Wait wait wait...I think theres two semi-contradictory observations/arguments being made here: 1) The populace is naturally drifting away from African-Americans after decades of regarding them as the avatars of cutting-edge popular music. I keep coming back to naturally which suggests some kind of organic process, unfettered by human intervention but this is, after all, record charts were talking about. If theres anything I know about the history of record charting...its that nature aint got nothing to do with it. In fact, Chris said, a few paragraphs earlier: 2) The R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart is even more surreal: It was topped by white acts 44 out of 52 weeks this year. In large part, that’s due to a ***controversial change Billboard made to the R&B/hip-hop chart*** at the end of 2012 that essentially makes it a condensed version of the Hot 100, rendering the chart near-useless to hardcore fans of black music. So if we know Billboard has gamed the system (and has ALWAYS gamed the system), then how can we possibly read some kind of natural drift of listeners away from Black musicians? Why would we even trust Billboard to capture something as complicated as populist listening tastes? No shots at Chris Molanphy here, Im just cramming to understand.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:06:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015