PSY

It’s easy to imagine that each new viral sensation was formed in a vacuum, designed to ping-pong around our algorithmic news feeds before receding back into the void. But when PSY’s “Gangnam Style” took over the internet in the summer of 2012, it was not only a fiendishly memorable pop hit—it was the outgrowth of more than a decade spent wrestling with family expectations and government censors. PSY, born Park Jae-sang in 1977, grew up in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam District; when he was sent to Boston University to prepare to take over the family business, he spent his tuition money on music equipment and quickly transferred to Berklee College of Music. When he returned home, his music—marked by his elastic, expressive voice and taste for compulsively danceable beats—drew the ire of the South Korean government, which fined him for its allegedly inappropriate content, and later forced him to reenlist in mandatory military service when it was deemed his musical career had taken precedence over his conscripted duty. So when “Gangnam Style” became the first YouTube video to garner a billion views, it was more than a novelty: it was a sly satire of the wealthy and idle classes, revolt by way of euphoric bop. In the time since that incomprehensibly huge hit, PSY has drilled even deeper into this style, filling albums like 2022’s PSY 9th with tracks that are effervescent, but grounded by heavy low ends that ensure their place in clubs and car stereos for years to come.