… to the Psy controversy.
The mega-hot Mr Gangnam Style will perform on Sunday (the show will air later on TNT) WITH MY KID at the annual Christmas in Washington concert at the National Building Museum here in DC. (La Kid is in the chorus.)
Now it turns out that eight years ago Psy sang disgusting anti-American lyrics in a concert in Seoul protesting the American military. There’s been an effort to have him taken off the show, but apparently it will go on as planned with the President in attendance.
Since you ask, here’s what I think: He should have apologized long ago. He certainly should have told people about it and apologized as soon as his Gangnam thing went cosmic. He has to have known the earlier performance would come out.
In any event, he has in fact issued a long and serious apology, and unless we want to be the sort of people who issue fatwas in response to verbal attacks, the grown-up thing to do is accept it and move on.
I also think that security at this already tight-security event (La Kid has had to fill out forms for the Secret Service, etc.) will now go through the roof. And I think that tons more people will view the show than would have otherwise.
Maybe there will be pickets?
*******************
Comments at Lucianne.com, UD‘s go-to source for the Tea Party brew, are somewhat surprisingly mixed.
December 7th, 2012 at 7:40PM
I did not expect you to be an important source of Psy-related news. But it is amusing that you are.
December 7th, 2012 at 8:15PM
PS: amusing and charming
December 7th, 2012 at 8:22PM
His apology is actually pretty good:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/psy-apologizes-for-anti-american-performances-20121207
His PR flunkie is much better than most.
December 7th, 2012 at 9:01PM
Comments at Lucianne.com, UD‘s go-to source for the Tea Party brew, are somewhat surprisingly mixed.
Some of them are just as bonkers as Psy’s original screed.
December 7th, 2012 at 9:06PM
Thanks, Mark. It is a bit of a clash. On the other hand, I’ve been dancing to that YouTube for the last week.
December 7th, 2012 at 9:08PM
Alan: You haven’t read Lucianne.com very much, I think. These are totally in the normal range.
December 7th, 2012 at 9:08PM
UD: Fair enough. Sigh.
December 7th, 2012 at 9:59PM
Oh please. Have you ever read the comments on any WaPo article?
December 7th, 2012 at 10:10PM
Shane: Did I say those weren’t nutty?
December 8th, 2012 at 11:38AM
Oh I’m sure you make a point of how nutty WaPo and NYT and HuffPo and CNN and CBS and ABC commenters are all the time. I must miss those comments, somehow.
December 8th, 2012 at 12:31PM
Shane –
Taking your comments here at UD in their totality I cannot help but think you’re a shrill critter, the type people avoid at cocktail parties. I mean, Jesus – is your argument really that one cannot comment on anything negatively without taking into account the totality of all things in that same vein that are also potentially negative? That’s really dumb. I won’t even go into the false equivalence. It’s the Christmas season. Maybe try being pleasant? The beleaguered conservative schtick gets really, really old.
dcat
December 8th, 2012 at 1:00PM
Oh, I don’t know, “Derek”, my dogs seem to like me well enough. I think we can both be thankful we don’t attend the same cocktail parties. Merry Christmas!
December 8th, 2012 at 4:02PM
No need for scare quotations around my actual name.
Deck the halls, and all that.
Dcat
December 9th, 2012 at 11:29AM
“unless we want to be the sort of people who issue fatwas in response to verbal attacks”
I don’t think this is a good analogy. Declining to honor someone with a concern venue, or especially with Presidential attendance at said concert, is not equivalent to issuing a demand that that someone be killed or mutilated.
If someone wrote & sang a rap song proposing that all English majors be tortured to death..in a serious rather than a comedic tone…would you want to attend his concert? Wouldn’t it be a little disrespectful to your students to do so?
Similarly, I would think it extremely disrespectful toward U.S. military people, whose commander-in-chief Barack Obama of course is, to attend this guy’s concert.
December 9th, 2012 at 12:42PM
The WaPo has had a good series of articles on he Psy controversy (e.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/heat-is-on-south-korean-rapper-psy-for-anti-american-rap/2012/12/07/56e319d4-40bd-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html?tid=pm_pop) (stay away from the comments!)
They rightly point out just how divisive US relations are to South Koreans. I’ve seen this reflected, anecdotally, in the many South Koreans I’ve met, usually in a scientific context. They tend to be either very strongly pro US or the opposite, very little ambivalence. Perhaps not surprisingly those who were here even semi-permanently (post docs) had the most favorable opinion of the US. It may just be obvious then to say that perhaps that’s what’s at work here: it’s perfectly respectable to hold virulently anti-American views in South Korea, but if you are chasing opportunity or just the almighty buck in the US, your tune is going I have to change. Pardon the pun.
December 9th, 2012 at 1:17PM
Shane: I think that’s a reasonable reading of the situation. I’d add to that the fact that internally as well South Korea is very much about (or has been until pretty recently) fierce anti-government rhetoric/action. It’s a loud, pretty no-holds-barred protest culture.