YouTube announced Monday that “Gentleman” is killing “Gangnam Style” by setting the record for getting the most views in one day ever. On April 14, “Gentleman” hit more than 38 million views. And, after only being up for about a week, the video has a total of nearly 204 million views. It now sits just shy of 210,000,000 and I must confess that I have watched it in order to write this piece.
“From a stats perspective, it’s one of the biggest music video launches the web has ever seen,” YouTube Trends manager Kevin Allocca wrote in a blog post Monday. “For some added perspective, ‘Gentleman’ was seen 100 million times in less than 4 days in regions all over the world, a milestone that it took ‘Gangnam Style’ nearly two months to achieve.”
And these numbers should worry women all over the world. Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone who watches this video is a misogynist, however, for those who watch it multiple times as millions of “Gangnam Style” viewers clearly did, I’m forced to ask a few questions.
“Gangnam Style” was a novelty, it was a sensation, it was cute. “Gentleman,” however, features the tongue-in-cheek and impish antics of PSY turning a little raunchy if not downright insulting. Forget the music, it goes without saying that that is insulting to anyone who has ever played an instrument or listened to the Rolling Stones.
“Gentleman” includes PSY smacking a woman, altering another’s treadmill settings so she is immediately launched to the floor, as PSY offers a hand to help her up she accepts only to be thrown to the ground again. Ever the “Gentleman” PSY also pulls out a chair for his date(?) only to pull it out further when she begins to sit , landing herself on the floor of the restaurant. This is all in the first 90 seconds.
Following the success of “Gangnam Style”, PSY immediately found himself appearing on the Today Show, Saturday Night Live, Ellen DeGeneres , ABC’s Nightline, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The View. I think it’s safe to say he won’t be returning to the view any time soon.
The numbers are scary and for my sanity I have to think that they would have been eclipsed by The Beatles on Ed Sullivan or Marvin Gaye singing “What’s Going On” at the height of the Vietnam War. If YouTube had been around at the time surely they would have? Unfortunately, I doubt it.
