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Post by rainbow on Jul 17, 2020 0:57:03 GMT 10
Both of these songs went viral very quickly and managed to reach a billion views. Gangnam Style peaked in 2012/2013, and Despacito peaked in 2017.
I think Gangnam Style was the more popular song. People would do the gangnam style dance all the time. Despacito was still very popular in 2017 but it quickly fell out of favor in 2018. Meanwhile I remember Gangnam Style having a longer lasting impact.
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Post by al on Jul 17, 2020 2:30:38 GMT 10
“Gangnam Style” was more popular IMO. Plus it’s more of an ear worm, which I think has a huge affect on our memory of its significance. It comes immediately into your head.
“Despacito” IMO is more of a song that people listen to because they actually like it. Which may ultimately make a song more influential on music, but not necessarily as prevalent, since it’s not relying on a gimmick.
I mean, you might hear “Despacito” a lot just because of it’s big, but it’s not the over-the-top joke-y pop song that “Gangnam Style” is. It’s more like an actual song than a ringtone or sports area jam.
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Post by Telso on Jul 17, 2020 3:55:29 GMT 10
"Gagnam Style" is just so much more memorable, not only having a massive hook, but also possessing the novelty of being a Korean song with international fame, having a silly dance associated with it and marking a new age of how we consume music.
On the other hand, "Despacito" is your run-of-the-mill latin pop song. It's pretty forgettable on its own. I still don't really get why it was as popular as it was, despite maybe Americans overhyping it as a reaction against Trump and his racist allegations against Mexicans and Hispanics in general.
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Post by sman12 on Jul 17, 2020 13:55:06 GMT 10
Well, if we're going by metrics and influence, then "Despacito" blows "Gangnam Style" out of the water. Justin Bieber helped the song expand to the English-speaking audience with the remix, streaming numbers are in the billions, its music video has about 7 billion views on YouTube, and it pretty much revamped Latin pop around the world along with introducing reggaeton to the mainstream (and "Mi Gente" by J Balvin and Willy William also helped with the wave). The song also tied with the longest reigning #1 song with Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day".
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Post by Telso on Jul 17, 2020 22:52:37 GMT 10
streaming numbers are in the billions, its music video has about 7 billion views on YouTube and it pretty much revamped Latin pop around the world along with introducing reggaeton to the mainstream. See, that's my problem with "Despacito"'s popularity, since it's such a throwaway and exchangeable song that any other latin pop tune in the right conditions could have taken its place. The Latin market is a HUGE market, many of the most viewed and streamed songs since the mid-2010s are Latin ones. "Despacito"'s international fame only doubled those numbers, but it's a pure expectable product of an otherwise huge market rather than a completely unexpected succes like "Gangnam Style", marking as telltale sign for an upcoming trend (K-pop's ubiquitous international success). It also didn't introduce reggaeton to the mainstream either since Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" did so 13 years before. "Despacito" isn't a particularly good example of reggaeton anyway since the dembows are very light and don't have much presence. It really isn't too far off in style from Enrique Iglesias' "Bailando" which was also a huge international success back in 2013. If you talk about the Billboard, this isn't the case since last year with "Old Town Road" blowing both songs out of the water with its 19 weeks at #1.
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Post by sman12 on Jul 18, 2020 13:16:04 GMT 10
It also didn't introduce reggaeton to the mainstream either since Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" did so 13 years before. My bad. I was supposed to say that it revived reggaeton in the mainstream music. And I dislike "Despacito" as well. But while "Gangnam Style" became an unexpected pop culture phenomenon back in 2012, its sales numbers were toppled by the aforementioned song, so by that alone, it is more popular.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Jul 18, 2020 15:46:47 GMT 10
I feel as though "Despacito" was intended to be the next generation-defining hit of its time (or "Gangnam Style 2.0", if you will), but it never quite got there. It really didn't leave much of an impact at all. "Gangnam Style", on the other hand, was a huge cultural phenomenon when it was a hit back in 2012, even people who didn't keep up with Top-40 music knew what "Gangnam Style" was.
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Post by Talira Greycrest on Jul 18, 2020 22:42:47 GMT 10
Personally, I prefer "Gangnam Style". I think it's more catchy and has a fun dance. Plus, the video for "Despacito" is far too sexualized for my liking.
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Post by sman12 on Jul 19, 2020 7:10:01 GMT 10
Actually, come to think of it, "Gangnam Style" did become more of a cultural force back then. Even leaders like Obama, David Cameron, and Ki-moon recognized its global impact, along with some of them performing the accompanying horse dance. Plus, at the time, the YouTube community was a lot smaller, and the music video hitting the 1 billion view mark for the first time in YouTube history was a watershed moment for the platform. By 2017, YouTube had more of a worldwide audience, so "Despacito" obviously flourished with the wider availability of the platform. So yeah, I changed my mind on this. 
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Post by broadstreet223 on Jul 21, 2020 7:27:55 GMT 10
Despacito obviously. It was #1 for 16 weeks while Gangnam Style never even hit #1. I’m shocked how lopsided this poll is.
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Post by ItsMichael on Jul 21, 2020 15:50:35 GMT 10
Gangnam Style became more of a dance trend than Despacito, which made it super popular. It was massive around my 6th grade year as every kid in my school would be dancing the same moves as in the music video.
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Post by fusefan on Jul 28, 2020 11:37:08 GMT 10
To this day I’m surprised Gangnam Style didn’t hit #1 as popular as it was. Does anybody remember the Maroon 5 song that blocked Gangnam Style from being #1?
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Post by Telso on Jul 28, 2020 19:22:14 GMT 10
To this day I’m surprised Gangnam Style didn’t hit #1 as popular as it was. Does anybody remember the Maroon 5 song that blocked Gangnam Style from being #1? It's because Billboard failed to predict how much weight internet and streaming would have on music consumption. Back in 2012, they only accounted for sales and radio play. They changed their formula very shortly after which allowed for "Harlem Shake" to snatch the first position when it became a meme.
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