There was a piece in NPR’s Morning Edition today about Billboard’s new “Social 50” chart that tracks music sales and popularity through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. At the end of the story there was a tag about what song is currently topping Billboard’s Ye Old Hot 100 chart, a supposed indicator of what Mainstream America is listening to. That song is this song:
I’m not going to waste your time listing the innumerable ways this song and video are stupid, pandering and unworthy of the faintest praise because I am taking it on assumption that you also have two eyes and ears. I’m also going to assume that you, like me, are shocked that Pink – excuse me, P!nk – exists and is still raking in money by pooping the same “Let’s be individuals together” dreck out of her mouth hole.
But am I being unfair? A look further down the Hot 100 makes me wonder several things: Am I the outlier and everyone I know is secretly listening to Bruno Mars and Ke$ha? Or maybe, are we the outliers and is the majority of the country doing that?
If so, who are these people? Is it strictly preteens or is the Billboard Hot 100 really indicative of median musical taste across age, location and socioeconomic identity? If not, what does this list even represent anymore in America (or maybe, what has it ever really represented)?
Hit the jump for more videos from the Hot 100’s current top ten.
Number 2 – Katy Perry’s boobs catch on fire to give hope to children with cancer
Number 6 – Ke$ha takes a rusty knife and fucks your ear with it
Number 8 – Forget P!nk, Nelly is still putting out singles? I kinda like this song, though…
Number 9 – Will.I.Am licks the blood off that knife Ke$ha had.
Where have you been? The standard for mainstream pop culture has determined by 12-year-old girls for at least a decade.
I would also include those standards for the average American’s understanding of economics and politics.
I was going to rant about the author being out of touch, but meh. The balance of power between the supposed cultural elite and the cultural hoi polloi is just boring.
You’re not at all wrong that the Billboard Top 100 (and therefore the entire playlist of Z100 in town) is determined by those between 12 and 25. 25 max. You’re right that Bruno Mars and Kesha are like being earfucked with a rusty knife.
I’ve been enjoying Pink for a while now though. Slightly better produced than the average. Which is difficult to really find in a music industry controlled by 12 year old girls.
Billboard is pretty much the map guiding the sinking ship that is the music industry. SoundScan charts mean absolutely nothing. Radio play means even less than nothing when all the major markets are controlled by Clear Channel.
I keep a preset for “Portland’s Hot Party Hits” on my car stereo just to give myself a little perspective. In particular, “Like a G6” makes me want to poke my ears out with an icepick.
@c&b
That’s sort of what I thought. Graham is right that the author is desperately out of touch and D is not telling me anything I didn’t know, but even if twelve-year-old girls have been controlling the course of the Hot 100 for the last ten years (or, I’d argue, since it’s creation. The first number one on the 100 was by Ricky Nelson…) it seems like ten years ago even someone as out of touch as me would recognize at least one song in the top 10.
BUT – and it’s a big but – ten years ago I was thirteen, so I might be waxing nostalgic for a monoculture that never really existed. At the time I assumed everyone could name a Spice Girls or Backstreet Boys song on hearing it, but that’s probably because everyone I knew was also thirteen.
I’ll fully admit to downloading the complete UK Top 40 each week. There’s a lot of good stuff on that chart.
I sang Tik Tok at karaoke on Saturday. And I went to Katy Perry née Hudson’s last all-ages show at the Crystal.
The thing is, there isn’t a music market now. There’s a whole bunch of them. This list covers the largest and most profitable one; we just don’t have charts for the markets that contain actual music.
Mainstream America isn’t a music fan, but it buys a fuck of a lot of music. Think the end cap at Wal-Mart.
I recognize the names of most of the artists, mainly from reading entertainment news. But I’d be hard pressed to name a song if I heard it on the car radio (well, without the help of modern day car radios that give you the artist name and song name).
@Dave: If you’re 23 and waxing nostalgic for the pop culture of ten years ago, I weep for you. But in 2000 CD sales were already plummeting and Metallica was getting all upset about Napster — the industry has been dying for over a decade and their nonresponse to the situation hasn’t helped them.
The Beatles got on board with Itunes last month? Are you fucking kidding me? Running anti-piracy ads before movies, really? DRM-protected cds, DRM-protected downloads? Suing people because their kid has Limewire? None of that has gotten their market back, it’s never coming back.
The charts are based on sales. People who buy actual mass-market pop CDs are probably not that intelligent. You need to look at the critics’ reviews to see what is actually good.
For those of you who like to steal music the old fashioned way, here is my ever six month or so ritual:
1) Go find a couple of critics/websites/magazines and get their list of the top 10/25 albums of the year.(or albums of the year so far).
1.5)See which albums/artists appear on more than one list.
2. Order those albums at the Multnomah County Library. (you can have up to 15 holds!)
3. Rip them.
4. Repeat.
5. Then delete the songs once you have listened to them and return the CDs to the library. notgonnahappen .
@c&b
I think I was more waxing nostalgic for the simplicity of that teenage perception that everyone is on the same cultural page that you are. I still have no idea how pervasive and huge the groups I couldn’t avoid back then actually were in the minds the twenty-somethings who listened to more than 94.7 and Z100.
I use Multnomah County for music quite a bit. However, the album is good, I typically buy it on vinyl when available.
The charts always have been and always will be determined by teenagers. Have a look at concert footage of the Beatles in the 60s, and see if you can spot anyone over the age of 30 (or 20 for that matter). The biggest band in the mid 70s was the Bay City Rollers, not the Sex Pistols. The Smiths were outsold in the 80s by Wham and Duran Duran. None of the mid-90s Britpop bands outsold the Spice Girls. Etc.
Go to the BBC Radio website, and listen to Radcliffe & Maconie. You’ll get more variety, more interest, and more ‘new favorite band’s in 6 hours a week than in a lifetime of listening to any radio station in Portland.