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Frank Kogan ([personal profile] koganbot) wrote2012-08-17 03:23 pm
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  • Current Music: Psy "Gangnam Style"
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Gangnam Mashup Style

Excellent commentary by [livejournal.com profile] arbitrary_greay on "Gangnam Style" and related matters over at the SNSD Free For All. Includes this mashup of "Gangnam Style," "I Am The Best," and "Fantastic Baby," which shouldn't work as well as it does, given how crowded it gets, with all three of them trying to find room on the divan:



Writeup includes comparisons to "Sexy And I Know It" and "Pon Pon Pon," as well as reaction to the ft. HyunA version.
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[identity profile] warthoginrome.livejournal.com 2012-08-17 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Nice to see that i'm not the only one who can't fully explain the reasons for PSY's success. I saw his comeback on Strong Heart after he was released from the army, and I thought he was quite pitiful (I didn't know him before). I always feel bad for comedians who can't make the audience laugh.
Considering the results of "Gangnam style", it's clear that he's right and I'm wrong. He probably is a nice person who can obtain a sincere support from his fellow entertainers, and he can also count on music professionals who created a effective "summer song", that can leverage tools like YouTube to reach a wide diffusion. Good for him.
I've quickly archived the first MV version, but I've reconsidered the song after the Hyuna's version. I can't help to have a liking for her, even when she use some overvolted aegyo.
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[identity profile] sub-divided.livejournal.com 2012-08-18 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
Gangnam Style was kind of mysterious to me, too, but honestly the more I hear it the more I like it. Psy is a sincerely great vocalist, he goes through a lot of different modes in this song. Maybe it's just because the vocals are so high in the mix, compared to other Kpop songs, but I'm impressed that "Oppa Gangnam Style" sounds huge in that radio-announcer way even though it's delivered conversationally and without being layered a gazillion times. And that conversational part contrasts with the parts of the song where he's doing punk-rock entreating or letting himself go off into the clouds somewhere. It just sounds masterful. That's a dude who has total control over his great voice.
Edited 2012-08-18 01:52 (UTC)

[identity profile] arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com 2012-09-04 01:56 am (UTC)(link)


The juxtapositions of the imagery from the original MVs also bears considering. Big Bang's is the least tied to its group, in that while traits inherent the persons of 2NE1 and Psy define the tone of their imagery, Big Bang is letting the visuals define their image for the MV. Big Bang put on the costume of the MV, while 2NE1 and Psy are the costumes that the song and MV put on. Everything in IATB and GS's MVs tell you what the girls and Psy's character traits are, but hell if I know anything about what Big Bang's members are like from the Fantastic Baby MV except maybe that Seungri is more of a try-hard than the other four.
Hence why all three songs should be anonymous electro jock jams, but IATB and GS come across with a memorable identity, whereas Fantastic Baby will have a much harder time getting out of LMFAO's shadow.

Of course, that Psy is the only unique factor in an otherwise anonymous song makes the mashups all the more interesting to consider, from both the perspective of Psy's vocals and the arrangement, as allied to others.
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Re: "K-pop is coming" postcards from the UK #2

[personal profile] koganbot 2012-09-12 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Hasn't cracked the Hot 100 in the U.S., though (whereas the Wonder Girls' "Nobody" reached 76 in 2009, even if it's not had nearly the long-running crossover impact in the U.S.; did have impact around the world, however). Radio still shy of airplay; I've read that L.A. is an exception.

The article is a typical journalistic "cover all the bases and interview people" effort. Competent, though doesn't really go into what Psy's parody is about as effectively as some of the other explain-it-to-gringos pieces. And the statement "And yet PSY isn't indicative of K-pop at all" is just plain bizarre. The song's not the most typical, but (as the article itself points out) it draws on the basic music that a lot of K-pop draws on (hip-hop and int'l dance). And there had already been a number of K-pop variations on the "Party Dance Anthem" template even before "Gangnam Style."

I am glad I was alerted to this:



Also, E.via's got a fine take-off of "Gangnam Style" that I like more than the original, if you haven't heard it (this is an authorized fan vid):

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