‘Psy does Gangnam no justice’

Psy is galloping ahead with his “Gangnam Style” to conquer the pop world. The chubby rapper has been an oddball compared with other svelte, good-looking K-pop stars; but his offbeat style, peppered with elements of fun and humor, is hot worldwide.

People have fallen love with this funny and kitschy “Psy style.” Millions of people are mimicking and parodying the horse-riding dance moves and singing.

With the song climbing higher on the Billboard chart, his fans are likely to see him perform the song topless, as he pledged, if it reaches the top. And the ideal place for his topless performance would be definitely somewhere in Gangnam, the district which also has risen to global fame thanks to the massive hit.

Often dubbed the “Beverly Hills” of Seoul, Gangnam is the most affluent neighborhood full of designer-brand shops, trendy bars, plastic surgery clinics and state-of-the-art office buildings.

Psy has called himself “second class” or “B-class,” a classification that doesn’t fit the image of the rich and snobbish Gangnam district. But this irony is one of the key elements behind the tremendous success of the video.

Gangnam district is the biggest beneficiary of the huge popularity of the song. Many expatriates live and work in the southern part of Seoul and have formed their own ideas about the area. The Korea Times took a look into foreigners’ take on the style of Gangnam. <The Korea Times/Cho Jae-hyon>

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