Since the debut of MTV over 40 years ago, getting your song on television has been nearly as important to music promotion as getting your song on the radio. MTV (and then later VH1 and BET) were the national radio stations, guaranteed to instantly expand your audience and grant you entry to the monoculture. In the 2020s, music videos have all but disappeared from television, but getting on TV remains nearly as critical and potentially career-changing.
Now, however, artists are seeing their fortunes changed by high-leverage placements in TV shows — and they’re not happening on MTV and BET, but on HBO and FX, and streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Of course, all TV shows were not created equal when it comes to music exposure. Some TV shows are national phenomena but exist so far outside the usual world of pop music that a synch on them barely registers with their audience, if they even feature any synchs at all.
And other shows are mostly unfamiliar to viewers outside of their core cult audience, but have such a big connection with that audience that getting a song on there can be a major difference-maker, both in terms of short-term windfall and long-term impact. And then there are the shows with both a devoted following and a wide cultural imprint, where getting on one could you lead you straight to the Billboard charts — even if you’ve never been on one before, or haven’t been in decades. With all this in mind, Billboard has put together its fi.
