‘Enough is not enough’
Today is the fourth day in a row that The Korea Times has given Psy front page treatment. Even in the newsroom, some may complain about overexposure or worry about readers’ reactions.
We in the business know some news keeps coming, making us feel as if it has a life of its own. Psy and his hit song, “Gangnam Style,” are like that.
In the Friday edition, for example, the decision was made to place news about his song rising to No. 2 on the Billboard Chart inside, but just before the deadline, photos of Psy jamming Gangnam Style with Eric Schmidt, chief of Google, which operates YouTube, where the song has gone viral, were made available.
With little hesitation, we decided to go for the Psy-Schmidt photo in spite of our plan to make the chubby singer the subject of our weekend photo essay.
Today’s photo lives up to the Psy spirit of defying conventional wisdom _ him hanging upside down and looking at us with a broad smile on his face. Maybe, he is happy to prove all others wrong by becoming a global star with a “class-B” act or is trying to conceal bewilderment at his own success.
Torn pieces of newspaper seen strewn around his smiling face are from the People page in our Thursday edition where his Billboard success was covered. Shim Hyun-chul, our photographer and graphic artist, who worked on it, said that his work portrays Psy as if he is appearing in person at our paper because we have covered him so much. We have not heard him say, “Enough is enough.” <The Korea Times/Rachel Lee>