Dave Matthews Band On Google Trends

Thanks to some inspiration from a thread on Nancies.org, we recently ranked Dave Matthews Band against a number of other entertainers using Google Trends. Haven't heard of Google Trends? No worries, you're about to become an instant expert.

Google Trends is interesting because it lets us compare the number of Google searches for one topic versus another.

First, let's get some disclaimers out of the way. These graphs are not exactly scientific! They are based on something the big G calls "Search Volume." Search Volume is the number of searches for a specific topic performed over time ranked against all other searches.

But wait...

Google Trends does not reflect what everyone is looking for becuase let's be honest, only nerds use the internet. Seriously, though--the graphs do not reflect album sales, Grammy nominations, charitable giving or anything other than the number of Google searches being performed.

Ok, enough of the explanations, let's get down to the rankings. In this article we are ranking the keyword "dave matthews" against a number of other subjects rather than "dave matthews band" against them. This is because "dave matthews" includes all "dave matthews band" searches. Plus, it makes sense that people would abbreviate interest in DMB to simply "dave matthews." To illustrate this point, have a look at "dave matthews" ranked againsted "dave matthews band."
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As you can see, "dave matthews" outranks "dave matthews band" by a good margin. We do not have a Y axis specifying a specific number of searches because Google intentionally hides exactly how many searches for the subject are performed. So for the purposes of this article, we'll say that searches for dave and dmb are the one and the same.

What are these little flags?

You'll also notice some little alphabetized flags on the Search Volume graph. These correspond to specific news announcements that are prompting various peaks on the graph. We're providing a link directly to the Google Trends search for each graph we're showing here so that you can explore what event matches up to each flag displayed. Guess which flag above corresponds to the Chicago River Incident?

Finally, our graphs also include the lower "News Reference Volume" which shows the volume of news stories for the a topic over time. This is different than the search volume, but often these peak at the same time. Make sense?

Ok, we're going to show eight rankings of "dave matthews" versus other artists, then two other searches--let's get started:

Dave Matthews vs. Pearl Jam
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Pearl Jam is about to headline Bonnaroo 2007, but shh--you didn't hear it from us. Pearl Jam perfomed quite well against DMB, Some of the news flags match up, but they are alas--unrelated. Overall Pearl Jam comes out ahead, especially since early 2005.

Dave Matthews vs. U2
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DMB takes on U2 . U2 is one of the biggest rock bands in the world, based on some real benchmarks. Six #1 albums in the United States, Nine #1's in the UK and 22 Grammy awards, more than any other recording artist ever. By those scores, you might wonder if DMB even has a chance. It turns out the search volume for DMB is a near flatline against U2. Don't feel bad though, U2's roots were put down in 1976, a full 15 years before DMB played the pink warehouse's rooftop party in Charlottesville.

Dave Matthews vs. Bon Jovi
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DMB does fairly well against Bon Jovi , the hair band from New Jersey. The band holds its own up until 2005, where Bon Jovi somehow took the upper hand which apparently continues to this very day. Nostalgia rules.

Dave Matthews vs. The Boss
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Time does not tell all, because Bruce Springsteen had recorded his first album with Columbia records in 1972. DMB punishes Springsteen with a consistently higher number of searches, with only a two minor upsets.

Dave Matthews vs. The Black Eyed Peas
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Enough of these adult contemporary artists, let's look at a band with a younger audience. In this Google Trends comparison, Dave Matthews Band plods along at a fairly consistent level while the Black Eyed Peas camel hump over internet searches. A hip-hop background, nine Grammy nominations with two wins seems to help quite a bit. BEP must have sensed the hype because they cancelled their 8/27/05 tour date with DMB to attend the MTV music awards.

Dave Matthews vs. Jay-Z
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The Young Hova does a fine showing against DMB outranking them only once, but performing consistently within reach of DMB's search volume. The far end of the graph shows a marked spike in search traffic for Jay-Z. We'll see if a spring release from the band can disrupt this trend.

Dave Matthews vs. Justin Timberlake
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Wouldn't you know, DMB and Justin are at a near dead heat with the exception of a big blip in early 2004. Can you guess what that might have been? That event was such a huge phenomenon that it causes our graph to look like a dead heat for most of the past three years. (A more accurate graph can be obtained by excluding that date from the plot.) No matter how you dice it, Timberlake has been on a roll since mid-year 2006 and has strongly overtaking DMB.

Dave Matthews vs. Britney Spears
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This one isn't even fair. Let's not get into it.

Now let's look at some non-entertainment industry searches just for fun. Let's rank Dave Matthews, (which again may include searches for DMB), against "President Bush."

Dave Matthews vs. President Bush
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Bush's rankings may be inflated due to searches for George Bush senior, but we'll guess that since the graph only covers through the beginning of 2004 that most people are looking for the dubya. Judging by the rankings of 2006, it looks like both DMB and the President need to do something to improve their visibility.

And finally,

Dave Matthews vs. God
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This is strictly tongue-in-cheek, but we thought we'd give the superfans a chance to compare how many people are looking for god on the internet versus dave and the band. As you can see the "dave matthews" searches barely register compared to those looking for a true higher being. We'll gamble that this is data the band would be happy to see.

You can devise your own fun queries like DMB vs Hulk Hogan using Google Trends, feel free to post your findings here in the forums.