‘Gangnam Style’ Psy and YouTube’s Biggest One Hit Wonder

K-Pop's most famous son, Psy, has the most watched video of all time on YouTube, that, of course being 'Gangnam Style. Justin Bieber's song 'Baby' is second, but the thing is, YouTube users have only given 'Baby' about half the amount of looks that 'Gangnam Style has. Unless Bieber gets a personality transplant and stops losinng fans, which is unlikely to happen, he won't catch up. Biebs is over a billion page views behind his South Korean rival, so it is a pretty sure bet that Psy's spot on the top is safe.

The problem for Psy is following up that success. With more than 2.3 billion views, "Gangnam Style" is responsible for bringing the South Korean rapper to everyone's attention, be it good or bad. It also magnifies the uncertainties of music in this day and age and it speaks volumes about the growing power of YouTube (You just need one song and it's a popularity contest not a talent.) The problem Psy faces now is what to follow up with. "Gentlemen," his follow up single, did a respectable 823 million but how many of those were curiosity clicks?

"There's a lot of debate over whether Psy's a world star or not, but it's undeniable that he's a world star at least in the realm of YouTube and that he's also one of the most famous Koreans in the world," said one of the highest-liked comments on Naver.

In an interview in 2013, Psy disputed the one hit wonder tag. He felt strongly that 'Gentleman' would be proof of that.

"I honestly changed this song so many times until the very last moment. I was not excited, I was terrible; I was so nervous. My only goal was to avoid being called a one-hit wonder. So that was a very nervous moment right before the premiere; and in two weeks, with 230 million views, I'm not a one-hit wonder. I'm really happy and relieved about that."

However, the truth of the matter is that Psy is a one-hit wonder. "Gentleman" staved off the tag for a little while but it didn't banish that demon entirely. It's still waiting outside, waiting to take Psy off to meet Milli Vanilli in one hit wonder land.

Psy can both thank and damn YouTube for that.