Minh Thu

 

Like riding a horse: Dancer Van Anh (centre) teaches a class how to perform the Gangnam Style dance. — VNS Photo Minh Thu

HA NOI (VNS) — Featuring a ridiculous dance where the singer pretends to ride an invisible horse, Gangnam Style by South Korean rapper Psy has taken first YouTube, then the world by storm. Now it has arrived in Viet Nam, where both young and old people are going crazy for the original concept and catchy music.

Some love and some hate the song, but none can only watch the music video once. Gangnam Style has become a popular buzzword on the street, on the internet and in conversation.

Since the music video was posted on YouTube on July 15, Vietnamese youth have imitated the dance and posted many clips of themselves doing it on YouTube. They have also set up fanpages on social networks for others who are crazy for Gangnam Style and Psy.

Recently the Korea Tourism Organisation's Ha Noi chapter launched a Psy-themed dance contest for Vietnamese youth. Clips should be uploaded to YouTube before October 27. The winners will perform on November 4 at the South Korean Food Festival.

Thousands of people of different ages performed the dance during a community programme to praise peace and celebrate the capital's liberation early this month at My Dinh Square. They presented many dances and flash mobs to set a Vietnamese record for the largest number of people dancing together, and chose to perform the Korean smash hit.

Not only young people love Gangnam Style. Middle-aged and old women have learnt the dance and practise it as physical exercise.

One autumn morning, anyone walking around Hoan Kiem (Sword) Lake would encounter a group of women dancing Gangnam Style.

When the cheerful melody first made waves in Ha Noi, Duong Chi Quyet, an aerobics instructor, played the song for his students and asked them if they would like to learn it. He was surprised when all of his students, whose ages range from 35 to 63, loved the song upon hearing it for the first time.

"I always introduce new dances to create a jubilant atmosphere for the class," he said. "It doesn't matter if they dance well or not. The dance is cheerful and it makes people happy. It inspires my students to start a new day."

One of Quyet's students, Dao Thi Tuyet, 50, who lives in Hoan Kiem District, said she loved music and adored the new tune.

"I love dancing and feel it keeps me healthy and fresh. If I don't start the day with aerobics, I feel tired, like something is missing," she said. "Gangnam Style's funny and easy to learn. I knew the song from when my children watched it at home, but I paid no attention. Now when Quyet teaches us and we dance together, I feel excited."

When Tuyet told her children that now she knew how to dance Gangnam Style, they were amazed.

"They teased me, saying, ‘You are so trendy'," Tuyet said.

Gangnam Style has been brought to professional dancing club such as dancer Van Anh's Cleopatra Club. She has opened a sexy dance class on the musical background of Gangnam Style and recruited many young girls. She creates a new dance on the base of Psy's movements and music. All students are interested in Vietnamese style's Gangnam Style.

"Gangnam style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with Gangnam District of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed "class". The term was listed in The Times' weekly vocabulary list as "a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam District". Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended to be ironic by claiming to represent "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, and music video is far from being high class.

In the video clip, Psy starts out lounging at what looks like a sandy beach, but the camera zooms out to reveal he is actually at a playground. The Gangnam Style man, as he calls himself, looks ridiculous in a colourful suit. He sings in a sauna, in a toilet with his pants down and on a bus with elders.

"People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are – it's only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are ‘Gangnam Style' – so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they're not," Psy said.

Psy, otherwise known as 34-year-old Park Jae-sang, was signed by Los Angeles-based talent manager Scooter Braun, who also discovered Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepson on YouTube.

Gangnam Style has been praised for its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dance moves in the music video and during live performances. On September 17, the song was nominated for Best Video at the upcoming 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards to be held in Frankfurt, Germany. On September 20, Gangnam Style was recognised by Guinness Records as the most "liked" video in YouTube history. — VNS