How good is Gangnam Style

So if we are honest none of us really know that much about Korean culture and when you think about modern Korean society I bet Psy and his catchy Gangnam Style is what first comes to mind.

Gangnam is the hip trendy upmarket district in Seoul and you wonder if Psy is taking the piss with his celebration of the lavish Gangnam lifestyle. Either way the world loved it and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon even hailed the song as a force for world peace.

The phenomenon that was Gangnam Style went viral and from its release in 2012 it was the most watched YouTube video being viewed in excess of 3 billion times, until overtaken in 2017 by someone I have never heard off. 

There is just a chance I am getting too immersed in the local culture - I have adopted local K Pop band BTS as my boy band so obviously I went nuts when I saw them emblazoned in this bus. Look closely and you see I have gotten myself a hand fan emblazoned with their image. Takes me back to my Bay City Roller days.

K-Pop

Popular music sung in the Korean language, K-Pop is a  mixture of pop, rock, hip hop, R&B and electronic genres. Performers are young and beautiful, and cute boy and girls bands abound. They all have attitude, and they show it.

Is K-Pop style over substance ?

But do the on-trend haircuts and highly mannered outfits hide a darker world. Young artists are locked into binding contracts by management agents and undergo regimented training programs, spending many hours each day learning music, dance, foreign languages and other skills in preparation for their K-Pop debut. Criticism is that K-Pop is not a spontaneous pop culture but a government led orchestrated commercial plan with no ties to the traditional Korean identity.

While it may be formulaic it is a formula that works. And when Asia finally wakes up and decides to emulate Eurovision and produce Asiavision I reckon K-Pop will dominate. It will be the Sweden to J-Pop's Belarus ! I long for the day when we have Asiavision - Australia can compete and just like England no one will vote for us. New Zealand can be Ireland, loved by everyone but never winning because they don't want to pay up for hosting duties.