Billboard Hot 100 : 01/25/2014

[mluv]

There was an article about the billboard charts & how they're squeezing out true r&b/urban artists because they changed the way they calculated it. Before they used to track sales from stores in those urban areas so it was specifically targeted to people who were listening to those stations. Billboard changed to start including total digital sales around the end of 2012 , which meant that it was no longer specific to the listeners in those areas. The article was actually about the lack of people of color on those charts and how the blue eyed soul singers dominated the chart. Overall they also talked about how the hot 100 for the entire 2013 year did not have one person of color who had a number 1. Even though they were some who were featured like Rihanna and Pharrel, there were no main acts. They said that's the first time it's ever happened in the charts history.

[Deleted]

Jan 16, 2014 19:33:07 GMT -5 mluv said:

There was an article about the billboard charts & how they're squeezing out true r&b/urban artists because they changed the way they calculated it. Before they used to track sales from stores in those urban areas so it was specifically targeted to people who were listening to those stations. Billboard changed to start including total digital sales around the end of 2012 , which meant that it was no longer specific to the listeners. The article was actually about the lack of people of color on those charts and how the blue eyed soul singers dominated the chart. Overall they also talked about how the hot 100 for the entire 2013 year did not have one person of color who had a number 1. Even though they were some who were featured like Rihanna and Pharrel, there were no main acts. They said that's the first time it's ever happened in the charts history.

pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/126164/state-whitewashing-radio

[Verisimilitude]

The Lorde can transcend any genre... "Royals" can even be called jazz if it's able to chart in their top 50. :kii:

[mluv]

Thanks. I'll check out that thread.

[jebsib]

The "Mirrors" issue: When the album was released, a ton of Justin tracks landed on the Hot r&b/ Hip-Hop chart, based on their content.
BB - or the label - deemed that "Mirrors" did not fit in to that mold, so it conspicuously did not debut.

Fast forward several more weeks: "Mirrors" is a huge Hot 100 Top 10 and started to get traction at r&b radio outlets as the official follow-up to "Suit and Tie".
It didn't break records, but I think it got into the top 30 on r&b airplay (Comparable, or better than many Mackelmore airplay tracks).

At that point BB could have done two things: Realize that "Mirrors" did in fact have r&b audience appeal and allow it to chart, or do nothing.
It did the latter.
If it did debut, it would have materialized out of the blue at #2 or #1, thus calling major attention to their genre-determining policy.
I would have loved to see what would have happened if "Mirrors" had gone top 3 r&b airplay!

My two cents: I hear what everyone is saying about the r&b chart not representing the urban audience anymore.
Rather it is revealing what the top r&b songs in the USA are, regardless of demo.
But isn't that the mission statement of the chart? Where the labels make their money?

Because of the death of the retail model, the only way currently to measure what urban audiences like is via albums and r&b radio formats.
And there are dozens of charts to analyze those metrics.

The blue eyes soul/ hip hop thing is probably a fad, coincidentally coinciding with the new chart rules.
Had the chart launched a year earlier, it would have been dominated by Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Jay-Z.

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

Jan 17, 2014 9:19:03 GMT -5 jebsib said:

The "Mirrors" issue: When the album was released, a ton of Justin tracks landed on the Hot r&b/ Hip-Hop chart, based on their content.
BB - or the label - deemed that "Mirrors" did not fit in to that mold, so it conspicuously did not debut.

Fast forward several more weeks: "Mirrors" is a huge Hot 100 Top 10 and started to get traction at r&b radio outlets as the official follow-up to "Suit and Tie".
It didn't break records, but I think it got into the top 30 on r&b airplay (Comparable, or better than many Mackelmore airplay tracks).

At that point BB could have done two things: Realize that "Mirrors" did in fact have r&b audience appeal and allow it to chart, or do nothing.
It did the latter.
If it did debut, it would have materialized out of the blue at #2 or #1, thus calling major attention to their genre-determining policy.
I would have loved to see what would have happened if "Mirrors" had gone top 3 r&b airplay!

My two cents: I hear what everyone is saying about the r&b chart not representing the urban audience anymore.
Rather it is revealing what the top r&b songs in the USA are, regardless of demo.
But isn't that the mission statement of the chart? Where the labels make their money?

Because of the death of the retail model, the only way currently to measure what urban audiences like is via albums and r&b radio formats.
And there are dozens of charts to analyze those metrics.

The blue eyes soul/ hip hop thing is probably a fad, coincidentally coinciding with the new chart rules.
Had the chart launched a year earlier, it would have been dominated by Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Jay-Z.

I have a problem with Billboard defining the genres of music and rather would have the radio stations define the genres... Either way at some point though BB was going to have to what it did. The spotifys of the world are taking over. However, BB can get location information from streaming and ondemand users and use that for it's R&B chart instead of sales. Additionally, they could do the same thing for iTunes sales and sales elsewhere. The technology exists for that. How long does radio really have left in it honestly as it stands right now?

[jebsib]

Has it been confirmed WHO classifies the songs?
I always assumed it was the specific Billboard chart managers, but perhaps the labels?

If it IS Billboard, its a mixed bag.
I trust long-stays like Silvio P, Wade Jessen, even Gary Trust.
But their new hires, tabloid mentality and website inefficiencies are such hot messes... I can't pretend to trust ALL their decisions anymore.