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

Yeah, every other Beyonce campaign could rely on pop radio playing some of it (or urban radio taking up enough space that they could still be hits even without pop support. But radio has only become more fragmented, to the detriment of R&B artists, so Beyonce will send something like XO to pop and watch it peak just inside the top 40 before falling.

Meanwhile Hot 97 will cape for the likes of Sam Smith and Lorde saying we should give their music a chance because they're really R&B/hip-hop records at heart. So I'll hear Stay With Me and Royals all summer no matter where I go including urban stations, while there's no reciprocation from pop radio which seems reticent to play even the bounciest of R&B and still will cut rap features out of pop tracks in some places. Oh and then artists like Jodeci or Jazmine Sullivan or Mary J. Blige or Toni Braxton put out the kind of classic R&B stuff these dudes want to cry isn't on radio anymore but then their music basically gets relegated to the oldies stations. That's a programming decision, not a case of artists not sending in the right kind of songs (as if radio is limited to only playing what an artist sends them).

Yeah, every other Beyonce campaign could rely on pop radio playing some of it (or urban radio taking up enough space that they could still be hits even without pop support. But radio has only become more fragmented, to the detriment of R&B artists, so Beyonce will send something like XO to pop and watch it peak just inside the top 40 before falling.

eh, pop radio didn't play anything from 4, but urban radio played "Best Thing I Never Had," "Party," "Countdown," "Love On Top," and "Dance For You." that's a way more varied slate than "Drunk In Love," "Partition," "Flawless (Remix)" and "7/11" imo.

Beyonce released an incredibly varied album, and the urban radio campaign for it ended up being the 2 most overtly sexual songs

Ha, not that this changes your point at all, but didn't "Blow" get nixed as a single for being literally too overt?

i am still mad that that happened with "blow"

Oh and then artists like Jodeci or Jazmine Sullivan or Mary J. Blige or Toni Braxton put out the kind of classic R&B stuff these dudes want to cry isn't on radio anymore but then their music basically gets relegated to the oldies stations. That's a programming decision, not a case of artists not sending in the right kind of songs (as if radio is limited to only playing what an artist sends them).

this is so otm. while i like to think that urban radio would have played basically anything that bey chose as a single from that album, something gives me the feeling "rocket" for instance could have easily been relegated almost wholly to adult r&b/oldies stations rather than the currents-based ones had it been promoted. otm also about radio playing songs that aren't even solicited to them -- while pop radio rarely ever does this anymore, it still happens fairly often at urban radio (w/ nicki being a recent example), which is one big strength of the format imo.

the thing w/ "Blow" was weird, like it was gonna be the pop radio single instead of "XO," which was never gonna work but i guess they thought it sounded enough like "Blurred Lines" to win that crowd

country music borrowing from r'n'b

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/6582974/country-music-plumbs-the-history-of-soul-in-search-of-a-new-direction

See the first comment

cf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr8fdnjDclU

the article gets at it, but country has long been super-appropriative of pop at the crossover level (two of Kenny Rogers' biggest hits were by Lionel Richie and Barry Gibb). in a sense i'm surprised it's taken country so long to have an overt hip-hop element. My suspicion is it has to do with Eminem hitting that 10-15 anniversary stretch.

fyi this song is 11 years old: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_and_Over_%28Nelly_song%29

so's "save a horse (ride a cowboy)," almost!

to be clear, not saying country HASN'T acknowledged hip-hop until now, just that its getting kinda omnipresent rather than a novelty

also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_%28Kid_Rock_song%29

hell, if you want to be cute about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_Went_Down_to_Georgia

not being entirely serious obv

i was gonna say, i couldn't tell what you thought i was saying where any of this would be contradicting it

one hope is that with 2000 back in fashion kid rock will be inspired to relax his "boring son of ted nugent & bob seger" shtick and maybe write some funny raps again

Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me" came out in 2001 and is pretty much a rap song

and McGraw worked with Nelly again in 2012.

(at that point I wasn't sure who was doing whom a favor)

to be clear, not saying country HASN'T acknowledged hip-hop until now, just that its getting kinda omnipresent rather than a novelty

but if we're playing the "who remembers a country song with a hip-hop element in it" game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtQJ9fqdV28

http://www.spin.com/2013/04/rap-country-uncomfortable-history-accidental-racist/

okay "We got a funky new tune with a fly banjo" made me lol

also what the hell: 1997: Spearhead feat. Joan Osbourne - "Wayfaring Stranger"

spoken-word country songs have been a thing since the dawn of country music

My head spun when I saw the words "Imani Coppola"

http://www.imanicoppola.com/

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsqWUtzI_dw

^^ defines "check out my fly banjo"

was putting "i poop in a clam" on her website her own decision?

that DJ Quik sounds more like a santur than a banjo

the top three songs in america -- and five of the top six -- are led by black men. if you count kendrick's verse on the "bad blood" remix then there is a black man on each of the top six songs on this week's chart

he has two verses doesn't he? it's basically kendrick lamar feat. taylor swift

http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100 1 through 6

I think only two of those songs get airplay on urban stations, though?

Oh, three I guess. I thought rap stations weren't playing that Wiz Khalifa song

the wiz khalifa song is a pop-to-urban crossover radio-wise. it even went top 10 on the hot adult contemporary format before urban lol.

i stumbled across this article yesterday mentioning an emerging radio audience measurement device that would be competing w/ nielsen's ppm. ppm is the device that is mainly used now -- when it started getting put into use in the late 00s, ratings at many latin and urban stations were basically decimated immediately, which was obv controversial and delayed its rollout into many markets significantly. anyways i don't know much about the nitty-gritty of radio analytics so i have no idea how much is just hype/hot air, but the article makes it seem as tho the new competitor (voltair) may do a better job of measuring the audience for several stations that had been hurt by ppm in the past, at least well enough to convince some of the higher-ups at the stations. (the example they use is the smooth jazz format.)

idk here's the link http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/did-nielsen-kill-the-radio-star/

Now 1 through 7. http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

It would be cool if this extended to black women at all.

Sidenote: does radio play the Kendrick version of "Bad Blood" or the original?

I've heard the Kendrick version a lot on radio. I imagine it depends on the format.

Yeah, I haven't heard it on the radio at all but I haven't listened to top 40 in quite a while.

here the adult contemporary stations play the sans-kendrick version and all the other stations that play it play the one with kendrick

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6649605/jill-scott-second-no-1-album-billboard-200-chart

that was a bit of a shock.

Compare her streams (1.6 million) with Future at #2 (23 million)

She has a considerable fan base -- adult R&B is for Jill Scott fans.

sure, but zero currently charting singles!

Her audience doesn't care for singles though.

well clearly! it's just an interesting outlier.

for a min there it looked like fifth harmony might get into the top 10. alas...

Purse too heavy.

Fetty Wap The rapper's first three hits rank at Nos. 8, 9 & 11, equaling an honor previously earned only by the Fab Four.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6677761/hot-100-chart-moves-fetty-wap-beatles

The Weeknd retains the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 for a second week based entirely on streaming and "album equivalent units." He sold 77,000 CDs, while the metal band Five Finger Death Punch sold 114,000 CDs (which puts them at the top of the separate Top Album Sales chart, with The Weeknd at #2). But because of "album equivalent units," his total was adjusted to 145,000, while theirs only climbed to 119,000.