"Gangnam Style" South Korean pop sensation, Psy, made an appearance on the "Today" show which filled the Plaza with excited fans and he even got the show's host to do the "invisible horse-riding" dance with him.
In an opening clip, "Today" told Psy's (Park Jae Sung) story of how the quirky, colorful and outrageously catchy "Gangnam Style" has swept across the US and made its creator an overnight sensation. The singer became a viral sensation when his "Gangnam Style" video garnered phenomenal attention within two short months. It has now well over 170 million views and counting.
"I didn't expect that at all. I just unloaded this video only for the Korean viewers in YouTube and suddenly, within 60 days, I'm here," PSY told Savannah Guthrie just minutes before taking to the stage for a performance that had the whole plaza jumping.
Today hosts Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales, and "Meet the Press" anchor David Gregory also joined in the fun and danced away with Psy and the audience.
"Gangnam Style" is about people pursuing this luxurious lifestyle as the scenes in the video suggest. It shows Psy as a hotshot in a number of seemingly exuberant and luxurious settings only to find out that the scene is pretty mundane when the camera pans out.
The video is a parody of life in 21st century South Korea where people are in love with beautiful material things and status. Park's satirical song points at these features and uses the Gangnam area as the pinnacle of Korea's current trends.
Park refers to this in his song when he says "A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee" (Translated) He pokes fun at the women who would rather pay a couple bucks for a cheap meal in order to enjoy the conspicuous luxuries available such as Starbucks coffees. These women are known as "doenjangnyeo" a term used to describe people blindly pursuing brand names and luxuries.
YouTube's most watch music video is Justin Bieber's "Baby" which has been viewed over 778 million times.
