"American Brandstand's Hit Parade"

From Business Week:

Lucian James, founder of brand consultancy Agenda, explains how his tracking of product mentions in hip hop lyrics can pay off for marketers

Launched two years ago by the boutique San Francisco-based brand consultancy Agenda Inc., American Brandstand is an ongoing effort to track the number of mentions of a brand in the lyrics of the Billboard Top 20 singles chart, and last year West emerged as the most name-dropping artist on the list.

While Agenda's principals have never presented their findings as rigorous science, they do see the numbers as a strong barometer of a brand's perceived value among trend-setting youth. "For a brand to be successful today, it can't be created back at headquarters," says Agenda founder Lucian James. "Brands have a life of their own in pop culture. Companies have to understand that and learn to incorporate it."