Note: The animation is pure CSS, but the component graphics are PNGs. Given the simplicity of the graphics, I was rather hoping the whole thing was styled divs.
Unbelievable. :-D! Even PSY wouldn't have imagined this kind of success for that song. Although I suspect, a lot had to do with the spontaneity of the accompanying music video.
I don't know if it's a good place to ask, but I was puzzled for quite some time already and can't figure it out on my own... So, the question is, what made PSY and "Gangnam Style" this popular (in the West - I read on Wikipedia that in Japan it had "luke-warm" reception)? Could someone please try to explain this to me like I never heard the song and never saw the video? Thanks.
The song is catchy and the dance means there's an incentive to have heard and recognise the song. Same deal as the Macarena (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macarena_(song)) and Crank That (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_That_(Soulja_Boy)). The combination of the internet growing and gaining mainstream adoption (it's now "cool" to know about internet memes) and the "old medias" desire to be in on "new media" made it inevitable.
Gangnam Style is just the "perfect" combination of everything needed to be a success. Also he attended almost every big TV show around, so after appearing on one or two big shows every show had to have him.
The beat and synth part sound incredibly good, the vocal lines are full of catchy hooks and repeatable lines. A mix of languages means most listeners pick up on some - but importantly, not all - of the lyrics. This creates an "earworm" effect.
On top of being legitimately good, the song and accompanying video are funny. Very funny. It seems like funny pop strikes an unexpected chord with listeners (see the band LMFAO, Rebecca Black's Friday).
The signature dance moves tie the humour and music together in a package that is, for many, irresistible and must be exercised.
Beyond those elements, meta-success starts to kick in. The song is culturally important, because it crosses all sorts of conventional, cultural and geographical boundaries and tears down expectations of what makes "good" music, what a pop idol looks like. The song is commercially important, not just because of how much money it made, but more for how that money was generated - almost entirely via YouTube advertising and iTunes sales. Which is to say, the conventional record publishing industrial complex was left out of the equation.
I could go on, but these are the elements that are most important to me.
"I read on Wikipedia that in Japan it had "luke-warm" reception"
Japan and South Korea doesn't have the best of relations, which may explain why it hasn't taken off there the way it has in many other parts of the world.
They do tend to share popular pop-music, though. Some K-Pop artists convert their hits to Japanese, and rarely even write in Japanese first.
In general, it wasn't their thing. It was funny and kind of interesting, but not the sort of thing that captures a whole-sale audience in South Korea or Japan. That would be my guess as to the reason.
I think your right about Japan. They love K-Pop, but more so the boy band style K-Pop.
I'm in South Korea now though, and it is the ONLY song they listen to 24/7 (1st birthday parties, weddings, elementary school art festivals, taekwondo practice...) Ganganam Style IS the whole-sale epitome of South Korea.
