Author Topic: Gangnam Style - silly dance craze or clever social satire?  (Read 300 times)

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Offline Zen

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The whole "Gangnam Style" thing seems pretty silly to me, but I ran across this comment that made me wonder if it is a bit deeper: (I don't know if tony in the first sentence is a typo for tiny or some term I don't know.)
"Gangnam is a tony Seoul neighborhood, and Park's "Gangnam Style" video lampoons its self-importance and ostentatious wealth, with Psy playing a clownish caricature of a Gangnam man. That alone makes it practically operatic compared to most K-Pop. But I spoke with two regular observers of Korean culture to find out what I was missing, and it turns out that the video is rich with subtle references that, along with the song itself, suggest a subtext with a surprisingly subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society. That message would be awfully mild by American standards -- this is no "Born in the U.S.A." -- but South Korea is a very different place, and it's a big deal that even this gentle social satire is breaking records on Korean pop charts long dominated by cotton candy."

It came from "The Atlantic" web site.

According to Wikipedia: "Both the Greater Gangnam Area and Gangnam itself are widely known for its heavily concentrated wealth and high standard of living, which has been compared to cities such as Beverly Hills, California."

Interesting... so this pop craze that is literally all over the world is actually thinly veiled social satire? That makes it much better, IMO.
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Offline Genichiro

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I would have never guessed that by watching the video alone. Now I can see it with a different light; amazing how that works out, isn't it? :yo !:
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Offline Cirno

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And now I can that I learned something new and interesting today!