Project 3 Pop Culture Across Cultures Context & Description South Korean pop artist Psy’s smash hit single “Gangnam Style” is more than just a song. It is a cultural phenomenon. The video has gone viral on YouTube, garnering over 600 MILLION hits in just three months, becoming the third-most viewed video on the website (YouTube.com). “Gangnam Style” has been remade and parodied by hundreds of people all around the world. Psy’s popularity has crossed over from South Korea to many countries including the United States. He has granted interviews to the Today Show and the Ellen DeGeneres Show, danced “Gangnam Style” with Britney Spears, and become one of the most popular Halloween costumes of 2012. And through this buzz in the United States, one thing remains the same: the song is sung in Korean (not English). “Gangnam Style” is one of the many K-Pop (Korean Pop) songs in what Chinese journalists called the Korean wave (韓流), “a phenomenon that refers to the onslaught of South Korean entertainment in Asia and, more recently, in other parts of the world” (Valerio). Despite differences in language, Psy’s song is now a mainstay in popular (pop) culture in the United States and beyond. However, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is definitely not the first K-Pop song to exist: groups like 2NE1 and BIGBANG are certainly popular in Korea, but they did not make as big of a splash as Psy’s hit. What was it that made “Gangnam Style” so popular? Why Psy? Why now? Is it Psy’s appearance? The dance associated with the song? The music itself? The lyrics? The splashy, fun music video? Or is it the catchy concept, “Dress classy and dance cheesy”? And what might be the influence of this song on K-Pop music in the US in the future? The purpose of this project is to explore the nature of popularity by examining a transnational flow of pop culture--a situation that requires the negotiation of different values, assumptions and tastes. What makes a popular artifact from one culture “cross over” to other cultures? What makes the artifact popular in the first place? Why are people drawn to artifacts from certain countries? Why do people seek alternatives from other cultures? What ideological, social, cultural, political, economic, and/or historical factors affect the popularity of an artifact in different countries? What makes one artifact internationally appealing while other artifacts from the same country do not gain the same kind of popularity? How does the success of one artifact open the door for other artifacts from the same country? Write a feature magazine article that analyzes a transnational cultural artifact: a song, music video, user-created video, movie, blog, book, fashion style, celebrity, etc. In preparation for this project, explore the criteria that help explain what makes a cultural artifact popular in one context and consider how the same criteria may or may not apply to another context. Then, identify a pop culture artifact. It may be something that ha ...