But now K-pop has South Korea punching way above its weight in the global music business.
But Psy's success was softened by the growing global popularity of Korean pop music, or K-pop.
Of course, the major hurdle for Psy, 2NE1 and K-Pop as a genre is language.
From a business perspective, that might just make K-Pop the most commercially potent genre to emerge since hip-hop.
The company recently incorporated in the United States and speaks of a "digital silk road" spreading K-pop to the world.
Yet Psy is unlike other K-pop artists, an industry fashioned on youthful looks as well as catchy tunes and dance moves.
The music video was produced by the same team behind "Gangnam Style, " and will feature K-pop girl group member Ga-In of Brown Eyed Girls.
CNN: Psy hopes for another viral smash hit with Gangnam sequel
The response to 2NE1 as it continues its seven-country, ten city world tour will offer many clues as to the ceiling of K-Pop outside of Asia.
His CJ Group is big in Korean entertainment, and at a time when Korean movies and K-pop songs seem to be everywhere, that has helped goose the stock price.
Gangnam Style and K-Pop rarely fade from the entertainment media anymore, but over here on the news side, the Korean peninsula has to work a little harder to occupy the main stage.
Last month, Billboard annual series of top 21 musicians under the age of 21 listed K-pop star IU at 15th on the list which includes heavyweights in the western music business such as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.
Twelve miles south of Philadelphia, on the outskirts of Pitman, New Jersey (pop. 9, 331), K-Tron International is making breakfast.
She first attracted mainstream attention in 1981, when "O Superman, " a hypnotic 11-minute work, crept to the No. 2 spot on the U.K. pop charts.
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