Five-member boy band Big Bang swept the YouTube K-pop music video scene in the first half of the year, a report by Google Korea showed.
Google Korea, which operates the YouTube video-sharing site in the Korean language, said Big Bang led the popularity of K-pop, as their four music videos were the top K-pop music videos on YouTube, by international views.
The No. 1 spot went to “Fantastic Baby,” the lead single from latest album “Alive” (2012), followed by “Blue.” The boy group’s two other songs “Bad Boy” and “Monster” ranked fourth and sixth, respectively.
Big Bang’s latest album recently reached No. 5 on U.S. iTunes’ Top Albums.
Debuting in 2006, Big Bang consists of G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung and Seungri.
Brian Suh, head of YouTube Partnership at Google Korea, noted that global platforms like YouTube are “a window” for worldwide users to gain access to K-pop.
“YouTube, a global platform, overcomes language, nation and time difference. Google is making efforts to expand the periphery of hallyu by building partnerships with Korean content providers in the broadcast, movie and animation industries,” Suh said.
Among five girl groups who reached the top 10, f(x) ranked fifth with “Electric Shock,” even though it was posted on YouTube quite late ― on June 11.
The five members of f(x) come from Korea, China and the U.S. Member Krystal is the younger sister of Jessica from Girls’ Generation.
By domestic views, girl groups’ music videos were more popular than those of boy groups.
Sistar’s “Alone” topped the K-pop music video chart on YouTube by local views in the first half of the year, followed by Girls’ Generation TTS’ “Twinkle” and Wonder Girls’ “Like this.”
Indie group Busker Busker rose to ninth with “Cherry Blossom Ending.”
By Kim Yoon-mi (
yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)
