Psy Delays New Single As Gangnam Style Stays Hot

Psy is postponing the release of his new single until early next year because the popularity of “Gangnam Style” shows no sign of abating, according to a spokesman at his Korean management company.

Psy aka Park Jae-sang had planned to release a half-Korean, half-English song in mid November. However, his massively popular “Gangnam Style” continues to top multiple charts and set new global popularity records.

For example, it remains no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has surpassed Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor” music video for the 2nd most viewed YouTube video by racking up 620 million as of early November 2. Lopez’s, which had been posted in March of 2011, had about 616 million. Psy had uploaded his Gangnam Style video on July 15, making it by far the most popular YouTube video ever in terms of views within a 111-day span or even four times that duration.

It still lags the music video for Justin Bieber’s “Baby” which has racked up 795 million views since it was uploaded in late 2009. Psy’s hit will likely surpass Bieber’s within a month, according to John Hirai, head of music at YouTube’s Korea-Japan branch.

“I’ve been in this music business for 25 plus years and I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve never imagined anything like this would come out of Asia,” said Hirai. “It’s just unbelievable but it’s overwhelming.”

Gangnam Style also remains number 1 on Billboard charts of Digital Songs, On-Demand Songs, Social 50, Rap Songs, Canada Hot 100 and the YouTube Chart.

His new song may do nearly as well, according to YG Entertainment’s Yang Hyun-suk.

“I listened to Psy’s new American single, and it sounded very good,” he said. “Of course, it’s just my personal opinion, but I think it’ll come close to “Gangnam Style”.

Yang added that the release date had been postponed to let Gangnam Style run its course.

“It won’t be too much of a delay to release the new album in early next year,” he added.

The version of the new Psy tune heard by Yang contains a 50:50 mix of Korean and English lyrics. There appears to be some uncertainly, however, as to what the mix will be in the version that will ultimately be released.

“We’re also looking over the ratio of Korean to English in his new song,” Yang said. “We’re going to release something that will be the most beneficial to Psy after carefully monitoring what’s going on.”