GANGNAM PHRASE
Oppa Gangnam Style. The first word will have most people searching for a Korean dictionary to understand the true meaning of the word. It’s a polite form for addressing an older male and technically means big brother. The second word would be familiar to anyone who has visited Seoul. To the locals of South Korea’s capital, Gangnam is known as an affluent business district by day which transforms itself into a haven of sophisticated nightlife by night. Gangnam Style is a pun that mocks the type of person who glorifies Gangnam and aspires to be one of the cool people that frequent it. As a result, versions of the song have sprung up on YouTube with names such as Pyongyang Style (mocking North Korea), Jewish Style and Chicago Style as well as others that poke fun at certain lifestyles.
Has the song’s title become a catchphrase? And what exactly is a catchphrase? A catchphrase is usually a series of words or an expression that transforms itself from being an overly quoted exclamation that gains widespread appeal. The key to a catchphrase is repetition, repetition, repetition. Its usage is most popular on television serials such as sit-coms, particularly those that enjoy extremely high ratings. Blockbuster movies are also responsible for creating catchy and memorable one-liners. If I mention movies like Dirty Harry, Casablanca and The Terminator, the catchphrases more or less speak for themselves without me needing to expose them here. Songs can also contain identifiable catchphrases within their lyrics, most usually in the song title.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)? Yo no soy marinero, soy capitán. Que será. Je ne regrette rien. Mas que nada. The list goes on and on (that one’s not a catchphrase!). To quote any of these phrases to an English speaker is to bring back memories of a song and although that person might not be able to speak French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese – the words flow as a result of years of repetition. Quite often than not, the only foreign words in a song are the ones in the catchphrase while the rest of the lyrics are in English. Classic examples include Talking Heads (qu’est-ce que c’est?) which is not the title of the song (the song is called Psycho Killer) but thanks to them, we all know how to say “what is it?” in French. There are some bridge lyrics in French but for the most part, it’s a song in English. Other artists have frequently incorporated other languages into their songs, such as Blondie. In their 1978 hit Denis, vocalist Debbie Harry sings in French. Madonna used Spanish lyrics in some of her 1980’s singles such as La Isla Bonita and Who’s That Girl? while Kylie Minogue had a mild hit in 1988 with I Still Love You (Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi). Ironically, the French words mean “I don’t know why” which is misleading to those who assume that the parenthesised words would be a direct translation.
So is there a recognisable Korean word in the lyrics for Gangnam Style, apart from the word for big brother (oppa) and a place in Seoul (Gangnam)? Not really. But come to think of it, were there any catchy words in the Spanish lyrics for Macarena? Or what about the song Lambada? It gave the band Kaoma one-hit wonder status around the world. That song was sung in Portuguese but who can remember any of the words? It certainly triggered off a worldwide thirst to learn how to dance the Lambada back in 1989 but it didn’t exactly re-launch an interest in the Portuguese language. Or did it?
The one most distinguishable feature of K-Pop songs (taking aside the dance steps and image for a moment) is the tendency to use English as a catchphrase instead of Korean. The Korean words act as a muffled verse whereas the chorus is often over-represented by catch-cries (more accurately than catchphrases) of English words. This is by no means a Korean characteristic for it is exactly the same in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. It’s less typical in Europe where songs tend to stay in the same language or are completely translated into another. Overall, it’s a common occurrence to hear English used in songs of any language but it’s less prevalent in songs in Italian or Spanish, for example. German pop songs are fairly lenient with their usage of English but for different reasons – because the words are often a part of the local vernacular. Over half the population of Germany speaks English reasonably well which almost gives the language a carte-blanche for using it in a way that would be used similarly in English songs. Asia, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether.
A majority of the K-Pop songs use English to much more of an extent than would be understood by the average Korean on the street. Unsurprisingly, the exact same thing is done in Japan where similarly, the words sung in English would mean nothing to most people who listen to them. Even the song titles (a dangerous claim when using foreign words) are often used in incorrect syntax. Boa, one of the first Korean singers to break into the Japanese pop market in 2000 released a single titled Shine We Are which makes no sense grammatically. The English words always seem to be fillers, representing the general lack of command in that language. That’s not to say that someone who can sing “Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble” is fluent in French, but it’s at least a constructive sentence that has been put together with a bit of research.
If you were to ask anyone on the streets of Taiwan, South Korea or Japan what they think of including English words in their own songs, they would mostly be in favour of it. They would think that it sounds cool and that it gives the song an international flair, even if the single is only ever destined to be successful domestically. Their impression of English as a language in songs is a positive one. The difference between the English fillers used as catchphrases in their songs compared to songs in English that use snippets of other languages, is that the songs in Asian languages use English constantly and appear quite randomly in the music, like a swimmer who desperately needs to keep coming up for air, gasping and paddling like crazy to reach the finish line. It’s almost like a marathon where the prize is to throw in as many illogical English phrases in a song as possible, making it even cooler than the last attempt. My concern here is not for the music itself, which varies in terms of its originality but is always well produced. It’s the credibility of the lyrics.
Let’s take those songs in English that have gone down in history as giving us catchphrases in other languages. Throughout time (or at least since modern rock was established in the 1950’s) the most popular language to be included has been French, followed by Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese. They’re all European languages, which is probably no surprise, given that English is also a European language. Most songs fall into the category of love songs (not always ballads, but about love nonetheless) as it’s a fairly easy theme to connect with an audience. It should therefore come as no surprise to discover that the average speaker of English is familiar with phrases such as “je t’aime”, “ti amo” and “ich liebe Dich”. I call this the “I love you” factor. If the translation of “I love you” is widespread, it says something positive about that language and how it has managed to cross over without sounding cheesy. After all, love is something we take quite seriously. While it’s something of a plague to hear English words such as “sexy”, “cool” and “yeah” used randomly in songs in other languages, the words “I love you” are known by billions of people around the world. If these three words are not known in that language, it tells me that the language is not getting the exposure it needs. Interestingly, many people know the words “wo ai ni” as the Mandarin Chinese equivalent. So why not in Korean?
In the world of diplomacy, the language used for communication is often a delicate issue. Where face-to-face negotiations are involved, an interpreter is considered the best solution in order to alleviate any need for one or the other to succumb to another language. However, beyond those meetings it’s the more dominant power that applies its language and the heads of state who only ever use their own language are the ones who are either confident enough to do so, or simply don’t have the linguistic skills to do otherwise. Being multilingual is not a prerequisite for the top job at The White House. The Swedish prime minister could never get away with speaking Swedish all over the world – but the president of France could easily be f
orgiven for only speaking in French. Regardless of what we think of that person’s arrogance or stubbornness to learn another language, we would still respect that individual for taking a stance. Let’s not forget – French used to be the language of diplomacy and it wasn’t so long ago that we English speakers felt inferior against the great might of the French language. A wealthy person in any of the English speaking regions of the world was not considered educated without an adequate understanding of the French language.
So despite the contemporary dominance of the English language, we still demonstrate a deep level of respect for those languages that stood their ground and held onto their own languages with equal pride. The enormous repertoire of music sung in French, Italian and German (without the desperate need to blend in any English phrases!) goes back centuries and while it may not be so easy these days to have a number one hit in America sung in French, only a few decades ago (back in 1963, to be exact) a Belgian nun was able to top the Billboard charts with a song in French, titled Dominique. Remember it? No? Not to worry. Maybe you’ll remember a song titled “Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus” which was a number one hit for Serge Gainsbourg in 1971. That demonstration of respect for languages like French or Italian is still strong and is now accompanied by Spanish as a fierce language that is resilient against the spread of English. It has been those languages that bite back, that also give the English speaking world a smattering of hits in their own languages (without much compromise) that win the hearts of the listeners. It seems that it’s fine for a native speaker of English to dabble with a few lines in any of the above languages, but when a native speaker of French starts throwing English expletives all over the place, that singer loses all respect. There is a difference between one-liners that actually mean something and the usage of random expletives. The desperation of pretending to be knowledgeable in a language such as English is destined to have a detrimental effect when that artist tries to cross over into a market as intimidating as the American music market.
My hat goes off to Psy for not throwing an array of English phrases into the lyrics of Gangnam Style. With the exception of a hook line, “hey, sexy lady”, it’s a complete trip in the Korean language and that’s what credibility is all about. It takes more than one hit to convince a large number of people to go out and learn that language, but at least the word oppa can enter the English language in the same way that thousands of foreign words are welcomed into English. Little by little, brick by brick, the Korean language can implant itself into the psyche of the English speaking mind without compromising its credibility. In the same way that Spanish phrases such as “hasta la vista”, “mi amor” and “la vida loca” have contributed, song by song, to further encouraging someone to invest the time in learning the Spanish language, the same can be done with Korean through clever strategies of soft power. Sadly, I fear the worst is yet to come for K-Pop.
With the exception of one word (oppa) and a place name in Korea (Gangnam), no other Korean act has succeeded in leaving us with a single word in Korean that we can use as a building block for moving closer to what could be considered a linguistic comfort zone. This inevitably takes time and is no doubt a non-issue for the dozens of K-Pop artists who are in the process of taking over the charts in South America or South East Asia, whose interests are more about sales and instant success – not about the collective mission of enticing the rest of the world that the Korean language is cool. Just like their Japanese counterparts, who have failed to make inroads into Western markets, the credibility wanes with each song that prefers catchphrases in English as opposed to their own language. There might be an instant liking that is generated from the slick production of the video clip and the in-sync choreography but that is a short lived measure of success and in decades to come, who will remember? It’s the strength in a powerful collection of words, be it a catchphrase or the title of the song, that stands out.