho et al. showed that Korean artist who competed on television singing competitions sold more songs and made more money than those who did not (n.p.). Competing on TV show is another example of giving yourself ability to go viral. Like Cho et al. say, these shows are very popular. American Idol became one of highest watched and rated show in America, and it is copied in many other countries (Cho et al. n.p.). Psy did not compete in singing competition before his success, but his presence on YouTube is another example of viral exposure that helped make his music successful.

In conclusion, the success of Psy as an international artist is caused mostly by going viral on the internet, especially YouTube and social media. These internet sources give him exposure to all of the world.

Bibliography

Cho, Daegon, et al. “Television singing competitions create stars? Empirical evidence from the digital music chart in South Korea.” Journal of Cultural Economics 1-2, 2018.

Shin, Ryan. “Gangnam style and global visual culture.” Studies in Art Education 57, no.3 (2016): 252-264.

By: Ziye Pan