Open Gundam Stye

1,026

Oct 27, 2012 at 7:58 PM

I heard the “song” (if you can call it such) for the first time yesterday, prompted by something I saw online.
I know it has been a meme for a while but I don’t jump onto every bandwagon that passes by.
Then I had a house party during which someone requested it, so I heard it twice on the first day I ever heard it.

I want my 6 minutes back.

I don’t usually complain about new fads. What was cool when I was a child caused older folk to whine, thinking their glory days were the real cool.
I was only 5 years old when I said, “I’m not going to be like them.”

So here I am, trying to keep a mind open as much as possible.
Sometimes new fads annoy me but I can somewhat understand from where they are coming.

I am really doing my best here, but I just can’t understand this Gangnum Style fad.

It’s a viral video, so mechanically speaking that means someone watched it at the start, thought it was hot beans, and started passing it off to all of his or her friends.
With those basic mechanics in place, I try to imagine I was that first person.

I watch the video.
I then say to myself, “Never going to watch this crap again,” and move on with my life.
Did I miss something? Why in hell would that first person think this was worth sharing with any other human being?
I keep trying to reenact this in my mind, seeking that one end result in which I share this with any other human being, and I just can’t find it.
This song is annoying as hell, but I can at least understand its catchiness and can see the path where I, the first one to hear it, pass it on to friends.

What the hell does Gangnam Style offer?
The song is not catchy. I heard it only hours ago, twice, and I just remember some bendy notes and a voice trying to say “Gangnam Style” but actually saying, “Open Gundam Stye”.
There was a beach and a fat guy in a blue suit. A guy in a yellow suit danced around him.

At which point do these things become cool?

If I am the first person to hear this song, what reason is there for me not to just move on with my life and ignore this entirely?
We all ignore 99% of everything we hear. We can’t pay attention to it all.
We filter out what we think is worthless and aim to hear just the important parts.

Why would I ever not filter this out?

I posed this quandary to the person who requested this song and his response was more than disappointing: “Just…I like it. I don’t know….”

If it was not already famous I would never have heard it nor paid any special attention to it.
So why is it famous?
It’s a fat guy. He’s not cute (is he??). His dance is not original nor cool. The song is not catchy (I can barely remember the melody, thank God).
Are we just that desperate for entertainment??
Do we just pick trends from a bag of random these days?

Please, someone, explain this to me. I have been trying to imagine being that first person, and the only way I can see this getting spread around is if I were Hitler and I sent this to all of my enemies.
Did Hitler spread this around? Are we all just innocent victims of a hate crime?

L. Spiro

n3Xus

101

n3Xus

Oct 27, 2012 at 8:04 PM

Use your right side of the brain

519

Oct 27, 2012 at 8:06 PM

I iz disappointed. I thought this was a thread about Gundam

Honestly, I thought it was catchy and comical. It's eye-catching and funny. And he seems to be very serious when he says, "Gangnam Style". Plus it seems all the NFL players are doing the dance for touchdown celebrations too. So watch out, this will spread to soccer/international football as well.

Madhed

126

Madhed

Oct 27, 2012 at 8:10 PM

Please don't overanalyze this, for the sake of your own sanity...

There is so much garbage on the charts these days that I simply stopped giving a f*** long time ago.
As with most memes (I think you can call Gangnam style one) it's all about timing and luck. Furthermore the song is pretty obscure (Sung in korean) has a modern sound and, well a most random and funny music video. (Edit: and a unique dance, think about Macarena. Peepz love to dance)

I guess most people really are social animals and want to know what it's all about their friends are talking about and don't want to miss the fad before it's over to feel part of something.

arthursouza

133

arthursouza

Oct 27, 2012 at 8:18 PM

It's a funny music video in a language that we cannot understand, that's it. No one is special for liking it or not liking it. Watched it 2 times, laughed, cool, life goes on. No need to lose hope in mankind because of this either, much more important stuff that goes on for you to feel disapointed I guess.

Khaiy

110

Khaiy

Oct 27, 2012 at 9:08 PM

It's moderately catchy, even if it didn't stick in your mind. The video is wacky and dumb, which is exactly what a lot of people like. Particularly in viral videos. Also, I heard that it's a send up of the South Korean popular music scene, which (maybe) gave it some legs.

Regardless, I refuse to believe that this is the first thing you've encountered on the internet that's both stupid and popular. Or that it's the most annoying one you've seen. Or even that it's the worst song and music video you've seen, even in the pre-internet days. If it is, watch E! for ten minutes and you'll beg to watch Gangnam style again.

Heath

Oct 27, 2012 at 9:51 PM

I was at an anniversary party last night where the couple's 10 or 12-year-old grandson put on a show and danced to this song. It was awesome! No need to analyze this so much.

Am I the only one who swore this was going to be a thread about an open source Gundam-style game or something...

TheVirtualDragon

Oct 27, 2012 at 10:12 PM

Here is how I think it works (at school anyway):

There is some guy with half a brain who likes a video he sees.
He shows it to his similarly half brained friends who love It and drool all over the screen.

They post it on Facebook, for their 500 friends to see.

This happens again, until alot of people know about this random video

The rest of the people are probably geeks who make games (i.e. Me) and cannot bear to not fit in socially so they watch it.

Soon everyone has seen it, a big alien comes, destroys the Earth, end of.

And I also thought it was something to do with Open source gamnam style game as well...

519

Oct 27, 2012 at 10:33 PM

Am I the only one who swore this was going to be a thread about an open source Gundam-style game or something...

No you weren't.

[quote name='Alpha_ProgDes']
I iz disappointed. I thought this was a thread about Gundam

[/quote]

Anri

288

Anri

Oct 27, 2012 at 10:36 PM

This is mainly popular with girls - you have this guy who isn't your usual ripped fella(lets be kind here...) and he boasts so much confidence singing "Heyyyy sexyyyyy ladieeeeee!".

I used to listen to j-pop all the time in my early 20s...so...I can kinda see what people see in it. I suppose its nice to see a Korean song in the charts for a change. Never though one would be doing the rounds in my local nightclubs! o_O

Now if only the likes of Yuzo Koshiro could make such a chart topper...

Oberon_Command

1,459

Oberon_Command

Oct 27, 2012 at 11:33 PM

It's the dance. It's all about the dance. That the song is relatively easy to listen to (like there's anything better in the pop music scene now?), and is easily recognizable for Western audiences at least, doesn't hurt in the slightest.

The dance is what makes the song fun; it's easy to remember and imitate, so the song that goes with it is more memorable for it. The fact that it's corny only makes it more memorable. Plus, the corniness is (according to the artist) intentional, since he's trying to parody a South Korean sub-culture. In my view that makes it a satire of sorts, though one unrecognisable to those unfamiliar with the culture it parodies.

3DModelerMan

101

3DModelerMan

Oct 28, 2012 at 12:43 AM

I think it may be the same as Monty Python. I absolutely LOVE Monty Python, but lots of people I know insist that it's just dumb. For the record I also really like Gangnam style, but I've always been fascinated by Asian culture anyways. You're right, It's quite interesting to think about actually, if it wasn't for one or two guys Gangnam style never would have been as popular as it is today. They shared it with their friends, who shared it with theirs, etc. One thing I've noticed though is that my "gamer" friends absolutely love it. I would assume the first share was probably someone who just thought it was totally awesome because of it's randomness and strangeness. And then it probably just ballooned from there.

Mod

5,991

Oct 28, 2012 at 1:31 AM

Thats a very long post about not liking KPop. I don't like any pop songs from recent memory, so the lounge has potential for a lot of these threads

Author

1,026

Oct 28, 2012 at 1:39 AM

I was still tipsy from last night’s party.

L. Spiro

Mod

5,991

Oct 28, 2012 at 1:53 AM

In Korea, PSY is very popular but has been absent for a while. This was his "return to pop" song, so it got a lot of attention.
Typically Koreans don't use satire to publicly criticise their own culture, but oppa gangnam style is incredibly subversive - there's a lot of wit in the way that the lyrics tear down their materialistic youth culture. That makes it very original within KPop, which is a genre that almost always lacks this kind of deep substance.

Outside Korea, I don't know why it's so popular. I first saw it while watching GSL (which has Korean advertising and KPop in the breaks) and a month later it was on the radio here. I guess a lot of it is just because 'the west' doesn't get a lot of Japanese/Korean culture. We import shows like Takeshi's Castle or Iron Chef and tell ourselves that this crazy stuff is just normal in Asia.
So when we see Psy doing the horse dance, dancing on the subway, lying in a man's crotch, having an awkward dance battle in a carpark and singing "hey sexy lady", we just laugh at 'those silly koreans' and don't bother to understand where the video came from. It's just some kind of slapstick to us, I guess.

BTW, the "elevator man" doing the crotch dance is a Korean comedian who's been doing that move for years, so that scene would be a kind of "inside joke" that's understood by a Korean audience, but is just weird to outsiders.

AoS

121

AoS

Oct 28, 2012 at 5:35 AM

When I saw the video to the song it was from a lot of Asia-philes and they explained all the intricacies, much like some people have explained in the thread. PSY is not your typical "rapper" build or personality, the song is a satire, it has a few American/English words like style, of course the dance, which IMO is cool, a few other cultural references.

Plus the people I know are pretty much obsessed with anything satire related.

I live in an area where the most popular music is rap, a bunch of white kids try to be rappers, Nelly and some others from his group went to the highschool I and most of my friends attended, so the song is really cool because it draws parallels perhaps unintentionally to the mainstream rap scene, effectively pop-rap and gangsta rap, in its satire and so forth.

Obviously dumbass people like the song as well, though for different reasons, and some people just really, really like the dance.

I can understand disliking it, but you'd have to be intentionally obtuse not to be able to understand at least 1 of the myriad reasons other people like it.

Author

1,026