Why gangnam style went viral

Psy had already built a reputation for his memorably silly dance moves. Released on July 15, , the song galloped straight out of the gates, with , YouTube views on its first day. US rapper T-Pain was reportedly the first to give the track his endorsement when he tweeted enthusiastically about it, on July Before long, a cavalcade of stars, among them Britney Spears, Katy Perry , Tom Cruise and Robbie Williams , had picked up on it, too, introducing the song to their millions of followers and creating a viral sensation in the process.

Having topped the charts in over 30 countries, on December 21, , it became the first video to reach one billion views on YouTube. K-pop, with its controlled star-grooming system and skilled performance groups, was starting to get attention internationally and inspire an avalanche of trend pieces.

It's now something on the shelf I can admire from time to time. By accident, PSY achieved success beyond any of them. With YouTube plays integrated into the chart formula which later grew to include streaming data , suddenly a dance number soundtracking a meme could grab the top spot. And because this happens from person to person through a social network, it should follow a wavelike spreading pattern. But observing this pattern is hard because the geographical spread of information is distorted by the social media networks along which it moves.

And that raises the question of whether it is really wavelike or fundamentally different. To solve this conundrum, network scientists would dearly love to have an emblematic example of the way a specific piece of information has spread across the globe in a measurable way. And the team say it is possible to recover the unique wavelike signature of information spreading, providing they properly take account of the social networks involved.

The story behind this video pandemic is extraordinary. This music video was produced in a style known as k-pop by a South Korean musician called Psy, who was relatively unknown outside his home country. It was released on July 15, , and immediately become popular in South Korea. By December 21, , however, the video had become the most viewed in history when it reached a billion views of YouTube across the globe. That reveals the way the video spread, initially to the Philippines and from there to the rest of the world.

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