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

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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”)

Maroon 5 (“Moves Like Jagger, “One More Night,” 6 others)

*cries*

that whole list makes me cry

i keep forgetting that that weeknd song ("earned it") exists b/c it's boring but it is another recent top 10 hit that caught on at r&b radio before pop. yay movie soundtracks.

all of those songs are awful

"nobody" feels minor in a good way, it's a mark of a scene/genre's health when solid b-tier jams by people we may or may not hear much of again become deservedly big

rnbass lends itself to that very well and i'll be interested to see whether other jams of similar quality to "somebody" - of which there are plenty - do the same (especially maliibu n helene, with their actual dj mustard beats/major label backing etc)

"earned it" really continues the weeknd's run of loathsome, sexist whine-a-longs, hats off weeknd, you "earned it"

'earned it' is so obviously a hit thought that i suspect he bought it ... no way the dude who wrote his earlier dirges earned a genuine hit song lol ... this is his 'fuckin problem'

BOOM YA HEARD

lol

i am excited to see how the maliibu n helene song does too, plus i like it much better than "somebody"

i dunno it seems to me like there was an adult contempo heart buried under The Weeknd's dark brooding tumblr aesthetic all along and he just had to streamline things the tiniest bit to end up with commercial victories like "Love Me Harder" and "Earned It"

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

I kind of love "Earned It" and don't see what's supposed to be sexist or whiny about it other than guilt by association. Still weird that this fuckin' guy has a couple top ten hits tho but ship otm. I think the key point for "Earned It" is it doesn't sound like anything else on the radio but also doesn't really sound anything like the increasingly played out "alt-r&b" aesthetic he built his rep on.

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:51 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

Trap Queen

"you're always worth it" is basically a disgusting line. "you earned it" also disgusting. he's either paying for sex with her, or he's in that more ambiguous zone of sugar daddy, and these compliments that he evidently thinks are profound and touching are like one more shitty necklace to her, she's like "whatever jack" in her mind but with her eyes and face she's like "ooh yes big stuff, i am here to please you always" and he's like "man i think this ho actually loves me"

basically tinashe needs to write an answer record is what i'm saying

man you could fall down a wormhole trying to consider what a genuine, un-"bought" hit song would be

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 11:51 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well the photonegative of an un-bought hit would be weeknd's history of organic 'never-will-be-a-hit's

Trap Queen

not sure i really know what you guys consider the right kind of money spent and the wrong kind of money spent in the making of a hit, but considering fetty is on lyor cohen's new label that has direct deals with google and twitter. i wouldn't assume money wasn't spent

not sure i really know what you guys consider the right kind of money spent and the wrong kind of money spent in the making of a hit, but considering fetty is on lyor cohen's new label that has direct deals with google and twitter. i wouldn't assume money wasn't spent

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 8:29 PM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark

Trap Queen

I'm talking about the song creation process and implying this song was not written by weeknd bc he has no pop instincts

Trap queen was the same record before lyor got on board that it was after

weird to talk about a song tied to a huge hit movie and soundtrack like it's succeeded purely on pop merits to the point where there's no way the singer involved could be pop enough to contribute to its creation

like, someone else could just be like "oh the weeknd is still making garbage, he just needs ariana grande or the biggest r rated movie of the year to do well"

also the song has four credited songwriters, one ringer (who did shit like "wrecking ball"), two regular weeknd collaborators and ol' sideshow bob himself. i mean i guess the ringer could have written it entirely himself and then shared credit with the weeknd's regular team but damn sucks he had to let all three on

"no way patrick swayze had anything to do with writing a song as tight as she's like the wind"

I don't even understand what point your making but I could completely believe that the reason the song is a hit is bc the dude who wrote "wrecking ball" got involved

"Earned It" is by far the least disgusting of The Weeknd's singles but I'll admit that the Ariana Grande hit softened me.

Basically my point is the idea of "earning" a "genuine" hit is rockist malarkey

And that its ironic to ignore a pretty obv non musical factor in a songs success when trying to disqualify it

Cool story Tracer

what is happening what is trap queen

we are all trap queen now

Basically my point is the idea of "earning" a "genuine" hit is rockist malarkey

― da croupier, Friday, April 3, 2015 9:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this would be relevant if i was trying to convince anyone that they should like or dislike the song, rather than just mocking the weeknd's lack of pop instincts

& yeah obv the arianna grande song is totally classic but w/e

"you're always worth it" is basically a disgusting line. "you earned it" also disgusting. he's either paying for sex with her, or he's in that more ambiguous zone of sugar daddy, and these compliments that he evidently thinks are profound and touching are like one more shitty necklace to her, she's like "whatever jack" in her mind but with her eyes and face she's like "ooh yes big stuff, i am here to please you always" and he's like "man i think this ho actually loves me"

Okayyyyy. We're interpreting this song completely differently cause I'm hearing it as him singing to a lover, not as part of a transactional dynamic, singing about intangible rather than material things. I get why people are ready to assume the worst of him but I feel like, with a few notable exceptions, if it were any other r&b singer with the exact same set of lyrics, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Like Miguel's sang way sketchier things ("How Many Drinks" anyone?) and I can't see anyone jumping down his throat if he sang this. But if that's how you want to read it, I can't stop you.

what is happening what is trap queen

#6 on the charts, #1 in our hearts

Btw I dropped both those songs at a club tonight and way more people danced to "Earned It" ¯\_o_O)_/¯

Earned It rules, tho looking into The Weeknd's catalogue after hearing it ws a v unpleasant experience (obv). Song reads as abt his first unmisogynistic to me and I kinda think that's part of its success (along w pretty arrangement/vocal etc). Tracer's reading just seems willfully weird

"earned it" and "you're worth it" are explicitly transactional phrases.. this isn't some kind of weird reach

and yes, i put it in the context of his previous creepy-ass songs, why wouldn't i?

Yeah that bit makes sense, bt those transactional phrases're v commonly used to describe relationships, bc capitalism, so that bit seemed a big stretch

the new #1 is wiz khalifa's pop-rap song from the furious 7 movie

"trap queen" rises to #4

"post to be" jumps to #16 and possibly headed for top 10. as w/ "trap queen" before it's getting streamed a ton and only has major airplay at urban radio for now (tho gaining at rhythmic).

big sean's "blessings" (don't really like the song but w/e) is also in a similar situation w/ very high streaming activity and major play only at urban, so it could be on its way too. (neither it nor "post to be" have been really big sellers like "trap queen" has become tho.)

i would say the streaming metric is (recently) serving a similar purpose as retail singles sales did in the 90s for r&b songs, i.e. to drive initial gains up the chart so non-urban stations will take notice and start giving them some play.

the hot 100's top positions look like they could end up being about as male-dominated as they were (white) female-dominated for some time last year. black women not named nicki minaj, rihanna or beyonce (or natalie la rose for 1 week) lose either way :(

to be fair black women besides those 3 artists aren't really on urban radio that much at the moment either. Ciara's latest peaked at #16 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Sevyn Streeter at #19, Mary J. Blige at #35...women besides Beyonce are having it rough in R&B.