poll Bigger Impact: Glee or High School Musical?

[stjosephprey4us]

Glee and High School Musical (and later HSM The Musical: The Series) are two popular culture artifacts that centered around musical number being integrated into the plotlines. Both have developed a core fanbase, and undeniably have had cultural impact. 
 

HSM has had HUGE stars come out of it (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Olivia Rodrigo), while Glee stars have not seen as much success. 
 

Meanwhile, though, Glee has seen a resurgence in recent years, and feels as culturally relevant (through memes, Tik Tok, etc.) as ever, while HSM feels dated. People also seem to still watch Glee reruns through streaming, whereas recently airing show HSMTMTS couldn't seem to stay on air once star Olivia Rodrigo left. 

[Hector]

If we're talking peaks then Glee, HSM never had as much chart dominance compared to Glee (though the first 2 soundtracks were massive). Plus it was much more critically acclaimed too. 

 

I do feel High School Musical is much less cursed compared to Glee, so it's legacy has held up better. 

[lonnie]

1 minute ago, Hector said:

If we're talking peaks then Glee, HSM never had as much chart dominance compared to Glee (though the first 2 soundtracks were massive). Plus it was much more critically acclaimed too. 

 

I do feel High School Musical is much less cursed compared to Glee, so it's legacy has held up better. 

HSM also didn't have the amount of songs Glee had and didn't cover popular songs which helped with those Glee songs charting.

 

On a worldwide level it's absolutely High School Musical. Glee was cute, but cute next to gorgeous....

[TitanicSurvivor]

Lemonade mouth

[Zeferino]

Just now, TitanicSurvivor said:

Lemonade mouth

Smash 

[AxelFox]

Glee was barely a thing outside the US.

[iHype.]

HSM had a bigger reign & is more relevant today considering they had a successful reboot and their top songs on Spotify have more streams.

18 minutes ago, Hector said:

If we're talking peaks then Glee, HSM never had as much chart dominance compared to Glee (though the first 2 soundtracks were massive). Plus it was much more critically acclaimed too. 

 

I do feel High School Musical is much less cursed compared to Glee, so it's legacy has held up better. 

HSM had a bigger peak. The #1 selling album of 2006 & the #2 selling album of 2007. Not to mention the second one did 615K first week, which is an opening Glee never did anywhere close to. 

 

Glee just released countless music every single month for years. They don't have any albums/EPs that were individually big as HSM's biggest. 
 

Same with songs & Hot 100, they charted 200+ songs for like 1 week but absolutely none of them were notable hits. Just a large quantity of music released. HSM were also getting top 10 songs and charting all album tracks at their peak too, and when it was rare and unheard of at that (HSM1 first Hot 100 album bomb ever). 

[RoseBud]

  Olivia >  HSM  >  Glee

[ariananext]

Uhm.. HSM was like 3x bigger than Glee, especially worldwide, did y'all forget about the amount of merch? It was a huge franchise. HSM nostalgia factor is bigger than Glee's legacy imo. I love both though.

[Gladiator]

The one that served Corbin Bleu pits

[Daglazzo]

40 minutes ago, TitanicSurvivor said:

Lemonade mouth

I love it! 
 

hsm for both. It's the first thread with such a logical comparison, unlike all of those Miley vs Ariana as Disney children 

[TaylorNation]

Glee changed the TV landscape for a couple of years so that one 

 

there are so many memes about how unhinged it was, but people also tend to forget who massive it was for a while 

[Fitzswiftie]

42 minutes ago, AxelFox said:

Glee was barely a thing outside the US.

Rachel's cover of Gives You Hell was a #1 hit in Ireland 

 

 

[Ethereal]

Just now, Fitzswiftie said:

Rachel's cover of Gives You Hell was a #1 hit in Ireland 

 

 

[Fitzswiftie]

23 minutes ago, Ethereal said:

Is Ireland in the US?

[Ethereal]

2 minutes ago, Fitzswiftie said:

Is Ireland in the US?

 

No, but a smash hit in Ireland isn't really a testament to Glee's influence outside of the US.

[Blue.]

HSM made Glee possible.