Gangnam Style

Billboard

Released in July 15, 2012, Gangnam Style is named after Gangnam, a district of Seoul, South Korea. Gangnam means “south of the river”–in this case, south of the Han river. Gangnam is also one of the richest and most glamorous places in Seoul. According to the Guardian in 2012, it accounts for almost 10% of the country’s land value, and is full of upmarket shops. The area’s flashy wealth makes it a symbol of materialism for many South Koreans, and the topic of Psy’s hit song.

The song details the singer’s search for a woman who’s his type, (and why he himself is a good catch) and the chorus boasts of his association with a luxurious, fashionable Gangnam lifestyle. The song’s music video featured a distinctive dance which the artist has called the “horse dance,” which is done by shuffling the feet with knees slightly bent and the hands crossed at the wrist. (As if holding horse reins)

the nut job's credits feature the gangam style song and a cg psy dancing to it pic.twitter.com/exzI5ZvUnx

— im ganon (@CdiGanon) May 8, 2016

While only Korean music news sources covered the song just after its release, Gangnam Style and its video had skyrocketed to worldwide popularity by the end of summer 2012. The song went on to become one of the most viral videos in internet history–so popular that YouTube had to upgrade its hit counter to accommodate it in 2014. At the time of the upgrade, it had been viewed over 2,147,483,647 times—the maximum number possible for YouTube to register.

if you're wondering , Gangam style now has 1 Billion views. it is now the most viewed piece of media on record

— steev (@OkSteev) December 21, 2012

As of 2018, the video was the most watched video on YouTube of all time, with well over three billion views.