By Joann Lee, Staff Writer
VIRAL: PSY continues his viral streak with his latest music video.
Riding high from his “Gangnam Style”-fueled fame, PSY is back with another (admittedly) catchy song. Mysteriously entitled “Gentleman,” the song’s music video was posted on the K-Pop star’s official YouTube on April 13. One day later, the music video shot past 1.5 billion views, breaking the first-day viewing record set by Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and the Beat” music video.
PSY’s hits seem to follow a similar pattern: throw in an infectious beat, place a hilariously obnoxious dance to go with it and sing/rap any nonsense you want in Korean, so long as you include a couple English phrases in the chorus. The song is still sung in Korean, and though “Gangnam Style” remained innocuous with its lyrics, “Gentleman” is dotted with crass refrains and lascivious innuendos. The dancing, too, is switched up a bit, transitioning from an energetic cowboy to a hip-swirling move that seems to honor Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. The dance wasn’t completely PSY’s invention, but derived from that of another K-Pop star (Son Ga-In), who is the leading lady in the “Gentleman” music video. The hip-swinging was made popular in South Korea by Ga-In in 2009 when she and her all-girl group, Brown-Eyed-Girls, released a music video for their single, “Abracadabra.” Regardless of the origin of the dance, it has become increasingly popular, with parody videos beginning to crop up on the internet, replacing the Harlem Shake.
The music video features PSY running around the streets of South Korea, singing about being a gentleman while his antics run opposite to a gentleman’s behavior. Just as “Gangnam Style” was intended to criticize the upscale neighborhoods of Gangnam, “Gentleman” also makes fun of leering, skirt-chasing men with exaggerated pranks on women.
“Gentleman” has become a viral sensation overnight, and judging from its popularity, PSY seems to have dodged the ‘one-hit-wonder’ label. The real question is how much longer PSY’s fame will last.