Wonderwall

'Gangnam Style' Leads YouTube's Top Trending Videos of 2012

The Associated Press, Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 11:00am (PST)

Billboard --

While browsing videos on YouTube the past day you may have noticed that the site's icon in the upper lefthand corner has been taken over by a .gif of PSY and his all too familiar dance. Following this link reveals "YouTube in Rewind 2012," a playlist featuring the year's top YouTube videos in 2012 and a mashup video mixing PSY's "Gangnam Style" with Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," the two stand out viral music videos for the year.

Psy himself pays tribute to the network that launched him into global stardom by joining WalkOffTheEarth, who gained notable attention this year with their cover of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," along side other YouTubers content creators AlphaCat, KassemG, DailyGrace, DeStorm, MysteryGuitarMan, Dave Days, Pyro Booby, Annoying Orange, Barely Political, FreddieW, Corridor Digital, RhettAndLink, and Smosh. Actress and admitted humble geek Felicia Day parodies Carly Rae from the "Call Me Maybe" video alongside ChesterSee, ijustine, EpicMealTime, MyHarto, Jenna Marbles, Ryan Higa, and the girl (dude) from the "Shit Girls Say" video which spawned a litany of spin-off videos that featuring every conversational cliche from just about every demographic.

YouTube's importance to the music industry has grown significantly in 2012. Google reports that consumers watched over 4 billion hours of video every month, and according to a Nielsen study, the platform has become the number one place teens go to listen to new music. It's no surprise that four of these top 10 videos are music related, and for PSY, Gotye and Carly Rae Jepsen, YouTube facilitated the viral nature in which each of their hit songs were parodied and spread amongst fans that subsequently propelled them to mainstream success and to the top of the Billboard charts.

To create their top 10 list YouTube didn't just look at views, but weighted shares, searches, parodies, remixes and responses to identify these as top 10 videos of 2012.