From the birds and the bees, to family trees.: Gangnam Style

Friday, 14 December 2012

Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style
14 December 2012

I have tried. I really, really have. But I cannot pull off a successful Gangnam Style move. Whenever I attempt it (and this happens to be quite often), Amber laughs from deep inside her belly. And just to clarify – she is not laughing with me. She is blatantly laughing at me. How rude! And I’m always so nice to her! To think I feed her every single day.

Alas, be that as it may, the Gangnam Style phenomena has taken over the world. A flash-in-the-pan one-hit-wonder most likely. How lucky for the musician PSY, who wrote the catchy tune and performs his signature dance moves in the video for the song. Because truth be told, PSY doesn’t actually need to make another number one chart topping hit. He doesn’t even have to make a crappy attempted hit. He can rest easy. Simply sit back, relax and rake the money in. Lucky bastard! He’s been immortalised in song already.

A few weeks ago, when the song first entered my periphery, I wondered at the term Gangnam Style. And then having seen the video, I assumed that the term referred to PSY’s quirky dance moves. Still it niggled at the back of my head and after a bit I eventually Googled it. And would you believe it, to quote Wikipedia, it’s “neologism (which for fellow plebs means a new word) – for a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul in Korea”. And upon investigation, it makes reference to an affluent and trendy area, where it’s all about being seen and wearing the coolest threads – being perceived to be hip and funky. It has been equated to Beverley Hills in California, and is probably similar to Sandton in Joburg for us.

I include the Youtube link for the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0. For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, enjoy! It has currently been viewed over 947 million times on Youtube and is the most watched clip on the Internet. Absolutely incredible! And I am not the only one who has attempted PSY’s Gangnam Style moves. It has even been done by British Prime Minister David Cameron as well as the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. How amazing is that!

But popular though the song is right now, this popularity will eventually fade. And in all likelihood the song, video and dance moves will become hated in time. It’s true. Just think about it. Most people actually liked the Macarena with its dance moves in the beginning. Now you risk a stoning if you play the song or do the moves. And I feel the same about that bloody chicken song that always gets played at weddings. Within the blink of an eye, cool, normal, ordinary people, turn into blithering idiots, pretending to “flap their wings”.

Yet again, this does not matter. Because one flash of brilliance is all that is needed. If this PSY dude is very clever, he’ll invest his trillions well and live off it for the rest of his life. And should his zillions start dwindling, I’m sure he’ll be able to supplement his already-bursting-at-the-seems-coffers by perhaps doing some guest appearances on talk shows. Then there’s all of the companies out there who are just dying to have him be the “face” of their product and ad campaign. I’m sure given time, he’ll be doing his own range of clothing and have a signature ladies perfume and men’s au de toilette or cologne. And should he really feel desperate, there’ll probably be an autobiography in the offing.

And all this, just because he had a brain fart, most likely in the middle of the night, to do a cool and catchy song. I’m not taking his accomplishments away from him. He’s worked hard to get here. And would you believe it, but Gangnam Style is merely but one song on his 6^th studio album. He’s paid his dues to the musical world already and done a fair bit of slogging to get to this point.

Personally I’m also just so desperate to have my own brain fart. That one very, very clever, yet slightly unexpectedly popular thing that all of a sudden becomes the next BIG thing. Not for fame, but definitely for fortune. Currently I’m toying with the idea of a “Kommon Sandton Style” song. Catchy little title, hey!