YouTube Trends

Moog: Another Crop of Musical Doodle Videos

2012-05-23T19:08:00.000-04:00

Today, Google shared a tribute to Robert "Bob" Moog, inventor of the synthesizer, with a playable, interactive homepage doodle that actually allowed you to create and record tunes.

Much like Les Paul's birthday doodle, music fans globally have begun editing and posting video versions of their creations. Nearly 1,000 "Moog" videos were posted to YouTube by early Wednesday evening.

Perhaps the most elaborate comes from musician Brett Domino who took on Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic"

A Japanese musician took on the overture from "Dragon Quest" in this video that's been very popular on Twitter:

Some took it slow and soulful:

While others have gone for pure speed:

(A group pals from Italy even took on Van Halen's "Jump.")

And it wouldn't be a musical trend on YouTube at this point if SOMEONE didn't make this cover:

Moog's chief engineer created a clip discussing the doodle, which you can check out here.

How Many 'Happy Birthday' Videos Are Posted Each Day?

2012-05-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrate YouTube's 7th Birthday, and in honor of this occasion, we dug into the data to see what we could find about how people celebrate birthdays via web video.

In the average week, nearly 10,000 "happy birthday" (English) videos are posted to YouTube.When you include the terms for "happy birthday" in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, French, and a few other languages, that number jumps to just over 15,000, meaning that there are over 2,000 posted each day.

Many these videos have been seen over 100,000 times. Here's just one of them:

Birthday searches are consistent throughout the year, with "wishes," "song," and "quote" being popular related terms. People & Blogs is the most-common category for "happy birthday" videos followed by Entertainment and then Music.

'Call Me Maybe' is Your College Roadtrip Theme Song

2012-05-17T13:46:00.000-04:00

Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" might be the inescapable song of the summer. The official video has over 68 million views in the past two months or so and, both globally and in the United States, the song has become one of YouTube's top rising searches of 2012 thus far.

But it's the thousands of covers and fan videos that have perhaps been most notable about this hit. On February 28th, just before the official video was released, a silly, home-made, lip-sync video was posted by Carlos PenaCarlos Pena, Jr. from the Nickelodeon series "Big Time Rush." The clip featured Ashley Tisdale, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez and itself has nearly 40 million views and went on to inspire hundreds of similar videos by random fans and even some celebrities.

But now a new trend has sprouted up thanks to some Ivy League ball players.

Last week, some members of the Harvard baseball team posted this video, which was heavily shared and picked up over 7 million views.

The video has inspired a crop of new videos by athletes from all over the country, looking to kill some time time traveling on the road. They playlist below contains videos by teams ranging from baseball to softball to... women's rowing.

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

Political Videos of the Week: Gingrich Out and More

2012-05-01T12:36:00.001-04:00

A number of U.S. political videos are spreading quickly this week.

Today, candidate Newt Gingrich gave advance notice to his supporters via a YouTube video that he will be dropping out of the presidential race this week. It's quickly seeing pick up on political blogs and news sites:

Meanwhile, President Obama revealed his campaign slogan for the 2012 election in this top trending video and 7-minute documentary.

The President also has had two other very popular videos/appearances hit our trending feeds this week: his "duet" with Jimmy Fallon "Slow Jamming the News" and his remarks at this past weekend's White House Correspondent's Dinner.

For his part, GOP candidate Mitt Romney also has a video on our most-shared list right now: a critical spot called "Broken Promises."

Gotye's Growing Popularity in 2012

2012-04-23T14:21:00.001-04:00

This time last year, you may not have heard about Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye, but now his work seems inescapable for many. In particular the song, "Somebody That I Used to Know" has become a global hit, the official video has over 175 million views and currently sits at the #1 spot on YouTube's music chart.

That original video first hit the web in July of 2011, but the clip drew an impressive, though relatively modest 30 million views (nearly half in December) with many of the interest coming from Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands.

In 2012, the video has averaged over 35 million views per month and has become incredibly popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. In addition to obvious increases in radio airplay, part of the YouTube popularity stems from a very viral cover from January by the band "Walk Off the Earth" that features five performers using one guitar; it's been seen 94 million times. This month, a cover on Glee and The Voice have also stirred up new buzz.

"Gotye" is one of 2012's top rising searches, and so for a better picture of how popularity has changed over time, below you can see the relative weekly search interest for "Gotye."

'A Dramatic Surprise' Is April's Surprise Hit

2012-04-17T19:14:00.000-04:00

At 24 million views, the creative TNT promotion is the most-viewed, non-music video of the past month. The spectacle, which was staged in Belgium to announce the channel's arrival, has now become popular around the world, and remains a most-viewed video today in numerous countries including South Korea, UAE, Sweden, South Africa, and the United States, among others.

The video was posted just last Wednesday and hit its peak on Thursday, drawing 6.6 million views that day alone.

Interestingly, the clip comes to us from Belgium where, you might remember, Carlsberg also staged a funny marketing stunt last fall. That clip, which depicted a theater of biker's intimidating movie goers, drew over 10 million views.

On the Scene: Storms in the Oklahoma

2012-04-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

While the damage across the Midwest was not quite as bad as originally thought, there were six tornado-related deaths this weekend in Oklahoma. Over 800 videos (of varying types) were posted over the weekend with the keyword "tornado."

You can view a collection below from CitizenTube:

Nyan Cat Celebrates One Year Anniversary

2012-04-05T19:48:00.001-04:00

One year and 70 million views later, the Nyan Cat celebrates it's YouTube birthday today. The backstory is easy enough to explain: animated gif plus Japanese pop tune equals weird looped animation. What happened after is anything but.

Defying the logic of many, the clip went on to become one of YouTube's top 10 most-viewed videos of 2011 and spawned seemingly countless parodies, remixes, and covers. There is a 100 hour version now. With 6 million views.

Interestingly, while the video did see an initial spike in interest in April of 2011, it was not as large as some of the other well known viral hits. Instead, a look at the data shows that the clip has maintained a fairly steady following, averaging around 1 million views per week over the past year.

In the neighborhood of 100,000 videos have been posted with "nyan" in the title over the past year. And those videos have been seen over 400 million times. 400 million. Nearly half a billion.

Here are the top 10 most popular:

Across the Country: What Final Four Fans are Watching

2012-03-28T12:56:00.000-04:00

This weekend marks NCAA basketball's Final Four, the semifinal and final for men's college basketball in the United States. The NCAA tournament is a basketball lover's dream, and it continues to draw out enthusiasm and passion from college sports fans nationwide.

So its no surprise that some of the most-shared and -viewed videos in the hometowns of many Final Four teams are basketball related. We break down a handful below:

TOPEKA: Ultimate Kansas Fan	LOUISVILLE: That Cardinal doesn't like this UK fan's truck

LEXINGTON: Bluegrass in the Big Easy	COLUMBUS: Pre-Final Four press conference

Interestingly, the state of Ohio is enthralled this week not just with Ohio State videos. The most-shared clip in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus is this letter to the Browns football team.

See more of what's popular in different locations nationally and around the world with our Trends Dashboard.

Unlikely Musical Instruments: Floppy Disk Drives

2012-03-21T12:36:00.002-04:00

Performances involving unusual musical instruments have been a longtime YouTube staple, but over the last several months, we've started to see more and more of a particularly strange "instrument" being used to create tunes: old floppy disk drives.

YouTube saw a big spike in searches for "floppy drive" starting this past October, when the Star Wars "Imperial March" below first went viral. It's now been seen over 4.3 million times. It was created by Polish science students at a university.

This week, you can witness how elaborate recycling floppy disk drives for this untended purpose can get. MrSolidSnake745 is an entire channel of retro-tech covers using the drives and his videos have been viewed over 2 million times and counting. Here's the clip that's currently trending...

And that's not even the only channel producing covers like these ongoingly:

While searches since October have been noticeably higher for "floppy drive" videos, the trend is not necessarily a new one and some popular floppy drive covers have been around for longer:

Check out the floppy disk topic page to discover more.

'Pi Day': The Unlikely Web Video Holiday

2012-03-15T19:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was "Pi Day." You know, March 14. 3.14?

It's a day some people may remember from geometry class, but its now found a new following on the web, where fans of math and science routinely produce all sorts of "Pi"-related content on this obscure holiday.

In fact, over 1,000 videos tagged "Pi Day" were uploaded this week. Some took a straightforward approach, like this explainer from Numberphile:

While some people were a big more unconventional. The BYU Mathletes, seen here, used the opportunity to do something unique:

But not everybody is a fan. YouTube scribbler and self-described "mathemusician" Vi Hart produced this clip last year, that remains one of the most viewed Pi Day videos.

If you're interested, you can see Hart's 2012 video here.

Tracking the Popularity of 'KONY 2012'

2012-03-13T15:31:00.002-04:00

Last week, the 30 minute "KONY 2012" documentary, produced by Invisible Children, dominated social media feeds and was, by far, the most-viewed video on YouTube. The clip, which has been seen over 75 million times already, has seen unprecedented popularity for a non-profit video.

A look at viewing over time shows that viewing peaked last Wednesday with 31 million views in a single day, coinciding with what seemed to be the period of highest social activity around the clip.

The top rising searches, globally, on YouTube in the past 30 days relate to this subject and over 7 million views were from searches. Over 20,000 "Kony"-related videos have been uploaded in the past week.

Over 20 million views were from social media platforms. Some of entertainment's biggest stars, including Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Diddy, and Oprah, shared the video on their social media accounts, and the video quickly became the most-shared clip around the world. The video continues to spread and the numbers continue to climb, with the video still averaging millions of views per day.

The video has been increasingly popular and it's single day spike in viewing nearly tripled the most-recent video to see this kind of speedy spread.

Super Tuesday: Most Viewed GOP Videos This Season

2012-03-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Super Tuesday in the United States with 10 states holding primary elections to help determine which Republican candidate will be selected to run against President Barack Obama this Fall.

We went through the data and saw that videos posted by the official GOP candidate channels were viewed over 40 million times since last the start of last June. Taking a look at the top 10 most viewed clips in that bunch (below) reveals that it was Governor Rick Perry who drew the most attention.

On the Scene Footage: March Midwest Tornadoes

2012-03-06T10:05:00.001-05:00

An unusual series of devastating tornadoes tore through parts of the South and Midwestern United States late last week. >Over 100 are said to have been reported on Friday alone. A number of residents -- as well as storm chasers -- captured images of these disasters in action.

In this video, for example, a tornado is seem forming over what's said to be West Liberty, Kentucky on Friday.

Over 4,000 videos with "tornado" in the title were posted in the past week. Several of them have been collected in the playlist below.

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

You can follow this story at YouTube.com/CitizenTube

The New Classical: YouTube Showcases New Music in Old Styles

2012-03-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

This post was authored by Bailey Johnson of CBSNews.com's The Feed, for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

YouTube has led the charge into this brave new world of online content. Video creators have invented new genres of entertainment, and in some cases completely changed what being an “entertainer” means. But what often gets overlooked is how YouTube can make the old new again. Take, for example, one of the oldest forms of culture: classical music. Musicians have been able to hone their craft into new and exciting forms using some of the oldest styles and instruments out there. What does this “new classical” music sound like? Take a look.

Violinist Lindsey Stirling used her classical violin training to create something on the cutting edge with this music video, “Crystalize.” The video calls it “dubstep violin” and it’s not far off. It can’t be easy taking a nearly 500-year-old instrument and using it to create a new style. But Stirling makes it look easy; almost as easy as finding an audience hungry for something unique. “Crystalize” has been viewed nearly five million times in the few weeks it’s been online. Of course, the awesome sweeping visuals didn’t hurt.

The Piano Guys are another group making the old new again. These classically trained musicians use a piano, some cellos, and expert editing to transform their centuries-old instruments into modern hits. David Guetta is about as cutting-edge as music gets these days, but The Piano Guys show us that there’s really nothing new under the sun. Even Beethoven could’ve made these beats. You know, if he had the ear for it.

Speaking of cellos, let’s take a look at the aptly named 2CELLOS. Using, yes, two cellos, Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic have become something like superstars in their field. They’ve made several television appearences, go on tour, and have a booming YouTube channel. “Smooth Criminal” above has been viewed over 5.5 million times.

The real catalyst for this article – besides all the awesome music – was this video we posted on The Feed last week. As my pal Will Goodman wrote, “You know you’re doing something right when a band posts your video up on their Facebook page with the simple word ‘whoah’ to describe it.” Transforming the Foo Fighters’ classic “Everlong” into a sweeping piano piece is an inspired work of art that perfectly captures the everything-old-is-new-again aesthetic of budding classical musicians worldwide.

Today's Trend analysis provided by

The Popular Trailers of 2012 So Far: Avengers, Hunger Games

2012-03-02T12:22:00.000-05:00

Now that the Academy Awards has taken place, it's time to shift focus to what some might consider the other end of the spectrum: the 2012 slate of blockbuster movies. There are plenty of films to look forward to this year, but by trailer popularity there are two big-time adaptations fans are hotly anticipating...

In 2012, the two top searches associated with trailers on YouTube so far are for Hunger Games, out later this month, and Marvel's The Avengers.

Searches for The Avengers hit their largest spike back in October, when the first trailer was released. It's since been seen over 10 million times. There have been subsequent spikes when their Super Bowl trailer ran and this week when a new longer version was released. This new one has been seen over 4 million times in just two days.

The adaptation of the young-adult novel Hunger Games also saw its first spike in buzz this past fall, with initial trailer hitting the web in November. A new trailer was released in February that's racked up over 6 million views.

The fastest rising "trailer" search so far has been Chronicle, which was released last month and also had a very popular first trailer.

We're only two months in, so we'll have to check back closer to the summer to see how things have changed.

Don't Try This at Home: First-Person Perspective Puts You in the Extreme Action

2012-02-24T16:04:00.000-05:00

This post was authored by Will Goodman, managing editor of CBSNews.com's The Feed, for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

Action sports are booming. BASE Jumpers can make national headlines and snowboarders can become Olympic gold-medalists.It's fair to say we are in a golden-age of extreme sports. And with the rise of the Go Pro sports cameras and others like them, the action has never felt more real on YouTube.

Much like the title, do not try to emulate these videos at home. Or outside. Or in any context whatsoever. But do make sure to have a lot of fun engaging in the experiences vicariously. That’s the whole point.

While the above video is a clear example of a professional, Marcelo Gutierrez, showing us what he sees and does while engaging in an urban biking competition, the great part of this growing trend is that it’s not just limited to the pros. Everyone is starting to share their first-person perspective experiences and the range of action you can find on YouTube seems to know no bounds.

A simple bicycle ride through the mountains doesn't look so simple when you're strapped to the helmet. Okay, so this bike ride isn't so simple no matter where you're standing. But in first-person we get the rush of the ride without the whole worry of getting injured, maimed or killed. And in high-definition too!

Wasn’t that refreshing? Short, simple, but compelling all the same. Being able to share in the experiences of travel and adventure has never been so available at any other time. Want to know what it’s like to go cliff diving? It's out there. How about riding a motorbike on a snow-covered mountain top? Yup, it’s there, too. Okay, what about doing a luge along the Great Wall of China?Guess what.

Which leads me full-circle to the point I cannot emphasize enough: while these kinds of videos are amazing to behold, they’re best left to the pros (or at least advanced practitioners.) There’s always the chance that something will go wrong. And the more extreme the sport, the bigger that chance gets. So for our final example, let’s all vicariously engage in a very close call to get a feel for what can go wrong, even when done by people who know what they’re doing.

Today's Trend analysis provided by

Big in India: The Singapore JK Wedding Dance?

2012-02-24T13:07:00.000-05:00

One of 2009's most famous viral videos -- and a clip that you've certainly seen -- was the "JK Wedding Dance." The marital entrance, which was set to Chris Brown's "Forever" and captured at Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's nuptials at a Minnesotta church, was a massive hit that's now been seen over 70 millian times.

Now, this week, one of the most-viewed and most-shared videos in India is some footage captured at a wedding in Singapore. Rather than Chris Brown, this wedding march, which took place at the Sree MahaMariamman Temple on February 12th, appears to be set to music from some Tamil-language Indian action-comedy films.

Either way, the reaction is essentially the same for the audience.

Facebook Parenting: The Most Discussed Video of the Week

2012-02-17T18:42:00.000-05:00

At this point, most of us have seen the controversial and most-discussed video of the past week: "Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen." But not everyone may realize the speed in which it took off.

The clip, which first spread last Thursday, hit 11 million views at its peak last Friday alone. For reference, that's almost double the spike last year's most viewed video, Rebecca Black's "Friday," saw when it first spiked with 6 million views in a single day.

The video picked up over 215,000 comments in one week and it remains one of our Most Shared videos.

The video caused such a stir that over 1,000 videos tagged "facebook parenting" have been posted this week, some serious and some... a bit more humorous.

Local Internet Boy Makes Good, and Other Talking Animal Stories

2012-02-17T11:32:00.001-05:00

This post was authored by Bailey Johnson of CBSNews.com's The Feed for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

It’s always fun when the big boys in old media notice the Internet. When Hollywood executives deign to notice the little people here online, someone always goes home happy. Or if not happy, at least with a little more padding in their wallet. Today, that someone is Andrew Grantham, creator of his own Talking Animals channel and producer of the second most-watched clip of 2011 (after Rebecca Black's "Friday"): “Ultimate Dog Tease.”

You’ve seen it haven’t you? So have over 94 million other people.

Oh man, it’s so great. I’ve watched this video many, many times (I’m not the only one, right? Right?) So it’s thrilling to hear that “Ultimate Dog Tease” is currently being developed into a feature film by Paramount Studios. How exactly they plan on turning an 80-second long clip into a full length movie is anyone’s guess. But it got us thinking: what other talking animals should get the Hollywood treatment?

Mishka the Talking Husky, of course! This popular pooch has been in the game for a while now. She became a break-out star back in 2008 by howling something that sounded an awful lot like, “I love you.” Can Miska: The Movie be far behind? She even has her comedic sidekick ready in Laika, the other dog in the above video.
But what if Hollywood is looking for more than just talking dogs?

Meet Teddy Bear, the future star of “Ultimate Dog Tease 2: More Than Just Talking Dogs.” Teddy is already a star at Zooniversity, a Texas-based wildlife education company. Why not take the next step? Maybe he’s waiting for his moment. When it’s 2017 and we’re all jaded about the release of yet another talking dog movie, Teddy will pop back up to save us from the tedium. It’s only a matter of time.

But is there another breed of animal destined for stardom? Perhaps another common domestic pet, beloved by millions and ready or the silver screen?

Guess not.

Today's Trend analysis provided by

Tributes: Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'

2012-02-13T17:24:00.000-05:00

With the sad news of vocalist Whitney Houston's passing this weekend, many long-time fans came to YouTube to remember her and seek out her best-known music videos.

Her talents made her a favorite of musicians with many young, aspiring singers finding inspiration in her skills and powerful, emotional voice. In the particular, her song "I Will Always Love You" has remained a standby and, while it's certainly a difficult song to nail, many talented fans have posted their own takes on this hit in tribute over the past two days. We've collected just 10 of them in the playlist below.

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

The city of Dubai also paid tribute to her using the song in a display over the weekend orchestrated using their famed fountain.

It's a song that has traditionally commanded a great deal of respect for those who can perform it well, making it incredibly popular on television talent programs for years. Taiwan's Lin Hu Chung might have the most famous version around the web. He became an international sensation when his performance spread across the world in 2010:

'Linsanity' on the Rise on YouTube

2012-02-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

The NBA's newest star, NY Knick guard Jeremy Lin, has drawn the attention of sports fans around the globe, and his stellar play of late has caused big spike in YT searches, making his name one of the top rising search terms, globally, on YouTube last week.

Lin's stardom hit its highest thus far over the weekend, with much of the interest in the 23-year-old coming from New York and San Francisco as well as internationally from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Lin highlights on the NBA's channel have been seen over 1.5 million times this month and countless fan videos and even rap songs.

The last athlete we saw reach this level of popularity this quickly was LA Clipper Blake Griffin, whose high-flying dunks are still a big draw.

Most Viewed Ads So Far After the Big Game ...and Before

2012-02-09T20:03:00.001-05:00

It's time to check back in on the data and see which ads from Sunday's big Giants' win were the most popular among fans of football (and commercials). We looked at all the videos posted in the past month by advertisers who ran spots during the game to find out which teasers, previews, ads, and extended cuts drew the most attention before AND after.

Top 10 Most viewed commercials before Sunday (Playlist)

(May take a moment to load.)

What about after the game? Which ads drew the most views on gameday and the next morning? Find out...

Top 10 Most viewed commercials from Sunday and Monday (Playlist)

Want more? See them all at YouTube.com/AdBlitz.

What Were People Searching for on YouTube During the Game?

2012-02-06T00:22:00.000-05:00

Each year, YouTube sees a big spike in ad-related searches during and after the Super Bowl as sports fans -- and non-sports-fans -- check out the game's most memorable commercials.

Over the first half of the 2012's game, top rising searches included "bud light platinum commercial," "OKGo needing getting" (a new music video previewed by Chevrolet) and "m&m commercial," a reference to the spot that introduced the Ms. Brown character.

Heading into the fourth quarter, "Doritos superbowl commercial" and "David Beckham superbowl commercial" were trending.

Other top searches we saw late in the game: "clint eastwood commercial" and "betty white super bowl commercial." Afterward, Samsung's ad caused a spike in searches for "i believe in a thing called love."

Over the weekend, Chevy's Mayan "end of the world" ad titled "2012" became a top trending video and was one of the most-shared and most-viewed clips.

As we noted last week, 2012 has seen a pre-Super Bowl ad bonanza, with many of the top commercials either being teased or posted in-full well in advance of the game. In fact, Super Bowl ads or "ad teasers" were watched over 30 million times on YouTube before the big weekend this year.

In 2011, Volkswagon's ad "The Force" went viral before the game and picked up roughly 10 million views heading into the big day. Seeming to build off that trend, the pre-Super Bowl activity we saw in 2012 was even higher and spread across significantly more brands.

YouTube Trends

Top 10 Commencement Videos of 2012

Moog: Another Crop of Musical Doodle Videos

How Many 'Happy Birthday' Videos Are Posted Each Day?

'Call Me Maybe' is Your College Roadtrip Theme Song

Political Videos of the Week: Gingrich Out and More

Gotye's Growing Popularity in 2012

'A Dramatic Surprise' Is April's Surprise Hit

On the Scene: Storms in the Oklahoma

Nyan Cat Celebrates One Year Anniversary

Across the Country: What Final Four Fans are Watching

Unlikely Musical Instruments: Floppy Disk Drives

'Pi Day': The Unlikely Web Video Holiday

Tracking the Popularity of 'KONY 2012'

Super Tuesday: Most Viewed GOP Videos This Season

On the Scene Footage: March Midwest Tornadoes

The New Classical: YouTube Showcases New Music in Old Styles

The Popular Trailers of 2012 So Far: Avengers, Hunger Games

Don't Try This at Home: First-Person Perspective Puts You in the Extreme Action

Big in India: The Singapore JK Wedding Dance?

Facebook Parenting: The Most Discussed Video of the Week

Local Internet Boy Makes Good, and Other Talking Animal Stories

Tributes: Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'

'Linsanity' on the Rise on YouTube

Most Viewed Ads So Far After the Big Game ...and Before

What Were People Searching for on YouTube During the Game?