What play button is for 1 billion subscribers?
10 years later: The legacy of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’
Ten years ago today, Psy released «Gangnam Style.» In the hazy rear window of our collective memory, the track may seem like a silly little pop song we clumsily imitated with friends or family for a summer. In reality, «Gangnam Style» shifted the entire landscape of music and video culture to help create the internet we know today.
The song transformed meme culture (by inspiring remixes and covers), contributed to the dominance of online video (by reaching new heights of virality through sharing), and modernized the music industry at large (by urging performance charts to account for music video views in addition to radio performance). It was also the first ever YouTube video to hit 1 billion views.
It took «Gangnam Style» just 159 days to reach that mark and it would be the only member of the «Billion Views Club» for a year, until Justin Bieber’s «Baby» matched it. «Gangnam Style» was earning 14.8 million views in a single day at its peak, and is still racking up 900k views per day, according to YouTube (opens in a new tab) . The music video is among the 10-most viewed music videos in the platform’s history with 4.4 billion views.
SEE ALSO: Psy says BTS has achieved the ‘unfulfilled dreams’ of ‘Gangnam Style’
The song’s legacy, though, is more than just staggering numbers. In 2012, Psy was already an established artist in South Korea. And while the world turned «Gangnam Style» into a meme, the song transformed Psy into a national treasure. In 2016, a towering bronze statute (opens in a new tab) of the dance’s signature crossed wrists was unveiled in the Gangnam district. Other «Gangnam Style»-themed photo ops are sprinkled throughout the district, featuring life-sized outlines of Psy mid-prance.
The singer has continued to find success in South Korea, with hits like 2015’s «Daddy» (opens in a new tab) and 2017’s «New Face.» (opens in a new tab) In 2018, Psy founded his own label, P Nation (opens in a new tab) , which has quickly grown into a major player in the South Korean music industry. Its roster includes Hyuna (who, fun fact, starred in the Gangnam Style music video), Dawn, Crush, and Heize.
In April, while promoting the single «That That,» (opens in a new tab) a collaboration with BTS’s Suga, Psy reflected on how Gangnam Style expanded opportunities for South Korean artists. He described the modern popularity of South Korean acts like BTS and Blackpink in the West as the «opposite» of his viral moment, noting that they achieved a «permanence and persistence» he could not. BTS in particular «achieved unfulfilled dreams,» like reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 2020’s «Dynamite» («Gangnam Style» peaked at No. 2 on the chart, bested by Maroon 5’s «One More Night»).
Related Stories
- The 25 best K-pop songs of 2022
- The bitter, banal, and bizarre YouTube circus of Depp v. Heard
- Lady Gaga and BTS’ V had a moment at the Grammys, and I’m not over it
- Wonka bars and ghost kitchens: How food became the next frontier for YouTubers
- ‘Emotional support K-pop boys’ help fans with their mental health
«Gangnam Style» may not have provided Psy with the kind of global longevity he desired, but its viral music video likely prompted Billboard to adjust its charting criteria to decrease the importance of radio play and include YouTube streams. That change directly affected not just South Korean acts, but every musician who has released work on YouTube. «Even for the famous BTS and Blackpink,» Psy said, «the wall of American radio is very high because the songs are in a foreign language. Our biggest weapon is YouTube.»
«If they continue like this, though they’re not doing music for the sake of raising national prestige, I think they’re giving [Korea] a lot of proud moments,» Psy added about BTS. «I feel very proud that I had a role in being that trigger. BTS have thanked me for that part several times, so I’m proud of it.»
Elizabeth de Luna
Elizabeth is a culture reporter at Mashable covering digital culture, fandom communities, and how the internet makes us feel. Before joining Mashable, she spent six years in tech, doing everything from running a wifi hardware beta program to analyzing YouTube content trends like K-pop, ASMR, gaming, and beauty. You can find more of her work for outlets like The Guardian, Teen Vogue, and MTV News right here (opens in a new tab) .
Amazing YouTube Video Tools Collection
This is a collection of the best Youtube tools, hacks, mashups, and top ways to download Youtube videos. YouTube is the most popular site to share your favorite videos. Recently YouTube was acquired by Google for a few billion dollars.
YouTube is the most popular video site in the world. With over 6.5 billion views a month and over 1.2 billion subscribers, it’s got a huge audience. That audience generates a lot of data and analytics. Nowadays, with a vast array of analytic tools, it’s possible to analyze YouTube data to gain insights into how viewers consume and engage with content on the site. Learn more about private vs unlisted Youtube videos.
YouTubers create content in a number of ways and using a mini drone is a popular way to use drone photography.
Here is a collection of several YouTube third-party tools which enhance your YouTube experience.
Save and Download YouTube Videos
- KeepVid – Download videos direct from most video sites like YouTube.
- Save YouTube Videos – paste the youtube video URL and download the video.
- Delutube – Let’s you view deleted Youtube videos.
- TubeSock – grabs YouTube videos from the web and copies them to your video iPod, Mac, or PlayStation Portable.
- VideoDL – is a quick AJAX application that allows you to download online videos into your computer. It supports the top 3 video sites – YouTube, Google Video, and Break.com.
- Download YouTube via bookmarklets – A collection of Greasemonkey scripts and bookmarklets to do the job.
- YouTube Downloader – enter URL and download YouTube videos.
- GooTube FLV Retriever – enter the video page URL, and download the youtube video.
- YouRipper – freeware software that enables you to download videos from YouTube and Google Video
Do you know you can download youtube videos legally and do not need third-party tools at all?
Top Youtube Third-party tools
- YouTube Userscripts – a collection of scripts to perform several tasks with YouTube.
- Youtube Video Slideshow – insert a username or a video tag below and it starts a slideshow.
- fTube – a YouTube player that downloads the list of 25 most recent videos featured on the YouTube front page. The user can select a video from the list and hit the play button to play it in Flash.
- TubeCH – YouTube flash player.
- TvTube – For Mac users. Allows you to browse YouTube, Google Video, and Yahoo Videos, for movie clips that people upload, choose your favorite clips, and add them to your shared library.
- YouTube API Extraction Tool – PHP script that taps into the YouTube API to deliver videos by tag, username, or what’s a current favorite.
- Search The Tube – A quick way to find videos for your website, blog, or profile.
- YoutubeCrazyVideos – A Youtube video desktop player. Freeware.
- YouTube Podcaster – makes Podcast feed from your submitted keyword or url. The feed is made up from embedded youtube video IDs and all videos are converted to the MP4 file format.
- MemoriesOnWeb – freeware photo slideshow software for YouTube.
- Overstream – lets you add subtitles to online videos.
Learn how to increase Youtube traffic.
Integrate YouTube In Your Site or Blog
- YouTube badge maker – will show your viewers images of your 6 most recently uploaded videos.
- YouTube WordPress Plugin – Display YouTube videos on your WordPress blog according to Tags.
- WordPress Related Videos Plugin – Uses tags to look for related videos on YouTube, displays the three most recent related videos on your WordPress blog post and updates videos automatically.
- WordPress Favourite YouTube Videos – WordPress plugin/widget to display, in a very configurable manner, your latest favorite videos from Youtube.
- Vipers Video Quicktags – WP plugin that easily generates codes for copy/pasting to embed videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video or for self-hosted videos into your posts.
- WP-FLV – WordPress plugin simplifies the process of inserting flash video files (FLV) inside a WordPress post or page.
- TubePress – a highly configurable WordPress plugin that displays YouTube videos in an embedded gallery in posts and/or pages.
Top / Best YouTube Videos Services
- PureVideo – collects the top 10 videos from around the web
- The World Internet TV charts – tracks the most popular video clips from four leading Internet TV sites.
- Top YouTube Videos – a daily updated selection of the most popular videos from YouTube.
- Vidspedia – is a collection of the best Google and YouTube videos, submitted and rated by users.
- Youtube top-rated – a cover pop with the 1,001 top-rated videos from YouTube updated every week.
- Best of YouTube – a blog selecting the best Youtube videos.
- Viral Video Chart – tracks the world’s most blogged-about videos including GooTube and MySpace.
Learn how to block adult content on Youtube and safeguard your children.
Suggest new Youtube tools in the comments
