Congratulations, PSY: You can officially consider yourself a two-hit wonder.
It took nearly two months for the South Korean rapper’s breakthrough single, “Gangnam Style,” to garner 100 million views on YouTube. His follow-up, “Gentleman,” achieved the same feat in just four days — and a mere week after its YouTube debut, the second video has risen to the top of the video sharing site’s most-viewed chart. In second place? “Gangnam Style,” naturally.
A major South Korean broadcaster says it has banned PSY’s new music video because the rapper is shown abusing public property.
The “Gentleman” video opens with PSY kicking a cone that says “no parking.”
State-funded KBS said Thursday the scene doesn’t meet its standards as a public broadcaster. Two spokesmen say KBS has banned other videos for similar reasons in the past. READ FULL STORY »
Around this time last year, PSY was strictly a Korean concern. No more: the international sensation now has another viral hit on his hands with the “Gentleman” video, which has amassed more than 100 million views on only its fourth day on YouTube.
The fast success of “Gentleman,” which was released on Saturday, far outstrips the initial performance of “Gangnam Style,” which hit YouTube on July 15 of last year and didn’t pass the 100-million mark until Sept. 4. And while it’s been panned by many critics, “Gentleman” seems to be fairly well-liked: the video’s YouTube page has more than a million thumbs-ups from viewers, while the number of thumbs-downs had yet to top 200,000 at the time of this post.
The new clip, Reuters reports, racked up more than 20 million hits in the 24 hours following its release — unprecedented for a music video. (Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” for comparison, held the previous record by earning 8 million views on the day of its debut.)
Of course, “Gentleman” still has a long way to go before it can overtake “Gangnam Style,” which famously became the first YouTube video to surpass a billion views last December. In fact, that number has since risen above the 1.5 billion mark, giving it a secure lead as YouTube’s most-viewed video of all time. Yet “Gentleman” still has a chance: A Wall Street Journal analysis predicts that the new video has a fair shot at reaching the one-billion milestone even faster than “Gangnam Style” did.
But those two songs aren’t PSY’s only online hits. On YouTube’s chart of its most-viewed videos, PSY’s collaboration with fellow K-pop star HyunA ranks at No. 19 with more than 330 million views. The man, it seems, is on a roll.
So since everybody else is doing it, why don’t you give in and be the 100,000,001st person to view PSY’s “Gentleman” video, conveniently embedded below? Come on, you know you want to:
Image Credit: Marco Del Grande/Getty Images
K-pop satirist PSY became one of the great internet mega-memes of 2012 with “Gangnam Style,” his cuckoo ode to trashy decadence and horse-trot dancing. But somewhere around the time that the Glee kids started performing “Gangnam Style,” a question began to linger in the background. Could PSY ever replicate his success? Or was he destined for one-gimmick-wonder obscurity, right next to those guys who did the Macarena and those other dudes who let the dogs out? Well, his long-awaited-probably-by-someone single, “Gentleman” popped up on the Internet today. There’s no video yet, and since PSY has already promised the video will include some kind of dance move, “Gentleman” is half-finished at best. Still, give it a listen: READ FULL STORY »
When it comes to all the forms of entertainment in the Super Bowl telecast, music completes the package. No, we’re not talking about Beyonce’s halftime show. We’re talking about the tunes in all those commercials.
The music in this year’s Big Game ads was a mix of recent hits and decades-old classics. Appropriate for one of America’s biggest partying days, the song choices were mostly upbeat and celebratory, but there were a few more emotional tracks as well.
Here EW presents to you a special edition of TV Jukebox with those Super Bowl commercials in the spotlight. Check out our picks and Spotify playlist below. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Tonight marked the airing of the 31st “Christmas in Washington” gala, the country’s annual seasonal celebration benefiting the Children’s National Medical Center. Every year, the event brings in the lion’s share of D.C. VIPs, including the POTUS, the FLOTUS, the VP, and this year… PSY.
But we’ll get to that in time. First, to open up the TNT telecast of the event (which took place Dec. 9), was Diana Ross. Backed by a merry, scarf-clad chorus, the legendary diva opened the night with a tone-setting medley of seasonal standbys that included Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas,” “Sleigh Ride,” Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” “Jingle Bells,” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Barack and Michelle Obama and their family watched on with smiles as wide as the National Mall.
With the tone set for the evening, host Conan O’Brien took the stage. “Good evening Mr. President, Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice President, and friends,” opened O’Brien, who’s helmed this shindig before. “It’s good to see that both the president and I were given a second term. Congratulations to both of us!” The joke gave Barack a good laugh, though Sasha didn’t seem amused. How irrelevant does it make you feel to realize that Conan — Conan! — is just another old person to the younger First Daughter?
First Daughterly approval aside, though, O’Brien powered through his monologue, milking jokes out of red-state marks like Honey Boo Boo and Speaker John Boehner’s complexion, as well throwing a broader barb regarding the fiscal cliff. (It’s unnerving that that joke is still relevant two weekends after the event’s actual taping.)
But enough with the gags: O’Brien soon surrendered the stage to Smash star Megan Hilty, who ably delivered a few soothing verses of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Which was nice and all, but the Bombshell bombshell couldn’t hold a Yankee candle to the next act: top-billed Demi Lovato, who delivered an impassioned “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Simply put, the X Factor judge nailed it.
O’Brien then introduced the next entertainer, singer Chris Mann, who may or may not just be Michael Bublé in disguise. With help from the Naval Academy Glee Club, he touchingly dove into “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” — a wise, fitting selection for a nation in wartime.
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery brought the mood back up with a rollicking run through Elvis Prestley’s “It’s Christmas Time Pretty Baby,” which prompted some measured headbanging from the President and the First Lady. (The daughters, however, once again proved to be tougher to please. Maybe they had finals on their minds?)
The next performer, though, was one that a billion people of all ages can recognize: K-pop sensation PSY. Even Coco couldn’t help but chuckle as he introduced the YouTube-crushing rapper, who came out in a glitter-festooned red sweater and similarly blaring pants.
PSY can now make the same claim McDonald’s does: Over a billion served.
That’s because PSY, that Korean Big Mac of a sensation, has seen his “Gangnam Style” video pass the one-billion mark in YouTube views, becoming the first video to ever reach that milestone. The clip, which the K-pop star posted in June, rakes in seven million views a day on average, according to Google (which owns YouTube).
For some perspective, consider the fact that PSY’s number of YouTube views — which YouTube currently clocks at 1,000,382,639 – is approximately one-seventh of the total world population. Of course, that doesn’t mean that many individual people have actually seen the video; no doubt, at least 750 million of those views come from haggard music bloggers embedding the clip countless times into posts like this one.
Still, it’s quite an achievement for the once-obscure Korean rapper. One expert told the BBC that he “reckons” PSY’s earned “something like $8 million” this year on the power of the “Gangnam Style” video alone.
Help PSY reach a trillion views by giving the clip another play with the video below:
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Man, Carly Rae Jepsen never gave us this much trouble.
As we noted last week, K-Pop sensation PSY got into some hot water when word broke out that he once rapped about “killing Yankees…slowly and painfully” in a years-old anti-American rap called “Dear America.” He promptly issued an apology for his role in the song, which CNN reports was originally written by a South Korean group called N.E.X.T.
But that didn’t stop the “Gangnam Style” star from showing up in our nation’s capital last night for the annual “Christmas in Washington” concert, despite the wishes of those who signed this invalid petition. With President Obama in attendance, a sequin-spangled Psy took the stage and wisely opted to played it safe by performing “Gangnam Style” for his prestigious audience.
Maybe there’s more to K-Pop breakout PSY than natty suits and goofy dancing?
According to Busanhaps.com, the “Gangnam Style” rapper performed a song called “Dear America” at a 2004 protest concert which contains the lyrics “Kill those f—ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives/ Kill those f—ing Yankees who ordered them to torture/ Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers/ Kill them all slowly and painfully.”
Anti-U.S. military sentiment is not uncommon in South Korea, and the song was reportedly written and performed as a reaction to the death of a Korean missionary in Iraq. According to the report, this concert wasn’t PSY’s first time at the anti-military rodeo, either: He was apparently quite outspoken when, in 2002, a pair of American soldiers were accused of negligent homicide after their vehicle struck and killed a 13-year old Korean girl; the soldiers were later acquitted of that crime.
There’s already a petition going about rescinding PSY’s invitation the National Building Museum’s Christmas in Washington concert with President Obama this Sunday, and neither PSY nor his camp have commented yet.
It’s unfortunate that this news comes hot on the heels of the revelation that “Gangnam Style”—which began as an in-joke lampooning a very specific sect of Korean culture—netted the rapper around $8 million in digital downloads and streams, and recently became the most-watched YouTube video of all time, beating out Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”
UPDATE: Through his publicist, PSY released the following statement:
“As a proud South Korean who was educated in the United States and lived there for a very significant part of my life, I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world. The song I was featured in—eight years ago—was part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls that was part of the overall antiwar sentiment shared by others around the world at that time. While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self, I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted. I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words.
“I have been honored to perform in front of American soldiers in recent months—including an appearance on the Jay Leno show specifically for them—and I hope they and all Americans can accept my apology. While it’s important that we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so. In my music, I try to give people a release, a reason to smile. I have learned that thru music, our universal language we can all come together as a culture of humanity and I hope that you will accept my apology.”
Read More on EW.com:
‘Gangnam Style’ becomes most-watched video on YouTube — ever
Madonna and PSY mash up ‘Gangnam Style,’ ‘Give It 2 Me’ live — VIDEO
Backwash: What pop culture chews up and spits back out — ‘Gangnam Style’
