Today we’ll be taking a look at PSY’s long awaited follow-up track to Gangnam Style; Gentleman. With Gangnam Style having become the most-watched video on Youtube, Gentleman has a lot to live up to.
Concept
The concept for Gentleman, is, well…gentlemen. Well, technically I guess it’s actually the opposite; in the same way that Gangnam Style parodied a real Gangnam lifestyle and turned the meaning of the phrase on its head, Gentleman is all about acting like anything but a gentleman.
The video is very bright and vivid, and is set in a number of locations; a department store, a children’s playground, one of those Korean fast food places you see in dramas, a swimming pool and many other unusual places. The clothes worn in the MV are still pretty wild as he wears some interesting suits, such as an 80’s inspired one and even a matador-themed one. Other funny outfits were first seen in Gangnam Style, such as Yoo Jae suk’s bright yellow suit, and of course, PSY is still wearing his trademark sunglasses.
The things he does throughout the video are pretty funny, as his antics are anything but gentleman-like; he does childish things and makes a general nuisance of himself. Mostly he does very unsophisticated things to women while laughing about it; he cranks up the speed on a running machine until a woman falls off, pushes a cup into his dates face so she spills her drink, makes a girl smell his hand after it has been somewhere unpleasant, makes little kids cry by ruining their game, undoes bikini tops, pulls out a chair from underneath a woman and throws his jacket at Ga In. Basically, he spends the video telling us jokingly that he’s a gentleman, while acting like a complete jerk. Epic.
One thing that Gentleman definitely has more of than Gangnam Style is a plethora of Korean celebrities making cameos in the MV, such as Brown Eyed Girls’ Ga In, Noh Hong Chul, Yoo Jae Suk, and the rest of the cast of Infinite Challenge; Haha, Gil, Park Myeong Su, Jeong Jun Ha and Jeong Hyeong Don. Apart from the return of Yoo Jae Suk and Noh Hong Chul, I don’t imagine these cameos will mean much to the general international market, but it’s definitely something fun for international Kpop fans.
It seems a shame to keep comparing this video to Gangnam Style, but I guess it’s inevitable, and in all honesty, while the video is quite funny, it relies heavily on the same gimmicks and jokes that made Gangnam Style so amusing and stand out from other Kpop videos, which I personally found to be a little bit of a shame. In both videos PSY’s dressed in odd clothing, dances obnoxiously and does juvenile things. A lot of the same celebrities are in it, but this time Hyuna, the female eye candy, is just replaced Ga In. Even the structure of the video carries a lot of similarities to Gangnam Style; dancing and silly antics in a lift, PSY doing daft things while people around him look serious, Ga In’s part in the MV isn’t much different from Hyuna’s, and even the extra scenes at the end of the video after the song stops is something done in both videos (Maybe this is a YG thing though, as I’ve seen it in a 2NE1 MV before).
With the unbelievable amount of hype that still surrounds Gangnam Style, I think making Gentleman in a similar vein was a wise move. There are still funny English lyrics to sing along to and a quirky dance that anyone can emulate. I think the video has enough silly antics to appeal to most anybody, in the same way Gangnam Style did, and I especially think that it might appeal to guys as it’s quite a boy-ish kind of humour. Saying that, I still laughed at pretty much everything in this video.
(Come on, he was a total douche bag to those kids! You can’t tell me that wasn’t funny.)
UK Potential: 4.5/5
Choreography
Now, the dance for Gentleman was highly anticipated as PSY himself said that it was a dance that all Korean’s know but it hadn’t been seen elsewhere. Unfortunately I have found that it has become a hot topic among some Kpop fans; even people who aren’t fans of Brown Eyed Girls should probably recognise the iconic dance move from Abracadabra. It seems to have outraged some fans, and I can’t really figure out why. Ga In is from Brown Eyed Girls and she dances it with him, and it wasn’t plagiarised or stolen. The only reason I can think of for BEG’s fans to be mad, is that outside of Korea it will always be better known as the Gentleman dance, rather than the Abracadabra dance. Okay, that might be a little annoying.
The hip-swinging from Abracadabra makes up about half of the chorus dance, with a silly side-to-side move being the other part. It’s pretty funny to watch and definitely will get a few laughs, but I’m already dreading how often I will probably have to see this dance in public. Sigh.
The fact that the main dance move is from another video won’t really make a difference to non-Kpop fans, and seeing as it is another easy move that anyone will be able to copy, like the horse dance from Gangnam Style, I think it is going to become very popular.
UK Potential: 5/5
Song
An electro-pop track with a very distinctive and memorable sound – you won’t be able to confuse this song with anything else. Most definitely a song that’s going to be much requested in clubs.
If you read the lyrics in English, the song doesn’t really have much meaning, other than talking about how PSY likes to party, but it is still a very cool sounding song. It’s one of those songs that you really don’t need to be able to understand all the lyrics to be able to enjoy.
On the other hand, the English actually used in this song makes me squirm – not because it’s pronounced badly or anything like that, it’s just that it sounds pretty sexual at times, ‘Gonna make you sweat. Gonna make you wet.’ With another Kpop artist I may have written it off as an Engrish accident, but PSY speaks pretty good English and is surrounded by English-speaking members of the YG Family, so nothing about these lyrics would have slipped through the net. There’s nothing particularly wrong with including this in his lyrics, he can sing songs about whatever he likes, but as there is a high chance that this song will be played all around the world and probably achieve a fair amount of popularity, was it a wise move choosing these kinds of lyrics? Imagine having to hear people singing along with this one the radio. I’m already cringing.
But there are other English lyrics in this song, and I predict that the one that will become the most popular will be ‘I’m a mother father Gentleman’. Yeah, look forwards to hearing that everywhere you go for the next few months.
UK Potential: 5/5
Highlight: – The outtakes/ extra scenes at the end of the video after the song finishes. It’s mostly just PSY and Ga In being silly and having a great time…it’s pretty funny to watch. They make an oddly good team.
Overall UK Potential: 14.5/15
I feel like I’ve been unnecessarily harsh about Gentleman seeing as I’ve ended up marking it with such high UK potential, because if I’m honest, I actually really quite like it! It’s fun, it’s silly and just doesn’t take itself too seriously in general, and I actually like it better than Gangnam Style. I had been so curious from the moment it was announced that he was working on another track to see whether it would be able to live up to the hype of Gangnam Style, and I have to say that I think he’s done it!
Seeing as there are still funny English lyrics to sing along to, a quirky dance that anyone can emulate and a fair few similarities to Gangnam Style, even thought a lot of people are saying PSY is a one-hit wonder, I would be incredibly surprised if this didn’t do well here in the UK.
What did you think of this song? Let us know!
