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

got an email today with the subject line "Billboard Charts Now Using YouTube Data!! Get Youtube Marketing Today!!!"

"Harlem Shake" has finally dropped from the #1 spot after five weeks. "Thrift Shop" would have been at #1 for eleven weeks without the recent rejiggering.

out of the frying pan

like it or not, at least thrift shop "feels" like a number one record

amazing dissection of how "Harlem Shake" happened: http://qz.com/67991/you-didnt-make-the-harlem-shake-go-viral-corporations-did/

That's a cool article - amongst other things underlines how every viral hit is due to network effects. You either hit a hub or you don't.

kinda lol but mostly sad:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1556367/macklemore-ryan-lewis-thrift-shop-sets-record-on-hot-rbhip-hop-songs-chart

read every instance of "while" in that article as "white"

meanwhile "adorn" RETURNS to #1 on r&b/hip-hop airplay after many weeks of other songs being #1. this would have been its... 23rd week at #1??

oh jk just saw that was mentioned on the miguel thread lol

it's ok, teddy dominatrix

i kinda wonder about an alternate universe where "adorn" had been released ten years ago - it would probably have been a double digit week long hot 100 number one, maybe even have had a record breaking stay there.

but in 2012/13 a 23 week long r&b airplay number one only gets you a top 20 hot 100 hit. depressing.

yeah i dunno... old-fashioned elements of the song aside, "Adorn" feels very much of its time, as does Miguel's whole career. and he probably wouldn't have an Usher-type profile in any era. although it does have some things in common with Mario's "Let Me Love You," which was #1 for nine weeks in '05, so you may have a point.

It doesn't matter, for if I get gay-married, "Adorn" will be the First Dance.

actually found that article pretty weak, like he doesn't rly deliver on the nefarious corporate force pulling the strings he's implying w/ that tone & intro. like he counts Mad Decent & two internet media ones as the corporations responsible for making harlem shake happen... MD released the single & the other two are only implicated because, like, someone at College Humour posted it. (Thousands of “Harlem Shake” videos were uploaded during the week of Feb. 11, many of them from businesses with something to sell. many! oh, no!) and like, hey guess what guys, Youtube is a corporation too! and they're owned by Google, who are really BIG. and the video was posted on Youtube.

also this image linked within the article (although too small to read the text) doesn't seem to support his thesis at all. does make me wonder how they figure out if you're an african american twitter user using harlem shake in its original context tho

http://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/screen-shot-2013-03-27-at-6-53-01-pm.png?w=1024&h=678

clive davis was on bill maher a few weeks ago doing book promotion and they were essentially talking about how EDM is crap (in so many words) and clive was talking about highlighting REAL MUSICIANS at his pre-grammy party and the first person he mentioned was miguel, thought that was kinda cool

a mention of a cool person in the middle of what sounds like a very uncool chat

well it was an old white hippy directing a conversation about current pop music, so yeah

i mean clive was being much more conciliatory but i'm sure he's not exactly jamming swedish house mafia in the crib

Clive devotes a chapter in his memoir to Taylor Dayne. I read it in Target.

aww clive and kelly clarkson are gonna have a reconciliation over a miguel slow dance

ha

agree w/flopson re: that harlem shake article. it's like... MD promoting their own song? the wool has been pulled over your eyes! It didn't even really get into the real story of corporations making money off of "Harlem Shake" which is not only google as flopson said but also the companies who paid for the ads in expectation of a return.

also I have even more incentive to marry Alfred now

I'll even let you diddle those woman things.

i kinda wonder about an alternate universe where "adorn" had been released ten years ago - it would probably have been a double digit week long hot 100 number one, maybe even have had a record breaking stay there.

nah. great song, but probably way too sophisticated and subtle to be that big of a hit. it doesn't have a big undeniable chorus.

I definitely do not rep for the overall tone or conclusions drawn by the harlem shake article, I just loved the granular chronology of events mostly

love the set up that was like: after discovering social media in the 2013 superbowl half-time show, corporations were ready to exploit the next meme for their advantage... all they needed was for someone to do a quirky dance to a dubstep song & upload it to youtube

they gathered together into corporation headquarters for the corporation meeting

"men...we need a meme"

macklemore commanding the top 2 spots on r&b/hip-hop songs now :((((

round my way a lot of people who like music don't have even bank accounts (tho pre-paid disposable cards are becoming popular).

― zvookster, Friday, 12 October 2012

i see beiber is launching a pre-paid debit card

A debeibit card

those Rush card commercials w/Russell Simmons are on all the time

macklemore commanding the top 2 spots on r&b/hip-hop songs now :((((

― teddy dominatrix (dyl), Friday, April 19, 2013 3:34 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well culture, we had a good run...

so these both exist:

Wale - Bad (Remix) [feat. Rihanna]
Blake Shelton - Boys 'Round Here (Celebrity Mix) [feat. Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Ronnie Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Reba, Josh Turner, Keith Urban & Hank Williams, Jr.]

i don't think it's a coincidence that they're both remixes to songs that are owning the r&b/country airplay charts but having trouble scaling the corresponding main billboard charts. in the case of "bad", it's been #1 on airplay for weeks, but had only barely scraped the top 10 on the "real" chart, and even now with the remix it's only gone to #5 (behind 2 macklemore songs and a few songs that are largely pop crossover). meanwhile "boys 'round here" is at #2 on airplay, likely to reach #1 next week (so i'm guessing that the remix's release was timed very deliberately), and has been sitting at #2 on the "real" chart for ages behind florida georgia line's "cruise" (which ITSELF is being assisted by its chr-crossover-catalyzing remix with nelly).

i used to think that this trend of releasing desperate remixes to temporarily boost chart positions of songs (which was quite a thing on the pop charts for a time, peaking in 2011 with "till the world ends", "s&m" and "last friday night") had died out, but now it appears to have found a home within the genres being screwed over by billboard's new rules. and man, these remixes are pretty desperate. the original version of "boys 'round here" already features 'pistol annies & friends', meaning pistol annies and the songwriters and producers, but the feature is basically limited to these people singing one phrase. in the "celebrity mix", most of the 'featured' artists are literally limited to one syllable ("red"), and yet all their names are written in full in the track name on itunes, probably so more people will find the song in an itunes search.

weird stuff.

Wait a minute. "Boys 'Round Here" keeps climbing on the Hot 100.

(terrible song imo)

I think he means it climbed to a new peak after the remix. Big missed opportunity not putting Cali Swag District on the rmx imo.

lmao totally

Chris Brown missed an opportunity

"boys round here" and "cruise" are both super obnoxious

but yes, i meant that it was having trouble climbing farther before the remix, which normally wouldn't matter (its hot 100 placement was one of blake shelton's highest) if not for the fact that it was basically parked at #2 on the country charts. idk maybe i am reading too much into this.

and also by "corresponding main billboard charts" i meant hot r&b/hip-hop song and hot country songs. sorry i wasn't v clear ;_;

Blake Shelton's tabloid/glossy profile never higher too.

yes, i would agree that he is more famous than ever

I'm not sure how adding a bunch of country stars helps Sheldon cross over like adding Rihanna to the Wale song does? I mean, I think Aldean's the only one of those people I've ever heard on top 40.

putting a star-studded non-album remix on iTunes as a single = sales-driven chart spike

i.e. it's a way of improving Hot 100 without pop radio support, not a way of shoring up pop radio support

Ah, in that case I think there's more to Wale putting RiRi on his song than a desperado Katy Perry f/ Missy move.

yeah it's "omigod omigod omigod rihanna knows who i am"

oh i think they liked me when they heard me on the other way
so its only right that i hit you with the riri riri