Will Psy single 'Gentleman' do better than these follow-ups?

KOREAN rapper and YouTube phenomenon, Psy, has announced details of the long-awaited follow-up to his global mega-hit Gangnam Style, which has been watched 1.5 billion times online since it was released last year.

The new single, and accompanying dance, will be released on April 12 and Psy will perform his new song in public for the first time the next day at a concert in Seoul.

The rapper revealed that the new song was called Gentleman and was "extremely fun". But how will the world respond to the new single? Sometimes follow-ups take off and sometimes they don't.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Here's the proof:

Joe Dolce: If You Want to be Happy.After scoring a worldwide number one with Shaddap You Face in 1980 Australian novelty singer Joe Dolce failed to repeat the feat with his next single If You want to be Happy, a cover of an old calypso song. It sank without a trace when it was released in 1981 everywhere except Austria and New Zealand.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Two TribesThe Liverpudlian outfit gained notoriety with their single Relax after it was banned by the BBC in early 1984 and went to number one as a result. Relax was still riding high in the charts in May when the band released their follow-up, Two Tribes, complete with a memorable video featuring Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko lookalikes wrestling. It went straight to the top spot and stayed there for nine weeks. At one point in July of that year the band were one and two in the charts.

Doctor and the Medics: BurnThe psychedelic rockers led by Clive Jackson hit the big time in 1986 with their cover of Norman Greenbaum's Sixties hit Spirit in the Sky. But the band's own material turned out to be rather less popular and their next single, entitled Burn, only just made it into the top 30. A cover of Abba's Waterloo featuring glam rocker Roy Wood fared even less well later that year.

Scatman John: Scatman's WorldAgeing singer John Larkin burst onto the scene in 1995 at the age of 53 with his global 'eurodance' hit Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) which sold more than 6 million copies. His second single, Scatman's World, fared less well although it still topped the charts in countries including Spain, France, Belgium and Finland. Subsequent singles were even less successful but he kept at it. Larkin died in 1999 the same year that he released his third album Take Your Time.

Spice Girls: Say You'll be ThereGinger, Scary, Baby, Posh and Sporty were written off by many after their first single Wannabe stormed to the top of the charts in 1996. But the girls proved they were intent on global domination when their second single, Say You'll be There, also made it to top spot in the UK and was a success elsewhere. The band ended up becoming a worldwide phenomenon with nine of their 11 singles making it to number one.

Las Ketchup: Kusha Las PayasThe Spanish girl band's first single The Ketchup Song sold 7 million copies, got to number one in 27 countries and had everyone doing their own version of the hand jive in the summer of 2002. Sadly, the sultry follow-up, Kusha Las Payas, sank without a trace almost everywhere except Romania, where it got to number one. The band's second single did not have a signature dance, and Psy appears to have learned from their mistake.

Rebecca Black: FridayIn 2011 this song proved that YouTube had the power to create popstars almost overnight. The teenager's mother paid $4,000 for her to record the song and video, which was uploaded to the internet in February 2011 and went viral the following month. The song hardly dented the charts and was universally ridiculed, but it clocked up more than 100 million views and almost as many column inches. By the time she released her follow up single her moment had passed. Unfortunate, considering the song was called My Moment.