Globalization on YouTube

This research studies the international flows of music videos in (South-)East Asia and Western Europe, by analyzing national YouTube music video charts in 2013. This is the first empirical research that focusses on the role that YouTube plays in the exchange of international pop music. Quantitative content analysis was executed to collect data from YouTube. The first aim of this research is to show to what extent internationalization can be perceived in YouTube music video charts. It shows the trends in the degree, direction and diversity of international music videos within the selected YouTube charts of our sample countries. The findings show that YouTube charts of most countries are very international, accept the charts of some Asian countries. In the European YouTube charts, most music videos are from the US. In (South-)East Asian YouTube charts, many music videos are also from the US, but quite surprisingly even more from South Korea. English is overall the most sung language next to the domestic language of artists. In addition, most South Korean artists sing in Korean, but use English phrases in their songs. The second aim of this research is to show which determinants influence the inequality of music video flows between countries. There are many different determinants that can play a factor in this process. Country characteristics can be determinants. Therefore, the influence of centrality, population size, GDP, cultural proximity, geographical proximity and language tie were tested. Individual artists determinants can also influence the success of music videos in foreign YouTube charts. Therefore, the influence of performance language and TV talent show participation were also tested. These determinants were tested using multiple regression analysis. Only the influence of the determinants centrality, cultural proximity and geographical proximity were found in this analysis. Besides these determinants, YouTube has content agreements with major media companies. These agreements can also influence the composition of music video charts and therefore their level of internationalization of YouTube charts. The results give an indication that this could be the case. The third aim of this research, is to compare our findings to the results of Verboord & Brandellero’s (2013) research. They studied the globalization of pop music single charts in Europe between 1960-2010 This comparison gave interesting insights. YouTube charts are slightly more international. The effect of geographical proximity is smaller in YouTube charts. The effects of some determinants, which were found by Verboord & Brandellero weren’t found for the YouTube charts.