PSY - Gangnam Style

About

Gangnam Style (강남 스타일) is a 2012 dance pop single written and performed by Korean pop singer Park Jae Sung, better known by his stage name PSY. Since its release in mid-July 2012, the highly entertaining music video has spawned hundreds of parodies and copycat dance videos on YouTube and surpassed Justin Bieber’s single “Baby” as the most watched video on YouTube with over one billion views as of December 21st, 2012.

Origin

The song “Gangnam Style” was written, produced, and recorded as the lead single of PSY 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 the sixth studio album of South Korean singer and rapper PSY, who is best known for his quick-witted sense of humor and comical dance moves. The song was released on July 15th, 2012 along with the music video via PSY’s official YouTube channel.

Upon its release, the song took off on virtually all Korean billboard charts, portal search sites and online music stores, but it began garnering international attention after the music video went viral on YouTube during the third week of July 2012. The video continued gaining viral momentum at an average rate of more than nine million views per day in the span of two months, surpassing Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos chart during the last week of August. By mid-September, PSY’s “Gangnam Style” overtook LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” as the most liked video on the site with more than 1.6 million likes.

The Horse Dance

The mass appeal of the music video has been attributed to its signature dance move known as “the horse-riding dance,” which combines the stylistic elements of shuffle dancing and hand movements resembling the posture of a horseback rider.