OPPA GANGNAM STYLE: Revealed

By: Dyan Sheryl Carolino

HEY SEXY LADEH! Have you heard of the newest dance craze?

As the song went viral on Youtube, it garnered a staggering 100 million views within 51 days since it was first posted last July 15—"faster than Justin Bieber's 'Baby' and Rebecca Black's 'Friday'", according to The Daily Dot. Now, it climbed to more than 125 million views and has taken the world by a storm.

Oppa Gangnam Style, a music video popularized by Korean pop superstar PSY, reached the international scene only days after it was released.

Korean singer Park Jae Sung, also known as PSY in the entertainment industry, earned recognition from different countries all over the world after the release of his new dance pop single. PSY's Oppa Gangnam Style features "the horse-riding dance", his signature move and the latest dance craze following "Dougie" in 2011. It is coined as such by PSY himself because it is "as if you are riding on an invisible horse". The move is performed by putting the left arm in front at a 90 degree angle to the right while the right arm waves clockwise in the air and legs alternately hopping at a single-single-double pattern. The one-of-a-kind comical dance made the music video appeal to both men and women, which in turn, made it so popular to people all over the world despite the language unknown to many.

According to the NY Daily News, "'Oppa,' which literally means 'older brother,' is an affectionate term girls use to address older guy friends or a boyfriend." 'Gangnam Style' on the other hand, refers to the high-end lifestyle of people living in the Gangnam district, a place in Korea which is considered as the most affluent city in the Asian country. The song means that he has Gangnam style and tries to woo his ideal woman, classy and graceful—"a girl with that kind of twist", as the song says in its English translation.

Major news media outlets such as CNN and ABC News featured the music video, contributing more to its increasing Youtube views and international fame. Another popular website known as 9gag transformed PSY's Oppa Gangnam Style into an internet meme, a humorous idea or a modern emoticon that spreads by online websites and blogs.

At the height of its popularity, Oppa Gangnam Style became the most talked about in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. PSY gained more fans, most of them from the American online community. Even famous celebrities and artists such as T-Pain and Josh Groban, in their tweets, said they admired him. He was also invited to perform live for a debut performance in the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards with Host Kevin Hart last September 6.

There has been a rumor that Justin Bieber is interested to partner with PSY in a music video after YG Entertainment, PSY’s record label, announced on its official site that he has signed a contract with Justin Bieber’s record label, Schoolboy Records.

In a Youtube comment by a certain user named EntropyKC he says, “Since the 12th of June there have been 5 million seconds, and (now) this has 125 million views. This video has been watched, on average, about 25 times every second since it was posted.”