Review: PSY's Gangnam Style

Review: PSY's Gangnam Style

OPA GANGNAM STYLE! This song is infectious, I'm not going to lie. I started doing the dance in my Calculus class and pretty much started a flash mob.

But anyways, on to the quality of the music itself.

First, a little look at the lyrics. This seems like a nonsensical thing to do, because all of them, except for the "Ayyyy, sexy lady" of the chorus, are in Korean. Once you translate them, you get things like: "A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays/A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes/A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all/A sensible girl like that. I'm a guy/A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays/A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes/A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles/That kind of guy."

Interesting, very interesting. Well played, PSY. And not the kind of lyrics that one would think of when they hear this song. When I watched the video, I thought he was like some kind of Korean Weird Al Yankovic.

I'm kind of liking this song, actually. It's not the most musically advanced. It's not extremely deep - although PSY has stated that it's a satire of Korean pop culture. But it's endearing in spite of itself.

I value lyric quality and music quality over catchiness, danciness, and other made up words. But every now and then (about once a year), there will be a popular song that makes me love it, making me feel like a hypocrite. Gangnam Style is this. It's just fun, pure, unadulterated, silly fun. I like it, shockingly.

My question is how this mockery of KPOP, with only two English words in it has become so sensational in America. I guess we'll never know. But the song is harmless, and I've listened to it many times without getting tired of it. It's no Nirvana, no Fiona Apple, no Mat Kearney, no Red Hot Chili Peppers. But it definitely beats out the sex-obsessed, tinny, party-til-you-drop tunes of Rhianna, Chris Brown, et cetera.

Grade: B