In the second part of this series, I am going to give you the top – Songs, Movies, TV Shows and Books as determined by Google.  Like I said in my previous post, I am not going to bother reviewing those that made the Apple list as well, as that would be redundant.  You can, of course, check out that long series so you can have an idea of what is overlapping.

Songs

What’s interesting to me is the number of hip-hop songs that made Google’s list, over Apple’s.  People downloading music through Apple seemed to tend toward the general “pop” category.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think that this suggests something about the demographics of people using Google Play.  Like I said in my post about Apple, we should note that this is simply for downloaded music.  Not music that is streamed through popular streaming apps.  That kind of information might change my assessment.

DNA – Kendrick Lamar

What don’t we know about this song?  The music video had over 7 million views in less than 24 hours.  The video stars Don Cheadle.  Commenters on Reddit and YouTube have speculated the symbolism behind the video. Many are alluding to Kendrick’s messages of the complexity of the black experience in America. If you haven’t heard this song yet, you can listen here, but then add it to your playlist – immediately.  If not sooner.

Mask Off – Future

In the video, we get to see rap’s favorite antihero in the middle of a Dystopian anarchy, comfortably taking it all in from the comfort of his luxury automobile.  While I am not going to dissect this video, I wonder if its something that we can relate to in today’s society.  There is so much division these days – whether it’s political, or from a class perspective – we seem to highlight those differences.  More so than we embrace differences and use those to learn about each other.

Movies

The only addition from the Apple list is Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange

In Doctor Strange, the title character (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a skilled surgeon who’s both successful and arrogant. After crashing his sports car, he finds that his hands are useless, and medicine can’t fix them. But he hears of a man who was able to walk again after a spinal injury and seeks the source of this rumor, an Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) in Kathmandu, Nepal. At first, the doctor mocks the Ancient One’s claims that healing his spirit can heal his body.  But he finds her powers genuine and begs to be taught. His training goes better than expected: It even appears that Doctor Strange might be a natural-born sorcerer. But a villain, Kaecilius, has stolen pages from one of the Ancient One’s spell books and intends to use them to bring a dark dimension to Earth.

TV Shows

Again, there is only one difference between Google’s list and the Apple list.  This time the difference is the show Doctor Who.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called “the Doctor”, an extraterrestrial being from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-traveling spaceship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by a number of companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilizations and help people in need.

Books

Last on our list is the top downloaded books of 2017, according to Google Play.  Did any of your favorite’s make the list?

IT – Stephen King

This book is super creepy.  So creepy, it was made into a movie.  But what is it about?

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live. It was the children who saw – and felt – what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one’s deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing.

The Battlemage – Taran Matharu

We rejoin Fletcher and his friends in the ether, where they must undertake a mortally dangerous quest, all the while avoiding capture by enemies and facing foes more terrifying than anything they have yet encountered. But this is nothing compared to what truly lies ahead for Fletcher, as his nemesis, albino orc Khan, is on a mission to destroy Hominum and everything and everyone that Fletcher loves.

Thirteen Reasons Why – Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.