adminBlack artists like Beyonce, Jay Z and Kanye West may have the power to turn everything they touch into gold but not when it comes to scoring a huge pop hit in 2013. Black artists did not have a single No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in all of last year.According to writer Chris Molanphy, who surveys the pop charts, in a piece for Slate, this is the first time this had happened in the Billboard chart‘s 55 years.
It represents a huge contrast to 10 years ago when a person of a colour recorded every chart-topping hit.
Rather, black artists were featured on other artists’ songs last year, such as Rihanna on Eminem’s “The Monster” and T.I. and Pharrell on Robin Thicke’s inescapable summer hit “Blurred Lines.”
In a similar role reversal, Molanphy also cited that white artists topped the No. 1 spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart in 44 out of the 52 weeks last year.
As for why this is happening, Molanphy wrote: “Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing colour … and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.” — TIME magazine
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