title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy's "Mathēmatikē Syntaxis" (Ancient Greek: "Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις", lit. "Mathematical Systematic Treatise"), better known as the "Almagest", is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Although Babylonian astronomers had developed arithmetical techniques for calculating and predicting astronomical phenomena, these were not based on any underlying model of the heavens; early Greek astronomers, on the other hand, provided qualitative geometrical models to "save the appearances" of celestial phenomena without the ability to make any predictions.


title: Ptolemy

text: The earliest person that attempted to merge these two approaches was Hipparchus, who produced geometric models that not only reflected the arrangement of the planets and stars but could be used to calculate celestial motions. Ptolemy, following Hipparchus, derived each of his geometrical models for the Sun, Moon, and the planets from selected astronomical observations done in the spanning of more than 800 years; however, many astronomers have for centuries suspected that some of his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy presented his astronomical models alongside convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The "Almagest" also contains a star catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. Its list of forty-eight constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations but, unlike the modern system, they did not cover the whole sky (only what could be seen with the naked eye). For over a thousand years, the "Almagest" was the authoritative text on astronomy across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Almagest" was preserved, like many extant Greek scientific works, in Arabic manuscripts; the modern title is thought to be an Arabic corruption of the Greek name "Hē Megistē Syntaxis" (lit. "The greatest treatise"), as the work was presumably known in Late Antiquity. Because of its reputation, it was widely sought and translated twice into Latin in the 12th century, once in Sicily and again in Spain. Ptolemy's planetary models, like those of the majority of his predecessors, were geocentric and almost universally accepted until the reappearance of heliocentric models during the scientific revolution.


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Handy Tables" (Ancient Greek: "Πρόχειροι κανόνες") are a set of astronomical tables, together with canons for their use. To facilitate astronomical calculations, Ptolemy tabulated all the data needed to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon, making it a useful tool for astronomers and astrologers. The tables themselves are known through Theon of Alexandria’s version. Although Ptolemy's "Handy Tables" do not survive as such in Arabic or in Latin, they represent the prototype of most Arabic and Latin astronomical tables or "zījes".


title: Ptolemy

text: Additionally, the introduction to the "Handy Tables" survived separately from the tables themselves (apparently part of a gathering of some of Ptolemy's shorter writings) under the title "Arrangement and Calculation of the Handy Tables."


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Planetary Hypotheses" (Ancient Greek: "Ὑποθέσεις τῶν πλανωμένων", lit. "Hypotheses of the Planets") is a cosmological work, probably one of the last written by Ptolemy, in two books dealing with the structure of the universe and the laws that govern celestial motion. Ptolemy goes beyond the mathematical models of the "Almagest" to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres, in which he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe. He estimated the Sun was at an average distance of 1,210 Earth radii (now known to actually be ~23,450 radii), while the radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20,000 times the radius of the Earth.


title: Ptolemy

text: The work is also notable for having descriptions on how to build instruments to depict the planets and their movements from a geocentric perspective, much like an orrery would have done for a heliocentric one, presumably for didactic purposes.


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Analemma" is a short treatise where Ptolemy provides a method for specifying the location of the sun in three pairs of locally orientated coordinate arcs as a function of the declination of the sun, the terrestrial latitude, and the hour. The key to the approach is to represent the solid configuration in a plane diagram that Ptolemy calls the "analemma".


title: Ptolemy

text: In another work, the "Phaseis" ("Risings of the Fixed Stars"), Ptolemy gave a "parapegma", a star calendar or almanac, based on the appearances and disappearances of stars over the course of the solar year.


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Planisphaerium" (Ancient Greek: "Ἅπλωσις ἐπιφανείας σφαίρας", lit. 'Simplification of the Sphere') contains 16 propositions dealing with the projection of the celestial circles onto a plane. The text is lost in Greek (except for a fragment) and survives in Arabic and Latin only.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy also erected an inscription in a temple at Canopus, around 146–147 AD, known as the "Canobic Inscription". Although the inscription has not survived, someone in the sixth century transcribed it and manuscript copies preserved it through the Middle Ages. It begins: "To the saviour god, Claudius Ptolemy (dedicates) the first principles and models of astronomy," following by a catalogue of numbers that define a system of celestial mechanics governing the motions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy's second most well-known work is his "Geographike Hyphegesis" (Ancient Greek: "Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις"; lit. "Guide to Drawing the Earth"), known as the "Geography", a handbook on how to draw maps using geographical coordinates for parts of the Roman world known at the time. He relied on previous work by an earlier geographer, Marinus of Tyre, as well as on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire. He also acknowledged ancient astronomer Hipparchus for having provided the elevation of the north celestial pole for a few cities. Although maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes (c. 276–195 BC), Ptolemy improved on map projections.


title: Ptolemy

text: The first part of the "Geography" is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. Ptolemy notes the supremacy of astronomical data over land measurements or travelers' reports, though he possessed these data for only a handful of places. Ptolemy's real innovation, however, occurs in the second part of the book, where he provides a catalogue of 8,000 localities he collected from Marinus and others, the biggest such database from antiquity. About 6,300 of these places and geographic features have assigned coordinates so that they can be placed in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as "climata", the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc: the length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as one goes from the equator to the polar circle. One of the places Ptolemy noted specific coordinates for was the now-lost Stone Tower which marked the midpoint on the ancient Silk Road, and which scholars have been trying to locate ever since.


title: Ptolemy

text: In the third part of the "Geography", Ptolemy gives instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world ("oikoumenē") and of the Roman provinces, including the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His "oikoumenē" spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Blessed Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from Shetland to anti-Meroe (east coast of Africa); Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean.


title: Ptolemy

text: It seems likely that the topographical tables in the second part of the work (Books 2–7) are cumulative texts, which were altered as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy. This means that information contained in different parts of the "Geography" is likely to be of different dates, in addition to containing many scribal errors. However, although the regional and world maps in surviving manuscripts date from c. 1300 AD (after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes), there are some scholars who think that such maps go back to Ptolemy himself.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy wrote an astrological treatise, in four parts, known by the Greek term "Tetrabiblos" (lit. "Four Books") or by its Latin equivalent "Quadripartitum". Its original title is unknown, but may have been a term found in some Greek manuscripts, "Apotelesmatiká" ("biblía"), roughly meaning "(books) on the Effects" or "Outcomes", or "Prognostics". As a source of reference, the "Tetrabiblos" is said to have "enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more". It was first translated from Arabic into Latin by Plato of Tivoli (Tiburtinus) in 1138, while he was in Spain.


title: Ptolemy

text: Much of the content of the "Tetrabiblos" was collected from earlier sources; Ptolemy's achievement was to order his material in a systematic way, showing how the subject could, in his view, be rationalized. It is, indeed, presented as the second part of the study of astronomy of which the "Almagest" was the first, concerned with the influences of the celestial bodies in the sublunary sphere. Thus explanations of a sort are provided for the astrological effects of the planets, based upon their combined effects of heating, cooling, moistening, and drying. Ptolemy dismisses other astrological practices, such as considering the numerological significance of names, that he believed to be without sound basis, and leaves out popular topics, such as electional astrology (interpreting astrological charts to determine courses of action) and medical astrology, for similar reasons.


title: Ptolemy

text: The great popularity that the "Tetrabiblos" did possess might be attributed to its nature as an exposition of the art of astrology, and as a compendium of astrological lore, rather than as a manual. It speaks in general terms, avoiding illustrations and details of practice.


title: Ptolemy

text: A collection of one hundred aphorisms about astrology called the "Centiloquium", ascribed to Ptolemy, was widely reproduced and commented on by Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew scholars, and often bound together in medieval manuscripts after the "Tetrabiblos" as a kind of summation. It is now believed to be a much later pseudepigraphical composition. The identity and date of the actual author of the work, referred to now as Pseudo-Ptolemy, remains the subject of conjecture.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy wrote an earlier work entitled "Harmonikon" (Ancient Greek: "Ἁρμονικόν"), known as the "Harmonics", on music theory and the mathematics behind musical scales in three books. It begins with a definition of harmonic theory, with a long exposition on the relationship between reason and sense perception in corroborating theoretical assumptions. After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argues for basing musical intervals on mathematical ratios (in contrast to the followers of Aristoxenus), backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the overly theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans).


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy introduces the harmonic canon, an experimental apparatus that would be used for the demonstrations in the next chapters, then proceeds to discuss Pythagorean tuning. Pythagoreans believed that the mathematics of music should be based on the specific ratio of 3:2, whereas Ptolemy merely believed that it should just generally involve tetrachords and octaves. He presented his own divisions of the tetrachord and the octave, which he derived with the help of a monochord. The book ends with a more speculative exposition of the relationships between harmony, the soul ("psyche"), and the planets (harmony of the spheres).


title: Ptolemy

text: Although Ptolemy's "Harmonics" never had the influence of his "Almagest" or "Geography", it is nonetheless a well-structured treatise and contains more methodological reflections than any other of his writings. During the Renaissance, Ptolemy's ideas inspired Kepler in his own musings on the harmony of the world ("Harmonice Mundi", Appendix to Book V).


title: Ptolemy

text: The "Optica" (Ancient Greek: Ὀπτικά), known as the "Optics," is a work that survives only in a somewhat poor Latin version, which, in turn, was translated from a lost Arabic version by Eugenius of Palermo (). In it, Ptolemy writes about properties of sight (not light), including reflection, refraction, and colour. The work is a significant part of the early history of optics and influenced the more famous and superior 11th-century "Book of Optics" by Ibn al-Haytham. Ptolemy offered explanations for many phenomena concerning illumination and colour, size, shape, movement, and binocular vision. He also divided illusions into those caused by physical or optical factors and those caused by judgmental factors. He offered an obscure explanation of the sun or moon illusion (the enlarged apparent size on the horizon) based on the difficulty of looking upwards.


title: Ptolemy

text: The work is divided into three major sections. The first section (Book II) deals with direct vision from first principles and ends with a discussion of binocular vision. The second section (Books III-IV) treats reflection in plane, convex, concave, and compound mirrors. The last section (Book V) deals with refraction and includes the earliest surviving table of refraction from air to water, for which the values (with the exception of the 60° angle of incidence) show signs of being obtained from an arithmetic progression. However, according to Mark Smith, Ptolemy's table was based in part on real experiments.


title: Ptolemy

text: Ptolemy's theory of vision consisted of rays (or flux) coming from the eye forming a cone, the vertex being within the eye, and the base defining the visual field. The rays were sensitive, and conveyed information back to the observer's intellect about the distance and orientation of surfaces. Size and shape were determined by the visual angle subtended at the eye combined with perceived distance and orientation. This was one of the early statements of size-distance invariance as a cause of perceptual size and shape constancy, a view supported by the Stoics.


title: Ptolemy

text: Although mainly known for his contributions to astronomy and other scientific subjects, Ptolemy also engaged in epistemological and psychological discussions across his corpus. He wrote a short essay entitled "On the Criterion and Hegemonikon" (Ancient Greek: "Περὶ Κριτηρίου καὶ Ἡγεμονικοῡ"), which may have been one of his earliest works. Ptolemy deals specifically with how humans obtain scientific knowledge (i.e., the "criterion" of truth), as well as with the nature and structure of the human "psyche" or soul, particularly its ruling faculty (i.e., the "hegemonikon"). Ptolemy argues that, to arrive at the truth, one should use both reason and sense perception in ways that complement each other. "On the Criterion" is also noteworthy for being the only one of Ptolemy's works that is devoid of mathematics.


title: Ptolemy

text: Elsewhere, Ptolemy affirms the supremacy of mathematical knowledge over other forms of knowledge. Like Aristotle before him, Ptolemy classifies mathematics as a type of theoretical philosophy; however, Ptolemy believes mathematics to be superior to theology or metaphysics because the latter are conjectural while only the former can secure certain knowledge. This view is contrary to the Platonic and Aristotelian traditions, where theology or metaphysics occupied the highest honour. Despite being a minority position among ancient philosophers, Ptolemy's views were shared by other mathematicians such as Hero of Alexandria.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: Dixie Jane D'Amelio ( ; born August 12, 2001) is an American singer and social media personality known for her videos on TikTok. She is the elder sister of Charli D'Amelio. She was born in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 2020, she starred in the YouTube web series "Attaway General". she has over 57.5 million followers and 3.3 billion likes on TikTok, 24.2 million followers on Instagram, and 7.04 million subscribers and 619.12 million views on YouTube, where she also hosts a talk show called "The Early Late Night Show". In 2020, she signed a record deal with HitCo Entertainment and began releasing her own music.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: Dixie Jane D'Amelio was born on August 12, 2001, to parents Marc, a 2018 Republican candidate for the Connecticut State Senate, and photographer and former model Heidi, D'Amelio. She is the elder sister of fellow TikTok personality Charli D'Amelio.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: D'Amelio’s rise to prominence happened at the same time as her sister, Charli D'Amelio, both gaining popularity on TikTok. In January 2020, D'Amelio signed with United Talent Agency. In May 2020, she and her sister announced a new podcast deal with Ramble Podcast Network, which will offer a behind-the-scenes look at their lives and specific topics on their minds. This podcast was called 2 Chix. D'Amelio's acting career includes appearing on the Brat TV series "Attaway General". On June 26, 2020, D'Amelio released her first single, "Be Happy". As of August 28, 2021, the song has accumulated more than 86.1 million streams on Spotify.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: On August 7, 2020, she signed a record deal with L.A. Reid's label HitCo Entertainment. "Forbes" published a report in August 2020 revealing D'Amelio earned $2.9 million in the last year through June from her numerous sponsorship deals and merchandise, making her the third highest-earning TikTok star. In December 2020, D'Amelio released her singles "One Whole Day" with Wiz Khalifa and "Roommates", the latter of which was co-penned by Demi Lovato. "Psycho", featuring Kentucky rapper Rubi Rose, was released in 2021 peaking at 25 on the US pop charts.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: D'Amelio released her debut album "A Letter to Me" on June 10, 2022. She is set to be one of the opening acts on the Forever Tour for American boy band Big Time Rush to promote her debut album.


title: Dixie D'Amelio

text: In October 2020, D'Amelio confirmed she was in a relationship with social media personality Noah Beck.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" (, ) is a K-pop song by South Korean rapper Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, "Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1" ("Ssai Yukgap Part 1"). The term "Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on South Korea's Gaon Chart, receiving mixed to positive reviews, with praise for its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dancing and during live performances in various locations around the world in its music video.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song and its music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide. In the United States, "Gangnam Style" peaked at number two on "Billboard" Hot 100. By the end of 2012, "Gangnam Style" had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Psy's dance in the music video itself became a cultural phenomenon.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In September 2012, "Gangnam Style" was recognized by "Guinness World Records" as the first YouTube video to hit 1 billion views. It subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards held that year. It became a source of parodies and reaction videos by many different individuals, groups, and organizations. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views. As of July 15, 2022, the song's music video has more than 4.48 billion views, and was the most viewed video on YouTube from November 24, 2012, when it surpassed the music video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, to July 10, 2017, when it was itself surpassed by the music video for "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Its dance was attempted by political leaders such as British Prime Minister David Cameron and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who hailed it as a force for world peace. On May 7, 2013, at a bilateral meeting with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye at the White House, US President Barack Obama cited the success of "Gangnam Style" as an example of how people around the world are being "swept up" by the Korean wave of culture.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" is a South Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip, and exude a certain supposed class. The term was listed in "Time"s weekly vocabulary list as "a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district". Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humor by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class:


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song talks about "the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild." The song's refrain "오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)" has been translated as "Big brother is Gangnam style," with Psy referring to himself. During an interview with "The New York Times", Psy revealed that South Korean fans have huge expectations about his dancing, so he felt a lot of pressure. In order to keep up with expectations, he studied hard to find something new and stayed up late for about 30 nights to come up with the "Gangnam Style" dance. Along the way, he had tested various "cheesy" animal-inspired dance moves with his choreographer Lee Ju-sun, including panda and kangaroo moves, before settling for the horse trot, which involves pretending to ride a horse, alternately holding the reins and spinning a lasso, and moving into a legs-shuffling side gallop.


title: Gangnam Style

text: During an interview with Reuters, Psy said that "Gangnam Style" was originally produced only for local K-pop fans. On July 11, 2012, Psy and his music label YG Entertainment started releasing several promotional teasers for "Gangnam Style" to their subscribers on YouTube. On July 15, 2012, the full music video of "Gangnam Style" was uploaded onto YouTube and was immediately a sensation, receiving about 500,000 views on its first day. However, at the time of its release in Germany, a dispute between YouTube and the GEMA (the country's performance rights organization) regarding copyright issues led to thousands of music videos including "Gangnam Style" being blocked in the country. The music video, along with other music videos from GEMA-protected artists released on YouTube were unblocked in Germany on October 31, 2016, after YouTube reached an agreement with GEMA on copyrights and royalties.


title: Gangnam Style

text: According to the news agency Agence France-Presse, the success of "Gangnam Style" could be considered as part of the Korean wave, a term coined by Chinese journalists to refer to the significant increase in the popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture since the late 1990s.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Korean popular music (K-pop), considered by some to be the most important aspect of the Korean wave, is a music genre that relies on cultural technology to adapt to the tastes of foreign audiences and has now grown into a popular subculture among teenagers and young adults in many places around the world. Although it has spread to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of South America, its reception in the Western world has so far been lukewarm. However, social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have made it easier for K-pop musicians to reach a wider audience in the West. According to Mark James Russell from "Foreign Policy", while the Korean wave "may not (yet) turn heads in Los Angeles or London," this could soon change because of "Gangnam Style,"


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song has received mixed to positive ratings from music critics. Music journalist Bill Lamb from "About.com" praised the song for "spreading smiles and pure fun around the world in record time." He then writes, "take one part LMFAO's synth-based party music, another part Ricky Martin's Latin dance party and the rest a powerfully charismatic South Korean showman and you have the first worldwide K-Pop smash hit." "Billboard K-Town" columnist Jeff Benjamin became one of the first music critics to review the song when he published an article and reported that "Gangnam Style" has gone viral on the Internet. In his article, Benjamin introduced the reader to a couple of popular K-pop songs and wrote that "‘Gangnam Style’ in particular, plays all the right moves sonically while "borrowing from LMFAO along the way."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Hallie Sekoff of "The Huffington Post" quoted from the video's official YouTube video description that the song is characterized by its "strongly addictive beats," and wrote that this is not too far-fetched, considering "how obsessed we've found ourselves." London's mayor Boris Johnson considered the song to be the greatest cultural masterpiece of 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Despite its popularity, a few music critics including Robert Copsey from "Digital Spy" criticized the song for being monotonous. Cospey wrote that "you could slap an LMFAO tag on the cover and few would know the difference" and Paul Lester of "The Guardian" similarly labeled it as "generic ravey Euro dance with guitars." Lester described the song as "Pump Up the Jam meets the Macarena with a dash of Cotton Eye Joe," while Robert Myers of "The Village Voice" dismissed "Gangnam Style" as an "inspired piece of silliness."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Cha Woo-jin, a South Korean music critic, told "The Chosun Ilbo" that "Gangnam Style"'s sophisticated rendering and arrangement has made it very appealing to the general public. Choe Kwang-shik, the South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told reporters that "Gangnam Style" had played an important role in introducing the Korean culture, language, and lifestyle to the rest of the world. However, some have criticized the song for failing to accurately represent South Korean culture. Oh Young-Jin, managing editor of "The Korea Times", wrote that the dance has more to do with Americans than Koreans.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Japan, the song was met with considerable criticism. When "Gangnam Style" first appeared in Japanese TV shows in July, the reaction from viewers was negative. As a result, Psy's Japanese record label YGEX canceled a previously planned Japanese language re-release of "Gangnam Style." According to "The Dong-a Ilbo", a South Korean newspaper, the song's lukewarm reception in Japan could have been caused by a diplomatic conflict between the two countries and the newspaper accused the Japanese media of keeping its people "in the dark." However, Jun Takaku of the Japanese daily newspaper "Asahi Shimbun" explained that "Gangnam Style" had caused "barely a ripple in Japan" because Psy does not conform to the image of other "traditionally polished" K-pop acts popular in Japan such as Girls' Generation and TVXQ. Erica Ho from "Time" magazine similarly noted that despite the K-pop musical genre being very popular in Japan, the country seemed to be "immune to PSY Mania" and she advised her readers who dislike the song to "pack your bags for Japan."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Immediately after its release, "Gangnam Style" was mentioned by various English-language websites providing coverage of Korean pop culture for international fans, including Allkpop and Soompi. Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul who were among the first to parody "Gangnam Style" in late July, wrote that the song has the potential to become "one of the biggest songs of the year." However, during an interview with Al Jazeera a few weeks later, Martina Stawski claimed that the worldwide popularity of "Gangnam Style" has been viewed negatively by some K-pop fans, because "they [the fans] didn't want K-pop being liked by other people who don't understand K-Pop."


title: Gangnam Style

text: The music video of "Gangnam Style" has been met with positive responses from the music industry and commentators, who drew attention to its tone and dance moves, though some found them vulgar. Another notable aspect that helped popularise the video was its comical dance moves that can be easily copied, such as the pelvic thrust during the elevator scene. The United Nations hailed Psy as an "international sensation" because of the popularity of his "satirical" video clip and its "horse-riding-like dance moves." As such, the music video has spawned a dance craze unseen since the Macarena of the mid-1990s.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The World Bank's lead economist David McKenzie remarked that some of Psy's dance moves "kind of look like a regression discontinuity," while the space agency NASA called "Gangnam Style" a dance-filled music video that has forever entered the hearts and minds of millions of people. Melissa Locker of "Time" noted that "it's hard not to watch again ... and again ... and again," while CNN reporter Shanon Cook told the audience that she had watched "Gangnam Style" about 15 times.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The German news magazine "Der Spiegel" attributed the popularity of "Gangnam Style" to its daring dance moves, a sentiment similarly voiced by Maura Judkis of "The Washington Post", who wrote, "'Gangnam Style' has made an extraordinarily stupid-looking dance move suddenly cool." The video was also positively reviewed by Steve Knopper from "Rolling Stone", who called "Gangnam Style" an astoundingly great K-pop video that has all the best elements of hypnotically weird one-hit wonders and hopes that "PSY gets filthy rich from this."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press wrote that Psy's dance moves are "somewhat bizarre" but the music video is full of colorful, lively outfits. Matt Buchanan and Scott Ellis of "The Sydney Morning Herald" wrote that the video "makes no sense at all to most Western eyes" and it "makes you wonder if you have accidentally taken someone else's medication" whereas Deborah Netburn of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube." Kim Alessi from Common Sense Media considered the music video for "Gangnam Style" worth seeing for its caricature of contemporary Asian and American urban lifestyles, but also warned that "Gangnam Style" contains sexually suggestive images and "degrading messages" which could be inappropriate for children and teenagers.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The video starts out with Psy, who is lounging at what looks like a sandy beach, under a sun umbrella and holding a cold drink, but the camera zooms out to reveal he is actually at a playground. The video then alternates between the playground, where a boy (Hwang Min-woo) dances next to him; and a row of horses, who are in stalls, where Psy performs his signature "invisible horse dance." As Psy (and two women) walk through a parking garage, they are pelted by pieces of newspaper, trash, and snow. At a sauna, he rests his head on a man's shoulder, dressed in blue, while another man covered in tattoos is stretching. He then sings in front of two men (then labelmates under YG Entertainment, BIG BANG's Daesung and Seungri, dressed as older men) playing Janggi (Korean chess), dances with a woman at a tennis court, and bounces around on a tour bus of seniors. The scenes alternate quickly until there is an explosion near the chess players, causing them to dive off the bench. Psy immediately walks toward the camera, pointing and shouting "Oppa Gangnam Style." The chorus starts as he and some dancers perform at a horse stable. He dances as two women walk backwards. He dances at the tennis court, a carousel, and the tour bus. He shuffles into an outdoor yoga session and on a boat. The camera zooms in on a woman's butt, then shows Psy "yelling" at it.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The chorus ends and he is seen in a parking garage, where Psy is approached by a man (Yoo Jae-suk) in a yellow suit who steps out of a red Mercedes-Benz SLK 200; they have a dance duel. Psy then appears in an elevator underneath a man (Noh Hong-Chul) who is straddling him and thrusting his pelvis. The man in the yellow suit then gets in his car and leaves. The camera pans and it shows Psy in the subway station, where he boards the train and notices Hyuna (who would have her own version of the song) dancing. At one of the train stops, he approaches the girl in slow motion, and she approaches him. They start to embrace. He then tells the girl "Oppa Gangnam Style," and they horse dance along with some other dancers at the train stop, commencing the second chorus. He also surfaces from a spa hot tub. In the "Rolling Stone" interview, Psy says he copied the spa surfacing scene from Lady Gaga's video ("Poker Face").


title: Gangnam Style

text: Psy sings to the girl at a night club as people in various costumes walk behind them. He raps in a serious tone in an enclosed space, but when he says "You know what I'm saying" the camera zooms out, and it is revealed that he is actually sitting on a toilet with his pants down. Psy, the girl and the group of people in costumes do the horse dance and strike a final pose. After a brief reprise of the dance duel, Psy says, "Oppan Gangnam style", and the video finishes with a cartoon graphic.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The music video is directed by Cho Soo-hyun, who also directed the MV for Psy's follow-up single "Gentleman" and the MV for "This Love" by Shinhwa. It shows Psy performing a comical horse-riding dance and appearing in unexpected locations around the Gangnam District, such as an outdoor yoga session and a hot tub. He wears several distinctive suits and black sunglasses with a mindset of "dress classy and dance cheesy." It features a "skewering [of] the Gangnam image" by the "non-Gangnam Psy"; this parody would be recognizable to viewers familiar with Korean culture. Although there are more than ten different locations featured, only two of the scenes are actually filmed in the Gangnam district. The sauna scene, elevator scene, and bathroom scene were filmed elsewhere in the greater Seoul region, and some shots were filmed in World Trade Center Seoul and the Songdo International Business District, which includes Songdo Central Park and International Business District Station. The video was shot over 48 hours in July 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In K-pop, it is routine to have cameos by celebrities in a music video, such as in the dance scenes in the elevator and the parking garage. The guests in the music video include:


title: Gangnam Style

text: Following its July 15 release, "Gangnam Style" overtook Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos during the week of August 28, 2012. On September 1, 2012, it overtook Girls' Generation's "Gee" to become the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube. Although "Call Me Maybe" had unusually strong staying power, averaging over 1.5 million views each day, "Gangnam Style" increased to an average of over nine million views per day within just two months. This was mainly because "Call Me Maybe" remained largely a North American trend, whereas the popularity of "Gangnam Style" was not confined to the United States. 61.6 percent of viewers were male, and those aged between 13 and 17 represented the biggest group.


title: Gangnam Style

text: According to "The Wall Street Journal", T-Pain was among the first to have "sent [the video] to the stratosphere" when he tweeted about it on July 29, 2012. It was then picked up by Neetzan Zimmerman from the social blog Gawker, who asked "Did this underground Hip Hop artist from South Korea just release the Best Music Video of the Year?" on July 30. This was soon followed by Robbie Williams, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Tom Cruise, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and William Gibson, who either commented about or shared the video with their fans via Twitter.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The earliest video to catch the attention of media networks outside South Korea was "Psy Gangnam Style MV Reaction," which was uploaded by Katie and Mindy Anderson on July 18, 2012. The Andersons were subsequently interviewed by Evan Ramstad from "The Wall Street Journal" a few weeks later. In his article published on August 6, 2012, Ramstad also included "Kpop Music Mondays : PSY Gangnam Style," a review and parody of "Gangnam Style" uploaded on July 23 by K-pop video bloggers Simon and Martina Stawski, a Canadian couple living in Seoul. This makes the Stawskis' video the earliest parody featured in an American newspaper. On August 8, 2012, Ramstad appeared on "WSJ Live", and he mentioned the Andersons and the Stawskis again, before claiming that "a lot of Koreans are also making their own parodies of 'Gangnam Style.'"


title: Gangnam Style

text: On September 3, 2012, the number of daily views generated by "Gangnam Style" went past the 5-million mark. By the end of September, it had topped the iTunes charts in 31 countries.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" reached the unprecedented milestone of 1 billion YouTube views on December 21, 2012. YouTube specially marked the video's accomplishments with a cartoon dancing Psy animated icon, added first by the site logo, and later next to the video's view counter when it exceeded 1 billion views. On April 6, 2013, the video on YouTube reached 1.5 billion views. On July 5, 2013, the view counter updated with 1,710,619,528 views, which was 15 million higher than same time the previous day. This increased the average number of views per day from 4,787,807 to 4,818,647 (views divided by the number of days since release).


title: Gangnam Style

text: As of March 2022, the video is the eleventh most viewed video on YouTube, having reached 4.4 billion views.


title: Gangnam Style

text: After the release of "Gangnam Style," the American talent manager Scooter Braun, who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube, asked on Twitter "How did I not sign this guy [Psy]?" Soon afterward, it was reported that Psy had left for Los Angeles to meet with representatives of Justin Bieber, to explore collaboration opportunities. On September 3, 2012, Braun made a public announcement that was later uploaded onto YouTube, saying that he and Psy have decided to "make some history together. [To] be the first Korean artist to break a big record in the United States." On September 4, it was confirmed that Psy was signed to Braun's School Boy Records.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The music video for the song has gone viral and is an Internet meme. Although Psy attributed the song's popularity to YouTube and his fans while at the same time insisted that he is not responsible for the song's success, the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the singer for "increasing the world's interest in Korea" and announced its decision to award Psy with a 4th Class Order of Cultural Merit.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The phrase "Oppan Gangnam Style" was entered into "The Yale Book of Quotations" as one of the most famous quotes of 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: As the song's popularity continued to rise, it caused the share price of the song's music label YG Entertainment to gain as much as 50% on the Korea Exchange. DI Corporation, whose executive chairman Park Won-ho is Psy's father, saw its share price increase by 568.8% within a few months of the song's release despite making a year-over-year loss. Soon, "Gangnam Style" began to attract the attention of several business and political leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who recognized the song as a "force for world peace." During his meeting with Psy at the United Nations Headquarters, he commented, "We have tough negotiations in the United Nations. In such a case I was also thinking of playing Gangnam Style-dance so that everybody would stop and dance. Maybe you can bring UN style."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Through social networks like Facebook, many small, unofficial fan-organized flash mobs have been held in universities and colleges throughout the world. The earliest flash mobs were held in Pasadena, California, and Sydney, Australia. On September 12, 2012, Times Square in Manhattan was filled with a dance mob dancing to the music of "Gangnam Style" during ABC's "Good Morning America". Major flash mobs (those with more than 1,000 participants) were also held in Seoul (South Korea), South Sulawesi (Indonesia), Palermo (Italy), Milan (Italy), and Paris (France).


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song has been mentioned in tweets by the United Nations, the United Nations Children's Fund, and the American space agency NASA; by a reporter during a U.S. State Department briefing; and referenced by the president of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-Hyun during his speech in front of the UN Security Council. On October 9, the mayor of London Boris Johnson held a speech at the 2012 Conservative Party Conference where he told the audience that he and the British Prime Minister David Cameron have danced "Gangnam Style." During a Google Earnings call, Larry Page, the CEO and co-founder of Google, hailed the song as a glimpse of the future of worldwide distribution through YouTube.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The American Council on Exercise estimated that dancing "Gangnam Style" will burn 150–200 calories per half-hour. Swype, an input method for Android operating systems, included "Gangnam Style" in its list of recognized words and phrases.


title: Gangnam Style

text: U.S. President Barack Obama revealed possible plans to privately perform "Gangnam Style" for his spouse Michelle Obama.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In November 2012, a Māori cultural group from Rotorua performed a version of the Gangnam Style dance mixed with a traditional Māori haka in Seoul, celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between South Korea and New Zealand.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Thailand, officials from the Dan Sai municipality in Loei Province shot a video of people wearing masks and performing "Gangnam Style" during the Phi Ta Khon "ghost" festival. According to the Thai newspaper "The Nation", villagers and spiritual leaders from Loei province felt "uneasy" and also "greatly offended" about this "Gangnam Style" performance which tarnishes the image of a 400-year-old tradition. Another controversial incident was sparked by a "Gangnam Style" parody by officers from the Royal Thai Navy, which was not well received by some high-ranking commanders. Although Vice Admiral Tharathorn Kajitsuwan from the "Third Naval Area Command" insisted that "we had no intention to insult or make fun of navy officers in uniform," some senior officers called it "improper." Kajitsuwan claimed that his subordinates had the right to upload the video to YouTube, although he did not expect them to do so. On October 1, 2012, he issued an apology to his colleagues. Commander Surasak Rounroengrom believed an investigation was unnecessary because the video caused no damage to the navy, but he admitted that there was some impropriety about military officers doing their "fancy stepping in uniform."


title: Gangnam Style

text: On September 18, 2012, the North Korean government became the first to use "Gangnam Style" for political activism when it uploaded a parody with the title ""I'm Yushin style!"" onto the government website Uriminzokkiri. The parody mocks the South Korean ruling conservative party president-elect Park Geun-hye. It shows a Photoshopped image of the presidential candidate performing the dance moves of "Gangnam Style" and labels her as a devoted admirer of the Yushin system of autocratic rule set up by her father, Park Chung-hee. A few weeks later, " style" (literally, "Grass Mud Horse Style": The Chinese characters are a homonym for a vulgar slur) was uploaded onto YouTube and other Chinese websites by the political activist and dissident Ai Weiwei. In his parody, Ai Weiwei dances "Gangnam Style" with a pair of handcuffs as a symbol of his arrest by Chinese authorities in 2011. According to the Associated Press, government authorities had removed the video from almost all Chinese websites the next day.


title: Gangnam Style

text: South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office on February 25, 2013. At her inauguration, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" and "Champion," one of his first hits in his native country.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In order to show his solidarity with Ai Weiwei and to advocate the freedom of expression, the British sculptor Anish Kapoor produced the video "Gangnam for Freedom", which features other prominent British artists as well as human rights activists from various international organisations including Index on Censorship and Amnesty International. A few days before, the global grassroots network Students for a Free Tibet had uploaded a parody of "Gangnam Style" to show its support for the Tibetan independence movement. According to Max Fisher from "The Washington Post", this parody of "Gangnam Style" was likely to be filmed in Dharamshala, the home of Tibet's government-in-exile in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Greenpeace announced that it was "Going Gangnam, Greenpeace Style" in order to raise public awareness about illegal and unsustainable fishing practices off the coast of Mozambique. Activists from Greenpeace had parodied "Gangnam Style" on board the organization's excursion yacht "Rainbow Warrior".


title: Gangnam Style

text: Songdo, a ubiquitous city 40 miles (65 km) west of Gangnam, was among five cities vying for the right to host the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a project developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to channel $100 billion a year from developed countries to help developing countries combat climate change. During its campaign to win the right to host the GCF, the country's Presidential Committee on Green Growth produced a promotional video entitled "GCF Songdo Style by Psy" in which Psy recommends Songdo as the host city for the GCF. He announces that a "new paradigm" will begin at Songdo with the GCF and the video heralds "The beginning of Songdo Style" while "Gangnam Style" plays in the background. On October 20, 2012, the board of the GCF announced that Songdo had won the right to host the fund.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In December 2012, the Department of Health in the Philippines launched a "Gangnam Style" dance campaign against the use of firecrackers to celebrate the New Year. Janine Tugonon, 2012 Miss Universe first runner-up, joined and danced on one of their campaign at Pandacan, Manila. According to the department's assistant secretary, Dr. Eric Tayag, the popularity of the song will attract people especially children to use safer means of celebration such as dancing "Gangnam Style." In contrast, the Philippine National Police was confirming intelligence reports about a firecracker named "Gangnam bomb," which supposedly produced by illegal firecracker makers in Bocaue, Bulacan and apparently riding on the popularity of the song. According to Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, director of the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police, he did not know what the possibly dangerous "Gangnam bomb" looks like.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, a close associate of Osama bin Laden currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, had also used the song to demonstrate his ability to gain access to popular cultural trends despite being confined within a top secret prison. In a letter to his lawyer, Muhammad wrote, "I like this new song Gangnam Style. I want to do the dance for you but cannot because of my shackles."


title: Gangnam Style

text: Reaction videos and parodies have been made for or with the music respectively. Some of these user generated videos have received international media recognition. "Gangnam Style"-related videos have also been uploaded by the CPDRC Dancing Inmates, Cody Simpson, Seungri, Latino, Fine Brothers, WAVEYA Dance Group, Barely Political, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Numerous parodies have been spawned on college campuses. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's version ("MIT Gangnam Style") featured Donald Sadoway, recognized in "Time" magazine as one of 2012 "Top 100 Most Influential People in the World"; Eric Lander, who is co-chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; and linguistics pioneer Noam Chomsky. The Maccabeats, an a cappella group from Yeshiva University, parodied the song as "What's Next? Sukkos Style?" with group members waving the four species. In addition, there have been parodies from The Ohio University Marching 110, York University, McMaster University, Cornell University, University of Oregon, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Boston University, Dartmouth College, Stanford University Eton College, and the University of Michigan.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The American space agency NASA uploaded an educational parody shot by its students at its Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. The video features cameo appearances by astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mike Massimino, Michael Coats, Ellen Ochoa, and the International Space Station's Expedition 15 flight engineer Clayton Anderson, who dances "Gangnam Style" halfway through the video. Shortly after its upload, the parody was retweeted by the European Space Agency and the SETI Institute.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song was also parodied by cadets from the United States Military Academy, United States Merchant Marine Academy, United States Naval Academy, United States Air Force Academy, and the Royal Military College of Canada; soldiers from the 210th Fires Brigade, the 2nd Infantry Division, service members from an undisclosed unit and location in Afghanistan, and service members from the China Coast Guard's Jiangsu division, as well as high-ranking officers from the Royal Thai Navy. CollegeHumor uploaded "Mitt Romney Style," while What's Trending uploaded "Obama Style." During the two weeks before August 7, 2012, nearly 1,000 videos with the word "Gangnam" in the title were uploaded onto YouTube.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The Portuguese public broadcaster RTP1 spoofed the song in its late-night show 5 Para A Meia-Noite as "Gamar com Style", sung by the comedian Pedro "Pacheco" Fernandes, criticizing the Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, the European Union, the IMF, and the 2010–13 Portuguese financial crisis.


title: Gangnam Style

text: There are many "Gangnam Style" parodies used for education. One such parody includes "Conjugation Style," a parody used to teach students about the conjugation of "-er" verbs in the French language. These sorts of parodies were referred to in the 2014 book "Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue!" (part of Tom Angleberger's "Origami Yoda" series), where one of the videos in the FunTime program purchased for McQuarrie Middle School involves Professor FunTime and his calculator sidekick Gizmo performing a parody of "Gangnam Style," entitled "FunTime Style."


title: Gangnam Style

text: YouTube comedian cs188 uploaded a YouTube Poop of the song's iconic video, called "[PSYTP] OPPA GODDAMN STYLE." The video has received more than 15 million views since its upload on October 11, 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Following the release of "Gangnam Style," Psy made several performances on television and at concerts in Korea. Early performances included his appearance on the weekly South Korean music program, "The Music Trend". Psy also performed at several concerts prior to his departure to the United States, including during "The Heumbbeok Show" and the Summer Stand Concert in Seoul. After returning to South Korea, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" during a free concert that he held outside the Seoul City Hall. More than 80,000 fans attended the event, leading to the closure of part of the city center and an increase in subway operations. While Psy was in the US, it was announced that he, as ambassador of the Formula One Korean Grand Prix, would perform "Gangnam Style" at the event during the 2012 edition. At the event Psy taught Formula One drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel how to perform the dance.


title: Gangnam Style

text: On November 28, 2012, Psy visited Thailand and held his concert "Gangnam Style Thailand Extra Live" at the SCG Stadium in Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok. At the show, a part of celebration for the 85th birthday of Thai's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, he performed the song along with his other hits. During the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards held in Hong Kong on November 30, he performed the song on stage, joined by the video's co-star Hyuna and Yoo Jae-Seok look-alikes in yellow suits. The track was one of three-song setlist on Psy's free showcase, held at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on December 1, 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: On February 11, 2013, Psy arrived at the Malaysian state of Penang and performed "Gangnam Style" at a concert in front of more than 100,000 guests, including the Prime Minister of Malaysia Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as well as other high-ranking politicians from the country's ruling Barisan Nasional party.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In early October 2012, Psy travelled to Sydney, Australia, and performed "Gangnam Style" on "The X Factor", a reality TV music competition, where Melanie Brown joined him in performing the "horse dance" on stage. The following day, he performed on breakfast TV show "Sunrise" in Martin Place, Sydney.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Psy's first public performance in Europe was on November 5, 2012, in France, where he and 20,000 fans danced "Gangnam Style" in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris during a flashmob organized by NRJ Radio. Then, he traveled to Oxford and performed a short rendition of "Gangnam Style" with students from the Oxford Union, before moving on to the Yalding House in London where he danced "Gangnam Style" with the BBC's radio DJ Scott Mills. Shortly afterward, Psy left for Cologne and met up with the German comedian and television host Stefan Raab during the popular late-night show "TV total", where Psy gave an interview and performed "Gangnam Style" for Raab. During the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Frankfurt on November 11, Psy delivered a performance of "Gangnam Style" which featured a David Hasselhoff appearance and backup dancing of Psy look-alikes.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In early 2013, Psy returned to France for the 2013 NRJ Music Awards at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, where he began performing "Gangnam Style" on the red carpet before finishing the rest of the choreography on stage and leaving the ceremony with three awards.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Following the viral success of his music video, Psy left for the United States and performed "Gangnam Style" in various locations. On August 20, 2012, Psy posted on Twitter "Bringing #GangnamStyle to the Dodgers–Giants game this evening." Dodger Stadium presented a segment called "Psy Dance Cam" where they showed clips of the music video, followed by live shots of baseball fans dancing, and then Psy, who waves and does the dance. Two days later, Psy appeared on VH1's "Big Morning Buzz Live" show, and taught television hosts Carrie Keagan and Jason Dundas how to dance "Gangnam Style."


title: Gangnam Style

text: On September 6, Psy appeared at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performing his "Gangnam Style" dance alongside comedian Kevin Hart. After the event, he made several more appearances on US TV programs. On September 10, he appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in Burbank, California, introducing himself as "Psy from Korea" before teaching Britney Spears the dance. He described the dance as "pretending to bounce like riding on an invisible horse" and when DeGeneres told Spears she would have to remove her high-heeled shoes to perform the dance, Psy protested that no, the point was "to dress classy, and dance cheesy." On September 14, he appeared on NBC's morning program "Today" in New York City for its Toyota Concert Series, where he performed the song and also taught the anchors the dance. The September 15, 2012, season premiere episode of "Saturday Night Live" featured a sketch based on the song and its video. Bobby Moynihan portrayed Psy, but was joined mid-sketch by Psy himself. He also made his second appearance on "The Ellen Show"s September 19 episode to perform the song along with his backup dancers. On September 22, Psy made an appearance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival to perform "Gangnam Style." Psy, dressed in a black jacket, blue pants, two-tone shoes, and his signature shades, appeared on the US national TV show "The View" on October 25 and performed the song for Barbara Walters and the women of the show who donned sunglasses and got out of their seats.


title: Gangnam Style

text: On November 13, he joined the American recording artist Madonna on stage during her concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City and they performed a mashup of the song and her 2008 hit "Give It 2 Me." Psy later told reporters that his gig with Madonna had "topped his list of accomplishments." On November 18, Psy, who rocked out in traditional Hammer pants, closed out the 40th American Music Awards show with a performance of "Gangnam Style" joined by surprise guest MC Hammer, who brought in his own moves and Psy's horse-riding dance as the song mashed into his 1990s hit "2 Legit 2 Quit." Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" commented that "Psy's feverish rendition of 'Gangnam Style' accomplished what so few award show performances can: a palpable sense of excitement. The combination of the K-pop star and MC Hammer ... was a stroke of genius that very few could have seen coming," and chose it as the best performance of the night. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" did a special Thanksgiving broadcast with an all-military audience on November 22, and Psy dropped by as the musical guest. The singer sang the song and danced alongside the soldiers, going into the crowd for part of his performance.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Psy performed "Gangnam Style" during the second night of KIIS-FM Jingle Ball concert at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 3, 2012. Wearing an all-red outfit including a sparkling, sequined top, he sang the song at TNT's "Christmas in Washington" special, attended by the US President Barack Obama and his family, and held at the National Building Museum On December 9. On December 16, he performed the song at the halftime show of the NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks in Toronto. During the "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" event at Times Square in Manhattan on December 31, 2012, more than 1 million people witnessed a live "Gangnam Style" performance by Psy as he was joined on stage by characters (Yoo Jae-Seok, Noh Hong-chul) from the song's video for the first part of the performance, before MC Hammer appeared to perform a mash-up of the song and "2 Legit 2 Quit."


title: Gangnam Style

text: During the five-day Carnival in Rio attended by more than 5 million people, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" with singers Claudia Leitte and Gilberto Gil to mark the 50th anniversary of Korean immigration to Brazil.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The success of "Gangnam Style" was a result of the build-up of South Korea's music industry that had been in the works for more than 20 years, and it led to other K-pop artists positioning themselves for similar breakthroughs in the U.S. music industry. Frances Moore, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, brought up Gangnam Style as an example of how South Korea became one of the "most successful exporters of repertoire".


title: Gangnam Style

text: According to the news agency Agence France-Presse, the success of "Gangnam Style" has led to the further rise and spread of the Korean Wave to other countries. As the song continued to attract worldwide media attention, it also led to various broadcasting networks and national newspapers focusing its attention on K-pop and other aspects of Korean culture. For example, "The Daily Telegraph" published an article recommending its readers to try out everything from K-Pop to "K-Cars", "K-Phones" and "K-Cuisine". Kim Byoung-gi, the Korean Ambassador to Lebanon, wrote that "Gangnam Style" had helped bridge Lebanese and Korean cultures. The French-born political commentator Tim Soutphommasane, a research fellow at Monash University, agreed that the "Gangnam phenomenon" was "something worth studying". According to Soutphommasane, the world was only beginning to appreciate Gangnam Style as "part of a broader "hallyu cultural wave" coming out of the country [South Korea]".


title: Gangnam Style

text: In 2012, the South Korean government announced that "Gangnam Style" had brought in $13.4 million to the country's audio sector, and it subsequently launched a campaign to further expand the K-Pop music industry overseas. According to the Bank of Korea, the country's services account recorded a surplus of US$2.3 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared to a deficit of US$4.5 billion last year. This was mainly due to the growing influence and popularity of K-pop songs such as "Gangnam Style." However, American journalist John Seabrook noted that by "satirizing standard K-pop tropes in Gangnam Style", Psy may have subverted the music genre's chances of making it big in the West.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Record executives in the music industry believe that music charts will increasingly be filled with YouTube-driven globalised acts from foreign countries. Sean Carey, a research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton, wrote that the flow of popular music will no longer be a single traffic route from North America and Europe to other parts of the globe, but will also move the other way as well. According to Adam Sherwin from "The Independent", the global web demand for Gangnam Style had short-circuited the "traditional reluctance" of radio stations to play foreign-language songs. The song is also underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. Although Psy earned more than US$60,000 from music sales of "Gangnam Style" in South Korea alone, he and his music label YG Entertainment have raked in almost US$1 million from advertisements which appear on YouTube videos identified for using "Gangnam Style" in its content. The "Harvard Business Review" published an article written by Kevin Evers, who explained how "Gangnam Style" had changed "Billboard"'s ranking methodology of its music charts. Instead of relying solely on radio plays and paid purchases, "Billboard" started to place a heavier emphasis on digital sales and YouTube views. As a result of the change, Gangnam Style moved up to the top position of "Billboard"'s Hot Rap Songs music chart. According to the British Phonographic Industry's report based on Official Charts Company sales data, thanks to Psy's song and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", pop had become the UK's favourite musical genre of the year, taking the lion's share of the singles market (38.5%) in 2012.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" was ranked No. 25 on the "Rolling Stone"s 50 best songs of 2012 list and No. 8 on "SPIN"s 40 best songs of the year. The song also took the No. 8 spot on the 2012 "Billboard" 20 best K-Pop songs list by Jeff Benjamin and Jessica Oak, who commented "[the song] stands out not only for its slick, electronic production but also for its deeper critique on high-class society." According to MTV's list of the 2012 best songs, the song was ranked No. 8 with MTV news staff James Montgomery's comment: "'Gangnam' is either the track we, as a culture needed right now, or the track we, as a culture, deserved." "Time" magazine chose it as the second best song of 2012 after Usher's "Climax," writing "The YouTube meme, a good-natured, mind-bendingly catchy lampoon [...] turned into a global obsession." The song was one of the best songs of the year on "The New York Times" pop critics' list and "E! Online"s No. 1 pick on the top 10 pop songs of 2012 list. Digital Spy ranked the song No. 20 among the 20 best singles of the year. It was voted the 12th best single of 2012 by "The Village Voice"s 40th annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Music critic Robert Christgau placed "Gangnam Style" as the No. 2 single on his 2012 Dean's List.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The music video for "Gangnam Style" was chosen as the best music video of 2012 by "Time". Melissa Locker of the magazine wrote "The catchy song paired with social satire and tongue-in-cheek vibe has spread so quickly it reminds us why videos are called viral. The video has sparked an International dance craze and catapulted Psy to international super stardom." "Rolling Stone" also ranked the video No. 1 on its "The Best Music Videos of 2012" list, saying "The Korean auteur [Psy] conquered the world with his 'dress classy, dance cheesy' aesthetic, blurring the line between parody and celebration." The video took No. 4 position on the Digital Spy's list of 10 top pop music videos of the year.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The music video came in first with 21% rating in the 2012 Billboard.com's readers poll, beating "Where Have You Been" by Rihanna (19%) and "Beauty and a Beat" by Justin Bieber featuring Nicki Minaj (11%). The song was the most popular song played on New Year's Eve and the most sung song on the day, leaving "Auld Lang Syne" in second place for the first time since 2005, on karaoke company Lucky Voice's online service in the United Kingdom. CNN readers picked "Gangnam Style" as the eighth best song of 2012. "The Week" (US edition) ranked the song's global popularity at No. 6 with the strapline "'Gangnam Style' takes over the world" on the 13 biggest pop culture moments of the year list. The phenomenon of the song and the video was also picked as one of the 2012's most viral moments in music by Wendy Geller of Yahoo! Music, and No. 2 on the 2012 top 20 music moments list after Whitney Houston's death by "Billboard", being written "If there's one meme, song and face that has been truly inescapable in the second half of 2012, it's South Korean rapper Psy and his outrageous 'Gangnam Style'."


title: Gangnam Style

text: On December 1, 2014, YouTube announced that "Gangnam Style" had exceeded the number of views that are possible to store using a 32-bit signed integer, that being 2,147,483,647 (2−1, or two billion). As a result, YouTube was forced to upgrade to using 64-bit integers to store view numbers, with a maximum value of 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (2−1, or nine quintillion). "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer, but that was before we met Psy," stated a YouTube spokesperson.


title: Gangnam Style

text: With 132 beats per minute, the song was momentarily forbidden in gyms in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country restricted music faster than 120 BPM to avoid Koreans feel energized by the tempo of music, breath more heavily or sweat more intensely.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Upon its release, "Gangnam Style" was an enormous hit. The song went straight to number one on the Gaon Singles Chart on the fourth week of July 2012, with 816,868 digital downloads, and spent five consecutive weeks at the top position of the chart, tying it with IU's "Good Day" for the most weeks at number one single in the chart's history. In addition, the song became the first-place winner on various weekly chart shows such as "M Countdown" (three straight weeks) and "Music Bank" (a total of 16 weeks including a record 10-consecutive-week). According to the Korea Music Content Industry Association, "Gangnam Style" became the best selling song of 2012 in South Korea with 3,842,109 download sales.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song debuted at number six on the "Billboard" Korea K-Pop Hot 100 for the week of July 28, 2012. It then topped the chart the week after and remained at the summit for five consecutive weeks, tying IU's record with "You and I" for the longest running number one song on the chart. The record, however, was broken by Lee Seung-gi's "Return" earned six weeks at the top spot from December 2012 to January 2013. "Gangnam Style" took number one spot on the 2012 "Billboard" K-Pop Hot 100 year-end chart.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Oceania, "Gangnam Style" was a huge success. The single made its chart debut on the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 21 on September 3, 2012. After two weeks, the song reached in the top ten and the following week topped the chart, becoming the first K-pop song and the first foreign language song in three decades to achieve that feat since German band Nena's "99 Luftballons" hit the top spot in March 1982. The song remained atop the chart for two consecutive weeks before being deposed from the top spot by One Direction's "Live While We're Young." After one week of the band's reign, "Gangnam Style" regained its number one position and stayed at the top spot for a further four weeks, tallying a total of six nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart. The track was ranked in the top ten of the chart for 17 consecutive weeks before it fell to number 11 on the January 14, 2013, chart. The song has been certified 4× Platinum with sales exceeding 60,000 by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). "Gangnam Style" was the second biggest-selling single of 2012 in the country behind Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe."


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Australia, the song debuted at number seven on the ARIA Singles Chart on September 17, 2012, becoming the highest debut for the week. It reached number one on the chart just three weeks after its release, overtaking "Battle Scars" by Guy Sebastian featuring Lupe Fiasco, and spent six consecutive weeks at the summit, making it the second-longest running chart-topper for 2012 behind Flo Rida's "Whistle" remained at the pole position for seven weeks. As a result, Psy became the first artist to reach number one on the chart with a foreign-language song since Las Ketchup topped the chart with "The Ketchup Song" in September 2002, and the eighth overall. In addition, "Gangnam Style" was the first Korean song to enter the chart and to climb to the top spot in Australian chart history. After the single spent the first 14 weeks in the top ten of the chart since its chart debut, it dropped to number 11 in its 15th week. The song, however, rebounded from the position to number three on the issue date of December 31, 2012. It descended to number 14 in its 18th week, ending a 16-week in the top ten, and out of the top 20 the following week, placed at number 23. It has been certified 10× Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), with sales exceeding 700,000 copies. "Gangnam Style" was placed at number two on the 2012 ARIA Singles year-end chart behind Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." The song is currently the fourth best-selling single in Australian music history.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Europe, the song was successful as well, topping the charts in almost all countries. "Gangnam Style" made its first European chart appearance, entering the Danish Singles Chart at number 40 on August 3, 2012. It reached the top ten in its fifth week, and climbed to number four in its sixth. For the issue dated September 14, 2012, the song became Psy's first number one on the chart, ending the one-week reign of the Danish rock band Nephew's "Hjertestarter." The song remained at the top position for seven consecutive weeks, tying it with "Somebody That I Used to Know" performed by Gotye featuring Kimbra for the longest running number one single on the chart for 2012. In its 24th week, it climbed back to the top, giving it its 8th week in that position. The single spent 22 straight weeks in the top ten of the chart. In January 2013, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI Denmark) certified the single 2× Platinum, denoting sales of 60,000 copies.


title: Gangnam Style

text: The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 196 on September 1, 2012, and in its fourth week broke into the top 40 at number 37. In its fifth week, the song reached the top five on the chart and eventually peaked at number one on the week of October 6, becoming the first-ever K-pop song to achieve that feat. While the track only remained atop the chart for one week before being overtaken by Rihanna's "Diamonds", it spent a further 17 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the chart before it fell to number twelve on the January 26, 2013, chart. The song was the sixth biggest selling single of 2012 with 878,000 sales, and ranked at number 24 among the top 40 most streamed tracks of the year in the United Kingdom. According to Official Charts Company sales data, "Gangnam Style" has become not only the 129th track to sell more than 1 million copies in the history of the UK's Official Singles Chart, but also the first million seller by an Asian music star. On April 9, 2013, the song became 13th most downloaded single of all time in the UK.


title: Gangnam Style

text: Elsewhere in Europe, the song also peaked at number one on the German Singles Chart for two non-consecutive weeks in 2012. For the week of January 11, 2013, it returned to the summit, ending the ten-consecutive-week reign of "Diamonds" by Rihanna, and spent a week at the top. Psy's song remained in the top ten on the chart for a 19th straight week including 15 in the top three position since October 2012. It has been certified 5× Gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), denoting sales of 750,000 copies. In addition, the single remained number one in Austria for four nonconsecutive weeks, Belgium (Flanders) for five consecutive weeks, Belgium (Wallonia) for seven straight weeks, Czech Republic for one week, Finland for four consecutive weeks, France for six non-consecutive weeks, Italy for a week, the Netherlands for two consecutive weeks, Norway for four straight weeks, Scotland for a week, Spain for 12 consecutive weeks, and Switzerland for three nonconsecutive weeks. It additionally placed top five positions in Iceland, Ireland, and Sweden, and top ten in Hungary and Slovakia.


title: Gangnam Style

text: In the United States, "Gangnam Style" debuted at number 64 the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the week of September 22, 2012, with 61,000 downloads sold, more than the total number of previous weeks (57,000), becoming the second K-pop song to enter the chart behind the Wonder Girls' "Nobody," which spent a week at number 76 on the October 31, 2009, chart. The following week, the song rocketed to number 11 on the chart with 188,000 downloads, seeing a sales increase of 210% after Psy appeared on various TV shows such as "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and NBC's "Today". In its third week, it rose to number two on the chart, topping the Hot Digital Songs chart with a 60% increase to 301,000 downloads sold and climbing to number nine on On-Demand Songs chart. After that, the song peaked at the runner-up spot for seven consecutive weeks behind Maroon 5's "One More Night," failing to gain in enough radio audience to ascend to the summit, although it ruled Hot Digital Songs for a fourth week and On-Demand Songs for a fifth week during that period. While "One More Night" dominated the Radio Songs chart for eight weeks, "Gangnam Style" peaked at just number 12 on the chart.


title: Gangnam Style

text: For the week of November 24, the song dropped to number five on the Hot 100, despite leading in sales with 188,000 downloads. In its 12th week, the single rebounded from number seven to number five with top Digital Gainer accolades, spurred by Psy's show-closing performance of the song with MC Hammer at the AMA. The track returned for a sixth week atop Hot Digital Songs with 229,000 downloads sold including 41,000 stemmed from the duet version, which mixed in Hammer's 1992 No. 5 Hot 100 hit "2 Legit 2 Quit." It was the first song to spend six weeks at number one on the Digital Songs chart without reaching the top spot on the Hot 100 since Miley Cyrus's "Party in the U.S.A." in 2009. After the song stayed in the top ten of the Hot 100 for 11 consecutive weeks, it dropped out of the top ten on the December 22, 2012, chart, falling from number 10 to number 11. The following week, "Gangnam Style" descended to number 18 on the chart but achieved the milestone of 3 million downloads sold in the country, becoming the first and only K-pop song to reach the mark. For the week of January 12, 2013, powered by consumers purchasing some of 2012's most buzzworthy hits and radio airplay recounting the same in year-end retrospectives, the song resurged from number 19 to number six with its best weekly total 400,000 downloads sold, returning to the Hot 100's top ten after three weeks out of the top ten. The track dropped to number 14 in its 18th week, ending a 12-week in the top 10, and number 22 in its 19th week, despite staying in the top ten of Digital Songs chart with 192,000 and 105,000 copies sold, respectively. On February 20, 2013, "Billboard" and Nielsen announced the addition of U.S. YouTube video streaming data to its platforms, which includes an update to the methodology for the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Thanks to the change to reflect online video activity, "Gangnam Style" rebounded from number 48 to number 26 on the Hot 100 for the week of March 2, 2013.


title: Gangnam Style

text: On October 11, 2012, "Billboard" unveiled new methodology for the Hot Rap Songs chart, including digital download sales and streaming data for the first time, along with radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS. Due to this, "Gangnam Style" soared from number 20 to number one on the October 20, 2012, chart. The song spent eight consecutive weeks atop the chart before being overtaken by Flo Rida's "I Cry." After four weeks of his reign, "Gangnam Style" regained its number one position in the week of January 12, 2013. The track also peaked at number three on the Hot Dance/Club Play Songs chart in the week of November 17, 2012. The song was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 19, 2013, denoting digital download sales of 4,000,000. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Gangnam Style" became the 9th best selling song of 2012 in the United States with 3,592,000 download sales. In late January 2013, the song topped the 4 million mark in digital sales, becoming the third comic/novelty song to reach the mark, following LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" and Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You!."


title: Gangnam Style

text: In Canada, "Gangnam Style" was a big hit just like the rest of the world. The song entered the Canadian Hot 100 chart at number 71 on the week of September 8, 2012. In its fourth week, it reached in the top ten of the chart, climbing to number three, and the following week hit the pole position. The single spent seven consecutive weeks atop the chart, making it the second longest running number one song of 2012 behind Maroon 5's "Payphone" remained at the top for eight straight weeks. On the week of September 12, 2012, the song debuted at number seven on the Top 20 Digital Tracks chart, based on Nielsen SoundScan data. The following week it topped the chart and spent four weeks at the top spot before giving the summit to "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift. "Gangnam Style," however, was back on top of the chart for the week of October 24, and grabbed the number one position for another four straight weeks, tallying a total of eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart. On November 16, 2012, the track was certified 4× Platinum by Music Canada, and as of January 2013 had sold more than 476,000 copies in the country.


title: Gangnam Style

text: On August 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" charted number one on the iTunes Music Video Charts, overtaking Justin Bieber's "As Long as You Love Me" and Katy Perry's "Wide Awake"; this feat was the first for any South Korean artist. From September 8, 2012, to February 23, 2013, the song has also peaked and stayed at number one on "Billboard"'s YouTube Chart for 22 weeks, until being surpassed by "Stay" by Rihanna for one week; as of April 2013, it had reclaimed its top position for a 30th week.


title: Gangnam Style

text: "Gangnam Style" was officially re-released on August 14, 2012, as "Oppa Is Just My Style" (), featuring additional vocals provided by Korean singer and 4Minute member Hyuna. Mallika Rao of "The Huffington Post" wrote that the video was "apparently retrofitted here to work from a woman's point of view, but the main difference we're spotting is less invisible horse riding and more sultry side-eyeing." , the accompanying music video had received more than 784 million views, 2.6 million likes, and 520,000 dislikes on YouTube.


title: The Smile (band)

text: The Smile are an English rock band comprising the Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keys) with the drummer Tom Skinner. They are produced by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's longtime producer. They incorporate elements of post-punk, progressive rock, Afrobeat and electronic music.


title: The Smile (band)

text: The Smile worked during the COVID-19 lockdowns and made their surprise debut in a performance streamed by Glastonbury Festival in May 2021. In early 2022, they released six singles and performed to an audience for the first time at three shows in London, which were livestreamed. In May, the Smile released their debut album, "A Light for Attracting Attention", to acclaim, and began an international tour.


title: The Smile (band)

text: Jonny Greenwood said the Smile came from his desire to work with his Radiohead bandmate Thom Yorke during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Smile are produced by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's longtime producer. Godrich said the project emerged from Greenwood "writing all these riffs, waiting for something to happen". He cited the pandemic and the unavailability of the Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien, who was busy with his debut solo album, "Earth", as motivating factors. Greenwood said: "We didn't have much time, but we just wanted to finish some songs together. It's been very stop-start, but it's felt a happy way to make music."


title: The Smile (band)

text: Greenwood and Yorke enlisted the drummer Tom Skinner, who had played with acts including the jazz band Sons of Kemet. Skinner first worked with Greenwood when he played on Greenwood’s soundtrack to the 2012 film "The Master". The Smile members agreed not to give interviews about the project.


title: The Smile (band)

text: The Smile take their name from the title of a poem by Ted Hughes. Yorke said it was "not the smile as in 'ahh', more the smile as in the guy who lies to you every day". The Smile made their debut in a surprise performance for the concert video "Live at Worthy Farm", produced by Glastonbury Festival and streamed on May 22, 2021. The performance was recorded in secret earlier that week and announced on the day of the stream. The band performed eight songs, with Yorke and Greenwood on guitar, bass, Moog synthesiser and Rhodes piano.


title: The Smile (band)

text: Yorke performed a Smile song, "Free in the Knowledge", at the Letters Live event at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in October 2021. On January 29 and 30, 2022, the Smile performed to an audience for the first time at three shows at Magazine, London, which were livestreamed. They played in the round, and debuted several tracks, including "Speech Bubbles", "A Hairdryer", "Waving a White Flag" and "The Same". The shows also included performances of "Open the Floodgates", which Yorke first performed in 2010, and a cover of the 1979 Joe Jackson single "It's Different for Girls".


title: The Smile (band)

text: In "NME", James Balmont gave the London show four out five, describing it as "meticulous, captivating stuff". In the "Guardian", Kitty Empire gave it four out of five, writing that "the Smile are most musically convincing when they stretch farther away from Radiohead", while Alexis Petridis gave it three, saying it was "intriguing rather than dazzling, intermittently spellbinding, filled with fascinating ideas that don't always coalesce".


title: The Smile (band)

text: On 20 April 2022, the Smile announced their debut album, "A Light for Attracting Attention". It was released digitally through XL Recordings on 13 May, followed by a retail release on 17 June. "A Light for Attracting Attention" received acclaim; the "Pitchfork" critic Ryan Dombal wrote that it was "instantly, unmistakably the best album yet by a Radiohead side project". It reached number five on the UK Albums Chart.


title: The Smile (band)

text: The first single, "You Will Never Work in Television Again", was released on streaming platforms on 5 January 2022. It was followed by "The Smoke", "Skrting on the Surface", "Pana-vision", "Free In The Knowledge", and "Thin Thing". On 16 May, the Smile began a tour of Europe and North America. The tour included performances of the "Light for Attracting Attention" outtake "Just Eyes and Mouth", Yorke's 2009 single "FeelingPulledApartByHorses" and new material. On 14 December, the Smile released a digital-only EP, "The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022)", with songs from their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland.


title: The Smile (band)

text: "Consequence" wrote that the Smile incorporate elements of post-punk, proto-punk and math rock. "Pitchfork" likened them to Radiohead's "vintage rock sensibilities", with a "slight bounce to Skinner's drums" and "unfamiliar aggression from Greenwood in the bassline". The "Guardian" critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "sound like a simultaneously more skeletal and knottier version of Radiohead", exploring progressive rock influences with unusual time signatures, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia. Kitty Empire noted Afrobeat elements in "Just Eyes and Mouth" and influence from 1960s electronic music and systems music in "Open the Floodgates" and "The Same". Reviewing "You Will Never Work in Television Again", the "Pitchfork" critic Jayson Greene described it as a "raw-boned rock number" reminiscent of Radiohead's 1995 album "The Bends".


title: 2021 German federal election

text: Federal elections were held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, chose not to run again, marking the first time that an incumbent Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany has not sought re-election.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: With 25.7% of total votes, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) recorded their best result since 2005, and emerged as the largest party for the first time since 2002. The ruling CDU/CSU, which had led a grand coalition with the SPD since 2013, recorded their worst ever result with 24.1%, a significant decline from 32.9% in 2017. Alliance 90/The Greens achieved their best result in history at 14.8%, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) made small gains and finished on 11.5%. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) fell from third to fifth place with 10.3%, a decline of 2.3 percentage points. The Left suffered their worst showing since their official formation in 2007, failing to cross the 5% electoral threshold by just over one-tenth of a percentage point. The party was nonetheless entitled to full proportional representation, as it won three direct constituencies.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: With a fifth grand coalition being dismissed by both the CDU/CSU and the SPD, the FDP and the Greens were considered kingmakers. On 23 November, following complex coalition talks, the SPD, FDP and Greens formalized an agreement to form a traffic light coalition, which was approved by all three parties. Olaf Scholz and his cabinet were elected by the Bundestag on 8 December.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: The 2017 federal election was held after a four-year grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. Though the CDU/CSU remained the biggest parliamentary group, both it and the SPD suffered significant losses. The SPD leadership, recognising the party's unsatisfactory performance after four years in government, announced that it would go into opposition. With the CDU/CSU having pledged not to work with either the AfD or The Left before the federal election, the only remaining option for a majority government was a Jamaica coalition consisting of the CDU/CSU, FDP, and the Greens. Exploratory talks between the parties were held over the next six weeks, though the FDP withdrew from the negotiations on 20 November, citing irreconcilable differences between the parties on migration and energy policies. Chancellor Angela Merkel consulted with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who implored all parties to reconsider in order to avoid fresh elections.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: The SPD and their leader Martin Schulz indicated their willingness to enter into discussions for another coalition government with the CDU/CSU. The SPD leadership voted to enter into exploratory discussion on 15 December 2017 and at a party congress in January 2018 a majority of the party's delegates voted to support the coalition talks. The text of the final agreement was agreed to by the CDU/CSU and the SPD on 7 February, though was conditioned on the approval of a majority of the SPD's party membership. The 463,723 members of the SPD voted to approve or reject the deal from 20 February to 2 March, with the result announced on 4 March. A total of 78.39% of members cast valid votes, of which 66.02% voted in favor of another grand coalition. Merkel was voted in by the Bundestag for a fourth term as chancellor on 14 March, with 364 votes for, 315 against, 9 abstentions, and 4 invalid votes, just 9 more votes than the 355 needed for a majority. The new government was officially referred to as the Fourth Merkel cabinet.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: Merkel's final government was subject to intense instability. The 2018 German government crisis saw the longstanding alliance between the CDU and CSU threaten to split over asylum seeker policy. Interior Minister and CSU leader Horst Seehofer threatened to undercut Merkel's authority by closing German borders for asylum seekers registered in another European Union (EU) country. The split, eventually repaired following a summit with EU countries, threatened to bring down the government. Following his party's historically low result in the 2018 Bavarian state election, Seehofer was replaced as CSU leader by new Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder at a party conference in January 2019, while he retained his position as Interior Minister in the Fourth Merkel cabinet.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would resign as leader of the CDU at the party's conference in December 2018 and step down as Chancellor of Germany at the forthcoming election, following poor results at state elections for the CSU in Bavaria and for the CDU in Hesse. Merkel's allegedly preferred candidate for the party leadership, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, narrowly defeated Friedrich Merz, who had been a rival of Merkel around 2002 and had left politics in 2009 criticising her decisions and leadership. Kramp-Karrenbauer struggled to unify the party's liberal and conservative factions, and in February 2020, when she failed to lead the Thuringia state CDU towards a solution of the government crisis there, she announced her intention to withdraw her interest in running as the CDU nominee for chancellor at the election and step down as party leader. A party convention to elect a new leader was scheduled for April but was repeatedly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The election was held in January 2021, with Armin Laschet, incumbent Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, winning with 52.8% of delegate votes. Merz was his main opponent at 47.2%.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: The other party in the coalition government, the SPD, also had leadership instability. Following their worst general election result since 1945, at the beginning of the new government the party elected Andrea Nahles as their leader in April 2018. Nahles had already been elected leader of the SPD parliamentary group after the federal election in September when the party still planned to go into opposition. She was unsuccessful in improving the party's stock with the electorate as it continued to slide in opinion polls and was for the first time in history well beaten by the centre-left party Alliance 90/The Greens at the 2019 European Parliament election. She resigned on 2 June 2019, precipitating a leadership election for the SPD. Progressive candidates Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken defeated the more moderate candidates Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz, and were elected co-leaders by the party's membership. Their election raised prospects of the coalition government collapsing and early elections being called, although Reuters reported that the duo would seek to achieve agreement from the CDU/CSU on increasing public spending rather than allow the government to collapse. In August 2020, the party appointed Merkel's deputy Vice-Chancellor Scholz as its candidate for chancellor at the election, despite him having lost to Walter-Borjans and Esken in the party leadership election.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: Cem Özdemir and Simone Peter stood down as co-leaders of the Greens after the failed Jamaica negotiations, and Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck were elected as their successors in January 2018. Dissatisfaction with the SPD and the federal government saw a rise in Greens' polling numbers throughout 2018. They scored record results in the Bavarian and Hessian state elections in October and subsequently surpassed the SPD in public opinion, settling in second behind the CDU/CSU for the next three years. The party had its best ever showings at the 2019 European Parliament election, 2020 Hamburg state election, and 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election. They briefly polled in first place during two brief periods, first after the 2019 European Parliament election and again after the nomination of chancellor candidates in April 2021.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: The Left also underwent a change in leadership, with Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger stepping down after nine years as party co-leaders. They were succeeded by Janine Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow at a party conference held digitally on 27 February 2021. Wissler is considered a member of the party's left wing, formerly aligned with the Socialist Left faction, while Hennig-Wellsow is considered a moderate and part of the party's pragmatic wing. Both support their party's participation in federal government, particularly Hennig-Wellsow, who played a major role in the red–red–green coalition government of The Left, the SPD, and the Greens in the state of Thuringia.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: Germany uses the mixed-member proportional representation system, a system of proportional representation combined with elements of first-past-the-post voting. The Bundestag has 598 nominal members, elected for a four-year term; these seats are distributed between the sixteen German states in proportion to the states' number of eligible voters.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: Each voter can cast two votes: a constituency vote (first vote) and a party list vote (second vote). Based solely on the first votes, 299 members are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting. The second votes are used to produce a proportional number of seats for parties, first in the states, and then in the Bundestag. Seats are allocated using the Sainte-Laguë method. If a party wins fewer constituency seats in a state than its second votes would entitle it to, it receives additional seats from the relevant state list. Parties can file lists in every single state under certain conditions, such as a fixed number of supporting signatures. Parties can receive second votes only in those states in which they have filed a state list. If a party, by winning single-member constituencies in one state, receives more seats than it would be entitled to according to its second vote share in that state, the excess seats become known as overhang seats; to avoid negative vote weight, those overhang seats are compensated for in the other states, restoring proportionality according to second votes cast nationwide.


title: 2021 German federal election

text: To qualify for proportional seat distribution, a party must receive more second votes nationwide than the electoral threshold of 5%. This requirement is waived for parties winning at least three single-member constituencies. As result of this waiver, parties have benefited on three occasions, such as the DP in the 1957 West German federal election and the PDS in the 1994 German federal election. Parties representing recognized national minorities are exempt from the electoral threshold. As of 2021, these minorities are the Danish, Frisians, Sorbs, and Romani people.