How Much Did “Gangnam Style” Ruin the World Economy?

June 4, 2014 Alan Cross 2 Comments

I love stories like this.

As I write this, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” has been viewed on YouTube exactly 2,005,437,820 times. The Economist set out to analyze how much productivity this sucked out of the global economy. Given that the song is 4:12 long, two billion views required 140 million man-hours of watching. That’s 16,000 years.

What if we had put in that kind of time for other things?

Well, we could have built 20 more Empire State Buildings or almost five full new versions of Stonehenge. See?

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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