Microblogging and social media pioneer Tumblr has released its annual recap with "Year in Review," and this year highlights the top trends - including K-Pop songs and artists.
As one of the Internet trendsetters, Tumblr creates lists driven by its user base - communities of young users looking to connect with similar-minded individuals or sharing their personal tastes. In fact, Tumblr reports that up to 48% of its active users are from Gen Z - people generally born from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.
Whether it's posting memes and fandoms to advancing issued-focused activism and fighting for social justice, the social media platform summarizes the trends that have shaped 2020 in more than 30 categories with its 2020 Year in Review.
K-Pop Leads Tumblr's Music World, With BTS at the Front
K-Pop music emerged as the most popular music style in the list of Top Music Genres. Described as genres to relax and study to, Korean pop music was followed by punk, hip-hop, country, and rap to round up the top five.
Despite the massive changes that occurred this year, BTS remains the Top K-Pop Group on Tumblr. Additionally, seven of the ten Top K-Pop Stars are held by each of the Bangtan Boys: Jungkook, Jimin, V, Suga, RM, Jin, and J-Hope - in that order, from the first to the seventh spot. For the group category, the top ten is dominated by Korean boy groups Stray Kids, ATEEZ, EXO, and NCT127, SEVENTEEN, Monsta X, and Got7. Blackpink and Red Velvet break the mold by holding the sixth and tenth spots respectively.
The remaining three slots for the Top 10 stars are filled by Baekhyun from EXO, and Jaehyun and Taeyong from NCT127.
In Tumblr's Top 20 of 2020, BTS ranked fourth across all topics from all countries. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the hit life simulator for Nintendo Switch, tops the list. Tumblr said that the video game "had a bigger year than anyone could have predicted: Tom Nook's vacation package came when we all needed it most."
About Tumblr's Year in Review
The microblogging site's annual review was first released in 2013. However, the team behind these reviews were also taken aback by the events of this year - highlighting some of the largest events that occurred, from the Black Lives Matter movement in the US to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tumblr's Year in Review accounts for an entire year, starting from October 21, 2019, to October 20, 2020, and covers the platform's top trends including memes, aesthetics, films, video games, and more.
The platform's "official guide to fandoms," is powered by Fandometrics - its localized effort in generating a database that tracks the most talked-about personalities, works, and events. Tumblr explains that its Content Team compiles the most frequently used tags on a weekly basis. This compilation accounts for measurables such as the number of posts containing the said tag, the number of search instances, post reblogging with the said tags, and the number of likes. A specific tag is then sorted into one of its original categories. Otherwise, a new category is assigned.
