According to Tubefilter, the most viewed YouTube channel last week was for Turkish music site Mu-Yap, which rang in more than 46 million views, beating out both the Miley Cyrus and One Direction VEVO channels and Swedish gaming sensation PewDiePie. The channel has close to 2 million subscribers.
Mu-Yap also acts as Turkey’s phonographic industry society, which battles online piracy to ensure “unity” in the music industry, and it helps with digital licensing. Turkey’s music video business seems to be thriving, at least online. Several of the videos are old, but really, videos like this one by Nadide Sultan are timeless.
Here are five more of the best/weirdest/most interesting videos from the channel.
1) The vaguely Clay Aiken-ish pop star Hasan Yildirim, and his club banger, “Midigo Me”:
2) Tophat-friendly pop star Ragga Oktay’s dancehall jam, “Papucu Yarim,” representing early Aughts fashion:
3) This recent clip from popular singer Gülşen, which sort of mimics A-ha’s “Take on Me” video, currently has more than 25 million views:
4) Here’s an example of Turkish rap, from emcee Ceza:
5) And then there’s this 1995 punk gem, from the duo Sertac-Murat:
Screengrab via Mu-Yap/YouTube