The world wept on its keyboards and smartphones when music icon Whitney Houston shockingly died on the eve of the Grammys in February. People's collective grief instantly spilled onto Twitter, peaking at 73,662 tweets per minute and reaching 10 million total tweets.
Houston's passing was just one of the major music moments in 2012 that got Twitter users reacting in droves, showcasing the enormous influence of musicians on people's lives -- lives now remotely yet profoundly intertwined through social media.
It's no surprise 50% of all active Twitter users follow at least one musician, who together are among the service's 200 million monthly active users. That's up from 100 million in late 2011.
Music has always moved us. And now tweets from musicians do, more so than ever before.
Twitter Becomes a Massive Watercooler for Musicians
To Jimi Hendrix, music was religion. To Twitter users, music is a conversation starter.
And in 2012, Twitter became the go-to outlet for celebrity users to talk to their fans, provide unprecedented access into their lives, reveal personal or career news and even interact with each other (remember Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson exchanging tweets on 4/20?).
They set Twitter ablaze, maximizing the 140-character limit of each tweet. Justin Bieber, for example, had the second most-retweeted message of the year, only behind U.S. president Barack Obama's celebratory Election Night tweet.
RIP Avalanna. i love you
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 26, 2012
The tweet, which has been retweeted more than 225,000 times since September, paid tribute to 6-year-old Avalanna Routh, whom Bieber "married" before she died from cancer.
Meanwhile, Canadian electro-house music producer Deadmau5 randomly infused one of his songs with vocals a fan submitted via a tweet, illustrating the power Twitter has to not only connect artists to their fans, but to also incite collective creativity.
The song, "The Veldt," made its way onto Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs charts in the United States and Rolling Stones magazine named it one of the top 50 songs of 2012.
"This has been an amazing year for music on Twitter," Tatiana Simonian, Twitter's head of music industry relations, tells Mashable.
"When you look at Twitter day in and day out, you'll see just how popular music content is."
"When you look at Twitter day in and day out, you'll see just how popular music content is."
She notes four of the top five most-followed accounts are musicians: Lady Gaga, Bieber, Katy Perry and Rihanna. Obama comes in at fifth and Britney Spears brings music back at sixth.
Throughout the year, people kept dialogue flowing through organized Twitter chats with Neil Young, Christina Aguilera and a slew of other artists:
.@smokeydouglas foster the people #askneil
— Neil Young (@neilyoung) October 24, 2012
So many great questions! Nugget is helping me… you ready?!?! #YourBody twitter.com/TheRealXtina/s…
— Christina Aguilera (@TheRealXtina) September 12, 2012
Celebrities such as Kesha leveraged Twitter to instantly issue statements regarding controversial issues, while others like Drake hilariously responded to getting dissed.
Musicians like Matchbox 20 teased their music videos in creative series of tweets, while artists like Enrique Iglesias and Hunter Hayes created Twitter-propelled scavenger hunts in the real world. And let's not forget that Jennifer Lopez premiered "Follow the Leader" exclusively on Twitter.
Music Festivals and Award Shows Light Up Twitter
Tupac Shakur, or at least a holographic version of the late rapper, surprised Coachella concert-goers in April when he joined Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre for a performance. The spectacle helped Coachella become the year's most-mentioned music festival.
2012's Most-Tweeted About Music Festivals (based on data Twitter gave to Mashable):
Coachella (@coachella and #Coachella2012): 2.7 million mentions
South by Southwest (@sxsw and #SXSW): 2.5 million mentions
Lollapalooza (@lollapalooza and #Lolla): 1 million mentions
Austin City Limits (@aclfestival and #aclfest): 125,000 mentions
CMJ Music Marathon (@CMJ and #CMJ): 120,000 mentions
Outside Lands (@sfoutsidelands and #outsidelands): 38,000 mentions
Electric Zoo (@ElectricZooNY and #EZoo): 109,000 mentions
Sasquatch Festival (@Sasquatch and #Sasquatch): 33,000 mentions
Bonnaroo (@Bonnaroo and #Roo2012): 32,000 mentions
MTV's Video Music Awards -- which this year paid homage to video parodies, lip-dubs, remixes and covers with a new Most-Share Worthy Video category -- attracted the most mentions out of the music-related award shows.
At its peak, the show generated 98,307 tweets per minute when One Direction won Best Pop Video (the boy band also won Most-Share Worthy Video). Performances from Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift, Green Day, Rihanna and Alicia Keys also sparked significant Twitter traffic.
Most-Tweeted About Music Award Shows:
VMAs (@VMA and #VMA): 39 million mentions
Grammys (@TheGRAMMYs and #GRAMMYs): 8 million mentions
BET Awards (@BETawards and #HipHopAwards): 3 million mentions
BBMAs (@billboard and #BBMA): 850,000 mentions
CMAs (@CountryMusic and #CMAAwards): 400,000 mentions
ACM Awards (@ACMawards and #ACMs): 300,000 mentions
Chris Brown and 'Gangnam Style' Among Top Trends
Bieber and each member of boy band One Direction had the year's top retweets for musicians, Twitter tells Mashable. Psy's "Gangnam Style," which is on the verge of becoming the first video to reach 1 billion YouTube views, netted 18 million mentions on Twitter.
Top Music Trends of 2012:
Chris Brown
Nicki Minaj
Katy Perry
Michael Jackson
Rihanna
#nowplaying
#MusicMonday
#2chainzback2schoollyrics
Surprisingly left out of Twitter's data for top trends is Carly Rae Jepsen's viral hit "Call Me Maybe," which recently earned a Song of the Year Grammy nomination.
What music moments this year got your fingers tapping comments onto Twitter?
Images via Taylor Hill, Christopher Polk, Kevin Kane and Jason Merritt/Getty Images and MTV Press; thumbnail image via Video Music Awards/MTV Press
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