South Korea's "Gangnam Style" on Nov. 24 beats Justin Bieber on YouTube! Congrats to Asia! :) 

UPDATE!!! PSY’s Manila concert now scheduled on Dec. 21 at MOA open grounds!

Why is this dance craze so crazily popular???? Please share your comments at the end of this blog post :)

Click the video below of Korean rapper Psy's Gangnam Style performance (with MC Hammer as special guest) at the 2012 American Music Awards! Beware USA, Korean pop culture is coming!!! :) Enjoy the dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOyo7JD7hjo

Here's a Reuters news report published by the New York Times on this Korean pop culture mega-hit:

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November 24, 2012

Psy's 'Gangnam Style' Video Becomes YouTube's Most Viewed

By REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - South Korean rap star Psy's music video "Gangnam Style" on Saturday became the most watched item ever posted to YouTube with more than 800 million views, edging past Canadian teen star Justin Bieber's 2-year-old video for his song "Baby."

The milestone was the latest pop culture victory for Psy, 34, a portly rap singer known for his slicked-back hair and comic dance style who has become one of the most unlikely global stars of 2012.

Psy succeeded with a video that generated countless parodies and became a media sensation. He gained more fame outside his native country than the more polished singers in South Korea's so-called K-Pop style who have sought to win international audiences.

YouTube, in a post on its Trends blog, said "Gangnam Style" on Saturday surpassed the site's previous record holder, Bieber's 2010 music video "Baby," and by mid-day "Gangnam Style" had reached 805 million views, compared to 803 million for "Baby." Within a few hours, "Gangnam Style" had gone up to more than 809 million views.

"Gangnam Style" was first posted to YouTube in July, and by the following month it began to show huge popularity on YouTube with audiences outside of South Korea.

"It's been a massive hit at a global level unlike anything we've ever seen before," said the YouTube blog.

The blog also said the "velocity" of the video's popularity has been unprecedented for YouTube.

In his "Gangnam Style" video the outlandishly dressed, sunglass-wearing Psy raps in Korean and dances in the style of an upper-crust person riding an invisible horse.

The song is named after the affluent Gangnam District of Seoul and it mocks the rampant consumerism of that suburb. Psy, whose real name is Park Jai-sang, is no stranger to wealth as his father is chairman of a South Korean semiconductor company.

His parents sent him to business school in the United States but he confesses that he bought musical instruments with his tuition money. He later graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and won fame in South Korea with his 2001 debut album.

The viral success of "Gangnam Style" on YouTube also has translated into strong record sales. In late September, the song jumped to the top of the British pop charts and it also has sold well in other countries.

Popular parodies of the "Gangnam Style" video included one featuring the University of Oregon's duck mascot, and another done in the "Star Trek" language Klingon.

The official YouTube view count for Gangnam Style represents only the figure for the original video posted to the site, but copycat versions, parodies and videos by people commenting on the song have been posted to the site and elsewhere on the Web.

Counting all those different versions, "Gangnam Style" and its related videos have more than 2.2 billion views across the Internet, said Matt Fiorentino, spokesman for the online video tracking firm Visible Measures.

"Without the dance, I don't think it would have been as big as it is," Fiorentino said. "And the other thing is, Psy has a unique sense of humor which comes through in the video. He doesn't take himself too seriously."

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Bill Trott)

 

Here's an article on Gangnam Style from the Daily Beast:

‘Gangnam Style’ Sets YouTube Record

Move over, Justin Bieber, there's a new YouTube favorite in town. South Korean pop artist Psy's catchy dance tune "Gangnam Style" became YouTube's most-watched video on Saturday, registering over 803 million views and squeezing out Bieber's "Baby" from the top spot.

Is it because Psy's dance moves are more fun than Bieber's? Because women would rather be Psy's "sexy lady" than Bieber's "baby"? Did Obama's endorsement help? Whatever it is, we now know that China's no threat to American culture. It's South Korea we have to watch out for.







Bangkok-based Kate Hodal of the Guardian wrote this article below on this pop phenomenon:

The dance has inspired a host of parodies, the song has hit the top of the charts in South Korea, Malaysia, Finland and Latvia, and the YouTube video has accumulated more than 227m views. Now, according to Thai media, Gangnam Style, by the K-pop star Psy, has inspired a West Side Story-esque show of rivalry between two Bangkok gangs who are said to have had a dance-off before engaging in a gun battle.

The INN website reported that the two gangs were dining in the same restaurant when "the younger members of both groups danced provocatively at each other in the manner of top hit Gangnam Style". The dance-off escalated into an argument and, eventually, a gun attack in the upmarket Ekkamai neighbourhood, in which one of the gangs fired at least 50 bullets from a carbine and an 11mm gun.

No one was injured in the incident, police Lt Col Apichart Thongchandee told the Bangkok Post. He said the two gangs had a history of confrontation and would face arrest warrants.

The shootout has stoked debate over gang violence in Thailand. Much of the violence plays out in secondary schools and vocational colleges – the latter primarily cater to working-class children – where students seek to defend their school's honour with guns, knives, machetes and even homemade grenades. Between January and July this year, Bangkok police registered more than 1,000 cases of student rivalry, according to a recent report by Agence France-Presse. Several students have been killed or injured since the start of the school year in May.

Thai authorities recently established an army-style boot camp where, according to AFP, repeat offenders must endure regular fitness drills and 5am wake-up calls side by side with their rivals. Not all those attending went back home reformed, Lt Col Wanchana Sawasdeem said, "but for 90% it will work, even if it just means they hesitate before fighting … At least the camp will have made them think."

That the two gangs apparently engaged in a Gangnam Style dance-off is indicative of the video's popularity. Psy, otherwise known as Park Jae-Sang, told Radio 1's Scott Mills this week that his distinctive dance style emulated "riding an invisible horse in your lower body". The video features Park doing the dance all over Seoul – from car parks to steam rooms – with a supporting cast dressed as geishas, nuns and boxers. Park sports various outfits, among them a blue tuxedo together with shellacked bouffant and sunglasses. "This is the point of the Gangnam Style," Park told Mills. "Dress classy and dance cheesy."

The track, which is said to mock the affluent Seoul suburb Gangnam, could become the first Korean pop song to reach number one in the UK charts, according to the BBC. Park has already featured on numerous US TV shows, taught the horse-riding dance to Britney Spears, and helped inspire a flash-mob wedding proposal in Malaysia. The video has been parodied by Los Angeles lifeguards (who, according to LA news outlets, were fired for the stunt), an American college football team and even the government of North Korea. Park recently signed a record deal with Justin Bieber's management team.

South Korean singer Psy persuades United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to perform his Gangnam Style dance routine

(Below are images from Atlantic Wire, claiming North Korean leader lauds Gangnam Style)