This past weekend, “Gangnam Style,” the Korean music video by dapper pop sensation Psy, surpassed Justin Bieber’s “Baby” to become the most viewed YouTube video of all time (in this case, “all time” dates back to 2005). With nearly 850 million views, it is the ultimate viral video, passing from friend to friend and travelling through social networks.
But how does it stack up to the granddaddy of all viral sensations, the Black Death? The plague wiped out millions of people as it swept across Europe in the 14th century. That’s pretty impressive. But has the Black Death ever appeared on Ellen? Nope. Score one point for Psy. So let’s compare these two viral sensations.
Just to clarify, the Black Death wasn’t technically a virus. But to be fair, neither is “Gangnam Style.” And in case people are offended by the concept, I would like to apologize to those of you who lost any family members to the Black Death. It’s been 665 years.
Origin
Black Death: many theories exist, but most believe the disease was carried to Europe by traders fleeing an outbreak caused by early germ warfare in Ukraine.
"Gangnam Style": a slick, cherubic vocalist named Psy, previously unknown outside South Korea.
Date of infection
Black Death: the first cases of the plague appeared in Sicily in October 1347.
"Gangnam Style": the video was posted to YouTube on July 15, 2012.
Speed of spread
Black Death: within a year, the plague had spread to England. A year later it reached Scandinavia. That doesn’t seem that fast, but keep in mind that 4G LTE networks were extremely unreliable at the time.
"Gangnam Style": within days the video went viral, appearing on Buzzfeed, Gawker and CNN. In September, Psy appeared on the MTV Video Music Awards, Ellen and the season premiere of Saturday Night Live.
How it spread
Black Death: carried by rats and transmitted to people by fleas.
"Gangnam Style": transmitted by your Facebook friends, most of whom are rat-faced people you’ve been fleeing since high school.
Speed of infection
Black Death: the plague worked quickly. Within hours of infection, large purple growths appeared on the skin. Most victims only survived between two and seven days.
"Gangnam Style": despite its success, the video actually starts a bit slowly. The famous “horse dance” only appears briefly at the 26-second mark, but it’s enough to hook the viewer into watching the colourful chaos for the entire four-minute video.
Impact on fashion
Black Death: plague doctors wore long robes and beak-nosed masks that are now popular for Eyes Wide Shut-style adult masquerades.
"Gangnam Style": a lot of people dressed up as Psy for Halloween, but I haven’t seen many powder blue dinner jackets with black trim since.
Language barrier
Black Death: fever led to delirium and caused previously sane people to wander the streets raving like lunatics.
"Gangnam Style": similarly, many English speakers have been spotted in public, singing nonsensical phonetic approximations of Korean.
Saturation
Black Death:sources differ, but most say the disease killed between 25 and 75 million people, wiping out between 30 and 60 per cent of Europe’s population and killing off 16 per cent of the world’s population.
"Gangnam Style": with nearly 850 million views, “Gangnam Style” has theoretically reached almost 12 per cent of the planet’s population. That number doesn’t take into account how many of the viewers watched it multiple times on multiple devices. On the other hand, people rarely got the plague more than once.
Verdict: they're both incredibly successful viral sensations and should be proud of themselves. But based on the speed at which it has traveled the planet, "Gangnam Style" is the ultimate viral sensation. Better luck next time, Black Death.
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