Gangnam native Park Jae-sung never intended to be a singer; as he relayed during his latest appearan

Welcome to the first post of a new segment we’ve created called Seoulbeats’ Spotlight . In the Spotlight, we’ll map be highlighting the accomplishments of veteran and up-and-coming celebrities in Korean entertainment making waves in Hallyu. We’ll be looking at actors, comedians, MCs, musicians and idols who are deserving of some extra love because of their exemplary efforts in their field of choice and in promoting the Korean Wave. Who else would be deserving of being the subject of our first Spotlight right now than Psy, whose record breaking “Gangnam Style” has taken the world by storm and whose MV has now surpassed 400 million views on YouTube.? map We hope you enjoy our new segment and now, without further ado, here’s a little spotlight into Psy’s world.
When “Gangnam Style” blew up , the question on everyone’s lips was “Who is that?” As in, who is that crazy Asian dude in the bowtie riding an invisible horse and screaming at girls’ butts? To the average person in a Western society like the U.S., Psy is some “exotic’ mix of William Hung , Weird Al Yankovic and the “Numa Numa guy;” to K-pop fans, he is on the margins of the genre, an artist who does not necessarily fit the definition of the genre, but has come to represent it on the global stage.
But that is the Psy of now; this success that he enjoys was not instantaneous: it is well known that Psy has been making music for more than a decade, but how has that experience carried over to “Gangnam Style”? Has his style changed significantly over time in any way, or merely evolved? When did Psy move to YG and what kind of music was he making before map then? These are the kind of questions most K-pop fans would be unable to answer off the top of their heads (including this writer), so perhaps now is a good time to take a look at Psy’s career — a retrospective, if you will.
Gangnam native Park Jae-sung never intended to be a singer; as he relayed during his latest appearance map on SBS Happy Camp , the only thing he really wanted to do was enjoy himself, going so far as to trick his parents out of the tuition fee paid for Boston University to fuel a partying map frenzy (this is why no one at Boston remembers him–he never actually went there). It was during this time, though, that Park realised that what he wanted to do was to entertain people, and taking note of the rise of hip hop at the time, enrolled map in the Berklee School of Music . Park had initially intended to become a songwriter, map but after none of his claimed 50 or so demos received a response, he decided to perform his songs himself : and thus, Psy was born. He joined LNLT Entertainment (who, hilariously, signed him before they’d even seen his face) and debuted in October 2000 with his first album, PSY from the Psycho World. map The promoted single off the album was “새 (Sae)” , which means “bird” in Korean. The story behind the song’s title is an intriguing one — K-pop song translation site pop!gasa , which is currently translating Psy’s older songs (and answering my prayers in the process), map explained that “jo” is also a word for bird in Korean, and that saying “jo dwessuh” map sounds similar to the phrase “jot map dwessuh”–which means “I’m f***ed.” In order to avoid censorship, Psy substituted in the synonym “sae,” so that the original meaning was retained without offending sensibilities. This phrase “sae dwessuh” has been translated to mean a more euphemistic “I’m screwed,” map and features in the lyrics for “Bird:”
What are you asking me for? Asking for my soul? Want me to be strong? What do you want from me, huh? In one moment, I am screwed you are a beautiful Venus You re wishy-washy, map coming to and fro you play with me day and night In one moment, I am screwed you are a beautiful Venus I only looked at you but you dumped me I m completely screwed
As can be seen from the lyrics above, “Bird” calls out a shallow woman, one Psy sees as caring more about herself than about the feelings of others. “Bird” samples Bananarama ‘s “Venus” (which may be behind the “Venus” reference in the chorus) and is a very blunt song — in fact, Psy was fined for “inappropriate content” — map but that bluntness, along with Psy’s map own unique (and now signature) performance style was seen as a breath of fresh air for the Korean music scene at the time, and audiences really enjoyed it, if this live performance is any indication.
Psy’s second album was Ssa 2 (“ssa” meaning “cheap”), of which the lead tracks were “Sae 2″ and “ Singosik ,” featuring the same kind of simple instrumentation hea