esearch and strategy firm Agenda has released the American Brandstand Report for 2005. The report, which has been coming out since 2003, studies the brands mentioned in the lyrics of the top 20 songs in the Billboard chart. Mercedes topped the list with 100 mentions, with a distant runner-up in Nike which got 63 mentions, closely followed by Cadillac with 62 mentions.

The total number of brands fell from 1,215 to 1,129 since 2004, a drop of six per cent. Thirty five per cent of the 106 songs in the Billboard chart in 2005 contained brand references, compared to 40 per cent in 2004. The study also observes that fashion brands fell nine per cent from 230 to 211, automotive brands dropped five per cent from 448 to 425, while the fastest drop is in beverage brands - sliding 36 per cent from 227 to 145. The fastest growing category in 2005 was surprisingly, weaponry. The weapon count jumped 19 per cent from 57 mentions in 2004 to 70 in 2005.... more