K-Pop

10 years after global smash hit “Gangnam Style”, has PSY managed to live up to his hype?

The Korean rapper PSY is enjoying a great life after becoming a global sensation with his hit “Gangnam Style”. 

Unlike other artists who suffer from the “one-hit-wonder” syndrome, PSY is no longer pressured by the biggest hit of his career.

Published on YouTube on July 15th, 2021, PSY’s “Gangnam Style” became a global smash hit with its catchy melody and the iconic “horse dance” choreography. The MV for this hit song surpassed 500 million viewers within just 100 days of release, and eventually became the first YouTube video to cross 1 billion views. In addition, the song held the 2nd position on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart for 7 consecutive weeks, and was the first Korean artist to ever earn outstanding achievements in the US market. 

“Gangnam Style” easily made PSY a global sensation, and the male singer was even invited to perform alongside the “queen of pop” Madonna at a New York concert, got the chance to meet former US president Barack Obama, and danced with over 20,000 fans in front of the Paris icon Eiffel tower. However with great power comes great responsibility, and “Gangnam Style” indirectly cast pressure upon PSY to make a song just as lit. According to the male singer, the period after “Gangnam Style” was the toughest time of his life, and he felt obliged to attain adequate successes in his future releases. 

YG artists
“Gangnam Style” was a global phenomenon. 

Now though, the artist has got over it, saying: “I used to heavily depend on “Gangnam Style”, but that’s 10 years ago. Nowadays I actually feel free and comfortable”. After “Gangnam Style”, PSY left YG Entertainment in 2019 to establish his own agency P-NATION, and released 3 new albums. His latest project was in April 2022 with the album “Psy 9” with the title song “That That”, featuring BTS Suga. Of course, “Gangnam Style” is still a special memory to PSY, who said: “It was the biggest and most prideful achievement of my life.” 

Psy attracted attention with his slimmer body

Now, PSY is enjoying his life as an artist, and recently performed at the Korea University’s Music Festival after 2 years of absence due to the ongoing pandemic. There, the crowd easily jammed to PSY’s songs, including both those over a decade ago and the newly released ones.

“These days, I often tell myself ‘Wow buddy, you sure are a famous man. They love you!’ I feel lucky to be an artist, and have been happier than ever”, PSY shared. 

Source: K14

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