MTV aired the 28th annual Video Music Awards (VMA) Sunday night. MTV integrated social media into the experience, encouraging viewers to use social media and their various devices — tablets, smartphones, and their computers — in addition to tuning in via cable TV, to weigh in on the show.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

VMA mentions

VMA mentions more than doubled in 2011 compared to last year’s show.

VMA sentiment

Conversations around the 2011 VMAs were an average of 74% positive. Lady Gaga was the biggest topic of conversation, appearing in nearly 13% of all VMA mentions. Lady Gaga kicked off the night dressed as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, and stayed in character the entire show. Beyonce, who announced she was pregnant, was the next most mentioned artist, followed by Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Jay Z and Miley Cyrus.

Content breakdown

Approximately 96% of VMA chatter came via Twitter, 46% of chatter was in English, and 60% of mentions were made by males.

Artist buzz

In addition to VMA mentions being up this year, buzz around Bieber, Gaga and Beyonce are also at their highest points of the year. Looks like MTV can still generate buzz about music at least once per year.

For further analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Hip-hop artist Talib Kweli was one of the first musicians to get into Turntable.fm, the still-in-beta service that lets users spin tunes in avatar-filled chatrooms. Kweli visited Turntable.fm headquarters this week, and now has his own avatar and Turntable’s first verified account.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around both Talib Kweli and Turntable.fm.

Talib Kweli mentions within Turntable.fm conversations

Kweli was mentioned in nearly half of all Turntable.fm conversations online this week.

Turntable.fm mentions within Talib Kweli conversations

Turntable.fm was mentioned in more than 60% of Talib Kweli conversations this week.

Talib Kweli buzz

Overall buzz around Talib Kweli spiked to its highest point of the month following the rapper’s visit to Turntable.fm.

Talib Kweli conversation topic cloud

100% of the Turntable.fm mentions within Talib Kweli chatter were positive. Overall chatter around Kweli was 79% positive this week.

Will Kweli start a trend for more artists joining Turntable.fm and getting verified accounts and personalized avatars?

Turntable.fm, the upstart online music sharing service, received good press in June following its launch. Turntable.fm turns music into a social game by letting members set up or join rooms where they can play music for each other.

Fast Company reported this week that labels, promoters and bands such as Passion Pit are turning to Turntable.fm rather than Facebook or Twitter or even radio to announce concerts. Lady Gaga and Kanye West are listed among the company’s latest investors.

Will Turntable.fm turn into the best promotional tool for artists to interact with fans? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Turntable.fm buzz

Turntable.fm buzz spiked in June following its launch and has since subsided considerably.

Online music sharing comparison

We compared Turntable.fm to other popular music sharing and discovery services such as Blip.fm, Pandora, Rdio and Spotify. Blip.fm consistently generated the most conversations online among the five services, followed by Pandora, Spotify, Turntable.fm, and Rdio.

Has the initial excitement around Turntable.fm already worn off? Or will we see more artists use the platform to launch music, make announcements and interact with fans?

Popular electronic dance music DJ Kaskade inadvertently started a riot in Los Angeles last week during a block party before the “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience” movie premiere.

About 2:30 p.m. last Wednesday, Kaskade tweeted to his 92,000 Twitter followers that he was heading to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for a block party: “ME+BIG SPEAKERS+MUSIC=BLOCK PARTY!!!” But as Kaskade rolled up in his tricked out flatbed truck with an over-the-top sound system blasting, thousands of people crowded Hollywood and Highland and the block party grew out of control quickly — showing the power of social networking.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Kaskade buzz

Despite being on tour and releasing new music this summer, buzz around Kaskade spiked to its highest point by far last week thanks to the riot.

Kaskade sentiment

Conversations around Kaskade, which were an average of nearly 90% positive throughout the month, spiked to 46% negative following the block party riot.

As a result of the riot, AMC Theaters cancelled its nation-wide one-night Aug. 4 screening of the movie. Will the riot help or hurt Kaskade’s reputation in the long run?

Rihanna has officially overtaken Lady Gaga’s spot at the most popular woman on Facebook, with more than 40 million fans.

Yet it seems to us that Lady Gaga still generates more buzz online. We used Social Radar to find out.

Rihanna vs. Lady Gaga

Sure enough, Lady Gaga has consistently generated more buzz than Rihanna over the past year. Which leads to the age old question: do more Facebook fans lead to more buzz online? In this case, the answer is no.

After years of waiting, Spotify finally launched in the U.S. today. As our European friends have been telling us, Spotify is what the long-rumored iTunes subscription service was supposed to be. With a catalog of 15 million songs, it lets you search for and listen to specific songs, artists, and entire albums (for up to 10 hours a month), after which you’ll need to pay $5 for the Premium service.

How does Spotify buzz stack up against competitors such as Rdio and Grooveshark? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Spotify buzz

Not only did Spotify skyrocket past Rdio and Grooveshark, but Spotify mentions are quickly approaching the overall number of iTunes mentions online. After one day! Wow! Most people do not even have access yet. Will Spotify change the music game in the U.S.?

The final chapter in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, hits theaters on Friday. How does chatter around the fourth movie stack up?

Harry Potter buzz

Buzz around the fourth and final movie has already surpassed buzz around Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which was released in November 2010.

Potter vs. Captain America vs. Transformers vs. Green Lantern

So far, Harry Potter has generated more buzz than blockbuster movie competitors Captain America, Green Lantern and Transformers this summer.

How will Harry Potter compare at the box office this weekend?

The 2011 BET Awards aired last night on BET. We used Social Radar to analyze chatter online.

BET Awards chatter

Overall chatter around the BET Awards was down 33% this year.

BET Awards sentiment

Overall conversations around the show were 68% positive. Chris Brown generated the most chatter, being mentioned in 10% of BET Awards conversations. In addition to winning male R&B artist of the year, Brown was also the subject of a controversial flub. Tiffany Green, a fan who won a chance to present the Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice award, inadvertently announced that Chris Brown won the award instead of the actual winner, Rihanna. Green blamed BET for the mishap.

Did you watch last night’s show?

Kid Rock hosted Wednesday night’s 2011 CMT Music Awards live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, honoring the best country music videos of the year and featuring country’s biggest names performing live. Taylor Swift, The Band Perry and Blake Shelton were among the big winners. Justin Bieber won his first country music award for his project with Rascal Flatts, and other winners included Sugarland, Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online around the CMT Music Awards and artists that won last night.

CMT Music Awards chatter

The CMT Music Awards are currently generating more than double the share of voice in 2011 compared to 2010 (share of voice compares chatter around a certain topic vs. the rest of the conversations on the Internet).

CMT Music Awards sentiment

The green and red lines represent positive and negative commentary respectively, and the grey bars represent total amount of chatter. Chatter around last night’s show was an average of 85% positive.

CMT Music Awards topic cloud pre-show (May 8 – June 7)

During the month leading up to the show, the biggest topic of conversation was voting, as fans discussed voting for their favorite videos.

CMT Music Awards topic cloud post-show (June 8 – 9)

Justin Bieber was one of the most discussed topics of the night after winning his first country music award. Taylor Swift was the next most frequently mentioned artist, followed by Shania Twain (who opened up the show doing a parody of Thelma & Louise with Taylor Swift) and Ludacris (who made a surprise appearance rapping during Jason Aldean’s performance). Miranda Lambert was noticeably missing from the cloud of most discussed topics, although she won Female Video of the Year for her song “House That Built Me.”

Video of the Year chatter

We measured chatter around each Video of the Year nomination throughout the past year. Taylor Swift’s “Mine” video clearly dominated the category.

Sony Music artist chatter

Several Sony Music artists were nominated for awards last night. We measured buzz around Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride and Sara Evans throughout the past year. Carrie Underwood consistently generated the most chatter throughout the year, followed by Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley.

Female Video of the Year chatter

Several Sony Music artists were nominated for Female Video of the Year. We measured chatter around each of the five nominated videos throughout the year. Again, Taylor Swift dominated the category.

Content category distribution

More than 90% of chatter around last night’s CMT Awards came via Twitter, and only 6% via blogs.

Gender distribution

Chatter around the CMT Music Awards among males and females was distributed fairly evenly last night and this morning.

Hourly chatter distribution

The chart above displays amount of chatter distribution by hour. Note that times above are UTC, so most conversations took place 7 p.m. -10 p.m. ET — during the show.

For further information and analysis, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Sunday night MTV hosted its annual Movie Awards. This year’s show, hosted by Jason Sudeikis, included a kiss by Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and a crotch grab by Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Pattinson also gave an awkward tribute speech to Reece Witherspoon for the MTV Generation award.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

MTV buzz June 2009 – present

Chatter around MTV is currently at its highest point in the last two years.

MTV sentiment June 2009 – present

Sentiment around MTV is also currently at its highest point in the last two years.

MTV chatter June 5-6, 20111

The Movie Awards are currently dominating conversations around MTV, being mentioned in 17% of MTV posts. Robert Pattinson is currently being mentioned in 11% of MTV posts.

Personally, I’m just glad that the Movie Awards are generating more buzz for MTV than shows like 16 and Pregnant and Jersey Shore.