'Gangnam' evidence of global shift

The centre of the world has shifted from West to East, say academics. 

“[Today] world leaders need to dance or shake hands with the chubby Korean artist – otherwise they will be out of trend,” said Yukti Mukdawijitra, chairman of Southeast Asian Studies Centre, at Thammasat University.

“Even an Italian brand name had its model do a catwalk in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese style,” he said in the seminar titled “Gangnam Style: implication, meaning, and why it became a world phenomenon” held by the institute. 

K-pop star Psy’s juggernaut video “Gangnam Style” became the most viewed video in the history of YouTube with 1.46 billion views as of yesterday.

When it comes to fondness for this Korean artist, seven Asean countries are in the top 20 in terms of most views of the video. 

Viki, the global TV site powered by fans, ranked the list in December to show how the music video moved around the world since it started taking off in August. 

The seven Asean countries were the Philippines ranking 2nd, Indonesia at 5th place, Malaysia 6th, Thailand 11th, Singapore 13th, Vietnam 16th and Cambodia 19th.

Using mass culture to ridicule elite (high) culture was another reason to make Gangnam a big-hit, anthropologist Yukti said.

 “People get bored with formality, seriousness, and social class – so some artists [resort to] using ‘tasteless’ or ‘kitsch’ culture [as a statement against] hi-so culture in their art pieces,” he said.

Social media was another factor in helping spread the K-culture as well as the policy of intellectual property rights in the East, he said.

“Unlike Western culture, K-pop has no copyright. If the rights owners file a lawsuit against Gangnam copyright piracy, the K-culture will die,” he said. 

Psy’s success came from his determination, vice president of Korean-Thai Chamber of Commerce Hong Ji-Hee said. His first album was released in 2001 but he achieved little until the big-hit Gangnam Style single launched last year, she said.

“We…Koreans are tough, ambitious, and [have] high standards. That’s our strength. Psy never gave up. He did R&D [research & development] all the time. He continued to fight and finally he can compete with the world,” Hong said.

If Psy and his song had come out five years ago it would not have been as popular as these days. On the contrary, he would have been looked at as rather strange, she said, adding that he is now representative of modern Korean artists.

She added that the world has changed. In the past, artists had to be well-mannered but today uniqueness or showing a special character are the main pointers to success.

“Psy is different from other [artists]. People will get bored easily with an artist who follows the stream,” said Hong, who is also managing director of Korea-Thailand Communication Center and has been involved with bringing K-culture to Thailand. According to Hong, 30 per cent of businesses or advertisers used Psy as their presenter.

Apart from the character of the singer, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became a big hit because his song used comedy in the form of music video, said Phaiboon Petasen, chairman of Language Teaching Programme at Thammasat University’s Institute of East Asian Studies.

Phaiboon said Psy was also funny in his video, making viewing enjoyable. Moreover, he used irony to make people laugh by dressing classy but dancing cheesy. “Psy broke the rules of K-pop. While most Korean artists walked into a song, ‘Gangnam’ was created for Psy,” he said.

Paiboon said the pronunciation of ‘Gangnam’ in Korean should have been “K” not “G” because the “G” was in the first word. “Koreans prefer “K” to “G”. For example, K-wave, K-pop, K-food, or K-culture,” he said.