PSY? Pssht I Knew About Him Before He Was Cool...

                                          

PSY as all you Kpopers have noticed has been getting an extreme amount of attention for his song "Gangnam Style". More importantly he managed to garner the attention of a very much targeted audience the the Kpop industry just could not capture, the US audience.  

Although I'm glad for PSY's success I kind of feel irratated when I see people around me talking about him and his song. I'm just there like "Really? Now tell me how long have you been interested in Kpop?". I understand though, his video was funny and the song had a nice addictive sound to it. It had all the qualities it needed to be a good song in the US market. After some thinking though I wondered if PSY really is the one to open the doors to Kpop in the US. The answer to that is absolutely not,

For starters, PSY has a totally different style the groups Kpop has to offer. Sure he has those flashy rooms, the good quality and well thought out MV, and he sings in Korean. One thing that sets him apart from everyone else in the Kpop industry is that he is not afraid to make a fool of himself. Usually when a Kpop artist looks silly or funny they cover it up with being cute or cool, but not PSY. In fact, PSY embraces the silliness. Also, even in Korea PSY was a breathe of fresh air as he so greatly used his used his humor skills to make a kick-ass mucic video. So unless their is an artist like PSY who isn't afraid to ruin their image there isn't going to be another Kpop artist in the US music market anytime soon.

Something that worries me though is that the Americans, that have no knowledge of Kpop whatsoever, will begin to stereotype based on what they see from PSY. Most of my friends that know and like "Gangnam Style" don't even know he is Korean! I just don't want that kind of disaster, but maybe I'm wrong and my fellow Americans aren't so simple-minded.

The attention PSY has gotten is for PSY and PSY alone. I mean more than half, possibly even more than that, of the people that have fallen for the "Gangnam Spell" aren't searching up more on Kpop. All they are interested is the chubby Asian with the funny video. That sort of disappoints me since I crave for the popularity of Kpop here in the US. Then, I won't be labeled as "the one who likes the Asians that look like plastic" by my friends. Not just for that, but for various other reasons. Apart from my disappointment there are also those few people who might have looked up more on Kpop and were surprised to see that there is less of funny middle-aged men dancing and more of groups with an absurd amount of members and sophisticated videos with 360 slow-mo cameras. I would to if I had no idea about Kpop


Well that was my two-cents on the whole PSY thing. Whatever the outcome of this is I hope PSY the best. Maybe I'm wrong and he will manage to make the path for Kpop in the US. What do you think. Is PSY really helping the spread of Korean culture?



Here is the "Gangnam Style" video for you to... who am I kidding you guys have all watched it already, unless you totally dislike PSY and refuse to watch his video. Then again why would you be reading my post on PSY if you didn't like him.


Hmm why don't I send you guys off with a picture of baby giraffes, because I love giraffes... and ostriches.

Aren't they just adorable?