SEOUL: When South Korean rapper Psy released “Gangnam Style” a decade ago, few expected the size and speed of its success, and how it would help start the streaming revolution.
Its madcap music video with the trademark horse-riding dance was released on July 15, 2012. It focused locally, making fun of Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, but within a few weeks it became global.
By December of that year, it had reached 1 billion views on YouTube. It resulted in countless memes and parodies, including giddy-up dance performed by flash mobs from Azerbaijan to New Zealand.
And “Gangnam Style” showed the music industry what can be achieved through internet platforms and social media, especially by artists outside the West who don’t perform in English.
“Psy violates the rules of the game. Traditional marketing and promotional playbooks are really thrown out the window,” said Bernie Cho, president of Seoul -based DFSB Collective artist and label services agency and an industry expert. of music in South Korea.
It showed “the importance, the impact, the influence of YouTube on pop music and pop culture around the world,” he added.
In 2012, the streaming industry was in its infancy, providing less than seven percent of worldwide revenues, according to industry group IFPI.
But the stunning success of “Gangnam Style” – as well as viral videos from performers like Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen – has shown a new way for acts from anywhere in the world to not just release of music, but also gain revenue from online advertising. , find sponsors and book for concerts, analysts say.
‘Think of the possibilities’
A decade later, streaming is the main source of revenue in the global music industry-65 percent by 2021, according to IFPI-with content available online through subscription-based services, YouTube and short-form videos apps like TikTok.
“Gangnam Style” is “an example of the power that a platform like YouTube can have interest in a particular video from many different places in the world,” said Michelle Cho, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto studying South Korean pop culture.
“The importance of video … goes far beyond the content of the video. And it really has more to do with the way that it enabled people to imagine the possibilities of the platform,” she added.
Within a few months of its release, “Gangnam Style” was the most -watched video on YouTube. It held that area for more than three years.
As of July 12 this year, it had close to 4.5 billion views.
Such is the online buzz for “Gangnam Style” and viral phenomena like “Harlem Shake” that Billboard changed in 2013 how it compiles charts, adding streams to YouTube and other platforms on a mainstream scale such as radio and sales.
“My one good job-helping K-pop-was changing the rules of Billboard,” Psy told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview in May, which pointed to the popularity of South Korean acts on YouTube.
‘Authentic, original, unique’
“Gangnam Style” also rocked South Korea, becoming the country’s largest cultural export and a source of national pride overnight.
K-pop acts tried to enter international markets before 2012 with some success in the Asian region, but they failed to make a mark in large and profitable Western markets such as the United States.
And then came Psy, who didn’t fit the profile of shiny K-pop idols.
“Industry executives, government officials, experts, critics, fans … just assumed that the breakout star from Korea was probably a boy band or a girl band,” Bernie Cho said. .
“Psy” proved to everyone that instead of a Korean version of a Western pop star or an international pop star, what the world wants is something real, original, unique. “
Horse-riding dance is everywhere-performed on primetime television in the US, in English football stadiums and by Bollywood stars in India.
U.S. President Barack Obama then said his daughters taught him “good Gangnam Style.”
South Korea is a global entertainment powerhouse today, but in 2012, “Gangnam Style” was the first encounter with South Korean pop culture for a large audience.
“It’s really influential maybe in making Korea or Korean music or Korean media that much more common element of general knowledge in a lot of places … certainly in the US, but around the world,” Michelle Cho said. “That knowledge, that … familiarity really helps other content have a foundation.”
