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Do you think Gangnam Style by Psy finally broke or at least put a dent in the monolingualism that seems to exist when it comes to the American top 100 chart? Gangnam Style has officially become the most watched video on YouTube with nearly 900 million views, surpassing many American English songs such as by Justin Bieber and Jennifer Lopez and Eminem that formerly dominated the YouTube charts. The song, sung mostly in Korean and referring in part to Korean culture, swept the USA and I know Psy came on several American daytime shows. Now, I am fully aware the US is not the only contributor to Psy's popularity, but it would seem a substantial contributor and I know for a fact the song is played on radios and in clubs here. For a song in a foreign language, this seems to me almost unheard of (except perhaps for Spanish). Do you Psy has broken/put a dent in the monolingualism of America's top 100 chart and we will see more foreign music in foreign languages come to reach the American top 100 chart? Or is this all just a giant fluke/fad quick to pass and we will never see any substantial increase in foreign music sung in a foreign language on American top 100 carts?

Oh please, La Macarena and La Copa de la Vida, both with significant Spanish content, also made it to the most listened to songs in their time (the late 90s) and that doesn't seem to have changed American monolingualism. And you don't even seem to remember them.

Serafín wrote:Oh please, La Macarena and La Copa de la Vida, both with significant Spanish content, also made it to the most listened to songs in their time (the late 90s) and that doesn't seem to have changed American monolingualism. And you don't even seem to remember them.

I swear La Macarena that I knew growing up was a large mix of Spanish and English.

how is a mix of spanish and english monolingual come ON

it happens now and then and has done for quite some time now

It's kind of like how Americans heard Dragostea Din Tei and now we're all speaking Romanian, right?

There's always been a smattering of non-English in the top 100. Here's a sampling.

if you're going to make the same point as me, after me, then please use a different example.

It's also Gangnam Style, you pretentious twit.

It only has 900 million views because my roommates (who aren't American, btw) have watched it 800 million times.

Viktor77 wrote:
I swear La Macarena that I knew growing up was a large mix of Spanish and English.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, sexy lady!

Say, anybody seen Tay Zonday lately?

Sukiyaki (1960s?) is one of the older top 10 songs that broke into the charts, and the song is in Japanese. (and thoroughly redone in other languages as well)

Viktor77 wrote:

Serafín wrote:Oh please, La Macarena and La Copa de la Vida, both with significant Spanish content, also made it to the most listened to songs in their time (the late 90s) and that doesn't seem to have changed American monolingualism. And you don't even seem to remember them.

I swear La Macarena that I knew growing up was a large mix of Spanish and English.

I only ever knew the 100% Spanish version of Macarena, but according to youtube there is indeed a half-English one.

#1 Hits on the Billboard Hot 100 that were not in English:
"Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)" by Domenico Modugno [Italian] (1958)
"Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukō)" by Kyu Sakamoto [Japanese] (1963)
"Dominique" by The Singing Nun [French] (1963)
"La Bamba" as sung by Los Lobos [Spanish] (1987)
"Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" by Los Del Rios [Spanish] (1996)

also,
"Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco [German and English] (1986)

1963 had two foreign language #1s in the same year (Japanese and French). It did not lead to such a flood. Why would one #2 K-pop song do that?

Bristel wrote:Sukiyaki (1960s?) is one of the older top 10 songs that broke into the charts, and the song is in Japanese. (and thoroughly redone in other languages as well)

nobody's reading anything but viktor's initial post before replying, are they?

Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Even if it did have a demonstrably higher popularity than any other song sung (partially) in a foreign language that's penetrated the American consciousness, how does that indicate that it might have any impact on American monolingualism? If every other song to occupy a similar spot in the pop culture has had negligible impact, why would this be different?

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Based on what? You have to compare like with like.

We can do just that with the Billboard Top 100-- and with a peak at #2, it falls short of half a dozen other non-English songs in the past.

(If anything, I'd guess that pop hits were more ubiquitous in the '50s and '60s, because the market was much less fragmented.)

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views?

If you added up all the various mutations of "Dragostea din tei" (aka "Numa Numa"), how many views would you have? And what was the sum total of its influence?

zompist wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Based on what? You have to compare like with like.

We can do just that with the Billboard Top 100-- and with a peak at #2, it falls short of half a dozen other non-English songs in the past.

(If anything, I'd guess that pop hits were more ubiquitous in the '50s and '60s, because the market was much less fragmented.)

On the other hand, there were FAR fewer people around in the US back then - there were only 180m people in 1960, and now it's more like 310m - so if you count total rather than relative popularity...

Also, apparently back then most singles were designed to be more disposable - there were more of them, with artists aiming for a string of brief hits rather than a couple of lasting hits, so, apparently, songs stayed in the charts for less time. So I'm told.


Anyway: seriously, Viktor? Do you not REMEMBER the Macarena? I mean seriously, the Macarena. THE Macarena.

Gangnam Style hit #2 for seven weeks. The Macarena was #1 for fourteen weeks - it was in the top 100 for 60 weeks (still the third-longest stay ever among songs that made #1). It's sold at least 11,000,000 copies, making it somewhere in the #20-#25 all-time highest-selling singles worldwide, and the #2 non-English single of all time (after Sukiyaki).

If you look at the Hot 100 for a broader impression of popularity, it's even bigger... the 2008 50th anniversary all-time charts had the Macarena at #5. Of all time. [Well, since 1958, anyway].

And actually, the Macarena's top videos together have about 40 million views on Youtube, which may not be as many as 900 million, but is still pretty damn impressive for a temporary craze from 9 years before Youtube even existed.

Digression:

Interestingly, there's a VERY uneven representation in that list, across the years. Top ten from 1958 to 2008: 3 are from 1958-1970, 1 from 1970-1980, 1 from 1980-1990, 4 from 1990-2000, and 1 from 2000-2008. More specifically, 60% of the top ten are either from 1959-1960 or 1996-1999.

Stretching that out to the top 20: 3 are from 1959-1960, 5 from 1996-1999, 7 from 1976-1981, and 5 from the other 38 years.

I'll go further. Top 30:
1959-1961: 5
1981-1983: 6
1976-1978: 5
1996-1999: 7

That's 13 years out of 50, yet they account for 23 out of 30 top singles!
Weird...

The only good thing about this song is that it means one of my co-workers knows who Noam Chomsky is, via an MIT video in which Chomsky cameos.

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

800 million could easily be a deceptive number. Does YouTube count each unique hit or every hit? If it is merely every hit, 800 million is hardly more impressive than somebody listening to their single of Dominique or something over and over again. Also, at least a couple of those 800 million are probably in Korea itself and therefore those viewers wouldn't go out and buy Psy's single in the American market.

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Arguing with unfalsifiable evidence.

cool story bro.

zompist wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:Yes, but what about the whole number one most watched Youtube video? 800 million views? Even though it's not very possible to compare to pre-Youtube times, I would argue that gives Gangnam Style a higher popularity than other foreign top 100 songs in the past.

Based on what? You have to compare like with like.

We can do just that with the Billboard Top 100-- and with a peak at #2, it falls short of half a dozen other non-English songs in the past.

(If anything, I'd guess that pop hits were more ubiquitous in the '50s and '60s, because the market was much less fragmented.)

Returning to this question, and my earlier comment about songs being hits for longer these days... I just looked at the singles that have been in the UK charts for the longest periods of time. And of the 23 singles that have been in the charts for more than 40 weeks... 19 of them have been released since 2006 (plus two in the eighties, one in the nineties, and the all-time leader-by-miles from 1969).