Behind the Music : Psy and G-Dragon are “Tree Frogs”?
Seems like Psy‘s sixth album has got everybody talking and shouting “Gangnam Style!”…but it’s also got some of us non-Korean fans scratching our heads. This new series is to help people understand the meaning behind the titles of your favorite K-pop songs.
So, why are Psy and G-Dragon singing about tree frogs, you ask?
Psy‘s track “Tree Frog” is based on an old Korean folk tale that is told to children in an attempt to encourage filial piety, an aspect of Confucian philosophy that teaches people to selflessly honor and obey their parents. Because of some confusion between English and Korean, English speakers sometimes call this story “Blue Frog”- however, the frog in the story is not blue, this is just a translation error.
The story goes, there was once a tree frog who was very, very disobedient towards its mother. He did the opposite of everything she asked, and his disobedience to her causes her to grow sick. When she is about to die, she decides to make one final request. Knowing he would do the opposite of what she asked, she asks her son to bury her next to the river as opposed to the mountainside. When she dies, her son feels terrible about how he’s treated his mother, and decides to honor her last wish. He buries her next to the river exactly as she asked, and a little while later it starts to rain. Her son is so afraid the rain will wash her grave away that he can’t stop crying. Legend has it, this is why tree frogs cry when it rains, and because of this story, Koreans sometimes call contrary people “tree frogs”.
[Reference: Sejong Society]
The Gangnam Style Song is very interesting.
Other people said below.
In the K-pop world, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is already a smash. It debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s chart and has accumulated more than 2 million hits in just 5 days. Why? Let’s let Eat Your Kimchi explain.
Kpop artists are very often in a state of endless arousal or unendurable pain, and so seeing watching a video where someone is – in a British phrase that I’ve always wanted to use – taking the piss, is extremely refreshing.
Yes. The video. It is refreshing. It is many other adjectives besides. The song is simple–it’s like “Starships” if it sounded even more like a Jock Jam, or like LMFAO (who fit the previous description nicely.) But the video! In lieu of producing any kind of spoilers or hilariously inadequate descriptions (or, for that matter, anything like the viral-baiting “crazy K-pop” designation that HyunA’s “Bubble Pop” got last year and that this is starting to get overseas” and present some photographic evidence. But really, you should watch it. If you need convincing, there are sauna shenanigans, dancing hourses and an explosion that kills two people–all during the first half.
(“Gangnam” is a wealthy district of Seoul, in case you were wondering.)
Enjoy end How about this song? please reply to us.
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