A study on the audience perception types about the success factors of <Gangnam style> and <Gentleman> music videos

Psy’s <Gangnam Style> music video earned huge popularity in a worldwide scale. All his other videos were released applying the supposedly success factors of <Gangnam Style>. However, all his other music videos were not as successful as <Gangnam Style> except for the case of <Gentleman>. It is assumed that there are some hidden success factors in <Gangnam Style>. Four types of the visual scenes in <Gangnam Style> and <Gentleman> music videos are found to be the success factors. The types of successful scenes in <Gangnam Style> are: pleasure pursuing culture type, progress and development type, relieving fatigue type, and various Korean adult culture type. On the other hand, <Gentleman>’s flash mob dance type, arrogant dance type, food cart scene type, and teasing scene type are thought to be the main successful scenes. The scene types of the two music videos shared similarities in their choreographed dances and their expressions of Korean popular culture. In <Gangnam Style>, all of success factors are based on the very Korean way of representing culture. In <Gentleman>, however, only the food cart type is perceived as expressing Korean pop culture. The two music videos show that the very Korean culture can lead to great success in the world market. This study might be able to be used as a helpful strategy for Korean music videos and pop contents to pave their way to success in a worldwide scale.