The chorus played for under a minute at this weekend’s football game against Louisiana Tech, but it got more crowd feedback than the Illini’s few meager touchdowns. And unless you’ve been on a social media cleanse for the past three months, you’ve probably seen the viral YouTube video. But is our American take on an international craze at the expense of a cultural image?

Maybe I’m a little late to the party when it comes to the 34-year-old rap artist PSY’s Gangnam Style, but it was the first thing I saw when I opened my laptop after nearly two months of being out of the country with limited Internet access. Nothing says welcome back to America like an adorable Korean man in a baby blue tuxedo jacket gyrating around every form of public transportation. Seriously — he’s on a boat, in a subway, in a basement garage … the dude is everywhere for no apparent reason at all. (Sorry, I almost forgot the stables, the sauna, a crosswalk and a playground.)

My first reaction was probably not unlike many who sat through the four minutes and 13 seconds of “Oppa Gangnam Style.” What the heck did I just watch? I’m curious, what is it about K-pop now that everyone loves?

I also wondered just how many calories I could burn doing that sideways double-step. I seriously think it’s the first dance in a while to catch on in America that requires more than acting like a semi-animated Jell-O mold; I never did catch on to the Bernie, the Wobble or even the coveted Dougie.

Now we have a dance named not after a guy or teetering motion, but an actual “culture.” Gangnam is a very wealthy territory in Seoul, South Korea, kind of like the Beverly Hills of the country, known for its conspicuous consumption of most recently, coffee. In the English translation of PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” the lyrics, “A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down” reportedly refers to how coffee shops are the place to see and be seen in Gangnam. The song is indeed a parody of material wealth, ultra-delicate women and the social status associated with those two. That’s pretty deep for a neon-coated pop song that animates the global masses.

It turns out that there is already a fair amount written on what it means to have “Gangnam Style.” American journalists pounced on the “real meaning of Gangnam Style,” explaining the satire and symbolism of the horse-riding elite and fitness-crazed females. But no one wonders why Americans are so entranced by it.

That’s because, as a nation of immigrants, we like foreign things.

Hotdogs are the food of our country’s pastime, and those originate from Germany. Neckties, associated with Western wear as an essential part of the white collar uniform, are originally from Croatia. The Portuguese song Nossa Nossa topped the charts this summer, though not quite beating out “Call Me Maybe,” which is the work of a Canadian. But I digress.

Break down the English translation of PSY’s “Oppa Gangnam Style” lyrics, and you get the insight of a man who is not of Gangnam. He sings about being “A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles” who searches for “A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all — a sensible girl like that.”

What a nice message for humanity.

Too bad it’s lost not in translation, but in the visual overload of punky camera angles and sidestepping choreography.

We don’t like the song because of what it stands for. We like it because it’s simple, “exotic,” and downright catchy. We don’t know what we’re lip-synching, and we’re O.K. with it. The only English words in the whole song are “Hey, sexy lady,” and that phrase is pretty well recognized globally at this point. 

On an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where PSY instructed Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears on the ways of Gangnam Style, he said, “(the) mindset of this dance is dress classy and dance cheesy.”

My god, this man speaks to our generation! Isn’t that what we all want? To dress to the nines and party like idiots? Walk down Green Street after 10 p.m., and you’ll have your answer — you may already be there, riding your very own invisible horse, on your way to pay cover.

So will I go to the Gangnam Style bar crawl? Maybe. Does Gangnam Style objectify an aspect of South Korean culture? Absolutely — PSY intended it to. Did I master the dance? You bet your sequin-studded booty shorts I did.

Renée is a senior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].