Is Billboard A Household Name?

[Eloqueen™]

Do you think most people outside the internet/music forums could tell you what Billboard is?

[busyboy]

LMAO at polls generating other polls. ;)

I don't think Billboard is a household name. I think people generally know that there are charts ranking singles and albums by sales and airplay, but they don't necessarily know exactly how they work or that Billboard publishes them.

[Eloqueen™]

Oct 14, 2008 8:21:36 GMT -5 @busyboy said:

LMAO at polls generating other polls. ;)

Actually I got the idea for this poll from the Hot 100 chart for this week! lol

[Monroe]

I think people know that Billboard measures "hits".

[oscillations.]

There's probably less general knowledge of Billboard these days than two decades ago. Apparently, people used to enjoy getting a peek at the charts when they visited record shops back in the day. That the information was kept under lock & key made it a hot commodity.
Students who had surreptitious access to the charts used to mimeograph or print up their own lists and sell them to other musos on campuses. My dad used to do this: he made hundreds of dollars per week, started a radio show, and became a sort of underground guru. He also broke my grandmother's typewriter in the mean time, for which he was nearly murdered.

P.S. I think he made up his own chart data half the time, even though he smirkily denies so.

[Eloqueen™]

Oct 14, 2008 10:07:02 GMT -5 oscillations. said:

There's probably less general knowledge of Billboard these days than two decades ago. Apparently, people used to enjoy getting a peek at the charts when they visited record shops back in the day. That the information was kept under lock & key made it a hot commodity.
Students who had surreptitious access to the charts used to mimeograph or print up their own lists and sell them to other musos on campuses. My dad used to do this, made hundreds of dollars per week, started a radio show, and became a sort of underground guru. He also broke my grandmother's typewriter in the mean time, for which he was nearly murdered.

P.S. I think he made up his own chart data half the time, even though he smirkily denies so.

Hmm who ever knew that Billboard was THAT valuable to people at one time. lol

[oscillations.]

Yeah, it's rather quaint, isn't it?

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

I know alot of my friends who aren't even big time music fans know what Billboard is. My mom and Dad know what it is. Anytime I mention billboard to anyone they automatically think pop charts. I have yet to have a single person ask me what Billboard is.

[Love Plastic Love]

Nope-not anymore.

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

Really LPL? Have you asked your friends about Billboard and did they have some kind of idea of what it was or the BB Hot 100?

[Love Plastic Love]

Yes, I have mentioned billboard and had people give me crazy looks or ask what it is. So now I usually just say "it is the #1 song" rather than it is #1 on billboard. As I said, the general public DOES NOT follow music at all like we do. Some may, but they are the vast, vast minority. When I have asked people what the #1 cd and #1 song of the year/moment is, they always give ridiculously wrong answers. Most of my friends think Rihanna has sold more than Britney and Christina. They mainly go by what they might hear on the radio and do not always understand that having a song or two on radio does not equal selling tons of records or even being #1.
Billboard is archaic to the general public-I don't know why members on here are so incredibly defensive and angry about that. Do you guys work for them or something?

[Deleted]

The average person has a vague idea of what Billboard is. They know it's a music magazine, but I don't think they know much more than that.

[lelefan]

The average person has no clue what Billboard is. They probably think you're referring to the advertising signs when you mention it to them.

[Eloqueen™]

Oct 14, 2008 12:19:24 GMT -5 Love Plastic Love said:

Yes, I have mentioned billboard and had people give me crazy looks or ask what it is. So now I usually just say "it is the #1 song" rather than it is #1 on billboard. As I said, the general public DOES NOT follow music at all like we do. Some may, but they are the vast, vast minority. When I have asked people what the #1 cd and #1 song of the year/moment is, they always give ridiculously wrong answers. Most of my friends think Rihanna has sold more than Britney and Christina. They mainly go by what they might hear on the radio and do not always understand that having a song or two on radio does not equal selling tons of records or even being #1.
Billboard is archaic to the general public-I don't know why members on here are so incredibly defensive and angry about that. Do you guys work for them or something?

Omg, my friends/family is the same way. They think whatever they hear the most around this area is #1. lol They also have no clue what Billboard is so I just say it is the #1 song in the country, just like you do. haha

[WotUNeed]

I think they recognize what it is in general - a magazine, maybe even a music magazine, or at least a trade magazine. I don't know if they could specifically tell you what's in it, but I couldn't specifically tell you what's in Field & Stream, yet I think I have enough of a grasp on what it is. So, it's probably enough of a household name.

This is probably different regionally based on what's carried, though. Billboard shows up in local bookstores, as well as odd copies at my uni bookstore, so I would expect reasonably well-read people to recognize it. If it's not stocked in a region, that might change its household name status. I don't think it's possible to generalize nationally.

[Bluemargay]

They know what a #1 song or album is even if they don't know billboard

[Oprah]

Most people have a vague understanding of what Billboard is and know that it measures hits. I almost never hear anyone talking about it though, most people measure hit songs by what they hear the most on the radio. I was shocked when one of my friends mentioned a song was a Billboard hit a few weeks ago, I had never heard someone specifically mention Billboard before.

[John77]

If we were talking 20 years ago, I would have said "yes"... Back then, the Billboard charts were pretty much plastered on the walls of almost every store that sold music here in the U.S... By 10 years ago, the only place you really saw them in abundance were at the now defunct Tower records outlets and a few other places. Today, the only place you find them is on the newsstand.

[John77]

Oct 14, 2008 10:07:02 GMT -5 oscillations. said:

There's probably less general knowledge of Billboard these days than two decades ago. Apparently, people used to enjoy getting a peek at the charts when they visited record shops back in the day. That the information was kept under lock & key made it a hot commodity.
Students who had surreptitious access to the charts used to mimeograph or print up their own lists and sell them to other musos on campuses. My dad used to do this: he made hundreds of dollars per week, started a radio show, and became a sort of underground guru. He also broke my grandmother's typewriter in the mean time, for which he was nearly murdered.

P.S. I think he made up his own chart data half the time, even though he smirkily denies so.

lol... didn't even see the first couple of sentences of your post before I posted mine... Nice story too with your dad, btw. :)

[John77]

Oct 14, 2008 12:19:24 GMT -5 Love Plastic Love said:

Billboard is archaic to the general public-I don't know why members on here are so incredibly defensive and angry about that. Do you guys work for them or something?

Finally, we know the truth... the Billboard employees have infiltrated Pulse!!! :o

[lelefan]

^John do you work for Billboard?

[Minor Scratch]

No. Billboard is usually never used in the media to explain the nation's top songs. People usually know the "#1 song in America this week", not "the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 this week". The Billboard Hot 100 name does not explain the nation's top songs. Its just a name of a chart, which is not explaining anything to the reader, listener, or viewer.

Even in newspapers such as USA Today, they will list the top songs, and put the source "The Billboard Hot 100" in small font along the bottom of the report. Its only chart lovers like us on Pulse that will call it and know it by its real name since we are avid chart readers.

[unicorns]

LOL hell no.

[trustypepper]

This is an interesting question even 14 years later. I voted yes 🤷🏻‍♂️

[kimberly]

May 10, 2022 23:37:06 GMT -5 trustypepper said:

This is an interesting question even 14 years later. I voted yes 🤷🏻‍♂️

lol props for digging this up haha. interesting question indeed.

I'm also leaning towards yes. while Billboard (as a publication) is not a "household name" like Vogue, People, or New Yorker are, I think Billboard (chart-making entity) is fairly well-known. 

I guess the question needs a bit more of a reframing now, since "people who aren't on the internet" is pretty much obsolete. is Billboard known among people who don't consume music at all? probably not. is it well-known among people who don't consume current hits? there's a good chance. and I'm sure it's well-known among people who know new music comes out on Fridays. 

[degen]

I feel like now because of social media, Twitter, Fb, etc. most certainly Billboard is a household name. But their relevancy has only boiled down to the Hot 100 chart. This is their bread and butter and what mainstream thinks of when the name is mentioned in the 2010s and beyond, with their 200 album chart and the rest of the charts becoming less relevant than ever before. So it’s a win/loss situation for Billboard. They’ve also have done poorly marketing their purpose/brand. The website is confusing and annoying to navigate and I don’t know why they can’t be more open about their archives.

[woods]

Absolutely, I always thought it was a pretty famous company.

[iHype.]

I would say it's a household term when people referenced the entertainment industry. Similar to "box office", "NY times best-seller", etc. Only a small small amount of the population would actually keep up with those lists and even know where to find/reference them, but the terms have been used so much in pop culture and media most are familiar.

[JukeboxJacob]

Everyone knows there's a chart out there, not many know it by name. With culture getting more decentralized by the day Billboard's gonna get even less relevant

[tim]

Is Billboard a known entity? Sure. I think the question should be is it still relevant in this day and age? That is debatable. Speaking for myself as someone who was glued to the Billboard charts in the '90s, I no longer put much value in the charts that it publishes for the most part.