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![open gangnam style song video open gangnam style song video](https://www.dailydot.com/wp-content/uploads/adc/6c/9145dcf2de9dd634.png)
#OPEN GANGNAM STYLE SONG VIDEO REGISTRATION#
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites - especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. In other words, whether or not Psy waived his copyrights, it's difficult to argue that copyright has had anything to do with his success with Gangnam Style and it seems clear that it is the fact that most people ignored copyright that has helped spread the song and video so far and wide. Does anyone think that, under those circumstances, it would be the same sort of cultural phenomenon today? Obviously, there's no way it would be anywhere close to as big. Hell, just imagine a world in which everyone making those response videos would have needed to get permission from Psy or his label. You'd be hard pressed to find a single case where it has hurt him. And yet each and every one of those "infringements" has probably helped Psy. A large percentage of those derivative works and videos almost certainly "infringe" upon the copyright of both the song and the video.
![open gangnam style song video open gangnam style song video](https://s-i.huffpost.com/gen/918633/images/o-GANGNAM-STYLE-VODKA-facebook.jpg)
So, even if it's not really true that he's "waived" the copyright on the song or video, can anyone honestly argue that copyright has had a significant hand in the Gangnam Style cultural phenomenon? If anything, it's the fact that everyone ignores the copyright that has made it such a big deal. Each one of those things only seems to drive much more attention to the original, which only helps Psy out even more. I don't know if Psy or his label has actually done anything explicit to say that he's "waived" his copyright on Gangnam Style, but it is clear that he's been perfectly happy to have tons of folks make their own versions, edit the video and much much more. It's a piece of shared cultural currency which can be taken as known in a world which is increasingly nicheified. The social media response to 'Gangnam Style' is largely about absurdity, about the surrealism of the song and the video, not really about music for music's sake. Once 'Call Me Maybe' truly became a famous meme, the meme was largely specifically about how catchy it was.
![open gangnam style song video open gangnam style song video](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DMnRskfC6Nw/maxresdefault.jpg)
Most of the social media response to 'Call Me Maybe' is basically different ways to say 'this song is really catchy'. One of Psy's cannier moves has apparently been to waive copyright on 'Gangnam Style' so that anybody can use the music and the video as they like. Other songs have charted and then became memes, or were memes that charted - but not as high.īut, then, in the middle of the discussion, Byron makes a really interesting point: Down in Australia, for the publication TheVine, Tim Byron explores the cultural phenomenon and notes that this appears to be the first song that started as a meme that made it to number one on the charts. The song is currently at number 2 on the Billboard charts, but has recently hit number one in 10 countries, including the UK and Australia. Oh yeah, and the song is doing quite well on the charts as well. It's become so popular that, this week, an attempt to do the video without the music but adding back in the "natural" sound effects, is pushing 6 million views all by itself. I was at a wedding a week and a half ago, and basically everyone there, including many of the "older generation," were well aware of the song and ready to do the dance when the DJ played it. Of course, there have been thousands of parody videos created, different versions of the song and a variety of other meme-related content. Unless you've been living under a rock the past few weeks, you're by now aware of Gangnam Style, the meme/song/video/dance craze/pop culture phenomenon by Korean pop star Psy, that was kicked off with this video, but has become much, much, much more.