On July 15, 2012, the delirious clip of a certain Psy came to light, Gangnam Style , poking fun at the wealthy Gangnam district of Seoul. The title of this South Korean artist moved the entire world and chained records. But he also paved the way for other Korean artists, heralding the wave of K-pop that would sweep the world and help usher in the streaming revolution.
• Chain Records
Four months after its premiere, the clip had already accumulated 805 million views on YouTube, reaching the record for the most viewed video, a place it held for more than three years. Gangnam Style it was also the first video in history to reach the symbolic threshold of one billion views on the platform. The clip has so far been viewed nearly 4.5 billion times.
• A viral dance
His trademark “horseback riding” dance has spawned a host of parodies and emulations: on prime-time television in the United States, in an English football stadium, and even in the White House, the president of the United States of America. he era of Barack Obama having declared that his daughters had taught him “a very good Gangnam Style”.
• The streaming revolution
Gangnam Style demonstrated to the music industry the power of influence of online platforms and social media, especially for non-Western artists who do not perform in English.
“Traditional marketing and advertising playbooks have been thrown out the window,” said Bernie Cho, president of the Seoul-based creative agency DFSB and an expert on South Korea’s music industry.
In 2012, the streaming industry was still in its infancy, providing less than 7% of music revenue worldwide, according to music industry federation IFPI.
Ten years later, streaming is the main source of income for the global music industry -65% in 2021, according to IFPI- with content available online through subscription services, YouTube and/or short video applications such as TikTok .
The buzz generated by gangnam Style and viral phenomena like Harlem Shake it also prompted Billboard in 2013 to transform the way it achieves its rankings, adding streams on YouTube and other platforms to traditional record sales and radio airplay numbers.
• A beachhead for K-pop in Europe
Finally, the incredible success of Gangnam Style has helped pave the way for artists from all over the world to not only publish their music, but also earn online ad revenue and get booked for gigs.
Gangnam Style also rocked South Korea, overnight becoming the country’s biggest cultural export and a source of national pride. Because if nowadays groups like BTS or Blackpink are known and adored all over the world, the K-pop groups that tried to break through internationally before 2012 had only had regional success in Asia, without being able to establish themselves in lucrative Western markets. like the United States.
If he did not find identical success with his subsequent titles and albums, Psy therefore had the merit of playing the talent scout for K-pop artists and Korean culture, which today permeates all sectors, with his series (Squid Game), his comics (Webtoons), his cinema and his kitchen.
Source: BFM TV
