Gangnam Style

[Marenta]

Okay, normally, I wouldn't make a post about this. But, I feel that while the video is viral and catchy and blah blah blah, it brings up a very important question. K-pop doesn't so much play into satire and making statements about society, yet this song does. Psy is trying to point out the foolishness of the people in the Gangnam neighborhood in Seoul. Gangnam is similiar to the Hamptons or Silicon Valley, where money is the ruler of all and nobody is held accountable for their actions. In the video you'll notice that he goes back and forth between a few scenes where it shows him being some "hotshot" somewhere rich and the reality is that he's somewhere destitute and it's all in his mind. Apparently, in Korea, there are a ton of people who actually deprive themselves of necessities for life (like food) for things that are status symbols (like drinking coffee). I've read a few breakdowns about this video and song, and most of them say that it's not normal to hear this type of commentary coming from music in Korea.

Which leads me to this question: the wealthy have always been wealthy and enjoyed the lifestyle, but, was America the one that spawned that burning desire to play as if you're well off when you actually aren't? Psy went to college here in America, and I'm just wondering if he saw it here and then started drawing the parallels between America and Korea. What do you guys think?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

[themadscientist]

It's the national pastime.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av4KtaBvdUY[/youtube]

[bigbadberry3]

Reddit 3 weeks ago