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Prince and K-Pop Top the 10 Most-Talked About Musical Artists on Twitter in 2016

2 minute read

K-Pop reigned supreme on this year’s list of top trending musical artists on Twitter, with hot throb boy band Exo nabbing first place and Jimin taking second.

Following the Korean music sensations was none other than his royal Purpleness, Prince at #3, whose untimely death sent the world into mourning both on and offline. This trend was reflected with David Bowie, who trended at #5; the rock legend died after a long bout with cancer just two days after dropping his 25th and final album, Blackstar on his 69th birthday.

Between Prince and Bowie in the fourth slot was the enfant terrible of the music world, face tattoo enthusiast and Instagram decrier Justin Bieber, no doubt buoyed by his loyal Beliebers and a year filled with social media drama, while the teenage dreams of One Direction clocked in at #6, most likely due to their decision to pursue solo careers much to the distress of Directioners everywhere.

Trailing One Direction was K-Pop star BamBam at #7, while Beyoncé took #8 thanks to a year that included a surprise visual album drop, a controversial Super Bowl performance fueled by Cheetos, a world tour, multiple awards show performances, and of course, the online power of the notorious BeyHive. Closing out the top 10 was rapper Jin at #9 and K-Pop phenomenon Jungkook.

See the full rundown below:

Top Trending Artists
1. #Exo
2. #Jimin
3. #Prince
4. #JustinBieber
5. #DavidBowie
6. #OneDirection
7. #Bambam
8. #Beyonce
9. #Jin
10. #Jungkook

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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com