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

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

that remix is pure brand synergy at work, rihanna's managers probably put guns to people's heads demanding she bumrush that shit to keep the mythos cash rolling in

cool how only white people had the #1 r&b hit since january. congratulations bill werde.

lol you should totally tweet that @ him

February, but still.

lol i believe this week is the first week since the rules have been changed that the song on top of hot r&b/hip-hop songs has been at least top 10 on r&b/hip-hop airplay :(

http://triadstrategies.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a6abf659970b0162fde3889c970d-800wi

chris molanphy tweeted this article from an american idol blog that discusses pretty effectively why florida georgia line breaking the hot country songs #1 longevity record actually has little meaning as an achievement when compared to past hits.

have there been any recent articles on this phenomenon w/r/t the r&b/hip-hop charts? (it does seem to be the case, as some dude noted above, that the country music community seems to be much more outspoken about the effects of this change than r&b/hip-hop.) a recent billboard article on "blurred lines" breaking the #1 longevity record for the nielsen era (which isn't all that terrible, considering the song is at week 11 at #1 on r&b airplay if i am counting correctly, i.e. a bona fide urban radio hit) mentions both "diamonds" and "thrift shop" coming very close to the previous record held by "be without you" but doesn't mention that they were both beneficiaries of the methodological changes.

now this is just chart trivia curiosity, but i am wondering: it is mentioned in that billboard article that the 4 songs that have equaled or exceeded the reign of "blurred lines" (16 weeks) in the whole history of the r&b chart all came in the 1940s. i know the chart has had a history of methodological changes earlier in its life (including one point when it was scrapped altogether) but i don't really know how it used to be put together. was there something about the chart methodology back then, as there is now, that favors long runs at the top? (obv, now it favors long runs at the top for completely different kinds of records (macklemore) than before (louis jordan))

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/kanye-west-s-8-year-old-record-gone-debuts-on-billboard-charts-news.7622.html

i don't remember offhand the exact numbers, but if the R&B chart had remained airplay-driven over the past year, i believe Miguel's "Adorn" would have shattered all previous records for longevity at #1.

x-post from that linked article:

Let us also note that despite acknowledging that it was the release of the remix with Nelly that led to “Cruise”‘s surge back to #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and crediting Nelly on the Hot 100 chart, Billboard declined to credit Nelly on the Hot Country Songs chart.

linked article that dyl posted

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/10/23/alison-golds-chinese-food-billboard-hot-100/

Back in the day, political speeches - if released on 7" - could make the Top 40, like this top 5 hit in 1974 (hearing Casey Kasem at the end is a mind-blower)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07oVR1SDi6k

(this was actually a COVER of an essay, the original charted down in the 30s)

so I'm wondering, let's say some pundit makes a big speech, and commercially releases it on mp3 (proceeds going to charity). If it becomes a viral hit, Billboard would logically include it in the top 40, right?

i imagine so, yeah. spoken word albums can go on the music charts (although obviously rarely sell well enough to actually do so).