I remember this song well and will admit that when it was released, despite being the opposite of the kind of music that I generally enjoy, that it was a pretty catchy tune. This was true despite the fact that I don't speak any Korean. My girlfriend at the time was Korean so she pointed out to me that the words in the song were referencing a trendy part of Seoul where people are known to be into fashion and many people go into debt attempting to engage in this materialism and be seen in this scene. She said it is also where rich men go to "hunt" for much younger women. She may have made up that last part because I can't find any reference to that being the case online. I don't really care though.
The year was 2014
This shopping for younger girls based on your own wealth is true around the world but I think I can say with relative confidence that it is very widespread in Asia. This isn't just true of the ultra-wealthy either. It is all relative and given the rather low level of income for the average South East Asian it was very common to see someone with money "acquire" a much younger, way out of their league girlfriend or wife. That's just the way it is over here and who am I to judge? Do whatever you want I say!
I recall seeing the video a few times and the silly dance that the artist Psy came up with. People would be emulating it in the bars when it came on, especially my Korean friend "JJ" who did it spot on and actually kind of looked like Psy. While I am sure he got tired of being on display to do this every time the song came on, he always obliged to the delight of the people at the bar. At one particular bar the owner would giggle and make certain that the song did come on every single time that "JJ" was there.
I think I speak for almost everyone in the world when I say that "while it was fun at first, it was likely one of the most overplayed songs in history and I quickly tired of it." I think that even JJ had a chat with the owner of the bar and asked him nicely to please not play that song anymore.
Even if you don't like the song you can probably hear it in your head right now (you're doing it, aren't you?) and perhaps this has to do with the fact that it was the first video on Youtube to ever hit 1 billion views and later it was the first video to ever hit 2 billion views. This was nearly 2 years after the song was officially released and I only know this because of my Korean friends at the time. Like almost everyone else who is not Korean, I had never heard of the guy before this song.
While the figures are not official, you obviously get a nice little payout for getting this many views. According to some figures I read a person can expect to receive 300,000 to 500,000 dollars per billion views. This is nothing to scoff at but I think the popularity of the video probably lead to bigger audiences at gigs and sales of the song itself. I would be willing to bet that most of the people who shelled out 99 cents for this song probably want that dollar back.
I'm guessing Psy did pretty well because if I am not mistaken he ended up winning an award for Best Song or something at MTV music awards and this isn't an award that generally ends up in the hands of anyone who makes a song that isn't in English.
So why did it blow up (pun intended) so much? I think at least part of it is because Psy is just a average looking dude and people found him relatable and funny. The song was catchy, even though it later became annoying just like any song that gets overplayed. I would be willing to bet that Psy doesn't care a great deal whether or not people have fond memories of this song or not because his net worth skyrocketed after this song made history by being the first billion view and then the first 2 billion view video ever on Youtube. Currently he is estimated to be worth $60 million and probably lives a very comfortable life mostly due to one song.
Gangnam Style is in the history books but he has been eclipsed by several other videos and the current number one is Baby Shark Dance which has over 8 billion views in its repertoire. I have never actually heard that song and am going to go and add one more view to it right now.... BRB.....ok, I'm back... wow, I hope that 7.5 billion of those views were from very young kids... people will watch anything I guess. Dammit, now I am gonna have that song stuck in my head too!
Oh well, Psy isn't the biggest in numbers but he was the first.... and it all happened today a mere 7 years ago.