“ PSY’s sudden and surprising success means little for the success of K-pop in the West, which, aside from the dedicated niche fandom and Asian diasporic groups, faces a tremendous uphill battle, thanks to both cultural differences in pop music and a limited set of acceptable non-threatening roles that performers of Asian descent can fill. PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” for all of the many reasons why it’s successful–from the creativity inherent in the music as well as the video that accompanies it to the charismatic man himself and his polished performances–is also wildly successful in the West in some small part due to the fact that he is one of the things the Western mainstream wants to see from its Asian people: a funny guy who doesn’t pose any threat of making Asian men seem sexually desirable. ”