Psy makes triumphant return to Gangnam

Posted on : 2012-09-26 12:28 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Singer enjoying great success while planning follow-up to smash single “Gangnam Style”
 staff photographer)
staff photographer)

By Surh Jung-min, music correspondent  

“Oh, wow! So many people here. I feel like I should be singing.”

It was a very “Psy” entrance. These were the first, characteristic words out of his lips when he arrived at the press conference at the Ramada Seoul Hotel in the capital’s Gangnam district on Sept. 25. An international crowd of more than 200 reporters was jammed into his first press conference in South Korea since his song “Gangnam Style” became a worldwide smash - proof positive, it seemed, of his soaring brand value.

“It still feels weird, having my career peak twelve years after I became a singer,” said the 35-year-old musician, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, when asked for the reason for his success in the US market. “People online were calling it a ‘forced export.’ I didn’t plan for this [success] to happen, so I haven’t had any time to analyze it.”

He added that “laughter” was the main reason for the song’s positive reception.

“Koreans always play strange videos from overseas, too,” he said. “I think that’s how [Americans] saw it. It all started because I had a funny video. I’m a singer, a musical professional, so although it’s funny to succeed because you’re funny, I also kind of get it. Laughter is a feeling the whole world enjoys.”

He also said Americans had told him they liked the video because it reminded them of the “Austin Powers” comedies starring Mike Myers.

“I’ve always loved slapstick,” he said. “I think I was born to be a B actor.”

When asked what set him apart from the idol groups that K-Pop is mostly known for, he said, “What the record executives there told me was, ‘You’re as big as all of the K-Pop group members we’ve seen to date put together.’ They thought it was strange, that someone with my body and my face would be a singer. I went through a similar thing when I made my debut here in Korea. It’s not like I created any new genre or anything like that.”

He expressed the hope that his success would not have a negative impact on other K-Pop singers and producers - perhaps mindful of the frequent comparisons to the other acts that have attempted to break into the US market, including Wonder Girls.

“It really bothers me to see the attempts by acts before me being put down on the internet,” he said. “It was through the efforts of a lot of older and younger acts that K-Pop became a brand, and I ended up here today just through my video riding on that wave. All dares are beautiful.”

At the moment, “Gangnam Style” is ranked #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Is Psy rooting for it to go all the way?

“I never talked about it hitting #1, not even joking over drinks, and then this crazy thing happened,” he said. “When it entered the chart at #64, I cried tears of joy. And the very next week it was up to #11. I’m only human. I got my hopes up. If it does actually reach #1, I’m going to put up a stage where everyone can come and see, and I’m going to perform ‘Gangnam Style’ topless.”

The singer confessed that his US travels have been “lonely and difficult.”

“The most difficult thing is that I have to do it in English, which I’m not great at,” he said. “If I’m on TV and they ask me something, I have just a moment to translate it into Korean in my head, think of an answer, and then translate that back into English and say it. It’s really hard.

”And while all that’s going on, I also want to make people laugh. It makes my head hurt,“ he chuckled.

Whenever he was having a hard time, he drew inspiration from Korean internet articles and messages of support, he said. Describing the experience of appearing on the TV show "Ellen" to teach Britney Spears the "horse dance," he recalled, "I was shaking like a leaf, but thinking of all those people rooting for me and supporting me helped make me bold and shameless."

When asked about his future plans, he said he was in talks to release a new single or album in the US some time around November.

"It’s tough to do anything new when I’m as busy as I am now, so we’re looking at making something with my older stuff," he said.

According to Psy, the US record label initially suggested that he continue performing in Korean. "They said nobody could understand me, but that they really liked the sound of me rapping in Korean," he said. "They said it sounded ‘chewy.’ I’m grateful for that, but I do think the second single should be in English. At the moment, I’m thinking about my song ‘Champion.’"

Does he feel pressure about following up his hit? "Not as much as I thought I might," he said. "I think it’s more pressure coming out with my next single in Korea. After ‘Champion,’ there was a lot of pressure before ‘Gangnam Style’ took off. In the US, they haven’t seen anything but ‘Gangnam Style,’ so I feel a lot less pressure there."

When asked about his hopes and goals, the singer said, "I want to give them a real performance. I don’t just want the image of some weirdo from Korea who dances like a horse. I want those people to say, ‘Korean singers really know how to put on a show. They’ll take the mike for four hours and just have a great time.’"

He added that he might be staging performances in New York and Los Angeles in the not-too-distant future. "It probably won’t be this year, though, since I have to go to Europe in December," he said.

After fielding questions for an hour and a half, he made a very Psy exit, offering another look at the horse dance that made him a superstar.

"Gangnam Style" is expected to break the Top 10 on the first weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart of October, which is due to be unveiled on Sept. 28. The song was listed at #11 on the chart for the week of Sept. 29, which came out on Sept. 21. It had rocketed up 53 places from the week before, when it entered the Sept. 22 chart at #64. Meanwhile, the song currently sits at #3 on the UK Top 40 Singles Chart.

The reason the song has ranked so highly in the US and UK, even though Psy has not officially released an album in either country, is because a large percentage of the singles charts rankings comes from online downloads and radio airplay.

On YouTube, the epicenter of the "Gangnam Style" mega-earthquake, the video had more than 267 million views as of Sept. 25, making it the top-viewed clip of the week. It even entered the Guinness Book with more than 2.6 million "likes," the most ever.

Psy is heading back to the US in mid-October. His current plans have been going back and forth between South Korea and the US at two-week intervals. After his Sept. 25 press conference, he headed to a festival at Kyonggi University. He said he has around twenty events scheduled before departing once again for North America.

The singer is also scheduled to give a free concert on Oct. 2 in conjunction with the social networking site Cyworld.

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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