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

Midnite Vultures is my favorite Beck album, naturally.

The indie club I used to hit in the early 2000s loved the shit out of "Sexx Laws" and "Mixed Bizness." I'm scared to play "Debra" though.

"Debra" is the one glaring false note on that album (obv Beck's best, duh).

I remember loving how an episode of "Homicide" used "Beautiful Way."

I remember how an episode of "Murder She Wrote" made all the lesbians scream.

it mixed bizness withleather iirc

http://imgur.com/gallery/Ith2N

mixed bizness is the fucking JAM

lowest Grammy ratings in 6 years

makes sense. i can't even think of who the big draw would be for viewers, other than Beyonce, who was on last year's Grammys and every other awards show that's aired since then.

I was gonna post the cover of One Foot In The Grave but uh yeah I guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT967fUFuYw

this was what was playing in my head as a dazed and confused beck accepted the second award and called up a host of industry vets to stand with him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDwV3VU1OXU
first two responses on that youtube are

thewirah14 hours ago
Kanye West makes me wanna smoke crack.

Nina Reyes4 months ago
Im 77 and i love Beck <3

This is right but it's worth pointing out that he's only good when he's pastiching black music.

Ha, true.

"FourFiveSeconds" additionally zooms 2-1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/6465909/hot-100-rihanna-kanye-west-paul-mccartney-ellie-goulding-mark-ronson

Rihanna rising up the Hot 100 just broke the 5-week streak of zero black artists in the top 10 (last one was The Weeknd on Ariana Grande's "Love Me Harder").

glad this is look like a real sustainable hit

that Billboard article went into a real lather over the McCartney records broken by this hit.

surely we can all agree that "Spies Like Us" is a worthier epitaph.

four five seconds from spyin'

But rap has decentralized, and the Internet — not New York City — is now its spiritual center. These days, Mr. Ferro said, the station can “dabble” in more mainstream music, like the current No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart, “Uptown Funk!” by Mark Ronson. But he also acknowledged that there was the possibility of going “overboard” with nonrap songs. “There is absolutely a line that cannot be crossed,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/14/arts/music/hot-97-a-hip-hop-pioneer-on-radio-reaches-a-crossroads.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-middle-span-region®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-middle-span-region

line is apparently back behind royals tho'

chart minutiae: making a strong gain to #12 this week, "trap queen" could very well be the next rap song to sneak into hot 100's top 10. ^____^ (erm other than pitbull/ne-yo lol.) its viral appeal seems to be doing most of the work: it's #6 in streaming and selling pretty healthily too (#17 digital songs) despite only having major support at r&b radio right now, where it is almost top 10.

a couple lingering outside the top 10 that might not make it: usher's "i don't mind" (#11) and nicki's "truffle butter" (#14). they're #s 10 and 11 in all-format play rn, supported almost completely by rhythmic and r&b, but more modest in streaming and sales (altho "truffle butter" is selling about as well as "trap queen"). they're both lacking music videos and i'm not sure if one is planned for either. (iirc it's common for young money not to shoot videos for their radio hits or to put them out way late.) pop is actually playing "i don't mind" a little albeit not enthusiastically -- the edit the station here is playing cuts out so many of the words in the chorus that it is nearly unlistenable.

The pleasing success of "Truffle Butter" affirms to me that (a) it should have been on the standard tracklisting of the Pinkprint and (b) it should have been the Drake x Wayne single instead of "Only"

they just put out a "truffle butter" lyric video

given everything going on with cash money right now i would be pretty surprised if they ever put a video out for that

also the natalie la rose/jeremih song is in the top 20 now and has been rising pretty steadily for weeks

"i don't mind" has been hanging around that ~12 spot for a few weeks now, i figured it was stalling out but maybe it will tick up one more place again

i had no idea trap queen was blowing up nationally, good for him

Some Dude in a recent noisey.vice article:

It’s obnoxious that Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” pastiched 80s funk bands like The Time and topped the Hot 100 this year during a monthlong stretch in which no African American artists had a top ten hit (although Trinidad James got a check for his lyrical inspiration for the song).

And yet people are worried the blurred lines verdict will deny us similar endeavors

Trap Queen is amazing, mad @ Whiney for confining it to his stupid spongebob thread

fetty wap in the top 10

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”)