Topping UK charts with its humourous content…Psy’s Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style, a South Korean music video by rapper Psy, has become the most “liked” YouTube video of all time, while also topping the UK singles chart, becoming an all-time favourite for everyone from celebrities to lifeguards.

Garnering more than 334 million views on YouTube as of October 1, the single made an entry in the Top 40 two weeks ago at number 37, four weeks after its release, and has been on an uphill trend ever since, ending up at number three in last week’s chart.

The reason for the video’s popularity lies in the rapper Psy’s humorous performance. Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, is popular in his native South Korea for his humorous videos and stage performances.

The popularity of the video is so high that even celebrities including Spears, T-Pain, Katy Perry and Tom Cruise, have shared the Gangnam Style video on the web. The song is inspired by Gangnam-gu, one of the 25 local government districts, or gu, which make up the city of Seoul.

The song inspired a series of spoofs, among those inspired included the Californian city of El Monte lifeguards who created a spoof called ‘Lifeguard Style’, which eventually led to their loss of jobs.

The 14 lifeguards gained huge support on Facebook page, which even caught the attention of Psy himself. Psy was quoted as saying to MTV, ”What did they do? They weren’t wrong? I think it was off duty - that’s what I heard. They can be more flexible to each other.”

The Facebook page ‘Bring Back The 14 El Monte Lifeguards’ has more than 17,000 people showing their support to the lifeguards.

Meanwhile, WKRC-TV said supervisors in the Parks & Recreation Division had summoned the lifeguards and asked them to review pages from a staff manual about violations of city property before firing them.

Related:
Katy Perry adjudged ‘Woman of the Year’ by Billboard