[Tsuko]

Originally posted by Sláy

Urban is for that. But black artists rarely crossover. Berry Gordy had to PAY to get blacks on his label played. It should be for everybody. Adele tbh was pop with soul influenced hits (RITD). Same way pop is for popular songs. But y'all know it don't work like that. Look at Adorn, big hit, but they acted like it didn't exist. That song would've been #1 if pop let it crossover.

The main reason black artists rarely cross over at the moment is because pop radio is refusing to play any R&B or hip hop song for some reason, and obviously urban radio won't play dance songs.

So if a black artist does a dance song, they don't get played on urban, and if they do a hip hop song, they don't get played on pop.

A lot of songs by black artists crossed over back pre-2007 when pop radio were open to playing urban songs a lot.

If pop radio gets more open to playing urban songs, then hopefully they'll start crossing over again. But I'd also like urban radio to be more open to playing white people when they do an urban song too.

The last song to cross over was 5 O'Clock by T-Pain, which was pretty much 12 months ago now.

[M Z N A]

cause Queen Jamelia is on hiatus.

[Reed]

Hopefully three soon with Alicia & Nicki

[Sláy]

Originally posted by Tsuko

Yeah, Capital FM is horrible with urban music. It's so sad. Since I remember when I was younger Galaxy played loads of it (by both white and black artists), but now it's just dance music they play (although they still do play a LOT of black artists, just nearly all the time it's with europop songs).

Radio 1 aren't too bad with urban music. They've got Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Miguel and an urban song from Nicki on their playlsit atm. But Capital are awful. And even when you do see an urban song on their playlist, they hardly ever seem to play it.

The reason Radio 1 did that with Best Thing I Never Had was since it took off quicker than expected. It went straight to #1 on iTunes when the album was released. I'm sure it would've gone A-List anyway. Beyonce's singles last year did better in the UK than they did in the US.

Oh I mean Radio 1 are bad when it comes to black artists doing non-conventional music, so not urban. They can be quite shady at times. Galaxy was amazing. JoJo's laugh used to wake me up in a morning

I suppose that's cool about Bey then. She's never really flopped here tbh singles wise.

[Sláy]

Originally posted by M Z N A

cause Queen Jamelia is on hiatus.

And she needs to get awf it tbh waiting for that comeback

[Sláy]

Originally posted by atrlster

I think when it comes to come to artists who haven't charted on pop radio before, they're reluctant to send stuff out yet unless it does really well on another format first. They should have known though that the song had potential since Adorn was relatively reactive on iTunes. I mean it wasn't a huge sales hit or anything, but the fact that it has been in the Top 100 without pop airplay was pretty suprsing and should have been a clue to them

Yeah. i saw it peak at #31 if IIRC. I was shocked. Thanks for that info

[PoisonPill]

Originally posted by Tsuko

The last song to cross over was 5 O'Clock by T-Pain, which was pretty much 12 months ago now.

Yeah with pop production and Lily whitebread Allen singing the hook

[Ressti]

Originally posted by Tsuko

Yeah, that title wouldn't be good;

My point is, urban radio is racist. You find more black people being played on pop radio than you find white people on urban radio, even though there's tons of white artists out there making songs that can be played on the format (especially during 2002-2007).

The mainstream black artists are CONSTANTLY using white people music to get hits in the past few years. We Found Love, Forever, The Way I Are, Starships, Sexy Chick, I Gotta Feeling, Right Round, Disturbia, Only Girl, Scream, Let Me Love Your, Don't Wake Me Up, etc.

And they've had tons of success doing that. All over the world.

No, they're not using "white people music". Electronic music is "black music" too. If it weren't for black disco artists in the 70's and black DJ's in the 80's there would be no techno, no house and no electro, which means Katy Perry wouldn't have been able to sing about no California Girls in 2010.

[atrlster]

But in the modern world that is "white" music. If that was still considered "black" music today, urban artists would be able to do dance music more readily without backlash

[Ichinaru19]

Honestly people are arguing about whether a music category belongs to a race? Idk but did anyone ever think we can just call it American music? Please.... ATRL brings race into everything.

[TheBronxGirl]

It really is tragic smh. The Weeknd , Frank and Miguel give me hope for R&B getting in the mainstream again. I think a lot of the R&B artists out are pretty dated tbh. Someone need to shake up the genre and make it exciting again. I'm glad as a black person (female) I was able to expose myself to all kind of genres though.

[Quietly Trek]

The decade is far from over. It's not that big of a deal to me either.

[eli's_rhythm]

Originally posted by atrlster

Britney was never that sexual?
And since when is Katy Perry innocent? Shooting whip cream out of your boobs is definitely not Carly Rae material. Jordin Sparks fits that "innocent" look and she's had success

No. Rihanna had BDSM imagery and a #1 hit song about big ***** in the Rated R era, a song literally called S&M (yes Britney appeared on the remix but her presence on the song actually stripped it of its sex appeal), a song with the refrain "what you saying now, give it to me baby, I want it all night, give it to me baby" released as a single in 2011, the Birthday Cake performances... Britney has never been so overtly sexual. She's always been a tease, a cute girl next door with a naughty side.

Innocent isn't exactly the right word for Katy, but much of her career has been based on barely-ironically childish songs, videos, outfits and performances. The boobs have become more of a focus since the TD era, but in general I don't think Katy is even half as sexual as Rih.

To the general public Jordin is racially ambiguous and she wasn't quite as poppy as Rihanna. That's the point--Rihanna makes songs that smash the pop charts, but she could never do it the way she does with a wallflower image like Jordin's. And so Jordin is a flop now.

Originally posted by chilluminati

What about Beyonce? Do you think she is seen the same way or more toned down? Considering she dances more than Rihanna in a 'sexy' way but she doesn't really exude that attitude outside of her music. And also her last era wasn't too much like that.

Do you think maybe Aaliyah was a black artist that fitted the same way as Britney did? In being innocent?

At the risk of sounding racist myself, Bey is the embodiment of the "strong black woman." She flaunts her womanhood, figuratively and literally, and she has big pipes and lots of soul to back it up. She also doesn't just make pop music and never has. She aims for a very different market than Rihanna, but she's still another stereotype that white Americans accept. Being light-skinned and gorgeous doesn't hurt.

lol not at all. Aaliyah was a sharp songwriter. Like the blog in the OP says, she did have "something to say." She was never as manufactured and picture-perfect as Britney; her struggles in young adulthood were the cornerstone of her career.

Originally posted by Tsuko

Urban radio is for URBAN music. It's not only for black people, it's for EVERYBODY that makes urban music.

Adele and Eminem should get lots of airplay on urban radio, since they do black music. But they don't. They get ignored, because they're white. That's racist.

Eminem has had Lose Yourself and LTWYL and a few other songs do well on urban, but most of his songs get ignored.

Honestly, no, it isn't. Urban radio is for black people, because pop radio doesn't play black people right now. There is NO REASON white people should be played on urban radio; being white, they have access to BIGGER formats that most black singers don't have. Like, Thrift Shop doesn't need urban airplay to be a hit--it's already a hit! LOL, I'm pretty sure Adele doesn't need it either, but RITD did actually chart on R&B/Hip-Hop. And obviously, Eminem is doing just fine too...

[.aR]

I'm pretty sure there were more..... we're talking about the BB 100 right?




EDIT: OH When you said ENTIRE decade I thought you meant 200-2010....but you meant 2011-now?

[Ace Reject]

Originally posted by Twai

A better comparison would be comparing 2000-2002 with 2010-2012. I feel like you'd knock out a significant number of the people on that list who didn't have hits until later in the decade.

00-02
Mya (hip-pop)
Janet Jackson (full on pop)
Alicia Keys
Mariah Carey (hip-pop)
Brandy
Aaliyah
Macy Gray (not a R&B track)
Sonique (not a R&B track)
Debelah Morgan (not a R&B track)
Samantha Mumba (not a R&B track)
Tamia (with a DANCE remix)
Missy Elliot
Eve
Ashanti
Tweet
Erykah Badu
Mary J. Blige
(and if you count all women of color: Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, (arguably) Shakira, (arguably) Michelle Branch)

10-12
Nicki Minaj
Rihanna
(Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato)

So you see, it is STILL a staggering difference.

[Ace Reject]

Originally posted by PoisonPill

People in here saying black women can't pull off EDM are really ignorant of history. The very foundation of modern dance/club music is rooted in black female singers.

Seriously. I know most weren't around for the 70s (I wasn't) or the 90s (I was), but Google and Wikipedia are right there. A good half of the biggest disco hits of the 70s and dance hits of the 90s were sung (and in Donna's case, co-created) by BLACK WOMEN. Why is that not happening now?

[Ace Reject]

Originally posted by .aR

I'm pretty sure there were more..... we're talking about the BB 100 right?




EDIT: OH When you said ENTIRE decade I thought you meant 200-2010....but you meant 2011-now?

Last decade was 00-09. This decade is 10-12.

[Squall]

I don't get what is the problem though, who cares about the color of the skin? People are simply not here for R'n'B music anymore, they are mainly here for Pop, no matter the color of your skin, and I think that Rihanna proves it.

[Ace Reject]

Originally posted by Squall

I don't get what is the problem though, who cares about the color of the skin? People are simply not here for R'n'B music anymore, they are mainly here for Pop, no matter the color of your skin, and I think that Rihanna proves it.

Completely missing the point of the thread.

Why do you, in your head, automatically associate "black woman" with "R&B?" A very interesting question to ask.

[Signs]

Originally posted by ItsKingsleyBitch

It's just a sign of the times. And tbh a lot of these women are being stubborn.

I'm not going to speak on Latinas and other ethnicities, but throughout the history of music, black females (and artists in general) have always adapted to the times. Whether it was disco, rock N roll, pop, R&B or whatever... artists like Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Whitney, Janet, Diana Ross, etc etc etc have all kept up with the shifts in music and were influenced from various aspects and found success.

As others have mentioned, comparing the beginning of last decade to this decade is a bit of a stretch because R&B/urban/hip hop music was going STRONG last decade. But non-black artists adjusted to that - look at Jennifer Lopez: while she had her dance hits, she also had plenty of collaborations with urban artists, be it Ja Rule or LL Cool J or whoever. Britney collaborated with the Ying Yang Twins and Snoop and the Neptunes, Justin worked with urban producers and artists, hell Christina Aguilera was collaborating with Lil Kim, **** in 2002 NSYNC did a ****ing remix with Nelly (just mentioning this to show there was a period of time where lots of white artists were getting ignored for the urban takeover, but they did what they needed to do to stay relevant).

Now dance music has taken over, which the charts display, and tbh... Rihanna and Nicki are the only ones who kept up. Beyonce tried with Run The World, but I think the whole sample thing screwed that up, and so she just stuck with the classic sound for her (and Beyonce, unlike other black females, survived with 4, because she has a huge fan base and still found success and support from them & the general public). Call them sellouts, call them whatever, but to be a POP[ular] artist you must keep up with what is POP[ular] at the time.

If artists wanna keep making the same, tired ass music when it is clear that is not what the public is interested in at the moment, and they don't see the top of the charts, then that's their fault. The black R&B male artists (Ne Yo, Usher, Chris Brown, etc) have found success releasing mainstream-friendly singles while still keeping an R&B focus on their albums. It's not impossible.

Kelly Rowland had KILLER dance tracks and both When Love Takes Over & Commander reached #1 on Club here (WLTO also debuted on hot 100 and went top 30 on pop), showing potential, but she did not promote either anywhere and instead dedicated herself to Motivation Ciara could make things so easy for herself. She chooses not to. So could Brandy. So could a lot of artists. Brandy could pull off Where Have You Been (just imagine her voice on it and TELL ME it wouldn't work).

Maybe they can't even afford the producers? Who knows? Maybe there's stuff behind the scenes we don't understand.

Also, in the black community anyway, when an artist tries to cater to mainstream so that their career actually has some ****ing longevity, they get viciously attacked. So maybe they're just scared.

At any rate, it's sad and confusing.

OMG all of this. Especially the bold