Gangnam Style facts for kids

Quick facts for kids "Gangnam Style"
Single by Psy
from the EP Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1
Language	Korean
Released	July 15, 2012
Recorded	2011–2012
Genre	K-pop dance-pop EDM
Length	3:39
Label	YG Universal Republic School Boy
Songwriter(s)	Park Jae-sang
Producer(s)	Park Jae-sang Yoo Gun-hyung Yang Hyun-suk
Psy singles chronology
"Korea" (2012) "Gangnam Style" (2012) "Gentleman" (2013)

"Gangnam Style" (Korean: 강남스타일, IPA: [kaŋ.nam sɯ.tʰa.il]) is a K-pop song by South Korean singer Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 (Ssai Yukgap Part 1). The term "Gangnam Style" is a neologism that refers to the nouveau riche lifestyles associated with the Gangnam region of Seoul.

On July 15, 2012, "Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on South Korea's Gaon Chart, receiving generally positive reviews, with praise for its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dancing during live performances and in various locations around the world in its music video. The song and its music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide. In the United States, "Gangnam Style" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time, was the highest charting song by a South Korean artist. By the end of 2012, "Gangnam Style" had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Psy's dance in the music video itself became a cultural phenomenon.

It subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards held that year. It became a source of parodies and reaction videos by many different individuals, groups, and organizations. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views. The song's music video was the most viewed video on YouTube from November 24, 2012, when it surpassed the music video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, to July 10, 2017, when it was itself surpassed by the music video for "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth.

Its dance was attempted by political leaders such as British Prime Minister David Cameron and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who hailed it as "a force for world peace". On May 7, 2013, at a bilateral meeting with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye at the White House, US President Barack Obama cited the success of "Gangnam Style" as an example of how people around the world are being "swept up" by the Korean Wave of culture.

Accolades and records

Records attained

The song and its accompanying music video currently hold, or have attained, the following records:

• Most viewed K-pop video on YouTube – On September 1, 2012, it overtook "Gee" by the 9-member K-Pop idol-group Girls' Generation with 89 million views.
• Most liked video on YouTube – On September 13, 2012, it overtook "Party Rock Anthem" by the American electro recording duo LMFAO upon receiving 1.57 million "likes", and subsequently won its first Guinness World Record one week later.
• First K-pop song to top the UK Singles Chart – On October 6, 2012, the song reached number one of the UK singles chart and Psy became the first South Korean musician to achieve that feat.
• Most viewed video on YouTube – On November 24, 2012, it overtook "Baby" by the Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber after receiving more than 803 million views.
• First video in Internet history to be viewed more than a billion times – On December 21, 2012, it acquired its billionth view at around 15:50 UTC.
• First video in Internet history to be viewed more than two billion times – On May 31, 2014, it acquired its 2 billionth view. A second dance animation was added next to the view counter. They were removed in July 2014.

Year-end media picks

"Gangnam Style" was ranked No. 25 on the Rolling Stone's 50 best songs of 2012 list and No. 8 on SPIN's 40 best songs of the year. The song also took the No. 8 spot on the 2012 Billboard 20 best K-Pop songs list by Jeff Benjamin and Jessica Oak, who commented "[the song] stands out not only for its slick, electronic production but also for its deeper critique on high-class society." According to MTV's list of the 2012 best songs, the song was ranked No. 8 with MTV news staff James Montgomery's comment: "'Gangnam' is either the track we, as a culture needed right now, or the track we, as a culture, deserved." Time magazine chose it as the second best song of 2012 after Usher's "Climax," writing "The YouTube meme, a good-natured, mind-bendingly catchy lampoon [...] turned into a global obsession." The song was one of the best songs of the year on The New York Times pop critics' list and E! Online's No. 1 pick on the top 10 pop songs of 2012 list. Digital Spy ranked the song No. 20 among the 20 best singles of the year. It was voted the 12th best single of 2012 by The Village Voice's 40th annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Music critic Robert Christgau placed "Gangnam Style" as the No. 2 single on his 2012 Dean's List.

The music video for "Gangnam Style" was chosen as the best music video of 2012 by Time. Melissa Locker of the magazine wrote "The catchy song paired with social satire and tongue-in-cheek vibe has spread so quickly it reminds us why videos are called viral. The video has sparked an International dance craze and catapulted Psy to international super stardom." Rolling Stone also ranked the video No. 1 on its "The Best Music Videos of 2012" list, saying "The Korean auteur [Psy] conquered the world with his 'dress classy, dance cheesy' aesthetic, blurring the line between parody and celebration." The video took No. 4 position on the Digital Spy's list of 10 top pop music videos of the year.

Miscellaneous

The music video came in first with 21% rating in the 2012 Billboard.com's readers poll, beating "Where Have You Been" by Rihanna (19%) and "Beauty and a Beat" by Justin Bieber featuring Nicki Minaj (11%). The song was the most popular song played on New Year's Eve and the most sung song on the day, leaving "Auld Lang Syne" in second place for the first time since 2005, on karaoke company Lucky Voice's online service in the United Kingdom. CNN readers picked "Gangnam Style" as the eighth best song of 2012. The Week (US edition) ranked the song's global popularity at No. 6 with the strapline "'Gangnam Style' takes over the world" on the 13 biggest pop culture moments of the year list. The phenomenon of the song and the video was also picked as one of the 2012's most viral moments in music by Wendy Geller of Yahoo! Music, and No. 2 on the 2012 top 20 music moments list after Whitney Houston's death by Billboard, being written "If there's one meme, song and face that has been truly inescapable in the second half of 2012, it's South Korean rapper Psy and his outrageous 'Gangnam Style'."

On December 1, 2014, YouTube announced that "Gangnam Style" had exceeded the number of views that are possible to store using a 32-bit signed integer, that being 2,147,483,647 (2³¹−1, or two billion). As a result, YouTube was forced to upgrade to using 64-bit integers to store view numbers, with a maximum value of 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (2⁶³−1, or nine quintillion). "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer, but that was before we met Psy," stated a YouTube spokesperson.

With 132 beats per minute, the song was momentarily forbidden in gyms in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country restricted music faster than 120 BPM to avoid Koreans feel energized by the tempo of music, breath more heavily or sweat more intensely.

Images for kids

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  Gangnam District in Seoul

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  Search volume for K-pop since 2008 according to Google Trends

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  Dancers performing "Gangnam Style" at the Gimje Horizon Festival

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  Psy with the "Gangnam Style" logo in September 2012

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  frameless

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  Clayton Anderson, flight engineer of the International Space Station's 15th expedition dances "Gangnam Style" in a parody uploaded by the space agency NASA

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  GCF Songdo Style

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  "Gangnam Style" as parodied in a comic strip published by Dyess AFB, an airbase of the U.S. Air Force

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  Psy performing "Gangnam Style" during Future Music Festival Asia 2013 at Sepang.

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  Psy performs Gangnam Style at the KIIS-FM Jingle Ball concert in Los Angeles

See also

In Spanish: Gangnam Style para niños