Itunes, Billboard, and the marginalization of black music and black audiences in America

a bit too early for top 10 talk but the ciara single made a huge jump this week, will be top 40 next week

So Natalie la Rose is the first (living) Black woman outside the Bey/Riri/Nicki triumvirate to have a top ten hit as lead artist since 2009.

wow.

5 of the top 10 songs on the Hot 100 have been by black artists for the last couple weeks, which is pretty surprising considering the month earlier this year where there were zero.

still astonishing that there had been none outside those three for all that time

it should be noted that "somebody" has been played almost entirely by pop and rhythmic stations (it hasn't even entered the r&b/hip-hop airplay chart) even tho it leans heavily on the 80s-interpolating rnbass template that made "don't tell 'em" an r&b crossover smash last year (not to mention jeremih's vocals). she's like her mentor flo rida in that respect.

i have a feeling it could reverse-crossover tho. that phenom is becoming more and more common at r&b radio lately (not just a hunch -- have been crunching some numbers), which worries me to an extent

of course "uptown funk" has done exactly that (reverse-crossing from pop to r&b) on its journey toward record-breaking hot 100 success

basically right now i am crossing my fingers for "trap queen" to go #1/save the world

basically right now i am crossing my fingers for "trap queen" to go #1/save the world

right?

i've heard "somebody" on rap/r&b stations plenty but obv anecdotal

"somebody" feels really minor and weird as a hit to me but i will rep for "trap queen" all day

It's been months since I've rooted for a song's chart success this hard.

hey
what's up
hello

PIES WITH MY BABYBABY

Fetty Wap

Tbh I feel like it could easily be argued that "Uptown Funk" and "Trap Queen" (and idk "Style" if you feel like it. I don't) are the only tracks in the top ten that feel 'major'.

maybe! I feel a little disconnected from the billboard lineup as i've been mining that ILX best of 2014 list for a month now.

I like "Uptown Funk" (still!) and wasn't at all sure of its American success back in November even with Bruno Mars.

eh i heard "Uptown Funk" once and was like 'this is the next Blurred Lines, it's going to be #1 for months'

yeah same

in November I thought a Gaye pastiche stood a better chance than a "The Bird" pastiche.

made a list of the acts with US-born white dude frontmen that have had a top ten hit in the 2010s, was originally going to make a poll of this list, but it's already a sketchy enough exercise without adding a qualitative angle. note - one of the two capital cities guys was born in syria to armenian parents. not trying to make any political points with this, just think its interesting to see who we're specifically talking about on this side re: top 10 artist demographics

Jason Aldean (“Dirt Road Anthem”)
Baauer (“Harlem Shake”)
Capital Cities (“Safe & Sound”)
Eminem (“Love The Way You Lie,” “The Monster,” 3 others)
Fall Out Boy (“Centuries”)
Florida Georgia Line (“Cruise”)
Foster The People (“Pumped Up Kicks”)
Fun. (“We Are Young,” “Some Nights”)
Glee cast (“Teenage Dream”)
A Great Big World (“Say Something”)
Hot Chelle Rae (“Tonight Tonight”)
Imagine Dragons (“Radioactive,” “Demons”)
Nick Jonas (“Jealous”)
Adam Lambert (“Whataya Want From Me”)
Lumineers (“Ho Hey”)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (“Thrift Shop,” “Can’t Hold Us”)
Maroon 5 (“Moves Like Jagger, “One More Night,” 6 others)
Jason Mraz (“I Won’t Give Up”)
Neon Trees (“Everybody Talks”)
OneRepublic (“Good Life,” “Counting Stars”)
Owl City (“Fireflies,” “Good Time”)
Phillip Phillips (“Home”)
Mike Posner (“Cooler Than Me”)
Robin Thicke (“Blurred Lines”)
3OH!3 (“My First Kiss”)
Justin Timberlake (“Mirrors,” “Suit & Tie,” “Not A Bad Thing”)
Train (“Hey Soul Sister,” “Drive By”)

Maroon 5 (“Moves Like Jagger, “One More Night,” 6 others)

*cries*

that whole list makes me cry

i keep forgetting that that weeknd song ("earned it") exists b/c it's boring but it is another recent top 10 hit that caught on at r&b radio before pop. yay movie soundtracks.

all of those songs are awful

"nobody" feels minor in a good way, it's a mark of a scene/genre's health when solid b-tier jams by people we may or may not hear much of again become deservedly big

rnbass lends itself to that very well and i'll be interested to see whether other jams of similar quality to "somebody" - of which there are plenty - do the same (especially maliibu n helene, with their actual dj mustard beats/major label backing etc)

"earned it" really continues the weeknd's run of loathsome, sexist whine-a-longs, hats off weeknd, you "earned it"

'earned it' is so obviously a hit thought that i suspect he bought it ... no way the dude who wrote his earlier dirges earned a genuine hit song lol ... this is his 'fuckin problem'

BOOM YA HEARD

lol

i am excited to see how the maliibu n helene song does too, plus i like it much better than "somebody"

i dunno it seems to me like there was an adult contempo heart buried under The Weeknd's dark brooding tumblr aesthetic all along and he just had to streamline things the tiniest bit to end up with commercial victories like "Love Me Harder" and "Earned It"

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

I kind of love "Earned It" and don't see what's supposed to be sexist or whiny about it other than guilt by association. Still weird that this fuckin' guy has a couple top ten hits tho but ship otm. I think the key point for "Earned It" is it doesn't sound like anything else on the radio but also doesn't really sound anything like the increasingly played out "alt-r&b" aesthetic he built his rep on.

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:51 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

Trap Queen

"you're always worth it" is basically a disgusting line. "you earned it" also disgusting. he's either paying for sex with her, or he's in that more ambiguous zone of sugar daddy, and these compliments that he evidently thinks are profound and touching are like one more shitty necklace to her, she's like "whatever jack" in her mind but with her eyes and face she's like "ooh yes big stuff, i am here to please you always" and he's like "man i think this ho actually loves me"

basically tinashe needs to write an answer record is what i'm saying

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 11:51 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well the photonegative of an un-bought hit would be weeknd's history of organic 'never-will-be-a-hit's

Trap Queen

not sure i really know what you guys consider the right kind of money spent and the wrong kind of money spent in the making of a hit, but considering fetty is on lyor cohen's new label that has direct deals with google and twitter. i wouldn't assume money wasn't spent

not sure i really know what you guys consider the right kind of money spent and the wrong kind of money spent in the making of a hit, but considering fetty is on lyor cohen's new label that has direct deals with google and twitter. i wouldn't assume money wasn't spent

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 8:29 PM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark

Trap Queen

I'm talking about the song creation process and implying this song was not written by weeknd bc he has no pop instincts

Trap queen was the same record before lyor got on board that it was after

weird to talk about a song tied to a huge hit movie and soundtrack like it's succeeded purely on pop merits to the point where there's no way the singer involved could be pop enough to contribute to its creation

like, someone else could just be like "oh the weeknd is still making garbage, he just needs ariana grande or the biggest r rated movie of the year to do well"

also the song has four credited songwriters, one ringer (who did shit like "wrecking ball"), two regular weeknd collaborators and ol' sideshow bob himself. i mean i guess the ringer could have written it entirely himself and then shared credit with the weeknd's regular team but damn sucks he had to let all three on

"no way patrick swayze had anything to do with writing a song as tight as she's like the wind"

I don't even understand what point your making but I could completely believe that the reason the song is a hit is bc the dude who wrote "wrecking ball" got involved

"Earned It" is by far the least disgusting of The Weeknd's singles but I'll admit that the Ariana Grande hit softened me.

Basically my point is the idea of "earning" a "genuine" hit is rockist malarkey

And that its ironic to ignore a pretty obv non musical factor in a songs success when trying to disqualify it

Cool story Tracer

what is happening what is trap queen

we are all trap queen now

Basically my point is the idea of "earning" a "genuine" hit is rockist malarkey

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 9:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this would be relevant if i was trying to convince anyone that they should like or dislike the song, rather than just mocking the weeknd's lack of pop instincts

& yeah obv the arianna grande song is totally classic but w/e

"you're always worth it" is basically a disgusting line. "you earned it" also disgusting. he's either paying for sex with her, or he's in that more ambiguous zone of sugar daddy, and these compliments that he evidently thinks are profound and touching are like one more shitty necklace to her, she's like "whatever jack" in her mind but with her eyes and face she's like "ooh yes big stuff, i am here to please you always" and he's like "man i think this ho actually loves me"

Okayyyyy. We're interpreting this song completely differently cause I'm hearing it as him singing to a lover, not as part of a transactional dynamic, singing about intangible rather than material things. I get why people are ready to assume the worst of him but I feel like, with a few notable exceptions, if it were any other r&b singer with the exact same set of lyrics, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Like Miguel's sang way sketchier things ("How Many Drinks" anyone?) and I can't see anyone jumping down his throat if he sang this. But if that's how you want to read it, I can't stop you.