GANGNAM DANCE
The cultural phenomenon that is K-Pop can usually be recognised collectively by two common characteristics – catchy tunes and choreographed dance moves. The melody is by no means limited to K-Pop and is the same formula for any performer in pursuit of a hit record. However, when the song is in a language deemed unintelligible by most of its listeners outside Korea, it’s especially crucial for the song to have a luring effect with its tune to compensate for the lyrics. Korean pop songs tend to emphasise song words in English as a sort of lifeline thrown at listeners who might otherwise struggle with a complete misunderstanding of the song. While the actual intent of including an abundance of English words in Korean songs may serve a purpose of appearing international to its Korean listeners, it could be argued that this lifeline of familiar words is installed as a way of connecting with listeners beyond Korea’s borders.
The dance steps associated with a song also compensate for the foreign lyrics. Teenagers all over the world, from Taiwan to Peru, learn the dance steps obsessively and a Korean boy band can become recognisable by its trademark choreography as opposed to its vocals. The song then becomes the background music for the dance steps and the vocals become somewhat tertiary compared to the dance moves and the music. In order for a dance craze to catch on, it needs to be unique yet repetitive (for it needs to be easy to learn) and distinguishable from other similar songs of the same genre. Following that, the dance needs to be publicly endorsed by someone who is able to set a trend – and the rest is history.
Let’s cast our minds back to 1996 when the world was engulfed in the dance craze of the hit single Macarena. The origins of the dance are said to have evolved from cruise ships that toured the Caribbean and stopped in places like Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The Spanish duo, Los Del Rio, soon incorporated the dance into their video clip for the song at around the same time that the song was being picked up in Puerto Rico as an unofficial theme song for a political campaign. Dance moves and catchy tunes tend to move in the same direction as other tradable commodities and in the case of Puerto Rico, word soon spread to the mainland where it was eventually used in sporting events and minor public campaigns across the United States. While the Internet was by this stage in existence, there was no real social media to ignite its viral success. In the absence of sites like YouTube, it was television that spread the word of this new dance craze and as was the way with thousands of other newly discovered acts from around the world, the United States was the springboard that launched Los Del Rio into the stratosphere.
The difference between Macarena and Gangnam Style is the speed in which the latter is able to accelerate whereas in the days before the birth of Twitter and Facebook, it required months and months for the Macarena dance craze to really take off. Neither song relies on its language to increase sales, although Macarena is sung in a language, like Italian, that has an array of history to back it up. It’s not like Macarena was the first Spanish language song to top the US charts. That record goes to Los Lobos in 1987 for their version of La Bamba (the original version only reached number 22 for Ritchie Valens in 1958). In actual fact, one of the very first Spanish language singles to really break into the American charts was a song called El Watusi, which was a top 20 hit for Ray Barretto back in 1963 and was also a dance craze that followed the Twist, made famous by Chubby Checker. So as you can see, the Macarena was not the first Spanish single backed up by a dance routine – and it won’t be the last.
In the same way that the Macarena dance was made famous in football stadiums and political conventions across the States, similar events have fuelled popularity in the dance moves of Gangnam Style. While the song had started to gain momentum in the Twittersphere as early as July 2012, it wasn’t until the rapper’s appearance on the Ellen deGeneres Show that the craze really fired off. Prior to that, there was the MTV Music Awards appearance where Psy performed the dance in the company of famed comedian Kevin Hart. Those appearances, together with increasing mentions on Twitter by a range of celebrities, were the second phase – the follow-up of the viral YouTube clip that first introduced the song and its dance moves to become the most liked YouTube clip in history with over 315 million views as of the first day of October 2012.
Unlike the dance moves of many K-Pop artists, Psy has opted for something more humorous. Let’s be honest – he’s no competition for some of the pretty boys that currently rule the K-Pop wave and at the age of 34, he’s about a decade older than most of his K-Pop peers. It takes a certain look to be able to get away with a serious dance routine in a culture that emphasises appearance over singing ability. The dance moves are tongue-in-cheek, easily parodied and as there appears to be no copyright protection for this track, a whole sub-culture of Gangnam Style versions has emerged on YouTube. At least the style of dancing remains incorporated in each parody so it appears the main selling point of the song – the dance move – has succeeded in transfixing itself in the minds of copycat spin-offs in the same way that the Macarena became something of a trademark.