| PSY – Gentleman Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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| PSY – Gentleman Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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A huge part of the lyrics for this follow-up single to the international hit ‘Gangnam Style’ is chosen for their sound quality rather than their meanings. In fact, it’s even considered elusive and subversive in Korea. Allangamolla (the core hook of the song) literally means “I don’t know if you know” in a dialect spoken in the South-Western region in Korea. From the video, you see a Psy who boasts of being a gentleman while he is behaving like anything but that. In addition, Allangamolla is not really a type of language you expect to hear from a gentleman — not even a country gentleman (with all due respect to the dialect). But later in the song, he’s heard singing in a dialect slang from another region. This character is basically a boastful fake gentleman who is a country bumpkin with no integrity — and the dialect is definitely not out of a sense of regional identity. Repeatedly in the song, you hear Psy saying something that sounds like the name “Maria.” I see a lot of Korean bloggers claim that it is a pun, implying a woman named Maria. In Korean, it is a filler that ends a sentence sometimes like “you know.” If it involves a certain Maria — well, it’s in the ears of the listener. ‘Gentleman’ uses more English, more conscious of the growing global market after the unexpected international popularity of ‘Gangnam Style,’ and a huge part of the words are chosen for their sound quality rather than their meanings. Even for a native Korean, the meanings of the song is not readily clear. Even a lot of the sexual connotations (so blatantly obvious to non-Koreans) pass unnoticed to many unsuspecting Koreans. For example, as Psy shouts “wet Psy,” a bucketful of water pours over him and, when translated into Korean, it really just means that — being soaked. Nothing else. In the same way he sings “mother father gentleman.” Not many Koreans would know that there is a common English expression like 'mother-f***ing.' And the literal translation is of course utterly horrible in any language. But nobody in their right mind actually means it literally as they say it... (hopefully). It is probably Psy’s sneaky way of being elusive and subversive (which he has a reputation for in Korea) in his conservative home country — dodging criticisms (and even censorship) from the highly restrictive Korean music governing body (yup, such thing still exists in Korea) and the society’s judging eyes. Apparently, this music video is even banned from the national broadcasting company channel in Korea because it shows a scene at the beginning where Psy kicks a traffic cone in the street (‘defacement of the public property’…) Bo from Tuneslated.com |
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| PSY – Gangnam Style Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The song is a comic satire on many ironies and hypocrisies of the apparently affluent district. 'Gangnam' is the name of the wealthy neighbourhood in Seoul where Psy was born and raised. The place is a strange mixture of upstart yuppies, the best school district in the country (in terms of university entrance exam national average) to cater for their young, upscale entertainment industries for the businessmen, one of the most luxurious shopping malls in the country (probably for the wives), and tens of thousands of socially ambitious middle-class families swarming in for the schools there despite the sky-high cost of living in the area. When it comes to “Oppan Gangnam Style” - in direct translation, it means “Big brother is Gangnam Style.” But the real meaning is lost in direct translation. “Oppa” literally means “big brother” in Korean (for a younger sister — Korean has a separate word for an older brother from a boy’s perspective). But it can also designate any male old enough to be an older brother. “Oppan Gangnam Style” basically indicates an undesignated male (most probably Psy himself here) telling an unknown younger female that he has a “Gangnam style.” But who is this woman? A random young girl in a bar? And which of the many facets of Gangnam district is he referring to? The music video showing Psy singing while sitting in the toilet (while shouting “you know what I’m saying?” in English) definitely suggests that he is making fun of himself and the “Gangnam style.” The video also shows stalls filled with horses . Now, horse-riding is an excessively extravagant sport in a tiny country such as Korea where most people save up their whole lives to buy a small apartment in a high-rise building, let alone have an access to an open space to ride a horse in. Only somebody with a bottomless wallet (and tendency to show it off) would indulge in such a thing. Bo from Tuneslated.com |
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| PSY – Gangnam Style Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The song is a comic satire on many ironies and hypocrisies of the apparently affluent district. 'Gangnam' is the name of the wealthy neighbourhood in Seoul where Psy was born and raised. The place is a strange mixture of upstart yuppies, the best school district in the country (in terms of university entrance exam national average) to cater for their young, upscale entertainment industries for the businessmen, one of the most luxurious shopping malls in the country (probably for the wives), and tens of thousands of socially ambitious middle-class families swarming in for the schools there despite the sky-high cost of living in the area. When it comes to “Oppan Gangnam Style” - in direct translation, it means “Big brother is Gangnam Style.” But the real meaning is lost in direct translation. “Oppa” literally means “big brother” in Korean (for a younger sister — Korean has a separate word for an older brother from a boy’s perspective). But it can also designate any male old enough to be an older brother. “Oppan Gangnam Style” basically indicates an undesignated male (most probably Psy himself here) telling an unknown younger female that he has a “Gangnam style.” But who is this woman? A random young girl in a bar? And which of the many facets of Gangnam district is he referring to? The music video showing Psy singing while sitting in the toilet (while shouting “you know what I’m saying?” in English) definitely suggests that he is making fun of himself and the “Gangnam style.” The video also shows stalls filled with horses . Now, horse-riding is an excessively extravagant sport in a tiny country such as Korea where most people save up their whole lives to buy a small apartment in a high-rise building, let alone have an access to an open space to ride a horse in. Only somebody with a bottomless wallet (and tendency to show it off) would indulge in such a thing. Bo from Tuneslated.com |
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