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PSY in the music video for Gangnam Style; (below) the flash mob in Los Angeles doing the Gangnam move
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Have you been watching a video on loop that you can’t make head or tail of, but groove to all the same? Gangnam Style, a Korean pop video, has made South Korean pop-star PSY — or Park Jae-Sang — the biggest YouTube sensation of the year.
A four-minute music video, Gangnam Style has the K-Pop sensation taking a dig at the elite of his country and becoming the fastest-growing viral video in the world, garnering more than 200 million views in just about two months. Justin Bieber’s video for Baby is the all-time smash-hit with close to 800 million views.
Millions across the world have not only tuned into Gangnam Style, but have also been copying its signature move -— a horse-riding step much like Salman Khan’s in the Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? chartbuster Just chill. If Britney Spears and Nelly Furtado have been aping the famous move on TV and in concerts, a flash mob in Los Angeles this week was solely dedicated to Gangnam Style.
“The biggest reason for its popularity is that the video is very funny. Plus, followers of hip-hop, rap and R&B are just loving the number,” said city DJ Akash.
So is Gangnam Style poised to be the next Kolaveri di? Those who have heard (and re-heard it!) vouch for it. Like Mehul Khanna who chanced upon Gangnam Style while surfing YouTube last week and is now hooked to it. “You have to see it to believe it! Not only is the tune infectious, the video is the most attention-grabbing I have ever seen,” said the city-based software professional.
The ROFL video in which PSY sunbathes in a park instead of a beach, rides fake horses on a merry-go-round, parties on a tour bus, does laps in a public bath and carries out his rapper swagger sitting on a toilet seat is being watched and re-watched, making the chubby 34-year-old rapper an international phenomenon. Recent appearances at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles and on numerous prime-time US talk shows have boosted PSY’s profile, pushing Gangnam Style to the top of the US iTunes charts.
Gangnam Style has also been nominated for Best Video at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards to be held in Frankfurt in November, with PSY signing a contract with Justin Bieber’s management agency.
Even the celeb set can’t have enough of Gangnam Style. If Tom Cruise tweeted: ‘Think @psy_oppa would make a good future co-star Gangnam Style?’ then singer Robbie Williams wrote on his blog: ‘Try watching this and not smiling I dare you… (Not even a lip curl),’ and included a link to the hit music video.
So will Gangnam Style be a future favourite at city nightclubs. DJ Akash believes so. “I just played it in Hyderabad and it was a huge hit there. It’s already being asked for by young people at nightclubs here and I see the requests for it growing by the day. It will definitely become a rage in Calcutta.”
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