How has this not been on CP yet? Gangnam Style!

[Fire Me Boy!]

[Fish]

How is that not a multiple repost?

[Fruit Ninja]

lol, that thing has 350 million views. lol insane.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

How is that not a multiple repost?

I'm sure it is.

I've been IM'ing it to people at work for months, since before I came back here this last time.

I've never posted it because I'm sure somebody else already has.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Fruit Ninja

lol, that thing has 350 million views. lol insane.

It's #1 on iTunes. Has been for a while I believe.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

How is that not a multiple repost?

I searched "gangnam" and got three results back. The video may have been posted, but it doesn't have a thread.

[Silock]

It doesn't need a thread because it's so ****ING STUPID.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Silock

It doesn't need a thread because it's so ****ING STUPID.

So wrong.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Chinese are much jelly...

Why China Lacks Gangnam Style

It can take the uninitiated a minute to realize that “Gangnam Style” is satire. When the absurdly infectious single by Korean pop star PSY appeared in July, the video had all the hallmarks of earnest K-pop: highly engineered dance routines, over-the-top styling, and the Technicolor production values honed by Seoul’s hit-making industry, which my colleague John Seabrook describes in the magazine this week in his piece, “Factory Girls.”

But the most important thing that “Gangnam Style” has is a sense of humor about itself. (If you haven’t yet seen it, put down your surgical instruments or air-traffic-control headset or whatever else might be distracting you, and watch it now.) Its satire made it a viral phenomenon with three hundred million views on YouTube, surpassing and mocking the earnest K-pop products, and thus proving, as Seabrook says, that “cultural technology can only get you so far.”

In China, the Gangnam phenomenon carries a special pique. It has left people asking, Why couldn’t we come up with that? China, after all, dwarfs Korea in political clout, money, and market power, and it cranks out more singers and dancers in a single city than Korea does nationwide. Chinese political leaders are constantly talking about the need for “soft power”—they have dotted the globe with Confucius Institutes to rival the Alliance Française, and they have expanded radio and television stations in smaller countries that might be tired of American-dominated news. Last year, the Communist Party even declared culture a national priority and vowed to produce its own share of global cultural brands.

So, should we expect a Chinese Gangnam soon? Don’t count on it. “PSY is a satirist, making fun, and having fun,” said John Delury, an expert on China and Korea who teaches international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul. “Korea tends to have more irony and satire in its comedy than China, and there aren’t the impediments to exporting things that question or poke fun of Korean society, politics, etc. And I think somehow people all over the world feel invited to join in, despite a huge cultural difference, when someone from a foreign place is making a bit of fun of themselves. That’s inviting. But China, especially acting in its official, soft-power capacity, is only comfortable exporting things that show off the greatness of its ancient civilization or economic development. That’s not terribly inviting.”

In Chinese cultural circles there is a name for this: the “ ‘Kung Fu Panda’ problem,” named for the 2008 DreamWorks movie. It refers to the fact that the most successful film about two of China’s national symbols—Kung Fu and pandas—could only be made by a foreigner because Chinese filmmakers would never try to play with such solemn subjects. The director Lu Chuan, for example, once agreed to produce an animated film for the Beijing Olympics, but after he embarked on the project, he discovered he was not supposed to let his mind run wild. “I kept receiving directions and orders from related parties on how the movie should be like. An important part of the instructions was that the animation should promote Chinese culture,” he wrote later. “We were given very specific rules on how to promote it. And some were not flexible about ‘promoting the Olympic spirit,’ ‘promoting Chinese culture’ or ‘rich in Chinese elements.’ ” He went on, “Under such pressure, my co-workers and I really felt stifled. The fun and joy from doing something interesting left us, together with our imagination and creativity. The planned animation was never produced.”

When “Kung Fu Panda” came out, one Chinese designer called for a boycott, saying it was insulting so soon after the Sichuan earthquake (pandas live in Sichuan). But Lu Chuan didn’t agree. “After watching Kung Fu Panda, I found the movie producers had given us an amusing and enlightening lesson on how to treat, interpret and show our traditional culture, and how to merge it with other cultures.”

The Korean satirist PSY might not put it in such solemn terms, but that’s exactly what he has done, and he has been rewarded for it. In China, some artists have looked on enviously. In a comic strip highlighted by China Digital Times, the cartoonist known as Peaceful House Pearl Shimao envisioned a Chinese-style Gangnam phenomenon he called “Shanghai Style.” Instead of being celebrated for his madness, the dancer ends up being sent to a mental institution for “involvement in multiple activities,” “running crazily all over the place,” and being a pig.

For now, China’s Gangnam moment seems far off. “In China, culture and the arts develop under the watchful eye of the government, and anything too hip or interesting gets either shut down or bought up. In Korea, by contrast, artists and entertainers thrive in a space that is highly commercialized but also pretty much free of the heavy hand of the state,” Delury told me, adding, “I kid government officials that the moment they understand why K-pop is so successful and try to replicate it, they will destroy it.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...#ixzz28GGR4yVK

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Yeah, it's a pretty sophisticated look into rapidly developing class strata in SK. Gangnum refers to a part of SK where people basically bought land in Appalachia asd watched the world build Manhattan around them. They have more than enough to live on based solely on the worth of the square footage they own. And the references in the video show how they display said wealth, walking backwards for exercise, sunning oneself on the beach, dabbling in the ponies, high $$ automobiles, saunas. PSY was born into it and grew into a chubby schlub with a mild talent for rap. So he subverts the tropes, ogling yoga practitioners on the beach, belching and farting the sauna, dancing around with the 'Americanized' SK gals, etc.

It's the SK version of the 'Kardasians' and 'Housewives of' with Larry the Cable Guy singing about them.

Originally Posted by Chest Rockwell

This is fairly old at this point, and perhaps one or both of you have seen it, but I thought it also made for some interesting reading and cultural insight. It certainly had me watching the video in a different way.

Originally Posted by vailpass

Good read. Nuanced satire,whoda thunk it? Dude's got a degree in music from Berklee.
I'm glad the Koreans are taking pride in the video's success in the US. I just hope they don't get upset if they find out most are laughing at the video not with it; at least until they learn the meaning behind it.

Cross-posting from epic fail because relevant.

Especially re: stupid vs. not stupid.

[gblowfish]

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Silock

It doesn't need a thread because it's so ****ING STUPID.

It's so stupid it's FUNNY.

On many different levels.

You have to appreciate a society that makes guys like this and girls like Rebecca Black super-famous.

[Shag]

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Chest Rockwell

Cross-posting from epic fail because relevant.

Especially re: stupid vs. not stupid.

Thanks for that. The political discussion about SK vs the PRC makes this pic relevant.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

I searched "gangnam" and got three results back. The video may have been posted, but it doesn't have a thread.

From me. I drunkly yelled out the song in a few threads.

[Chest Rockwell]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Thanks for that. The political discussion about SK vs the PRC makes this pic relevant.

Cut KJU a break, I think he just legalized pizza.

I found that Atlantic article to be pretty fascinating; The video from the Dodgers game shows how viral it went. I mean, anything that can get the attention of an entire stadium full of LA fans?