SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
The top summer song and the next big thing
Sep 7, 2012, 2:09 AM | Updated: 2:10 am
Carly Rae is so yesterday. The next world-wide sensation is a singer and dancer from South Korea named Psy.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” is the song of the summer. Billboard says the 26-year-old Canadian’s “infectious” pop song tops its annual Songs of Summer chart .
The list annually ranks the overall performance of hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between Memorial Day and Labor Day. As a reminder, here were the top songs of summer from 1985 to 2011 .
This is my favorite audio parody of “Call Me Maybe,” done by 97.3 KIRO FM morning show host Bill Radke, “Snoqualmie Baby.” He’s talented. I think he needs to share that talent of his by finishing the song, writing a few other parodies, and putting them together in an album.
I also like this video, performed by US Army Infantry Soldiers in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. It was directed, filmed, and edited by the troops as a morale boost.
Most of us are waaaaay over these songs. If you’re looking for the next world-wide sensation, it’s a singer and dancer from South Korea.
It’s big in social media and on YouTube with more than 113 million views, and The Atlantic writer Max Fisher recently analyzed the meaning and significance of the video.
The star of the “Gangnam Style” video is 34-year-old Park Jaesang who goes by the name Psy, short for psycho.
Psy has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country’s mandatory military service, and is not the most good-looking performer. His first album got him fined for inappropriate content and the second was banned.
Gangnam Style is a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district, an affluent and trendy area of Seoul.
The music video depicts Psy dancing at various locations in Gangnam. It’s a satirical song about the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild.
As you can imagine, there are now dozens and dozens of videos popping up with people doing their own version of the horse-trot-Gangnam-style dance.
Just for fun, try the dance today when no one’s looking.
By LINDA THOMAS
Photo, screen grab from Gangnam Style video
