If you haven’t seen the Gangnam Style music video by Korean pop star Psy yet, then you really, really need to. It’s been out for less than a month, and has garnered over 24,000,000 views on YouTube, putting it in the top 3 videos worldwide currently. When a buddy showed it to me, I went through waves of conflicting feelings. I was repulsed, excited, amazed, and developed the sudden urge to bust my hardest moves, all in a matter of seconds. And then it hit me – this video is the pinnacle of the nerd’s revenge. Psy is a normal, pudgy, band geek who analyzed the world, popular American/Korean culture, and the music scene around him, got some video equipment, and went out and made it his bitch. Watch the video after the jump. DO IT.
Psy: Gangnam Style – Ladies Love When Men Pelvic Thrust Over You
Really – Psy is a graduate with top honors from a prestigious music program. He’s released five albums previous to this one, so obviously he’s been practicing hard for this moment when he’s finally exploded onto the world stage. Frankly, it’s like he spent a few years studying what makes crappy yet catchy LMFAO-like music tick, took all the “quirkiness” of hipsters and ecstasy riddled party girls, plotted out the most bizarre yet coherent video he could, and then swirled a glass of scotch on the rocks and slapped William Hung across the face. Even worse, I look at Psy and his little dancing doppelganger and I see Grorious Leader shuffling around when he thought no one was looking (and when he was alive. This is in terribly poor taste, I know).
What makes Gangnam Style amazing, outside of the hot tub, stable, and foam party locales, is Psy’s killer dance moves. This guy opens his empty palms, spreads his arms wide, and it’s like he’s screaming at the top of his lungs: “Look at all the fucks I don’t give!” The utter absurdity of his cowboy cum Bollywood lasso and ride ’em breaks are punctuated by how radically confident he is. I don’t want to get all philosophical while I watch a fat Korean dude lay in an elevator with his buddy setting a new world pelvic thrust record above his head, but somehow, Psy goes from someone to be utterly ridiculed to someone I would absolutely drink with. At one point, the arm candy next to him starts losing her shit because she’s being viciously sprayed in the face with foam (which is probably made domestically and is full of lead and melamine) and Psy just keeps on dancing and being awesome because that’s GANGNAM STYLE. This is how you know he means serious business – just read what he has to say about this song:
The album’s weighty title song ‘Gangnam Style’ is composed solely by PSY himself from lyrics to choreography. The song is characterized by its strongly addictive beats and lyrics, and is thus certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy.
OBVIOUSLY.
I mean seriously: watching this guy is like seeing your straight laced friend from high school math class drink WAY too much one weekend, take a little puff, and suddenly become the coolest bro on the planet simply by virtue of enjoying life way way WAY too much. (We all know that guy… we all love that guy. There’s got to be something to this, don’t you think?) In any case, I hate to admit it… but the song is pretty catchy. Excuse me while I learn the saddle dance for this weekend – and if you’re a shy guy, maybe you should take some Gangnam Style advice and let a little of your guard down too.
