Psy

Park was born in South Korea on December 31, 1977 and later attended Banpo Elementary School, Banpo Middle School, and Sehwa(세화) High School. He went on to attend both Boston University and Berklee College of Music. He describes himself as not following the K-pop mold. He debuted in January 2001 with his full-length album titled PSY... From the Psycho World!, for which he later had to pay a fine due to accusations saying that the album contains "inappropriate content". He was a rookie hip-hop singer that stirred up the Korean pop music scene with very blunt lyrics, peculiar dance moves and an unconventional appearance. Because of his unique style he was nicknamed the "Bizarre Singer". However, just five months after his album was released, Psy’s album was not allowed to be sold to juveniles as various civic groups complained that it potentially is a negative influence for the younger generation. Since then Psy has become a controversial artist as his second album Ssa 2 was banned in 2002 from being sold to those under the age of 19.

Later that year in September 2002, Psy released his third album by launching his new music on the Internet. The title song of Psy’s third album, "Champion", saw great success as it was released just a few months after the World Cup games held in Seoul. After his agency began to struggle financially, Psy's wife encouraged him to join YG. Later Psy switched entertainment agencies in 2010 to YG Entertainment where CEO Yang Hyun-suk expressed his old time ties with the singer. Psy made his comeback in October 2010 amidst the idol craze. However, he has embraced the fact that he is nowhere close to idol status. In 2012, the choreography for his song "Gangnam Style" was highlighted in international news and became a viral hit. On August 14, "Gangnam Style ranked first on YouTube's 'Most Viewed Videos' monthly chart; it has received over 100 million views on YouTube. On August 21, 2012, Gangnam Style officially charted #1 on the iTunes Music Video Charts, overtaking Justin Bieber's As Long as You Love Me and Katy Perry's Wide Awake; this feat is the first for any South Korean artist. He stated in an interview that he was thrilled with the song's performance.[citation needed] "When I realized that some top stars like have imagined or tweeted about me, I thought, 'That’s joking. That’s not gonna happen...' I never expect things like this, not because they are top stars, but because this is the biggest market in the universe for pop music, right, so everybody’s dreaming about having appearance in the U.S. so I’m still saying, 'What going on here? This is beautiful.'" Psy recently signed with Island Records.

Psy has also written many hit songs of various genres for different singers. His most famous composition perhaps is Lee Seung Ki’s debut song "Because You Are My Woman".