Posted on 07/15/2017 2:29:54 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
"Gangnam Style" dethroned as top YouTube video
NEW YORK: Gangnam Style, the quirky South Korean video that spawned a global dance craze and went so viral it nearly broke YouTube, has finally been dethroned as the most watched video.
After four and a half years as YouTube's most seen video, "Gangnam Style" slipped late Monday to number two, replaced by "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.
"Gangnam Style," a satirical take on the nouveau riche residents of the Seoul district by the same name, surprised even its singer, Psy, with its sudden global ascent in 2012.
Psy, who until "Gangnam Style" was little known outside of South Korea, found an avid fan base with the video's equestrian-style dance moves set to its infectious pop beat.
The video became the first to reach one billion views on YouTube and caused the site's engineers to scramble to make changes when it topped 2.1 billion views, previously thought to be the maximum possible.
As of early Tuesday US time, "Gangnam Style" had 2.895 billion views on YouTube, a notch under "See You Again," which was featured in the 2015 action movie "Furious 7."
"See You Again" intersperses scenes from the film with Wiz Khalifa rapping and Charlie Puth singing as they overlook a sandy coast. The song was a tribute to Paul Walker, an actor in "The Fast and Furious" film franchise who died in a car wreck.
Psy's triumph was all the more striking due to the overwhelming dominance of English-language music on global charts.
In a new example, "Despacito" -- a Spanish-language reggaeton song by Puerto Rican star Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee -- has reigned for nine weeks at the top of the US Billboard singles chart.
(Excerpt) Read more at nst.com.my ...
Psy does another version of Gangnam Style featuring Hyuna so you cound add in almost another 700,000,000 views Psy featuring Hyuna Gangnam Style
I like his most recent one "New Face"
Psy performing it with MC Hammer is great.
I shall check it out.
Did Fonsi jump the shark?
I liked it, was that in Cuba?
Didn’t know Gangnam was the Rodeo Drive area of Seoul.
“slipped late Monday to number two, replaced by “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.”
They’re kidding me, right? I just watched that video and it’s the usual castrato warbling with the purposely cracked voice before a word is sung, and then the athletic display of seeing how high the castrated male voice can sound. And then to give it some “street” the requisite gangsta rapper is brought in to spew gibberish while flipping his arms around slapping his chest and belly as if he has an incurable tick and all the lemmings eat it up. How many times can people take this garbage? All the new music today, it’s always the same, one lame cliche after another after another.
I watched the new top video, and it is a decent remake of an old song interspersed with rap. I couldn’t even watch it to the end.
It’s silly, but when I spent a month in Seoul last year, I got all excited when I took the subway and the train passed through the Gangnam station. Not that I actually stopped there or anything... but just going through the station was exciting. When I came home, I told my son that I was THERE!
I also found out that it is easy to cause Koreans to spontaneously speak English: just open a map near them. (I was too polite to tell the guy who showed me an interactive map on his phone that I couldn’t make any sense of it because it was labeled in Korean.)
LOL, hadn’t planned on watching it anyway, but thanks for the vivid description.
As a side note: Why is it that so many TV shows these days end with some ultra-whiny song? Very annoying.
LOL! Hahahaha. There are no baritones any more. They all sing like pubescent girly-men. I think that started with the BeeGees.
No Barry Whites, Dick Haymes, Billy Ekstines, Johnny Hartmans, or Joe Williams.
Hmm. That video rode the top of the charts for five years without a single click from me.
I only know of it, due to all the chitter chatter online.
It’s crazy, they all sound the same. If I read a promotion about a new male singer, I know exactly what he is going to sound like before I hear him sing one note, and I’m always right: A castrato who then goes into showing how high he can sing like it’s an athletic competition. The Bee Gees or Michael Jackson may have had a lot to do with it, but I think it’s more about being conformist. None of them will take chances about being different or maybe it’s the record companies who won’t? I don’t know, but todays music is absolutely unlistenable to me today. The only thing on the radio is either talk radio, maybe one station for classical or jazz and the rest if it is castratos combined with gangsta rap.
Psy was basically a small time operation. Since he was not even a top star back then, it may have been more or less one man operation. He did not expect it to go viral except may be a local hit. He did not do any heavy promo.
On the other hand, these recent entertainers are launched by big business operation from the start.
As always has been the case, true original content will be come out of virtually unknown talent with little financial backing. I suspect these big media operation drowns out and overshadow new burgeoning talents. We have to wait until the reigning model collapses and it opens up a new opportunity. Since these corporate guys are good at efficiently pushing their product even when the content becomes stale, it may take longer than we hope.
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