# @popbase on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Da0cf2MBQOu
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68023397-popbase-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/fd4c62b3e9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-15T16:00:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Pop Base (@PopBase) — https://gondola.cc/PopBase

## Caption

14 years ago today, PSY released 'Gangnam Style.'

As the lead single from his sixth studio album, "Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1." PSY wrote and produced the track himself alongside Yoo Gun-hyung and label head Yang Hyun-suk, aiming to satirize the flashy, status-obsessed lifestyle tied to Seoul's affluent Gangnam district — a wealthy area known for high rents and image-conscious culture, despite PSY not actually being from there himself. The song fuses K-pop, hip hop, dance-pop, and EDM into a deliberately over-the-top package, matched by an equally absurd persona built to poke fun at that 'Gangnam style' excess.

The accompanying video, directed by Cho Soo-hyun and shot around Seoul in just 48 hours, leaned fully into that comedic chaos, showing PSY in bizarre settings like a children's playground, a sauna, and a tour bus full of seniors, all while performing his now-legendary "horse dance." PSY told MTV News the whole team was deliberately chasing ridiculousness, treating the absurdity itself as the entire point. It debuted at number one on South Korea's Gaon Chart, but the real explosion came weeks later that August, when it went unexpectedly viral worldwide, catching global media attention and eventually catching the eye of Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, who signed PSY, framing it as a historic first for a Korean artist breaking through in the U.S. market.

The video became the first ever to hit 1 billion YouTube views in December 2012, a landmark later recognized by Guinness World Records, and it dethroned Bieber's 'Baby' as YouTube's most-viewed video, holding that title until 2017. The song topped charts in over 30 countries, hit number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and won Best Video at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards, while sparking flash mobs across cities like Paris and Rome. Broadly credited as one of the first true global viral internet phenomena and a major catalyst that helped pave the way for K-pop's later worldwide breakthrough, 'Gangnam Style' remains a defining touchstone of early 2010s internet culture.

#psy #popculture

## Stats

- **Views:** 51,480
- **Likes:** 2,810
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 56

## Tags

popculture, psy

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