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

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.

Perhaps, but I think that pointing out what these shows are failing to address in terms of what people are consuming, what issues are informing that consumption, etc tends to highlight just how out of touch these things are. Maura's point about there being more former Jonas bros. on this year's show than there are contemporary R&B singers or rappers (in non-"featuring" roles) proves that; I doubt Joe Jonas will be experiencing much in the way of increased airplay today just because he was part of last night's spectacle. But more to the point, at a time in which music journalists and the artists themselves are so enthusiastic about drawing parallels between the art and the larger culture (whether it is as blatant as the connection between Beyonce's latest and #blacklivesmatter, or some of the more creative analogies that critics like Ann Powers or Carl Wilson regularly draw), the awards shows seem to be making a conscious choice not to be part of these conversations. The current pattern with these shows seems to be that the press spends the next day talking about how awful they were (whether its a dickish host or a terrible musical performance) and then we all go back to talking about the real issues.

how limited pop is right now.

Most US pop radio stations are run by Clear channel/I Heart Radio, right, and they do the song selection (that limits even Beyoncé's and Rihanna's pop airplay) ? Am assuming they are stubbornly insisting they are doing it right, the same way that country music programmer insisted that women country singers could only be the occasional tomato in the male singer country radio salad.

I agree with Maura and wish the show's producers would have done more ...

this is a case, I think, where the media idea of what people are consuming is a bit different than reality. it isn't as if Rihanna and Beyonce's singles were overwhelmingly embraced by pop radio listeners until Clear Channel pulled the plug.

also, the Billboard Music Awards are based on pre-existing chart placements, I'm not sure why the ceremony wouldn't also reflect that

Their "pre-existing chart placement" is in part based on whether or not they initially got airplay. Are you stating that Beyoncé's recent singles got initial pop airplay on Clear Channel stations, but then were determined not to be successful and dropped downward on the charts?

Also, why can't the Billboard tv award show provide at least some attention to its non-pop charts?

Well the country award was televised, as was the R&B award in which three of the nominees were songs by The Weeknd.

Katherine I'm saying that these songs aren't even given a shot. I listen to probably more pop radio than a lot of people on this board, and current songs by black women barely have a presence. (This is in part because the hip-hop/R&B-leaning stations I listen to, which are more closely mirroring their pop brethren, are either heading further into recurrent land or using hip-hop specifically (and not R&B) as accent material instead of the main course. It's country radio's "tomato" issue all over again.)

Also how would you not engage with these shows? Yes, they might be "trade shows," but I haven't seen highlights from the Boston Ski Show aired on one of the major broadcast networks. Big splashy events like these remain the biggest way for music to get out to the mass population, because TV's audience bowls over that of every other medium—I guarantee you Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan will get huge boosts from their appearances last night.

But more to the point, at a time in which music journalists and the artists themselves are so enthusiastic about drawing parallels between the art and the larger culture (whether it is as blatant as the connection between Beyonce's latest and #blacklivesmatter, or some of the more creative analogies that critics like Ann Powers or Carl Wilson regularly draw), the awards shows seem to be making a conscious choice not to be part of these conversations.

The Billboard Music Awards' trophy-giving half directly engages with the culture — awards are based on chart placement, i.e., how many people are buying and hearing music. (There is one fan-bestowed award; Rihanna won it last night.)

Don't forget CBS Radio and Cumulus when you're talking about radio conglomerates, either. iHeart is the big Kahuna but those two are important, especially in the smaller markets that help boost your more adult-contemporary-leaning tracks to success. (The No. 1 song on the Radio Songs chart right now is "7 Years." Lukas Graham performed last night, the only current "rock" act to do so.)

"Kiss It Better" definitely got continual top 40 radio adds but very much underperformed -- she's already moved on to the next single even at rhythmic. "Sorry" also was up but more for rhythmic (a few top 40 stations have added it, but about 1/10 of what "Can't Stop the Feeling" got even before you even start thinking about airplay.)

my point was more that part of what these shows are reflecting is what pop music audiences as an aggregate actually want to hear. given how much of a factor audience analytics are in radio airplay -- and the rise of streaming services is only intensifying and drilling those down (see: the recent Guardian article) -- and the nature of large commercial enterprises, I highly doubt it's that radio just isn't giving Rihanna, Beyonce, etc. a chance *despite audience demand*. as terrible as Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan are, they also have a fuckton of a lot of young fans, which speaks louder than the general music/cultural/lifestyle media au jus

(I think we're mostly agreeing, possibly, but I also was unclear in my original post)

There's a history of pop radio and mtv,etc not giving r'n'b and rap artists a fair chance at various points over the years, and while I recognize its a business and the supposed accuracy of audience analytics, I worry that the "pre-existing chart placement" you are comfortable with is not constructed that fairly

Audience demand on pop radio and on streaming sites often comes from songs being given a shot at pop radio. Maybe those songs you mentioned were given a fair shot, but there seems to be ample reason to be suspicious

agree w/curmudgeon. top 40 is definitely giving certain songs wider berth to catch on

Audience demand on pop radio and on streaming sites often comes from songs being given a shot at pop radio.

In the UK (and I imagine the US) this is starting to become reversed. Networks that were already conservative are now simply looking at Shazam and Spotify streaming charts to decide what to playlist. This is honestly how 95% of the decisions get made. You could look at that and say 'they're simply reflecting audience appetite' or you could look at pop radio's abandonment of the role of hit-maker and say there's something more complex going on.

pop radio frequently takes songs from certain 'core artists' (who are almost invariably white and usually female) all the way to the top 10 (in pop radio spins) despite the songs lagging in basically every metric of audience response. if you are one of these artists, your song not firing on all cylinders (or much at all) will apparently go relatively unnoticed by pop radio programmers until it's entered the lower rungs of the pop-spins top 10, at which point it'll finally start dropping. if you are not one of these artists and have a similarly unresponsive song, good luck even getting close to that far.

^

nowhere did I say that the "pre-existing chart placement" was constructed fairly, but nor is it entirely on radio programmers. it's easy to forget, due to being in the aforementioned adults-in-the-media-or-adjacent cohort, that there are a ton of people out there who really, really hate beyonce, or are indifferent to her.

(nowhere did I say that I'm endorsing any of this, either. of course radio can and does have a prescriptive component. a lot of this *is* the prescriptive component. [you can see pop radio's gradually crumbling reluctance to deal with hits like "Trap Queen" and right now "Panda"])

yeah that's another angle. R1 refused to playlist whip/nae-nae but i wonder if they would again.

I would have thought that iHeartMedia would love Beyoncé

Nah, too politically radical now (or so I heard another customer in the grocery store saying to someone)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/23/how-meek-mill-hilariously-won-rap-album-of-the-year-at-the-bbmas.html

“Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital songs sales, radio airplay, streaming, touring and social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify and other popular online destinations for music. These measurements are tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Music and Next Big Sound. The awards are based on the reporting period of tracking dates March 23, 2015 through March 17, 2016 and Billboard chart dates April 11, 2015 through April 2, 2016. Since 1940, the Billboard charts have been the go-to guide for ranking the popularity of songs and albums, and are the ultimate measure of a musician’s success.”

Another related issue here in this Chris Molanphy article

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/05/23/why_justin_timberlake_and_max_martin_s_can_t_stop_the_feeling_is_no_1_on.html

20 of the 22 Martin-authored No. 1s have come since mid-2008, the moment when dance-pop began its digital-fueled takeover of the U.S. charts. In other words, Martin has not consistently been a top hit-maker for all of the last two decades—he had a notably fallow hit-making period in America in the early-to-mid 2000s, when R&B and hip-hop were commanding the U.S. Top 40.

...

a hard truth about Max Martin is that for all his purported U.S. R&B influence, he doesn’t write songs black radio in America wants to play. Out of Martin’s 22 Hot 100 chart-toppers, all but one has missed the top of the R&B chart; generally, they don’t even touch that chart at all. (The one exception, last year’s smash by the Weeknd “Can’t Feel My Face,” topped the R&B/Hip-Hop list thanks only to Billboard’s current methodology for that chart, which over-weights digital sales and pop crossover. On R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, an all-radio chart that’s a better measure of core black music fans, the Martin-produced “Face” never made it past No. 46.) Martin’s genius is in crafting essentially genreless mass-appeal records that synthesize American and European popular music forms, one part Aaliyah to two parts ABBA. His songs lack clear racial signifiers—by design—and read as inherently pop. So when he does work with an artist of color like Usher, generally it’s a pop crossover move that doesn’t do all that well at the artist’s home format (e.g., 2010’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love”—No. 4 pop, No. 51 R&B).

x-post -- according to that daily beast piece--

Still, while the Billboard Music Awards, Nielsen Music, and Next Big Sound were tallying mentions of Meek Mill, they weren’t taking into account whether these mentions were actually positive or negative.

i still listen to the radio a lot. (much like i continue to follow a certain sports team that i grew up with, even though it is increasingly terrible and impossible to defend.) but most people i know either don't listen to the radio at all or listen to formats other than pop.

there are so many different places now to seek out music, if it's something you care about. so i guess pop radio now exists primarily for people who don't care about it? and most of those people are inclined to tolerate lukas graham?

His songs lack clear racial signifiers—by design—and read as inherently pop.

I would argue otherwise. His songs very clearly racially signify, it's just that white gets accepted as default. The fact that Black audiences have never embraced him is directly linked to how his music signifies.

the same way that country music programmer insisted that women country singers could only be the occasional tomato in the male singer country radio salad.

I feel like this is the case with urban radio right now. Radio at this point just has a Black women problem in general.

absolutely.

the typical urban-to-pop pathway that prospective crossovers must follow represents an odd multidimensional spectrum, that, no matter which direction you choose to slice it in, tends to exclude black women as performers and listeners. on one side, the center of the pop radio target audience is (young adult) white women; on the other, that of urban radio is black men. turn the dial from the urban station to the rhythmic one and you'll hear songs that are less male, but also less black. in other words, there are more women on rhythmic radio that urban, but even fewer black women. when you consider how pitifully low the number of women scraping urban airplay top 10s today is (even counting the established shoo-ins like bey and nicki), you get the sense of how dire the situation is for black women at radio in general.