Psy, whose viral hit “Gangnam Style” introduced the eponymous section of Seoul to the world 10 years ago, was not an obvious pop-cultural ambassador—but he became an international phenomenon.
The capital of South Korea makes a good first impression, not least with its infrastructure. This May, Seoul’s ever-expanding subway system opened another addition, an extension of the Shinbundang Line that connects four existing stations. The northernmost, Sinsa, lies in an area popularly associated with South Korea’s world-renowned cosmetic-surgery industry. The southernmost, Gangnam, needs no introduction.
However many Koreans followed that advice, they could hardly have made “Gangnam Style” the first YouTube video to reach a billion views by themselves. A study conducted by researchers at Eötvös Loránd University, in Hungary,that it spread across the world not directly from Korea but outward from the Philippines, where there already existed an avid fan base for things Korean. In Manila, one finds everything from Korean cosmetics on its shelves to Korean dramas on its televisions.
The “Gangnam Style” video makes similar intimations, albeit in a much more lighthearted manner. It opens with Psy reclining, drink in hand, on a chaise longue in the sand. The shot then pulls back to reveal the actual setting: not a beach but a neighborhood playground, one of several mundane backdrops on which the four-minute spectacle proceeds to play out. It takes some effort, ten years on, to recall how bizarre “Gangnam Style” seemed to many Westerners when first they saw it.
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