9 Things You Didn’t Know About The Worldwide Hit ‘Gangnam Style’
“Gangnam Style” is a song written and performed by Korean Pop singer, Park Jae-sang known as PSY.
The worldwide hit was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album, Psy 6 (Six Rules). The famous phrase “Gangnam Style” is a Korean neologism which is referring to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul.
The song gained rapid popularity, and its signature dance moves were attempted by many political leaders, including President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Below are listed the 9 most interesting facts, you should know about the worldwide hit ‘Gangnam Style’.
1. Gangnam Style was the Most Liked Video in YouTube History for nearly 4 years
In 3 months since its release, it reached #1 in over 30 countries. In September 2012, it was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the Most Liked Youtube Video, after being liked over 1.57 million times and holding the crown for nearly four years.
- As of February 2020, Gangnam Style has gathered 17 million likes and 2.3 million dislikes, ranking as the 5th most liked and the 19th most disliked video on Youtube.
- Currently, the record holder is Luis Fonsi with Despacito, which has scored 36 million likes.
2. For 5 nearly years it was The Most watched video on YouTube.
On November 24, 2012, ‘Gangnam Style’ became the most viewed video on YouTube, holding the title for 5 years until July 2017, when was surpassed by WizKhalifa’s video for “See You Again.”
As of Feb. 2020, PSY’s infamous song video ranks as the 7th most-viewed Youtube video with 3,509,010,564 plays.
3. Cracking Gangnam Style Super Bowl Commerical
The song was featured in a commercial for Wonderful Pistachios that debuted during the Super Bowl in 2013.
The spot featured PSY performing the song (the lyrics were changed to “Cracking Gangnam Style”) between people dressed like the nuts.
4. PSY video “Gangnam Style” broke YouTube’s streaming counter
The song forced YouTube into an upgrade after it broke the video-sharing website’s hit counter.
When Psy’s tune reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value, for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, Youtube view-counter, could no longer work.
5. Psy and the “Gangnam Style” gold statue
The golden sculpture cost around $ 357,000 and lays right in the center of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in front of COEX Mall.
The gold statue features two fists overlapped depicting the “horse-riding” dance moves from Psy’s infamous music video “Gangnam Style.” What Psy think about this? Does he agree with this statue?
“I simply think it’s too much. But it’s also funny that they just immortalized the hands. ”
6. The worldwide popularity of the music video has been attributed to the signature dance move known as “the horse-riding dance.
PSY described the dance moves on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,as “pretending to bounce like riding on an invisible horse’’.
Gangnam Style’s signature dance moves were attempted by many political leaders including the President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
7. Psy and the “Gangnam Style” have their own comic book.
Titled “Fame: Psy,” the comic begins with illustrations showing Psy descending from heaven and bursting through the earth, striking poses from his “Horse Riding Dance.”
- As the perfect metaphor for PSY’s monumental triumph achieved in 2012, with the impressive music video Gangnam Style which reigned over the internet for 5 years.
The questions that are all over the front-page: “Has he fallen from the sky? Has he risen from the earth?”
8. T-Pain was the first celebrity who tweeted about “Gangnam Style.”
The moment that sparked the success of Gangnam Style is on July 29, 2012, when the Florida based rapper, T-Pain tweeted:
“Words cannot even describe how amazing this video is.”
T-Pain was fascinated by the track that he couldn’t stop here, and three days later, he tweeted the song lyrics, and then he tweeted a video of Psy performing “Gangnam Style.”
9. Gangnam ranks as one of the most affluent areas of South Korea and can be likened to Beverly Hills.
PSY said in an interview that, although he claims himself to be “Gangnam Style” in the song, the dance, the looks, and the videoclip are far from being high class.
PSY said that this was just his twisted sense of humor, people have conjectured that the song is a satire about South Koreans’ materialist obsession with Seoul’s Gangnam district.
