tears pricked at my allergy-parched eyes as i drove home from work today. the reason: for the first time in my life, i was hearing an asian language pop song on mainstream US radio. it was similar to the moment i first saw a little white kid wearing an ichiro mariners jersey in seattle- after having grown up w/ppl telling me that asians were nerds/boring/unathletic/etc., here was a sign of recognition by mainstream society that, yes, asians can be cool. bruce lee, while undisputedly universally cool, is not exactly current. think about it: how many asian celebrities can most ppl name? and by "name", i mean actually state his/her name- not, "well, there's that asian guy on Lost."
now we have Psy- a megastar rapper from south korea who logged in hours as a student at the berklee college of music and boston univ. Psy's "Gangnam Style" is "sweeping the nation", according to the perpetually tanned ryan seacrest . when ryan seacrest uses that phrase to describe your song, you know you've gotten your 15 minutes of fame (and a possible future slot on B-list celebrity reality shows). Psy even made an appearance at the VMAs, the freakin' epicenter of american pop culture- when else have we ever heard anyone speaking an asian language from the stage of the VMAs???
as Psy makes the rounds of american talk shows, i'm a little worried that he is nothing more than a momentary pet of the fickle american media, an exotic creature from overseas who does a funny dance and makes ppl laugh. when the media tires of him, he'll go back to being a superstar in south korea. but for now, while there's a korean pop song (which really sounds no different than any LMFAO track) in the rotation on an abq radio station, i'll feel like there's something on the airwaves that represents me.
listen for yourselves:
"Gangnam Style" by Psy
now we have Psy- a megastar rapper from south korea who logged in hours as a student at the berklee college of music and boston univ. Psy's "Gangnam Style" is "sweeping the nation", according to the perpetually tanned ryan seacrest . when ryan seacrest uses that phrase to describe your song, you know you've gotten your 15 minutes of fame (and a possible future slot on B-list celebrity reality shows). Psy even made an appearance at the VMAs, the freakin' epicenter of american pop culture- when else have we ever heard anyone speaking an asian language from the stage of the VMAs???
as Psy makes the rounds of american talk shows, i'm a little worried that he is nothing more than a momentary pet of the fickle american media, an exotic creature from overseas who does a funny dance and makes ppl laugh. when the media tires of him, he'll go back to being a superstar in south korea. but for now, while there's a korean pop song (which really sounds no different than any LMFAO track) in the rotation on an abq radio station, i'll feel like there's something on the airwaves that represents me.
listen for yourselves:
"Gangnam Style" by Psy
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