This is the very very hot song Gangnam Style, by Korean singer PSY. The music Video has been viewed over 284 million times on You Tube as of September 26, 2012, making it the site's most watched K-pop video in history. The song has topped the iTunes Charts in 31 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada . On September 17, "Gangnam Style" was nominated for Best Video at the upcoming 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards to be held in Frankfurt Germany. It is true that Korean pop music has a large impact in Asia, however, this time is almost the first time draw large attention from Western World. CBC and Reuters all made reports on this new music trend.
Why is it so popular? I think a view point from Groundswell Winning in a world transformed by social technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernofe . "Why the groundswell happening now? The groundswell comes from the collision of three forces: people , technology, and economics."(Line 12 page 10). Actually not only general concept of groundswell comes from these forces, but also all the creatures live in this groundswell. For Gangnam style, One of the main contribute for the international popularity is the right channel- Youtube. Without Youtube this world wide channel, Gangnam Style would be impossible to spread out of South Korean. This is the help from technology. In the Social Technographics Ladder (Groundswell page 43 ), youtube users belongs to the largest group-Spectators, which consume what the rest produce--blogs, online videos, podcasts, forums, and reviews. This ladder counts for 68% (page 44).
And also, in Chapter 2 people creating :blog, user-generated content, and podcasts (chart on page 20), there are over 48% consumers from U.S.A, over 33% consumers from United Kingdom, and over 46% consumers from Korean watch user generated video. This is a huge market of world wide. However, The population of general participation can not represent the participate of the target audience, market is like a inverted pyramid, large number goes in but small goes out which is the final target audience. From Chart 3-4 in Groundswell , we can see that a lot of young people act as spectators which is exactly the target audience of the pop music. Actually, just as the authors said, what kind of techonology is not important, but the relationship is everything. By the right media channel, one can build relationship with target audience much more easier. Like Gangnam style reached a huge target audience, that is young people who need much more energy to carry on.
For economy. It seems no relationship between economy and this song, a fat not young man with some strange dancing in the horse stable, in the elevator and on toilet a little bit awkward and also no defense, a little bit stupid. However this is exactly why people love it. Why? Because it's funny, make people laugh! In the economy gloom times, humor is crucial.
By the strong connection with the target audience, with the pushing of the right technology and in the right time. A strange song get famous. This is great example of marketing no name to big name.
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