“That, That” by Psy ft. Suga, Tuesday, September 17, 2024
I arrived in South Korea at the end of August 2012, about a month after Korea’s biggest viral hit had been released. I taught elementary school, and I was aghast to hear a chorus of 7-year-olds dancing the horse dance and singing in English, “Hey, sexy lady!” I was teaching at a Christian school among other young conservative missionaries. I thought about how sheltered the Christian schools were that I grew up in. I had arrived in South Korea, the land of electronic boy and girl Idol groups--boys and girls who had dieted, trained for years under questionable conditions, and undergone plastic surgeries and treatments to look magazine-worthy, yet it wasn’t BIGBANG, SHINee, Girls’ Generation or 2NE1 who popularized K-pop for the world. It was Park Jae-sang.
LONG TIME, NO SEE, HUH? Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was simultaneously the quintessential K-pop song and the most anti-K-pop song ever recorded. Psy was a Korean rapper and only achieved modest airplay in South Korea before his viral hit. Also, much of his music was censored in Korea for explicit content--only adults could buy his albums. He was even fined for the content of his first album. Park Jae-sang grew up in Gangnam to a wealthy family, his father was the chairman of a semiconductor manufacturing company, and his mother was a successful restauranteur. He disliked studying both in Korea and in Boston University where he dropped out of his Business major to attend the famed Berklee College of Music also in Boston. Psy came back to Korea to begin his music career in 2000. Twelve years later, Psy became the biggest national celebrity. The song “Gangnam Style” and its accompanying video both satirized and popularized South Korean culture. It also became the first K-pop song that many around the world heard. Rather than a barely- out-of-high-school group of pretty boys or girls, the overweight Psy was 35 when at the peak of his fame. Idol groups rarely last until their early 30s and are kept on strict diets by their managers.
PANDEMIC’S OVER. FEELING AMAZING. Psy’s subsequent songs have not reached the same level of virality as “Gangnam Style.” In Korea, everything he releases is now a hit. Some of his singles after his breakout have charted. “Gentleman,” “Hangover,” and “Daddy” are a few of his other charting hits. All of Psy’s videos are comedic and feature his unique dance style. Before Psy, most K-pop videos were dramatic and took themselves seriously. Today, that’s mostly true of K-pop videos, though some groups like GOT7, Orange Caramel, Seventeen, and BTS have incorporated comedy into their videos. Psy’s videos, though, are a level above all other K-pop videos. Littered with Korean celebrities, internet sensations, cultural trends, fashion statements, and a dose of obscenity that pushes the mores of the conservative culture it was born of, Psy’s videos always seem to capture the zeitgeist of the singer’s comebacks. His most recent comeback was two years ago with his ninth album, Psy 9. The album’s lead single, “That That,” featured SUGA of BTS. Psy hadn’t made an album in five years, and until 2022, he hadn’t recorded music with any Gen. Z musicians. While the video for “That That” wasn’t the most radical Psy video, it introduced and reintroduced Psy to a younger generation. Psy has never been cool, but he’s always been fun. His ability to curate and condense pop culture into a 3-minute video will keep him relevant as long as he wants to come back.
Comments
Post a Comment