Gangnam Style is a reflection on the superficial element of the Gangnum district of Seoul (akin to beverly hills or any nouveau riche area). “Oppa” (an older male friend in Korean) is a commentary on both the pretentious quest for a mate and golddigging that invariably result. Watch the original carefully, and there are numerous scenes where the initial picture painted is not how it really is: his “beach” on the playground, business associates who turn out to be gangsters, the “pool” that’s just a hot tub, wearing a tux on the toilet. The vocals include references for example to “bean paste ladies”, who would get lunch at the cheapest place in town so they can save up for $5+ boutique coffees (or even better, for their oppa to buy them).
Hard as it might be to grasp, The Atlantic writers aren’t the only people capable of comprehending social commentary. If anything, this line from the article is completely wrong: “None of this commentary is particularly overt.” It rather is given the lyrics explicitly reference the well-known social stereotypes. I can only imagine these are all new revelations to the writer himself (writing for an exclusively western audience), who didn’t know anything about Korea before researching the article.
It might also be interesting to note that PSY himself is not necessarily excluded from his own commentary given he was born into relative wealth (thus the foreign education).
You might also see that the writer fails to note the significance of “oppa”, a concept rather prominently placed in the song title. Not surprising given the blog entry he happened to read also misses this.
A simple explanation of why synoptic breakdowns of rather blatant social commentary (accompanied by video illustration in this case) are similar can be displayed by an example of giving Americans the task of summarizing Springstein’s “Born in the USA”. Surely it doesn’t make much cultural education to be aware that “killing the yellow man” is a reference to ethnic aspect of the Vietnam War and not a forerunner to the present day Blue Man group. While this may not be so obvious to those not familiar with the relevant history and whatnot, it’s not exactly a leap to deduce the intentional ironic patriotism.
I have read something about it in the newspapers here and there (gangnam style) but it totally went around me, this is first time I bothered to see some video. I dont follow trends (I make them, haha )
But I like the fact that Korean pop-scene is so succesful in the world. That will happen (not only in pop-culture) more and more with other Asian countries too