Gentleman!

I've been watching American Idol  on and off since the first season.  I can get pretty passionate about it.  I mean, I cried when Constantine Maroulis was voted off and I was furious when Adam Lambert didn't win.  But this one tops my proudest moment list.  K-Pop - Psy oppa - on the Idol stage.  I'm not even Korean and I'm proud!

Lately, I haven't been caring much about Idol.  I honestly think it should be cancelled already, you know... quit while you're somewhat ahead.  Ratings haven't been as good as they were.  I don't think they're raking in that many new fans, and the fans that they already have are not as loyal as they think.  (Not to mention the winner practically goes back to obscurity a few days after his/her win.)  Let's face it... it's a shortcut to stardom.  The real challenge is staying in the game.  Not all of them win at that.

But I digress.  Psy and K-Pop in general on an international stage (come on, almost everything that appears on American television is more "international" than anything else) makes me happy.  It doesn't matter who it is, as a fan, I feel a bit proud.  Not all people would get it, I'm very sure; some of the comments on the Psy-related pics Ryan Seacrest posted on Instagram shows that they are firmly seated to the left, if you know what I mean (some bordering on ignorant, really).  But I like it and a lot of other people enjoy it too.  And right now, there is no better and/or relevant ambassador for K-Pop than Psy.  (As much as I would want the world to latch on to other - less "satirical" - K-Pop artists, I'll take what I can.)

In his Harvard speech, Psy said, "I gotta be humble, I gotta be humble, I know I gotta be humble because this does not happen to everybody — especially for Asian artists."  And I think oppa's been handling this worldwide fame pretty well.  He didn't really ask for this.  When Gangnam Style went viral, nobody expected it to blow up like it did.  After all, viral videos rarely get beyond their 15 minutes of fame.  Gangnam Style currently has 1.6 billion views and counting.  Psy himself admits that matching that feat is near impossible so he took advantage of that and look at where he is now.

He has haters, big and small, but he takes them all with his adorable eye smile.  (At least on camera lol.)  He's been in the industry long enough to not let those affect him negatively.  This quote best describes it:

“I cannot say I’ve been the best, but I can say I've done my best for 13 years [as a musician]."

So yeah, I am a proud Psy fan.  Haters to the left.  But whenever you decide to try a slice of the Psy-pie, you're welcome to horse dance and hip shake your way over here to our K-Pop happy place.


(Wow, I only wanted to post the video on my blog and it turned out to be a full rant/opinion piece. LOL.)