High-Impact TV? Dream On...

Aerosmith

  I was looking for my car in the grocery store parking lot when I heard vaguely familiar strains of unusually compelling rock music. Finally zeroing in on the source, I boldly approached. It was a sensible-looking compact, windows rolled up, and a well-groomed young man probably in his late twenties behind the wheel. I still can’t believe I had the nerve to tap on his window.

The cast of GLEE

I fully expected him to whip around, see a grandma, and recoil. But he didn’t even seem startled by the intrusion. The music? Oh, it’s “Dream On” by Aerosmith. Only this recording was by Glee. Glee? The TV show Glee? Yep.

Some time later Mental_Floss magazine devoted an entire issue to The 25 Most Powerful TV Shows of the Last 15 Years. And there was Glee, coming in at Number 6. The blurb called it “The Show That Boosted the Record Industry.”

With the rest of the record industry on the skids, the author explains, music performed on Glee is enjoying phenomenal success on iTunes. We’re talking 11 million albums and 36 million single tracks sold by the end of 2011. Then there was the cast’s concert tour that scored another $40 mil. On Billboard’s chart of the Most Songs on the Hot 100 List, Glee’s is double that of the runner up – which happens to be Elvis.

Pretty good for a sleeper hit that debuted 2009 on Fox.