What if you have really good intentions, and you’re woke as fuck and you care about black people like you really love them and deeply care about black empowerment and you are committed to supporting black people in the struggle for justice? Like you dedicate your life to ending racism and you work hard every day to make the world more just and every once in a while in love and solidarity you want to refer to your black friends as my n–?
Trick question–if you’re really woke af, you know white people shouldn’t say the n-word.
So no matter what you’ve heard, no matter how extensive you think your hood pass is, no matter how noble your intentions or how great your cultural knowledge, if you are white the rule stands.
When Kanye mounted the stage and took the mic from a shell-shocked Taylor Swift, a nation wept for her embarrassment and heartbreak.
Revenge, best served cold, is Taylor’s.
Five years after Kanye questioned her winning over Queen B, Swift has solidified her name as Pop music’s Queen Dujour, ruling in the kingdom of pop with her princes from One Direction. No bows down to Beyonce, no calls of hip hop hooray. Even Pharrell’s ubiquitous “Happy” lost out to Katy Perry.
Given the list of the AMA’s winners yesterday, I wonder if pop music will continue its trend of decreasing diversity. Last years biggest records sported a roster of mostly white performers. Makes sense in a country that is majority white, right? Well , given the history of music and the massive popularity of hip Hop and rap, the last decade provided a more diverse cast of artists than recent years. America itself is increasingly diverse, with nearly 30% of Americans belonging to a minority group. When it comes to the young ‘uns–kids under 1–over half of them are minorities. So the future of music looks diverse but…..
If this year’s AMA’s are any indication, this years top selling songsters this year may again check the same box off on the census. Is the audience shifting, are results skewed by sophomore social media voters, or are the times a-changing? Weigh in below!
Have you checked out this lid-blowing secret from the music industry? Hold on to your Katy Perry pompoms. Your favorite star many not have birthed their biggest hit.
The headline for me isn’t that one man is so amazing that he made all these hits, but that the music industry functions much the same as, say, the peanut butter or paper towel industry in that packaging changes, but behind the scenes, companies are more connected than their brand names would suggest. We cheer our hearts for our beloved pop stars, without realizing we are being sold a prefab fabulousness.
The label holdings of Universal, the largest of the four major music companies. That’s right, the majority of music in America is produced under one of four companies.
While Boy in a Band celebrated the amazinosity of Max Martin, lots of people would use a word other than hero. The pop market of the last twenty years has been called flaccid and insipid, with songs increasingly indistinguishable from each other.
Far from being a fair competition between hundreds of thousands of want-to-be-stars competing not for industry judges or reality TV show audiences, it is an INDUSTRY with a massive internal structure completely mysterious and unknown most consumers. Call it the MIC, Musical Industrial Complex. And before you shout American Idol at me, reality TV shows determine the total course of the music industry in the same way that Project Runway runs New York fashion week. A few breakout stars each season are not the primary drivers of the multibillion-dollar music business.
Surprise, the song is not just a spontaneous creative flash from your favorite singer, but part of a process that creates a product for sale.
Sure, the industry works, pumping out stars and filling a variety of pockets, but do you ever wonder what music you would hear if we had access to fresh faces, unheard voices pulled not from the most popular but from the best.
Musical talent abounds in hidden corners of every city. The music industry selects what they think will be profitable. As Billy Sparks said in Purple rain “This is a business; you ain’t gone too far to see that…” have you? Of the hundreds of thousands of records released by record labels this year, only a few hundred get mass market airplay, and fewer still get the massive distribution needed to become a hit. Never mind the thousands of talented people that never get that break. Think of all those talent show videos where judges are blown away by a deep well of talent in an unsuspecting contestant. Have you ever seen someone in your own community who can really belt it out—but is far from a record deal? What about your favorite local band that never made it big?
So while I doff my hat to the creative genius behind Baby Hit Me One More Time, I also say, move over Max and let someone else shine. There will be hits, even if you don’t write them all.
Susan X Jane 