Gangnam Style: Psy's Out-of-this-world Phenomenon
Hey sexy lady... With his horse, reins and lasso, Psy has not only attracted that stylish girl but prompted masses to gallop across the planet and in space.
Gangnam Style has become the first video to clock up more than one billion views on YouTube. YouTube's owner, Google, said the video had been watched seven million to 10 million times a day on average. To the joy of many, the music video overtook the previous record holder, teenage sensation Justin Bieber's music video Baby on November 24th last year. Likewise, "Gangnam Style" clip holds the Guinness World Record for the most "liked" song ever. Even Nasa's Johnson Space Center gave wide attention to this video. A true sensation!
The South Korean dance track has sparked hundreds of copycat clips, from members of the British army, Thai navy and Minecraft gamers, among others. One outstanding video is called "Psy- London style", and it imitates the original music video but instead it is recorded in London. A commemorative video "Rewind YouTube Style 2012" also focuses mainly on Psy's hit. Likewise, it has prompted the upload of countless parodies of the music video, plus dance tutorials to learn Psy's wiggle hip dance. One industry watcher said that having so many people continuously posting their own versions of Gangnam Style had played a huge part in the clip's success.
"Psy's success is a great testament to the universal appeal of catchy music – and er, great equine dance moves," wrote Kevin Allocca, YouTube trends manager, on the service's blog.
"I've seen a statistic which reckons the one song will have generated something like $8m by the end of the year from money that comes directly from YouTube through advertising plus download sales, its uses in adverts and TV programmes," Chris Cooke, business editor of the CMU music news site, told the BBC.
"It shows that YouTube –which is a free-to-use as a promotional platform for the music labels – can lead to substantial income. Should every artist be trying to think of a funny video that will go viral and be mimicked? I don't know whether it's a template that can be copied, but it certainly shows how quickly an eye-catching clip can spread thanks to social networks and YouTube."
On an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, with relevant guests from the showbiz such as Britney Spears and Simon Cowell, Psy was invited as a surprise to teach Britney Spears the horse dance since she had previously tweeted she wanted to learn it.