"The most familiar theme is the eye-catching combination of speedy shuffle dance and eclectic costumes that has been proven to be a hit with LMFAO's " Party Rock Anthem," which also spawned hundreds of remix videos on its own," Kim said. As Psy said in a recent appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show while teaching Britney Spears the now-famous horse dance, doing it Gangnam-style is about "dressing classy and acting cheesy."īrad Kim, editor of Know Your Meme, believes that the "Gangnam Style" video uses a lot of visual imagery that echoes what we've seen go viral in the past.
It may be the language of the song's lyrics, but its true means of communication is a universal one: meme culture.įrom the first scenes of the video where Psy lounges in a beach chair while a little boy dances nearby to leading the charge on a minibus while elderly ladies imitate the horse dance by his side, the video oozes the silliness that make memes irresistible to Internet users. The true language of "Gangnam Style" isn't Korean. After all, the majority of the people dancing to "Gangnam Style" right now don't speak a word of Korean. Init_Music even explained how Psy's success is an example of how Asians have to conform to certain roles in order to make an impact overseas.Īs interesting as it was to understand what could really be going on in "Gangnam Style" from its roots, ultimately, it has little to do with its mainstream success. Korea Law Today mined deeper than most with a piece on the meaning behind the song's lyrics and cultural nuances. The Atlantic had all sorts of things to say about the song's meaning. Naturally, people want to know the reason why something is a massive success. As a devoted fan of Korean pop, I'm cautiously interested in where this movement is going. I've always cheered on this phenomenon (or "hallyu" as the Koreans call it), hoping to see more recognition of the music that I love here in the States. We talked about it back in May, months before anyone in the United States had a clue what "Gangnam Style" was. Psy is only the latest entertainer to make a splash in the Korean Wave. He's just been signed by Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, who promises that Psy will be the first Korean artist to break a big record in the United States.
The video has been recognized by Tom Cruise, American rapper T-Pain, Nelly Furtado, Katy Perry. Everyone loves the singer's trademark " horse dance," celebrities included. It's now among the most liked videos of all time, and it just recently hit #1 on the U.S. Korean performer Psy has made quite a splash for himself with the quirky song and video, which is currently sitting pretty on YouTube with more than 194 million views (and counting) since its release on July 15. Non-locality of spreading.If you haven't heard of "Gangnam Style" by now, it's likely you live under a rock (or at the very least, have no access to the Internet).
Recover a wave-like behavior on average and assess the randomizing effect of In the communication network connecting countries and states of the World. Propagation in Twitter messages, and define a similar weighted network distance Here, we adopt this method for the analysis of viral meme
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Authors: Zsofia Kallus, Daniel Kondor, Jozsef Steger, Istvan Csabai, Eszter Bokanyi, Gabor Vattay Download PDF Abstract: Viral videos can reach global penetration traveling through internationalĬhannels of communication similarly to real diseases starting from a