South Korea's KBS Bans Psy's "Gentleman"

A major South Korean broadcaster says it has banned Psy’s new music video because the rapper is shown abusing public property. In case you failed to catch it, the “Gentleman” video opens with Psy kicking a cone that says “No Parking”.

Like this:

[youtube id=”ASO_zypdnsQ” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Sure, it doesn’t sound like a big issue to us at all but state-funded KBS said Thursday the scene doesn’t meet its standards as a public broadcaster. Two spokesmen say KBS has banned other videos for similar reasons in the past. They spoke anonymously because they say it is the broadcaster’s company policy.

It’s not entirely surprising though.

In the past, lots of music videos were banned due to various reasons e.g. language, dress code, apparent bad influence, etc. So much so that a number of music videos have previously been slapped with “19+ only” viewing restrictions. The issue here is, however, that the restrictions usually come only after the song has been released so most of the youth would’ve already seen the music video.

Let’s not forget the easy-peasy access to YouTube. After all, Psy’s “Gentleman” has already surpassed 139 million views within a week of its release – and counting!