This week the two most popular words on the Internet are "Gangnam Style." It's fucking everywhere. I typed 'g' into YouTube and it suggested "Gangnam Style." That's how huge it is. I have been hearing about this for a while, but I had not actually seen the video or heard the song. Sometimes I see a meme or some other Internet phenomenon and I say "yeah, I get why that is popular." But then I see something like Gangnam Style, I'm lost. It's a K-pop song that's basically a Korean LFMAO song. And yet it's wildly popular in the United States and elsewhere, in places where the people watching cannot possibly speak a word of Korean. Lots of crappy J-pop and K-pop has been released over the last decade. Why is this super-popular? You can come up with all sorts of reasons why after the fact, but ultimately I'm going to chalk this up to a Taleb moment and just say: there is a reason (because I believe the universe is fundamentally deterministic), but there are too many random factors influencing it for there to be a GOOD reason. FOCUS: What have you encountered that is super-popular or super-influential for totally inexplicable reasons? Do you spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, trying to reassure yourself that the Just-World Hypothesis is really true, or do you just shake your head and move on?
To save you some Googling, Psy has been a "famous" performer for about 12 years and this is by far the best thing that's happened to him. Before this, he was kind of a social outcast and always in legal trouble (pot, evading military service, etc.). He lived and studied in the US, had one record censored, and his family was pretty well-to-do. Gangnam is a Seoul neighborhood that loosely is equivalent to the Hamptons: it's where the stinking fucking rich live. After living in Boston, he learned the true meaning of 'pretentious' and went off. The song makes fun of a type of woman who will buy $6 Starbucks every day, but eat ramen noodles at home for lunch, as well as some other aspects of pretentious, "rich", Korean culture. It's unique for K-pop because they are rarely critical of anything, much less general Korean culture. Making fun of the rich and powerful here is a good way to be unemployed, and few mainstream K-pop artists could hope for the chance to do what Psy did. Fuckin catchy song, that shit is the Korean "Whoop, There It Is."
You're lost? You've seen music videos before, right? That video is awesome compared to some of the shit that came out in the US in the 80's. Or, Lady Gaga. I love how Psy is wearing a life vest in the scene where he's on a boat. Safety first! And, I love how that song is entirely in Korean - including the phrase "sexy ladies." I wonder what the translation of that is. That's not really my type music, but it is catchy, and I'll give credit to anybody that can wear MC Hammer knickers with a straight face.
Gangnam Style was huge in the Starcraft II scene for about a month before it got worldwide attention. I've known about this ridiculously catchy song since July. Yes, I'm being all hipstery about this. Fuck you.
That'd been the only place I heard it untie it popped up on my sports radio show a few days ago. I had no idea how big it had gotten.
Trying to figure out fads like this is kind of like asking "Why is there popular culture?", or why does fashion as an industry exist? All of the cool kids are doing it is one answer. Novelty is another. In the case of Gangnam Style - that video is just so bizarre it is funny, or at the least, fascinating. I don't like this type of music, and I certainly had never heard of Psy before. It's just so over the top that it is hilarious. In that your-grandma-just-got-run-over-by-a-bus-full-of-polka-playing nuns kind of way. What have I encountered that is super-popular or super-influential for totally inexplicable reasons? In rough chronological order: Airbrushed conversion vans Painter's caps Parachute pants Flock of Seagulls The Thompson Twins Eraser-head haircuts Milli Vanilli James Patterson The Atlanta Braves Pogs Tickle Me Elmo Pauly Shore Wolf shirts Beanie babies Low riding jeans Massive keyrings with dozens of keys Frosted hair on guys To name a few.
This is the nerdiest thing I've ever read. I'm still trying to figure out the whole pants below your ass thing. Usually idiotic trends like this will vanish after a while when people realize how stupid they are, but this one just keeps on going.
Flat-billed caps have always blown my mind. Especially when guys wear it over their ears. I'm gonna sound like an old man when I say this, but back before flat bills were in style, if you wore your hat with a flat bill and/or over your ears, you were a fucking retard, or trying to mock someone who is retarded. Even now that I'm used to seeing it, it still looks fucking stupid.
I'm not mister social, but I know a bunch of people from all walks of life, from Peta Vegans to truck drivers to foreign brown people, and for the life of me, I can't a find one who understands the 'underwear showing' thing, and I remember it being something since I was a kid. I think lowering street cars is stupid too, but I get where it comes from. The low pants thing is just stupid on every level. As for hearing about Gangam Style, I heard about it probably just over a month ago, just on facebook, because a couple of people I know are into 4chan and all that noise. Also George Takei. I didn't really get it then, even after I checked out "knowyourmeme," downndirty just contextualised it in a way I understand. And that's it for me. I didn't find it all that catchy, and now I know what it is, I can forget about it. As for me, it's a particular brand of hipster I can't fathom. I know hating on hipsters is done to death; without condoning it I get the trendy underground hipster shit, I get what that is, but beyond that there's an ultra-esoteric christian-youth-group shit that keeps bubbling up, interrupting my normal entertainment. I think it'd get called "nerdy" but it's not about chess-clubs and intelligence, the local parlance here is "dag," a term originating from describing sheeps turds stuck in its wool, it's basically used to describe someone incredibly un-self aware of how uncool they are. I'm talking parents, more likely grandparents, that wear mostly wool in drab colours, are unconfrontational, no one swears: think the rich people in a small town. It's the people who consciously imitate this lack of self awareness as some sort of social convention, that I don't get. I've been running from this goofiness myself all my life. I'm from that kind of a world, but I'm not proud of it, I don't wear it on my sleeve. I wanna wear jeans, a t-shirt, a leather jacket and ride a fucking softail, not prance around in a woolen fucking sweater and involve my Nanna in everything I do. So when I see a comedy act winning awards for being some goofy bullshit imitation of precocious kids putting on a "play" to their parents, I don't get it. Me and my siblings pulled the same shit when we were 8 at the oldest, to a merciful audience of 1 1/2. Let the actual good entertainers get the fucking award. At least nerds are driven to accomplish something. This shit makes Wes Anderson look like John Woo.
I have heard that it comes from prisons. If you sag your pants, you are available (to be someones bitch). I have never researched this and I'm too lazy to Google it, but perhaps someone cares enough to confirm or deny? Assuming that it is true, I have no idea why anyone would follow this trend...
I think it was more of a badge of pride. They don't have belts in prison, and sagging your pants was like, "I'm a badass mofo, I've been to prison." And then I think it caught on as a style and now there's not really meaning behind it, it just is.
Yeah, but I get the stickers. It looks dumb, but I understand the whole "fresh" thing. I just can't figure out a reason for wearing the bill flat, because of how retarded it looks. Wha... What the fuck?
Going back to the actual Gangam style, I think the sheer hilariousness of the video got it alot of legs. I saw a clip of Psy on Ellen and he basically said the premise of the video is people dressing classy and dancing foolishly. So unlike some videos that get huge because of the unintentional hilarity in it, this one is supposed to be amusing, and it succeeds. Then you see Psy in interviews and he's amusing and likeable. The comparison to LMFAO doesn't work for me cause those idiots sound like fucking douchebags everytime you hear them speak. And it seems ridiculously forced. Whereas Psy always has struck me as pretty genuine. And he's more than willing to make fun of himself. He strides the unique line of being goofy but still kind of a badass. The fact that it has made it onto not one, but two different radio stations in Chicago is incredibly impressive to me.