The creative minds at JibJab decided to take advantage of the Mayan calendar end of the world theme when putting together their year-end animated short for 2012 appropriately titled “The End Is Here!” Somehow they manage to squeeze in most of the biggest stories that gained traction this year in under two minutes. Politics, world news, pop culture–it’s all here. So sit back, relax, and take it all in with a wide-eyed smile because that’s the JibJab style.
Happy New Year!
Google’s annual Zeitgeist takes “an in-depth look at the “spirit of the times” as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past year.” At least that’s usually the case. This year, Google studied an aggregation of over 1.2 trillion searches that people typed into Google Search. Using sources like Google Trends and internal data tools the company was able compile lists that distinguish the most popular searched terms organized into topics like Images, Athletes, and TV Shows. The top 10 trending Searches worldwide this year were Whitney Houston, Gangnam Style, Hurricane Sandy, iPad 3, Diablo 3, Kate Middleton, Olympics 2012, Amanda Todd, Michael Clarke Duncan, and BBB12. The top 10 trending Events worldwide were Hurricane Sandy, Kate Middleton Pictures Released, Olympics 2012, SOPA Debate, Costa Concordia crash, Presidential Debate, Stratosphere Jump, Penn State Scandal, Trayvon Martin shooting, and Pussy Riots. The top 10 trending Consumer Electronics were iPad 3, Samsung Galaxy S3, iPad Mini, Nexus 7, Galaxy Note 2, Play Station, iPad 4, Microsoft Surface, Kindle Fire, and Nokia Lumia 920. Head over to Google’s Zeitgesit 2012 page to discover and explore trending topics from 55 countries all around the world. In addition to the 838 lists, Google’s created an interactive map that shows where and when some of the most popular terms spiked around the world. Watch Google’s inspirational look back at 2012 in the Zeitgeist video pasted above.
Jump after the break to find out how Twitter and Facebook are celebrating everything that went down in twenty-twelve. Continue reading Google, Twitter and Facebook mark the highlights of 2012
From cover songs to parodies to Korean pop music, we were all captivated by what came out of the Internet this year. People watched over 4 billion hours of video a month on YouTube, so I think it’s safe to say that Google’s video portal is the leader of viral videos. Being the hardcore number crunchers they are, the G-Men have compiled a list of the top ten most watched YouTube videos of 2012 and they are:
You guessed it–“Gangnam Style” is the most watched video of the year. It shouldn’t come as a surprise since it overtook Justin Bieber’s “Baby” music video in November to become the most watched video of all time. It’s on its way to be the first video to reach one billion hits; as of writing this post it sits high comfortably at 994 million views.
The site recently roped in a bunch of YouTubers to star in a video that mashes up the culturally defining moments that came out of the most watched videos of the year. PSY is prominently featured along with DailyGrace, MysteryGuitarMan, DeStorm, FreddieW, Felicia Day, iJustine, JennaMarbles, EpicMealTime, and many others. It’s embedded above, so enjoy!
Like every year before it, 2012 was filled with hit songs that you couldn’t get out of your head. DJ Earworm is here to bring every single one of them back to memory with his latest “United State of Pop” mega-mashup this year titled “Shine Brighter.” The four minute track includes 25 of the most popular songs that came out this year, according to Billboard’s Hot 100 charts. Bruno Mars and Ke$ha dominate, but Earworm makes sure to sprinkle in a myriad of artists including Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj, and Taylor Swift. Click after the break to see a list of all the songs used in mix.
You can download the free track right here, and complementing it (as always) is a wonderfully constructed mashup music video that’s embedded above. Continue reading This year in music, as told by DJ Earworm’s mega-mashup “United State of Pop 2012”
Gen Ip, aka @genrocks on Twitter, is back to help us celebrate our favorite cinematic experiences in 2012. This time her annual look back features “great movies that inspired us and the bad ones that made us feel better about our lives.” Her first video in 2010 mashed together 270 films, last year’s dealt with 230 of them, and her latest pieces together a whopping 310 clips. Click over to her Tumblr page to view lists of all the songs and movies used in the grand retrospective.
At the end of the year Apple digs into its archive of music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts to share with its customers its top-selling content. Since the iTunes Store and the App Store are so prolific these days, I deem it appropriate to take a look at what we bought up from Apple’s widespread ecosystem in 2012.
In the music department, Apple lists the 20 top-selling songs and 25 top-selling albums of the year. Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” lands at #1 on the song list and rounding out the top 5 are Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Fun.’s “We Are Young,” Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Starships.” Maroon 5 managed to land on this chart twice; “One More Night” comes in at #17. Also, Flo Rida’s hit singles “Whistle” and “Wild Ones” show their staying power securing the #9 and #10 slots, respectively. For the second consecutive year in a row, Adele’s 21 sits high as the most purchased album of the year; what follows is Taylor Swift’s Red, Mumford & Sons’ Babel, One Direction’s debut Up All Night, and Fun.’s Some Nights. The only artist to show up twice on this chart is Mumford & Sons; their 2010 effort Sigh No More keeps selling and fell in the #6 position.
In addition to these charts, Apple handpicks their own selections in a section they call “Editor’s Choice.” They named Frank Ocean Best New Artist and they had this to say about his much buzzed about release Channel ORANGE: “Deftly original, the brooding R&B outcast and Odd Future cohort spilled a can of stinging venom and vulnerability that spread worldwide.” Grizzly Bear’s Shields was awarded Best Album, Fun.’s infectious single “We Are Young” nabbed Best Song, and they enjoyed the fusion of country and gospel from The Lumineers so much to label their self-titled debut release Breakthrough Album.
The Hunger Games, Downton Abbey, Fifty Shades of Grey, Angry Birds Space, and YouTube dominated the other content categories. Click here to browse Apple’s Best of 2012 charts (the link opens in iTunes).