After realizing there wasn’t any throwback article since February, it put me in quite a distasteful position, for I enjoy writing about tracks that influenced the very history of Electronic music. Well then, let me make up. This one’s dedicated to an explosive phenomenon that occured in the 2010s pop culture, yet a direct outcome of the musical trends ushered by EDM. We’re talking about a song that turned world leaders the likes of then UN secretary and UK’s prime minister into fans. Intrigued now? Great, because we are taking a short trip in the recent past to visit “Gangnam Style” by Psy: a record so viral that it turned unforgettable.
Story starts somewhere around the warmer month of July, 2012. At the time, dance music fans were obsessed to European names such as Alesso, SHM, and Calvin Harris. Out of the blue, a South Korean star going by the alias of Psy, uploaded an unexpectedly upbeat and amusingly eccentric music video. It featured a not-so-complicated electro beat that could easily lure the crowd and unseen dance moves that turned heads around. Something clicked: it became irresistibly unavoidable to the point that come September of that very year, Guinness World records stated that “Gangnam Style” had become the most liked video on YouTube. And by the end of 2012, it was on every global music chart!
In retrospect, of course, there was this silliness and flashiness that upshot its popularity tremendously. Its success was also indirectly descended from LMFAO’s success- an equally abrasive and catchy dance-pop band making similar-sounding hits around the time. Coupled with the infectious “horse dance” and swanky aesthetics, “Gangnam Style” had enough to get ridiculously welcomed by western culture.
Although the protagonist of this show remained a sensation for a long time, this track alone couldn’t drive Psy’s career (which was humbly admitted by him later), and hence became a concrete one-hit-wonder. The said performer, nonetheless, has promised a grand return this year as his masterpiece turns ten, while most continue reminiscing fondly about it.
Johny Walker
May 8, 2022 / at 2:09 pm
This has nothing to do with electronic music but everything to do with the cancer that is K-Pop.
Hard pass.