2013 was quite the year in music as many of our favorites returned to inspire us all. Justin Timberlake released an astounding two albums, while Robin Thicke had one of the biggest years of his entire career thanks to the Pharrell assisted "Blurred Lines." R. Kelly proved that age ain't nothing but a number, by releasing one of the years' most explicit albums, Black Panties at the age of 47. Jay Z blessed out ears with another timeless album, as his wife waited until the end of the year to release the biggest selling album for a female artist of 2013.
We were also introduced to a few new acts, some of whom have been struggling for years to make it big, and others who found an immediate fanbase. TGT, Ariana Grande, K. Michelle, and Tamar Braxton all enjoyed success not only by the standards of fans, but also critics.
2013 was a big year in music, but according to TIME, African-American artist didn't enjoy the same level of accomplishment as their Caucasian counterparts. Despite Beyonce, Wale, J. Cole, Jay Z, Kanye West and Drake all having number one albums, none of them topped the Billboard Hot 100. The only black artists to hold that top honor were Rihanna for her collaboration with Eminem on "The Monster," and Pharrell/T.I. for "Blurred Lines."
TIME STAFF--Hip-hop stars 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. In fact, they and other African-American 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 color recorded every chart-topping hit. Rather, African-American 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.
The color omission also applied to this year’s recent inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which there is not one living African-American artist among them — E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemmons will be posthumously inducted.
As for why this is happening, Molanphy wrote: “Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color…and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.”
[TIME]
