Cultural Artifact 2: PSY's 6th Album (6 甲)

For my second cultural artifact, I chose a Korean album that includes 2012’s hottest song, Gagnamstyle: Psy’s 6甲 (6^th album). In July 2012, Artist Psy introduced the album after two gap years of his previous album. The album brought great expectation as five tracks of the total six tracks were featured by five top Korean singers. The album and artist received its greatest attention, especially when Gangnamstyle became a world famous song. Although all the songs were written in Korean, this link contains translated lyrics of the tracks for your better understanding: http://www.nomorelyrics.net/psy-lyrics.html. I especially have decided to listen to Psy’ 6 album because its worldwide popularity might blind listeners to judge apocalyptic meaning correctly.

All of the Psy’s track included “love” as its components. Songs like “Passionate Goodbye,” “What Would Have Been,” “Never Say Goodbye,” and even “Gangnamstyle” described relationship from various aspects. Listening to the songs and reading the lyrics, I realized that the album is signifying relationship and love as essential purpose of human beings. In the song “Never Say Goodbye,” for example, a relationship is descripted as ongoing process of life that will always coexist with humanity (“Comedies and tragedies are all plays that have an end, life is just an instance of those. Out of my remaining days, I'm the youngest today. So I'm leaving to somewhere again”). While one of the Kingdom’s qualities definitely includes healthy relationship, some of the tracks (such as Gangnamstyle) explicitly encourage the listeners to consider relationship based of appearances, sexual appeals, and shallowness. Ultimately, the album is both depicting and conveying that humans are born to belong to another sex for vacancy in relationship. As this relationship compromises content for most of the album’s songs, it shows how a life can be devoted to follow the empire’s concept of relationship in our secular world.

Secular world, or the Empire, has been explicitly revealed in this album. Gangnamstyle is still being loved by people around the world, reaching over one billion viewers on Youtube. However, the message that lies behind the song implies of standards of cool guys and girls in a glittering city like Gangnam, where all the rich and authoritative Koreans dwell. This sexually appealing song defines “beauty” and “sexiness.” Like the qualities stressed in the Empire, the song values sexuality, wealth, toughness, playfulness, and irrationality of men and women. Unlike the Kingdom where beauty is found just as we are, it is polished through various additional false attachments. “My first cigarette was electrifying, my first kiss was sweet, my first sex was intense,” are few verses from “Seventy Seven 101.” These verses convey that enjoyment in life comes from what the world considers as fun. Immature listeners would absorb the lyrics and take it for themselves. In these songs, God’s Kingdom cannot be found even unfortunately.

In the song of “Blue Frog,” finally there is some appearance of God’s Kingdom. The song basically discusses of being different in the restricted and generalized society: “I’m not wrong, I’m just different. If you say it’s a problem, then it’s a problem.” This verse encourages people to not conform to the society norms but develop ourselves according to what has given to us. In another perspective though, the song also manifest postmodernism that is ruling our generation, as it claims that right and wrong depends on one’s judgment.

The album might have created regarding these concepts to appeal to general social norm, which reflects majority of the empire’s values. Whether the artist’s intention was to discourage or encourage the listeners to pursue the Empire, the album has certainly impacted fragile audience to loose judgment and discernment as it is popular in our world.

sexually appealing, sets the standard that what is beauty and sexually appealing has to be wealthy, talks about beauty quality of men and women.

Gangnamstyle was thrilled all around the world with its secular dance and appeals.

“what is being regarded as ‘popular’ and transforming our lives?”

For audiences that are unable to make certain judgments on a cultural artifact, should this album be available to all people? Or where should the responsibility of guiding immature audience to wrongful thoughts lie to?