How I read it, the author's point was that it's surprising to see this at the top of K-pop charts, and Western folks watching it really aren't getting the true message; they're just laughing at him acting wacky.
I'm fairly western, and my friends and I got the subtext pretty immediately. All you really needed to know was that it's his 6th album, everything else falls out from that given the absurdity and callbacks in the video. The song/video is fairly similar in concept to Spela Mig På Radio in that it directly confronts westernization issues using absurdity and cleverness.
I assume when he says "Western," he means people who had no idea who Psy was before this video, much less which album of his this was, and don't know "Spela Mig På Radio" from Adam. While I'm sure you're fairly Western, it sounds like you have much more background in the Korean culture than the average person who can barely find it on a map.
Yeah. I think it's fair to say that a good deal of the previously K-Pop naive audience is going to miss out of a lot of things. After all, it's certainly difficult to pick out everything if you've NEVER seen another K-Pop music video in your life
That said, anyone who has seen a Weird-Al or Slim Shady (not Eminem...) video can probably get the vibe that he's making fun of something. And that something probably has to do with beautiful women, nice cars, and other -money- things.
Take it from this gringo, you can tell he's being at least a little facetious even just watching it cold with no knowledge of Korean language or culture, let alone the artist's discography. The only question is how much of it is skewering a group he's not a part of versus how much he's including himself in the group being lampooned. I'm assuming it's at least a little of both.
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Hidden message? It's as plain as day. There's nothing subtle about it. My Korean friends know instantly what it's about and why it's hilarious.
How I read it, the author's point was that it's surprising to see this at the top of K-pop charts, and Western folks watching it really aren't getting the true message; they're just laughing at him acting wacky.
I'm fairly western, and my friends and I got the subtext pretty immediately. All you really needed to know was that it's his 6th album, everything else falls out from that given the absurdity and callbacks in the video. The song/video is fairly similar in concept to Spela Mig På Radio in that it directly confronts westernization issues using absurdity and cleverness.
I assume when he says "Western," he means people who had no idea who Psy was before this video, much less which album of his this was, and don't know "Spela Mig På Radio" from Adam. While I'm sure you're fairly Western, it sounds like you have much more background in the Korean culture than the average person who can barely find it on a map.
Yeah. I think it's fair to say that a good deal of the previously K-Pop naive audience is going to miss out of a lot of things. After all, it's certainly difficult to pick out everything if you've NEVER seen another K-Pop music video in your life
That said, anyone who has seen a Weird-Al or Slim Shady (not Eminem...) video can probably get the vibe that he's making fun of something. And that something probably has to do with beautiful women, nice cars, and other -money- things.
Edit: Forgot to add Lonely Island to that list.
Take it from this gringo, you can tell he's being at least a little facetious even just watching it cold with no knowledge of Korean language or culture, let alone the artist's discography. The only question is how much of it is skewering a group he's not a part of versus how much he's including himself in the group being lampooned. I'm assuming it's at least a little of both.