Their performances of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" and Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever" are famous for howitzer cannons firing and fireworks exploding during the former and the unfurling of the American flag that occurs near the end of the latter.

Identified with its longtime director Arthur Fiedler, the orchestra has recorded extensively, made frequent tours, and appeared often on television.

The Boston Pops Orchestra was founded to present this kind of music to the public, with the first concert performed on July 11, 1885, under the leadership of Adolf Neuendorff.

Of the many musical pieces created for the orchestra, the Pops' most identifiable works were the colorful novelty numbers composed by Fiedler's close friend Leroy Anderson, including "Sleigh Ride", "The Typewriter", "The Syncopated Clock" and several others.

Under Fiedler's direction, the Boston Pops has sold more commercial recordings than any other orchestra in the world, with total sales of albums, singles, tapes, and cassettes exceeding $50 million.

Fiedler is also credited with having begun the annual tradition of the Fourth of July Pops concert and fireworks display on the Esplanade, one of the best-attended Independence Day celebrations in the country with estimated crowds of 200,000–500,000 people.

Williams continued the Pops' tradition of bringing classical music to a wide audience, initiating the annual "Pops-on-the-Heights" concerts at Boston College and adding his own library of well-known film scores (including Star Wars and Indiana Jones) to the orchestra's repertoire.

Lockhart has brought in numerous pop-music acts and icons in addition to Broadway greats (the likes of Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth and Sutton Foster performed with the orchestra throughout Lockhart's first 25 years there) to play with the orchestra since being named conductor, including Ben Folds, Rockapella, Guster, My Morning Jacket, Aimee Mann, Kelly Clarkson, and Elvis Costello.

The orchestra also had tributes throughout the season: two nights of the orchestra playing the music of The Beatles; the ever-popular "John Williams Film Night"; a Celtic sojourn hosted by Brian O'Donnovan with Carlos Núñez and Karan Casey as the special guests; the ever-popular "Gospel Night at Pops" conducted by Charles Floyd featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama; the return of "Cirque de la Symphonie" featuring Cirque du Soleil performers; and ending with Simply Sondheim, featuring Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley and the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows as special guests.

Mother's Day with the Music of ABBA", working with Ben Folds, "Gospel Night" in its 25th anniversary with Floyd and the Boston Pops Gospel Choir; Leslie Odom Jr. in his orchestral debut after starring in Hamilton: An American Musical; performing a tribute to The Beatles with Larry "Cha-Chi" Loprete as the host; "Parting with The B-52s", and giving the world-premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim with Philip Boykin, Carmen Cusak, Gabriel Ebert, and Lisa Howard as the vocalists.

The Pops were joined by Broadway actors Sierra Boggess, Telly Leung and Alton Fitzgerald White for these performances.

The Pops were conducted by Ted Sperling and were supposed to be joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under the direction of James Burton, for the last two of their four appearances that spring.

It was made locally famous in 1974, during which local philanthropist David G. Mugar approached legendary Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler about adding cannons and fireworks during the performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's famous "1812 Overture" as well as fireworks and confetti to end John Philip Sousa's march "The Stars and Stripes Forever".

It was a success, and they repeated it in 1975 and 1976, when it was made nationally famous, and even earned a spot in the 1976 Guinness World Records for having the largest audience for a classical concert since the book's founding in 1955.

For the 2015 Fireworks Spectacular, Lockhart and the Pops performed with Michael Cavanaugh who sang some of Billy Joel's classic songs, the Boston-based band Sons of Serendip, the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps (who performed the entirety of their 2015 Field Show, Animal Farm; based on George Orwell's 1945 novella of the same name) and members of the USO's Show Troupe.

For the 2018 Fireworks Spectacular, the orchestra worked with Rachel Platten, Rhiannon Giddens, the Indigo Girls, actresses Rita Moreno and Natalie Cortez (who was about to open in the ensemble in the world premiere of Moulin Rouge!, which debuted in Boston in October 2018 and later debuted on Broadway in 2019), and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under the direction of James Burton.

Lockhart and the Pops also performed with Queen Latifah, folk legend Arlo Guthrie (who paid tribute to his father Woody Guthrie by performing "This Land Is Your Land"), poet Amanda Gorman, two acts from America's Got Talent, The Texas Tenors and Amanda Mena, and the United States Navy Band's Sea Chanters Chorus.

Additionally, the orchestra also announced a slew of tributes, a world premiere and a show of solidarity with Ukraine, by performing its State Anthem.

The guest artists were announced on June 13, 2022, and were revealed to be Chaka Khan (as the headliner), Broadway actress Heather Headley, and The Voice (American TV Series) season one winner Javier Colon.

The orchestra performed moving tributes to the late Stephen Sondheim (as he died in November of 2021) ("A Comedy Tonight" from both the musical and film of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, "Our Time" from Merrily We Roll Along and "Children Will Listen" from Into The Woods), and Judy Garland (to celebrate her centennial), and world premiered a new work, "Those Heroes Who Healed The Nation" by Julius P. Williams.

The award-winning R&B group behind popular 80's hits like “Free Your Mind” and “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” is the marquee entertainment at this year’s Fourth of July celebration.

Also taking the Hatch Shell stage are Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez (“In the Heights”), country duo LoCash, and a trio of Broadway performers — Alton Fitzgerald White, Elizabeth Stanley and Andrea Jones-Sojola — who participated in the Pops’ concert presentation of “Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert.” Beginning in December 1973, Arthur Fiedler and the Pops started an occasional tradition at Symphony Hall, which after a few years, became a yearly staple of the winter season in Boston—their Christmas concerts, which became known regionally and locally as Holiday Pops.

2016 was a significant year, because it was the first time in the history of the series of "Holiday Pops" concerts that the Tanglewood Festival Chorus performed without a conductor.

The New Year's Eve concert was performed by the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra and special guest The Hot Sardines.

Over the course of Lockhart's quarter-century tenure, there have been numerous celebrity narrators who have joined the orchestra to recite Clement C. Moore's classic poem, arranged by Joseph Reisman.

Over the course of Lockhart's quarter-century tenure, there have been numerous celebrity conductors who have joined the orchestra to lead them in Leroy Anderson's famous composition.

These conductors have included the likes of then-Boston Celtics center Shaquille O'Neal (2010), then-Massachusetts governor elect Charlie Baker (2014), retired Boston Red Sox second baseman and NESN sportscaster Jerry Remy (2018), and then-Boston Celtics center Tacko Fall (2019), who became the tallest person to ever stand on the Symphony Hall podium.

Tracy Silva, a mother of two from Taunton, Massachusetts, and van driver for special needs children, won the inaugural POPSearch contest in 2004.

Frances Botelho-Hoeg, an elementary school principal from Kingston, Massachusetts, was knocked out in the second round of the inaugural POPSearch, but returned in 2005 to sweep the competition.

Students from high schools throughout Massachusetts were encouraged to submit audition videos of musical theater vocal works for solo, duet, trio, quartet, or quintet to the Boston Pops before May 9, 2008.