The PSY question.

Okay.  I'm pretty sure that most people on the planet Earth who are interested have already seen the following, but I had to include it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0


Now that we have all watched Gangnam Style again, and enjoyed our favorite parts, I will direct you to the following:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/15243653-418/story.html#.UFn3QnLM-_w.facebook

There is one thing that the article fails to mention, however, and that is that Americans really can enjoy music in other languages, as long as they are pretty sure that they are not themselves the object of ridicule or criticism.  It is my personal opinion that they spend a lot of their time thinking that these people from other countries have such dis-similar minds that we couldn't possibly think that the same things are funny, or that people from other countries are so obsessed with America that the bulk of their songs are about how they hate Americans - whether comic or not.

Does that last sentence sound like something I would naturally think to you?  Actually, when I was in college, I had some people tell me that those were their true opinions.  So then I asked around.  I couldn't see why they would feel that way, but the men and women I spoke to went so far as to tell me that the reason foreign nationals sit together at lunch and only speak in their native tongue is because they are bashing America or Americans.  After that I started to watch, and noticed facial expressions that seemed to support that this assumption was somewhat general.  I remember that once a girl blushed when the table full of middle eastern men behind her broke out laughing.  None of them seemed to be looking in her direction.  It was clear to me that not just a few, but many college educated Americans were under the impression that they were a nearly constant object of foreign ridicule.  What I say to that is:

Narcissistic much?

Why would the whole world be thinking about Americans all the time?  Surely they have their own jokes and their own stories and their own songs.

But I am me, and we all know what I think of foreign songs, having posted many that I enjoy in this very blog.  What I want to know is - now that we have proved that we can handle a song in another language, why do we not have them available on our radios and in our stores?  Surely the writers can't object to the inflow of money that only self indulgent America can provide.  I used to think that there were rules and laws preventing it, but if Gangnam Style is getting radio play, then this cannot be the case.

Can someone out there please give this some serious thought?  I think hearing songs and not getting our defences up is a big step, and why not add a little tolerance through music?

Or maybe I just want to hear these songs, damn it! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka1JNhprlag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VE6PNwmr9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spVr3MyKZsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3u0vq0WyIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6G9j1nScXo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMGVQaGZZSA&feature=related