Psy’s Gangnam Style Follow Up Goes Global
The South Korean rapper’s follow up to worldwide sensation Gangnam Style looks to be following in its footsteps.
The sequel to one of the biggest pop records of last year – Psy’s Gangnam Style – has already had more than 22million hits on YouTube.
The South Korean rapper unveiled the video to his new track ‘Gentleman’ on Saturday sparking a massive wave of interest from his millions of fans worldwide.
His first hit Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to achieve a billion hits in December and the song has sold at least 5m copies worldwide.
Its success came off the back of a dance craze in which people from all kinds of backgrounds attempted to copy the moves, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and NASA astronauts.
The video for Gentleman also involves Psy performing a dance routine and there are already early signs that the track could become as popular as the last.
As well as the 22.5million people who have watched since Saturday, 220,000 had made comments and several people had posted reaction videos or alternative versions.
Gangnam Style is still the most watched ever on YouTube and now has 1.5bn hits – nearly twice as many as the next most watched which is Baby by Justin Bieber.
The track’s success has been boosted by the so-called flash mob phenomenon which occurs when groups of people take over a location to perform the routine.
People in the UK have been recorded performing the dance on London buses, in Trafalgar Square and at football matches.
But a recent challenge from the “Harlem Shake” global dance craze upped the ante for Gentleman, and the 35-year-old Psy has made it clear he was aware of the high expectations.
He expressed some concern about whether his follow up track will have any chance of repeating the success of his first.
Ahead of the unveiling, he told reporters: “Of course I feel more burden than before, because lots of people are watching. “(Today’s show) is a performance of thanks for the ‘Gangnam Style’ success.”
The video for Gentleman, whose refrain is “I’m a motherfather gentleman”, features a fast, hip-swinging dance by Psy in his trademark sunglasses and a variety of jackets.
The verses are accompanied by the rapper behaving rather rudely towards women which has led to fears it may spark copycat behaviour.
Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, graduated from Berklee College of Music in the United States but had a rocky decade in show business before Gangnam Style rocketed him to global fame.
His debut 2001 album, Psy from the Psycho World, ran into trouble with the authorities for “inappropriate content” in the lead song, which was seen as sexually suggestive. He was also charged with possession of marijuana in 2002.
He released five more albums.
Psy’s brash style – at Saturday’s concert, he danced to a Beyonce song in a skimpy bodysuit – contrasts sharply with the polished stars that dominate what is known as K-pop, pop music from South Korea.
A music industry white paper published by the Korean Creative Content Agency said sales of K-pop outside Korea surged 135% in 2011 to $196 million. In 2006, overseas sales were worth $16.7 million.
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