The infectious track that defined the summer of 2012 almost wasn't to be. The song was originally only meant for local K-pop (Korean Pop) music fans. But after he and his label YG Entertainment released teaser videos to their subscribers on YouTube, the decision was made to upload the full song to YouTube on July 15th. From there, the song took off and never looked back, reaching half-a-million views on day one (
Wikipedia, "Gangham Style").
Psy and "Gangham Style" hit the viral video trifecta -- it was unique, it was catchy and it was spreadable. Psy caught lightning in a bottle, create a piece of content that was instantly spreadable and sticky – people are apt to share it and people remember it. The typical average person likely had never heard of Psy nor K-pop -- it was something new and different. The song itself was catchy and to borrow a line from
American Bandstand - It's got a good beat and you can dance to it (it even came with its own dance). And the video was easily shared -- viewers sent links to the video to people they knew, sharing this new, unusal yet catchy song.
So, for capturing what viral is so completely that
we here at The iMedia Playbook now refer to viral content and viral marketing as "Gangnam Style" and for capturing 'lightning in a bottle' (one of, if not, the most difficult thing to do when it comes to iMedia), The iMedia Playbook is proud to name
Psy and his song "Gangnam Style"
the fourth recipients of the honor
iMedia Hall of Fame MVP.