YouTube Celebrates One Year of 'Gangnam Style'
(CBS NEWS) - Happy Birthday "Gangnam Style!"
The music video for the hit song by PSY celebrated its one year anniversary on YouTube Monday -- a milestone for a clip that quickly went viral and broke records around the world.
In celebration of the big day, the folks at the San Bruno-based YouTube have released a detailed account of the massive impact the video has had since it first debuted.
Drawing viewers in with its surrealistically flashy dance numbers, "Gangnam Style" became the first video ever to pass the one billion view mark on YouTube. As of Monday, it has been watched more than 1.7 billion times -- more than any other clip in the video-sharing website's history.
The success of "Gangnam Stye" led to huge numbers for the Korean rapper's follow up single "Gentleman," which has so far scored almost half a billion views.
"Gangnam Style" also helped introduce K-Pop to a global audience. YouTube officials point out that the Korean music genre was virtually unknown in the United States before PSY's breakout hit.
Read more at CBSNews.com
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
