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

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.

Chart News ‏@chartnews 55s55 seconds ago
Billboard On-Demand Songs: #1(=) What Do You Mean?, @justinbieber [9.5 million on-demand US streams]. *2 weeks at #1*

what is an on demand stream

it just means Spotify, Tidal, etc. stuff where you pick the song you're listening to. i think they specify 'on demand' to differentiate from internet radio stuff like Pandora that picks songs for you.

The entire top five on the Billboard 200 are R&B/hip-hop albums -- the first time the region has been dominated as such since the Jan. 13, 2007-dated chart. That week, Omarion’s 21 led the list, followed by Akon’s Konvicted, the Dreamgirls film soundtrack, Nas’ Hip Hop Is Dead and Young Jeezy’s The Inspiration.

2 interesting paragraphs from Chris Molanphy's contribution to the Slate critics roundtable on 2015 music

Back to R&B crossover: When we convened for the Music Club two years ago, I marveled that no black artists fronted a No. 1 hit in all of 2013—a historic Hot 100 first. In 2015, we appear to have already flipped that script: Except for a single week when the Hot 100 was commanded by the Biebs’ “What Do You Mean?” and for the past seven weeks by Adele’s “Hello,” every chart-topping hit this year was fronted or prominently supported by an artist of color: Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” (a hit truly powered by Mars), Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again,” Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s “Bad Blood” (without Lamar’s injection of B12 into the remix, the song might not have topped the chart), OMI’s “Cheerleader,” and the two big hits by the Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills.”

The thing is, except for that latter Weeknd hit—the creepy “Hills,” not the MJ-esque “Can’t Feel My Face”—none of these songs was a chart-topper at black radio. Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list—a radio-only chart that is now the only real way get a sense of what core R&B and hip-hop fans actually listen to—was topped all year by the likes of Big Sean and Rae Sremmurd and Jeremih and Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj (with the thumping “Truffle Butter,” not one of her pop-aimed tracks). None of these songs was a Top 10 pop hit; Jeremih’s “Planes” missed the pop Top 40 entirely. Whereas “Uptown Funk”—a 14-week Hot 100 chart-topper and a song so indebted to black-music history the Gap Band managed to shake it loose for some change—never came close to topping black radio playlists.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_music_club/features/2015/music_club_2015/in_2015_black_artists_took_back_the_hot_100_pop_charts.html

interesting perspective as molanphy's writing often is. kinda getting mixed evidence on his point about how crossover as we knew it "no longer exists" for black artists tho? like, he points out two songs that charted highly on the hot 100 and one that stalled as evidence for this, but in reality this is because the former two DID cross over while the other's airplay remained limited overwhelmingly to urban radio. songs succeeded or failed at crossing over before 2015 as well obv, and it still does take "weeks or months" for songs to migrate from urban to pop radio. he rightly acknowledges that streaming gives many r&b and rap acts an early boost on the charts now that they wouldn't have a few years ago, but that's across the board for all urban-radio hits, which tend to be heavily streamed compared to, say, adult contemporary ones. it's not like soundscan's accurate measurement of piece-counts allowing "tha crossroads" and such to zoom up the charts before pop radio got on board in the mid-90s meant that crossover stopped existing then either.

(also, pedantry alert, but he links to "all around the world" by lisa stansfield as an example of something migrating from pop radio to r&b, but the charts from the time show that it was actually one of rare examples of songs by white artists crossing in the other direction, from r&b radio to pop.)

this also overlooks the whiteness of singers working in r&b modes whose music gets played on pop radio. puth is the worst example, but there's also adele and meghan trainor...

The only contemporary rap/r&b radio station in Seattle just got demoted to a Tacoma signal so its existing Seattle signal can be turned over to top 40. :(

ugh

It's even branded as a Tacoma station now. A friend of mine('s brother) got the best take:

https://twitter.com/ram0s206/status/689592333965262848

Totally off topic but I stumbled upon this in my travels and figured I'd share.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stone-interview-ray-charles-19730118?page=9

So... Panda is the the first rap single by a black artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 without the help of hook sung by another artist since 2009's Crack A Bottle, right? (Not sure if Flo Rida's 2009 #1 counts.)

Billboard's take:

Desiigner's debut hit "Panda" pounces to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated May 7). The Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York rapper halts the nine-week reign of Rihanna's "Work," featuring Drake, and brings an American act to No. 1 on the Hot 100 after a record 41-week streak of leaders by foreign artists.

Rihanna and Drake are just foreigners... USA USA

But Billboard also noted this:

Rap rules again: Desiigner also ends a 41-week streak between rap songs atop the Hot 100, between "See You Again" and "Panda." That's the longest run between No. 1 rap songs (defined as tracks that charted on Billboard's Hot Rap Songs ranking) in more than 14 years: no rap hits led the Hot 100 for 46 straight weeks between Shaggy's "Angel" (March 31, 2001) and Ja Rule's "Always on Time," featuring Ashanti (Feb. 23, 2002).

A rap rookie rules again: Desiigner is the first rapper to crown the Hot 100 with a debut chart entry since Iggy Azalea arrived with "Fancy" (featuring Charli XCX), which ruled for seven weeks beginning June 7, 2014. Before Azalea, duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis bowed with their six-week No. 1 "Thrift Shop" (featuring Wanz), which reached No. 1 on Feb. 2, 2013.

The last male rapper (as a lead artist) to control the Hot 100 on his first try before Desiigner? Wiz Khalifa, with "Black and Yellow" (Feb. 19, 2011). (And, the very first? Vanilla Ice, whose "Ice Ice Baby" topped the Nov. 3, 1990, Hot 100.)

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7341870/desiigner-panda-billboard-hot-100-number-1

Yeah I guess Black & Yellow would be the real precursor - rap song by black artist with no hook assist. Wiz had (near-)peak Stargate going for him though. Thinking Mims would probably be the closer sibling.

i actually just wrote a thing for Billboard about hip hop acts whose first Hot 100 entry went to #1. unsurprisingly, a lot of white rappers!

http://www.billboard.com/photos/7357866/no-1-debut-rap-hits-on-the-hot-100

Also.... Crack A Bottle was Eminem, right?

and 50 Cent and Dr. Dre. But yeah, Eminem - but without Rihanna.

ha ha, good to see you were already on the job, Al!

Sure, sure, I was just momentarily thrown off by the "by a black artist" descriptor.

Great piece Al, but yikes that layout. Who came up with the "If you'd like to read the final half sentence of each paragraph, you're gonna have to click a button" model? Hate seeing good content butchered like that.

lol @ the BoB entry

http://www.people.com/article/linda-perry-sheila-e-prince-billboard-music-awards

(this is a tweaked version of some posts i made on FB in a thread about Madonna's performance last night)

More than anything, the Madonna tribute and its relative paucity reflected just how limited pop is right now. R&B leaning songs that aren't by white interlopers (hi Meghan Trainor) get zero Hot 100 traction from airplay - look at how rarely Beyoncé's recent material gets time on top 40 stations, or the relatively cool reception Rihanna (Rihanna!) is getting. Last night's performance lineup had more former Jonas Brothers than R&B singers or rappers who weren't relegated to cameo roles. It's a really bad situation all around.

It's the exact opposite pop scenario from the one that Prince helped make great 30-odd years ago. But it also brings up the role of the show's producers. Should they reflect what's happening (which is the purpose of this ultra fake awards show) or try to push it forward in a way that isn't informed by back door shenanigans involving manager wheedling? I'd love for the latter to be the case but as media companies get more anxious about their shrinking sliver of the pie they're going to get more conservative. (See also: The new CBS sitcom lineup, the retreads of game shows that were advertised during commercial breaks.)

can we talk for a second about how incredibly pathetic that Bieber performance was

- dude sang UNDER his backing track for most of the time he was on stage, when he decided to sing and not just dance while his track played in the background
- one of the few times he did try to sing, he completely biffed the note he was trying to hit in the chorus of "Sorry" and never went near it again
- dude on record has the dulcet tones of a severe allergy sufferer and sounds a lot worse live, when he tries to sing
- dude seemed entirely uninterested in his dancing, his stage, the other people on stage with him, and life in general

THIS is what we as a society have turned our wallets and ears towards when it comes to musical entertainment; this isn't even an emperor's new clothes situation, more like "wait, there's not even an emperor"

otm

THANKS A LOT, USHER

I'm torn between agreeing 100% with maura's post, and continuing to scoff (as I did with this year's Oscar controversy) at the idea of awards show as cultural barometer. These are trade shows first, and then anything else second.

These are trade shows for industries that drive our mainstream cultural content; it seems silly to disconnect them.