Pretty odd

Things some of us have missed

[Andem]

Perhaps I don't live in the right country or perhaps I'm completely oblivious to current trends and ignore my Facebook feed too often, but I've never seen this "Gangnam Style" video by "PSY".

I spend an average of 12-16 hours online per day and am constantly connected with my phone or PC for virtually every waking hour... since 1992, on and off.

Is it odd I've never heard* of this video which has been viewed 1 billion times? Am I missing something?

* I've seen mentions of it a few times on the news in Canada and the US over the past week, but I live in Germany for 5/6th of the year, so perhaps that's why.

ps. I'm very well aware of the death of Kim Jong-Il, the missile tests happening in North Korea and the fact their new(ish) government recently launched a satellite into space.. still, YouTube's most viral video is news to me :P

[GaryK]

Wow, I'm not sure what to say! :P Even my 91-year old father who only has internet so he can use his captioned telephone has read about it in the NYTimes. ;)

[Andem]

GaryK, I was quite stunned that my 88 year-old grandmother knew about this supposed sensation.

I *do* read the first and second page of a German newspaper, Handelsblatt, every day at breakfast. I also tune into the Tagesschau and BBC World News every now and then in the evening. It is only in Canada on CTV or in the US on CNN/NBC that this guy is front page.

I'm very surprised that I've never even seen the video or heard of it until I landed in Philadelphia.. I still haven't watched it.

[GaryK]

A quick search on Handelsblatt turned-up a Gangnam-style Christmas lights video. Not sure if it was on the first or second page though. ;)

You really should watch the original as it was pretty good. It's just been so overdone in the past few months that it's kind of irritating to watch now.

Still, my favorite take-off on the original was done by a Jesuit priest on the TWiT Network. On YouTube you can find it by searching for: Fr. Robert Ballecer Gangnam Style.

[Samizdata]

Am I missing something?

You won't know until you look at the video.

But then it will be too late.

You may well decide that you weren't missing anything at all.

But you won't have missed it anymore.

...

[jecasc]

but I live in Germany for 5/6th of the year, so perhaps that's why.

Here is the link to the official video on youtube:

[youtube.com...]

And all I can see here in Germany is this:

"Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany, because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights. "

[en.wikipedia.org...]

[lucy24]

One billion views eh. Just goes to confirm what I've long said. I don't need to watch news or take a newspaper, because if something happens, someone will sooner or later mention it.

And if nobody does, it can't have been all that important.

:: insert four minutes and thirteen seconds here ::

Oh. Ugh. Gag. Further sound effects.

That was the. Worst. Thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen. In. My. Life.

And I had to watch it all the way through in case there turned out to be a punch line.

:: crawling back for a purifying dose of Donald Suluk ::

[engine]

Andem, i've not seen the video, but i've seen snapshots being played on the news. Having seen those snippets I don't need to see the video, and i'm sure my life is the richer for not wasting my time.

As I understand it, it went viral through social media, and i've seen some appearances in various feeds. Much of the online world is now connected, so one could argue that it's showing the 'power' of social media.

[brotherhood of LAN]

8 millenia of man hours put into watching that video... hard to believe.

[Old_Honky]

What does "Gangnam" mean? Is it bad pronunciation of "Gangman" (which would make slightly more sense).

I've only seen snippets on the news when I've been too slow on the remote, it is pretty crass but in lots of ways not much worse than the sort of homogenized "pop" that is churned out nowadays by the minimal talent "superstars" produced by the proliferating karaoke style TV shows. Simon Cowell has contributed greatly to the dumbing down of popular music.

[sem4u]

Apparently "Gangnam" is a region of South Korea. I hated this when I first heard it, but you cannot deny that it is catchy.

[sonjay]

I too had never seen the video, but just a few days ago, I specifically went to YouTube to find it and watch it, because I had been seeing references to it absolutely everywhere.

I was left cold. I have no idea what all the fuss is about.

Catchy? No. Annoying and mindless? A big YES.

[LifeinAsia]

What does "Gangnam" mean?

It stands for Gangnam-gu (Gangnam District), one of the administrative districts that make up Seoul. A generation ago it was mostly farmland and orchards. Now it's mostly apartment blocks, office buildings, and the most expensive land in the country. (Our first office was located there.) Literally, "gangnam" means south of the river.

Having lived in Gangnam-gu for a number of years, I find the video quite funny for the way it makes fun of all the posers in the district.

If you don't understand it, it's a lot like the way most people outside of SoCal didn't get Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" in the 1980s.

Oh, and I cringe every time I hear people pronounce it wrong! The a's should sound like "ah" (similar to the sound you make when you visit the doctor and stick out your tongue), not like the "a" in "cat."