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10 Years after 'Gangnam Style', Psy is Happier than Ever

South Korean singer PSY poses for a photo during a press conference to unveil his ninth full-length studio album titled "PSY 9th." in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean singer PSY poses for a photo during a press conference to unveil his ninth full-length studio album titled "PSY 9th." in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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10 Years after 'Gangnam Style', Psy is Happier than Ever

South Korean singer PSY poses for a photo during a press conference to unveil his ninth full-length studio album titled "PSY 9th." in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean singer PSY poses for a photo during a press conference to unveil his ninth full-length studio album titled "PSY 9th." in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Ten years after "Gangnam Style" became a global phenomenon, South Korean rapper Psy is living his best life –- proud of his "greatest trophy" and free from the pressure of repeating that unprecedented success.

Uploaded to YouTube on July 15, 2012, the song's wacky music video became a runaway megahit, with its trademark horse-riding dance spawning thousands of imitations, spoofs and spinoffs.

It was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views, and with it Psy attained what K-pop acts before him could not: global recognition.

At the peak of the song's popularity, he was everywhere -- sharing the stage with Madonna, leading a flash mob in front of the Eiffel Tower, and performing before then US president Barack Obama.

But the success of "Gangnam Style" was a double-edged sword –- with fame came pressure to deliver another huge hit. Psy once described it as one of the most difficult periods of his life.

Things became "heavier and harder because... every time I (had) to have that kind of strong song", Psy told AFP in an interview last week at his company's headquarters in Gangnam –- the posh Seoul district he poked fun at in the track.

"I had a huge dependency (on) the song... But you know, it's 10 years ago, so right now I'm really free."

"Gangnam Style" transformed not only Psy's career but the music industry too, demonstrating how an artist not performing in a dominant language such as English could reach international audiences through the internet.

It also prompted a change in how music charts were compiled, making Billboard take YouTube views and streams into account.

K-pop acts "are very huge on YouTube, they are getting a lot of views", Psy said.

"If Billboard didn't change, it (wouldn't) be that easy," the 44-year-old added.

Psy's groundbreaking role has been acknowledged by some of the biggest names in K-pop.

"He's always someone I was grateful for," Suga, a member of hugely popular group BTS, said in a video last month.

"With 'Gangnam Style', he paved the way for K-pop in the United States... We were able to follow his footsteps with ease."

- A frontman like Freddie Mercury -
Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, was a superstar in South Korea well before "Gangnam Style".

He cites Queen as his earliest inspiration -– while in middle school, he watched a video of the British band's famous 1986 concert at Wembley.

"I thought: I want to be a frontman like him (Freddie Mercury)," Psy told AFP.

"At that moment, I was not that good at music, not that good a singer... I was just a funny dancer."

While attending university in the United States in the late 1990s, he was exposed to what many have described as one of the golden ages of hip-hop, including the music of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.

"I literally heard hip-hop every day on the radio," Psy said. "I thought: Oh, if I cannot sing that well, I gotta rap. Then I can be the frontman."

Debuting in 2001, he quickly made a name for himself with humorous and explosive stage performances and won multiple awards.

Unusually controversial for a Korean pop star, several of his earlier songs and music videos were given adult ratings because of what state censors deemed bad language.

- 'How lucky I am' -
Since the explosive success of "Gangnam Style", Psy has put out three albums.

The latest, "Psy 9th", was released in April by P NATION –- the record label and artist agency he founded in 2019.

Psy insists he is far from done, dividing his time between his own music and concerts and working with P NATION acts. And "Gangnam Style" remains a huge source of pride.

"It's the biggest and greatest trophy of my life," Psy told AFP. "When I do (a) show, it is my strongest weapon."

This was demonstrated at a performance at Korea University in Seoul last week, when a heaving crowd sang along to every word during a high-energy set that included songs from his first album more than two decades ago, as well as his latest one.

The fact that the young audience knows all the words to songs that were released before many of them were even born is not lost on Psy.

"These days, (I say to myself): 'Wow, dude, you are very popular. They love you!'

"How lucky I am as an artist. I'm happier than ever these days."

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Entertainment

Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman Star with an Intense Approach, Dies at 65 

Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
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Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman Star with an Intense Approach, Dies at 65 

Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)
Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP)

Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite Iceman in "Top Gun," donned a voluminous cape as Batman in "Batman Forever" and portrayed Jim Morrison in "The Doors," has died. He was 65.

Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.

"I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed," he says toward the end of "Val," the 2021 documentary on his career. "And I am blessed."

Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most. His break came in 1984’s spy spoof "Top Secret!" followed by the comedy "Real Genius" in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including "MacGruber" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang."

His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993’s "Tombstone," as Elvis’ ghost in "True Romance" and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann’s 1995 film "Heat" with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

The actor — who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training — threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.

That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.

"In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio," he wrote in his memoir, "I’m Your Huckleberry."

One of his more iconic roles — hotshot pilot Tom "Iceman" Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for "Top Gun" but initially balked. "I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me," he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick."

One career nadir was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher’s goofy, garish "Batman Forever" with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O’Donnell’s Robin — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997’s "Batman & Robin" and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989’s "Batman" and 1992’s "Batman Returns."

Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was "hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role," while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a "completely acceptable" substitute for Keaton. Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.

The Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.

"When you’re in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down," Kilmer said in "Val," in lines spoken by his son Jack, who voiced the part of his father in the film because of his inability to speak. "You also can’t hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, it’s very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to."

His next projects were the film version of the 1960s TV series "The Saint" — fussily putting on wigs, accents and glasses — and "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with Marlon Brando, which became one of the decade’s most infamously cursed productions.

David Gregory’s 2014 documentary "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau," described a cursed set that included a hurricane, Kilmer bullying director Richard Stanley, the firing of Stanley via fax (who sneaked back on set as an extra with a mask on) and extensive rewrites by Kilmer and Brando. The older actor told the younger at one point: "'It’s a job now, Val. A lark. We’ll get through it.’ I was as sad as I’ve ever been on a set," Kilmer wrote in his memoir.

In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ran a cover story about Kilmer titled "The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate″ The directors Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who finished "The Island of Dr. Moreau," said he was difficult. Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: "Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again."

Other artists came to his defense, like D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in "The Salton Sea″ and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director's attention.

"Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, ‘You’re Batman! Just go do it,’″ Caruso told The New York Times in 2002.

After "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the movies were smaller, like David Mamet human-trafficking thriller "Spartan"; "Joe the King" in 1999, in which he played a paunchy, abusive alcoholic; and playing the doomed ’70s porn star John Holmes in 2003’s "Wonderland." He also threw himself into his one-man stage show "Citizen Twain," in which he played Mark Twain.

"I enjoy the depth and soul the piece has that Twain had for his fellow man and America," he told Variety in 2018. "And the comedy that’s always so close to the surface, and how valuable his genius is for us today."

Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.

Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.

"I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I’m still inspired by him," Kilmer told the Times.

While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play "How It All Began" and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s "The Outsiders" for the Broadway play, "Slab Boys," alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.

Kilmer published two books of poetry (including "My Edens After Burns") and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for "The Mark of Zorro." He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.

He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley. He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.

"I have no regrets," Kilmer told the AP in 2021. "I’ve witness and experienced miracles."