Carla Marshall is the Head of Content Marketing at vidIQ. She has 10+ years of experience in video marketing, social media management, content marketing, DRM, and SEO. She was previously Editor in Chief at ReelSEO.com, and as a journalist and video marketer, she's covered news stories, creator journeys, and digital-first publishing initiatives across all the major online video platforms. She is YouTube Certified and a judge for the Shorty Awards, as well as the UK, US, Canadian, Global, and EU Search Awards.
Top 20 K-Pop Keywords on YouTube 2019: BTS Top Search Term
Although K-pop has been alive and kicking in the hearts of its fans for over a decade, this year's cracker of a summer smash, 'Boy with Luv' from BTS featuring Halsey, has firmly cemented its place in global pop culture. Not only is 'Boy with Luv' the most viewed music video uploaded to YouTube within 24 hours, 'BTS' is the most searched for K-pop keyword on the platform, with double the search volume than that of another crazy popular K-pop band, Blackpink. Such is the popularity of BTS content on YouTube, the group is searched for over 16.5x more than the genre of music they represent. Mind blown.
Before we jump into some more keyword data, take a listen to 'Boy with Luv' and get a taste for the K-pop phenonenom:
Top 20 K-pop Keywords on YouTube in 2019
Using vidIQ's legendary KeyWord Tool, we can confirm that the following are the most searched for K-pop terms on YouTube right now, based on monthly search volume. They include band names, and generic terms, with 'Boy with Luv' the 15th most searched for K-pop song:
- BTS
- Blackpink
- Exo
- Kpop
- GOT7
- Red Velvet
- Kpop Dance
- Stray Kids
- Kpop group
- Kpop 2019
- K-pop
- Izone
- Monsta X
- Momoland
- Boy with Luv
- Kpop reaction
- TXT
- EXID
- Momo
- Twice
A look at Google Trends for YouTube data for the last 12 months confirms our findings. Searches for BTS and Blackpink are on the rise, and are surpassing searches for the main Kpop keyword term.
BTS: 67M Searches on YouTube Per Month
BTS are arguably THE most popular K-pop band in the world right now. AKA The Bangtan Boys, they are a 7-piece boy band founded in Seoul in 2013, and while they are smashing records across the world as a group, there is also intense interest on YouTube for each member of the band. In order of popularity, here are the BTS boys being searched for on YouTube each month:
- Jungkook
- Jimin
- V "Taehyung"
- Suga
- Jin
- RM
- J-Hope
(Data corrected 7-26-19 based on Twitter feedback)
Finding Opportunities to Create K-pop Content on YouTube
While BTS is the most searched for K-pop term on YouTube right now, it's also one of the most competitive. Unless you're BTS yourself, the chances of ranking high for that very specific term are pretty hard. However, finding a keyword or phrase with low competition but a decent search volume means you could be creating content that viewers are looking for but not many YouTubers are making. That's a win win for you and the viewer.
Also using vidIQ's Keyword Tool, we took a look at some of those possible search terms to see what gaps there were and came up with the following:
- Blackpink fashion
- Iconic K-pop songs
- K-pop facts
- K-pop guessing game
- K-pop news
- K-pop reaction
And while we're not saying that creating content around those specific keyphrases will bring in tens of thousands of views, you have a much better chance of ranking for them than going after the main K-pop keywords. Our data shows that viewers are searching for very specific terms around the genre, the bands, and the culture so take advantage of that interest and find your own niche.
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