Psy's 'Grade B' Humor Opened New Doors for K-Pop!

In an industry where only idol groups were thought to be the only ones with the potential to succeed globally, singer Psy completely blew away that assumption with "Gangnam Style."

Psy has always possessed a completely different characteristic from that of idol groups ever since he first debuted. In a global industry that was thought to be a place only for beautiful idol groups, Psy drew in a significant number of foreign fans of K-Pop with his unique sense of humor that was understood and accepted by the rest of the world.

In the U.S., global stars like T-Pain as well as the main news source CNN spoke of the comedic K-Pop artist Psy's "Gangnam Style" and its entertaining music video. As a result of all the unexpected media coverage, Psy's fame began to spread amongst the people in the online communities in the U.S. People in the U.S. expressed their amusement as they watched Psy's music video for "Gangnam Style" over and over again.

In the music video, Psy is trying to act all cool in a playground for children, swimming in a public bath house and riding in a marry-go-round screaming out "Gangnam Style" to express the comedic scenario of a pathetic guy day dreaming about the women of Gangnam. The music video also drew attention for featuring the sexy singer HyunA of 4 Minute dancing the infamous horse riding dance, not to mention the fact that Yoo Jae Suk, the most famous/popular MC in Korea is also featured as well as the famous comedian Noh Hong Chul.

It appears as though Psy's "Grad B" humor was understood and taken in by the people in the U.S. On August 2, CNN reporter Shanon Cook announced Psy's "Gangnam Style" music video as "viral" and stated, "The response in the U.S. is unbelievable. I have to admit, I must have watched it about 15 times."

Representatives in the music industry in Korea claim they expected Psy's "Gangnam Style" to be a big hit but in reality, nobody expected it to be as successful as it currently is. Last year during the YG Family Concert in Japan, Psy received a significant amount of support and love from the international fans and showed that Psy could succeed internationally. However, in an industry where idols dominated, the success of Psy's "Grade B" humor was never expected to be as successful as it is.

Psy, himself, didn't even expect his song to gain as much recognition internationally. Psy originally aimed at the current trend in the Korean music industry. Psy stated, "I was trying to go with the current trend in the music industry. I wanted to make people laugh more. I thought, right now, people want to laugh more. I prepared this hoping to portray the most pathetic of pathetic with this music video."

A representative involved with Psy stated, "We focused on the song's success in Korea but we never expected this from the U.S. I think the people in the U.S. are feeling the sense of freshness after watching 'Gangnam Style' just like Koreans felt when we saw Psy's 'Bird.'"

Psy explained that there is nothing holding him back from going abroad to become a global star in the future. Psy has recently agreed to be interviewed by a news media source in the U.S. and may even pay a visit to the states sometime soon.

Unlike the K-Pop idol groups who are internationally famous today, Psy gained an incredible amount of global fame in a speed of light. The biggest factor in his fame in the U.S. seems to be a result of global U.S. celebrities mentioning Psy's name on their personal social networking sites.

Psy's "Gangnam Style" was released on July 15 and received an explosive amount of views after his name was mentioned in T-Pain's personal Twitter page on July 29. Currenly, Psy's musc video has received over 15 million views and continues to spread in the online communities.

According to Psy's representatives, they are trying to react and adjust quickly to the response in the U.S. Psy even revealed in an interview with OSEN, "It's like a dream. It feels more like a dream than when I released 'Bird' and I'm more nervous than ever before."

Psy's representatives concluded, "Nothing is settled for sure but it seems as though the positive response in the U.S. is stable. Since Psy studied abroad in the U.S. he speaks English very well so we're trying to take this all in very positively and seeing where we can go from here."

Tags
Psy
Gangnam Style
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