Gangnam Style
“Gangnam Style” made the Korean Wave visible to many Americans. This assignment locates the song in broader contexts.
Objectives
After completing this assignment, students should be able to
- Recognize all scenes from the “Gangnam Style” video.
- Identify the reference made by the title of “Gangnam Style,” and the meanings of this reference.
- Identify and explain the “three reasons” discussed in the NPR article.
- Identify the relative Internet connection speeds available to consumers in South Korea and the United States.
Readings
- Chace, Gangnam Style: Three Reasons K-Pop Is Taking Over The World (npr.org)
[Read the text and listen to the audio.] - Stenovec, The US is way behind much of the world when it comes to internet speeds (techinsider.io)
- Sang-Huan, Cramming for Stardom at Korea’s K-Pop Schools (nytimes.com)
Viewing/Listening
On Exam 2 and Final Exam, you should be able to identify the following songs after listening to a 10-15 second clip.
- Hayeoga (1993) (Seo Taiji and the Boys)
- No. 1 (BoA, 2002)
- Gee (Girls’ Generation, 2009)
- Gangnam Style (Psy, 2012)
- Fantastic Baby (BigBang, 2012)
- Fake Love (BTS, 2018)
Other popular songs from the Korean Wave
- I Know (1992) and Hayeoga (1993) (Seo Taiji and the Boys)
[Televised performance, 1995] - Internet War (Seo Taiji, 2000)
[Live concert in Vladivostok, 2004] - No. 1 (BoA, 2002)
- Gee (Girls’ Generation, 2009)
- Bubble Pop (Hyuna, 2011)
- I am the Best (2NE1, 2011)
- Gangnam Style (Psy, 2012)
- Fantastic Baby (BigBang, 2012)
- Growl (EXO, 2013)
- Crooked (G-Dragon, 2013)
- Ringa Linga (Taeyang, 2014)
- Just (Zion T and Crush, 2015)
- DNA (BTS, 2017)
- Kill This Love (Blackpink, 2019)
Workshop
You will be working with a team, but it will help if everyone brings a device that can access YouTube videos (e.g. laptop, smartphone).
To complete the workshop:
After choosing or being assigned your song, together, identify a song by another artist that resembles the one you have been assigned. (Pick an artist who is not Korean.)
Posting
Once you have completed the above steps, complete the following in the “Korean Wave – Name that Parallel” Discussion topic in Georgia View.
- As the title of your post, include your assigned artist’s name.
- Include in your post the URL of a recording of your chosen song.
- Include 1 or 2 sentences that detail the specific parallels that you noticed. (For example, in the lyrics, instrumentation, dance choreography, fashion, etc.)
