NPR provided three good reasons why Britney Spears learned Gangnam Style from PSY with Ellen DeGeneres. Like other commodities that Korea produces for the world, the Korean music industry: 1) focuses on exports; 2) emphasizes the visual in music; 3) Korea is heavily wired, and knows how to leverage the internet.
“Gangnam Style” is what happens when a developing country becomes developed. An infrastructure to make and export culture can develop just like an infrastructure to make and export anything else.
NPR, Planet Money 2012
I’m going to assume that you’ve seen the original Psy video or one of the many parodies of Gangnam Style. I could have a Davidson-in-Shanghai Style video, but I lived in Seodaemun when we were in Seoul, so I’m clearly not cool enough, nor am I Noam Chomsky (@ 3:17 in the video above).
