WOW!!!!!THIS IS DISGUSTING
If you look back on 2013, not a single black artist scored a No. 1 single. Not J. Cole, Jay Z, Beyonce, or even Kanye West. 2013 marked the first-ever year since Billboard began charting Top 40 songs in 1958 that zero black artists made their way to the top of the singles chart.
The top spot on the Hot 100 — today’s version of the singles chart — was dominated by white acts throughout the past year. Perhaps even more intriguing is the fact that white artists even sat atop the R&B and Hip-Hop Songs chart for 44 out of 52 weeks of 2013. Compare this to ten years ago, when every No. 1 Hot 100 single was performed by an artist of color.
And in a final interesting twist, there are no living black artists being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 — although Clarence Clemons will be inducted posthumously as part of the E Street Band. That’s only happened once before in Rock Hall history.
To try and understand how and why 2013 was so unprecedented, Soundcheck host John Schaefer talks to pop chart analyst and writer Chris Molanphy, as well as author and commentator for The Daily Beast and The Root, Keli Goff.
Teresa B
That’s because black producers were behind the white artists that had hits in 2013
BOBBi G
Billboard changed the way that songs Chart so now it’s more than spins that determine your spot on HOT 100 also you don’t hafta really be played or covered on an Urban radio station.platform to top the Urban Charts anymore starting last year I believe. Macklemore for instance didn’t get much Urban radio at all but got a lot of Pop stations and Alternative stations to spin his records therefore his songs dominated the Rap Charts because that’s the Genre he as an artist is in. Same with Country music. If you consider yourself a Country artist making Country music but all your spins come from Z100 type stations i.e. Taylor Swift then it’s not as hard to kill the charts like she does. Country artists were pissed and voiced their displeasure while Urban acts didn’t even acknowledge the bullshit ass changes that Billboard made.
Means
No… This is the result of mediocrity.
BOBBi G
@MEANS
So essentially what you’re saying is every Black artist released mediocre music. Come on now you gotta know that ain’t true. FAAAAAAR from it.
Debonair
@JD When I read this article early today on Billboard, I wasn’t surprised by it. I think Drake came the closes with getting a number one with Hold On, We’re Going Home which I think peaked at #4. Between Macklemore, Robin Thicke and Lorde, they held the top spot for most of the year.
I will say this though with Black music performed by black artists going increasingly pornographic. It just continues to lose audience not just in the US but around the world. I serious thought any of Beyonce’s songs will go number one off her new album for the same reason in the US.
Kpop is gaining massive success through out Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. A lot of Kpop hits have this Rnb sound and feel to it as well as a EDM sound. The thing is it’s clean. The videos maybe sexy but the lyrics are clean. Listen to EXO’s Growl which was the biggest song in Kpop this year. It’s funny when you read the comments on these Kpop videos it’s mostly in English and it’s a lot of US kids that like that’s it clean. When the acts get a little to sexual like on TroublerMaker’s Now video which is straight rip off of Rihanna’s We Found Love video they criticize it for going that route.
When artists go this vulgar sexual route, they just limit their audience because people don’t want to here that all the time. Black music and artists are painting themselves in a corner with it. This is the year you are really seeing it cause I don’t think many black artists even made the Top 10 on the HOT 100 this year except for Rihanna. .
Means
@bobbigprofecy no sir. essentially I am saying that the music was not good enough. None of us have ever needed someone to inform us of what a hit song sounds like ..we know it immediately if the song is good enough, simply by the way it resonates within us. I am only 20 but I dont need to be 25 or 35 to fall in love with a song. In my opinion the majority of the songs played on the radio & television are “Mediocre”. I also believe if there was a platform for relatively unknown acts to have an opportunity to be heard by the mass public… we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The majors basically control bds airwaves & I am more than aware of their “stick-with-the-trends” strategy. This suffocates the industry in my opinion, by never allowing anything refreshing to be offered to the Public. My mixtapes are better than 90% of the crap that came out in 2013. I dont expect U to go check & click on my links, but that exactly my point. If U do… U will understand why I say: “mediocrity”
Means
…and Drake is dat dude!!