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the book is forthcoming. by Danyel Smith. a history of black women in pop. from It Books/HarperCollins (2014). now writing. tumbling this stuff keeps me inspired, and keeps my brain sane.
Posts tagged radio

'...urban radio has been at odds with the way Arbitron calculates multicultural listenership. In fact, the disputes even hit the halls of Congress. Due to challenges over its rating gathering methods by the PPM Coalition (made up of Black and Hispanic broadcasters), Arbitron testified to Congress in 2007 about its measurement techniques and the under-counting of minority listeners. Even The Media Ratings Council was unsatisfied with Arbitron’s methods and declined to certify Arbitron’s methods in all of its markets.' 

…the group was extremely upset that we were launching the first single at Urban Radio! They thought this was a racial slight and that we were, as a company, treating them like second-class citizens. Why wouldn’t we just take the single directly to Top 40 radio?  They grew up listening to the BBC, where radio formats weren’t segregated as they are here…They needed to know that commercial radio and its demographic fragmentation was a condition of the advertising industry in the States and not some arbitrary caste system that we supported. more.

…the group was extremely upset that we were launching the first single at Urban Radio! They thought this was a racial slight and that we were, as a company, treating them like second-class citizens. Why wouldn’t we just take the single directly to Top 40 radio?  They grew up listening to the BBC, where radio formats weren’t segregated as they are here…They needed to know that commercial radio and its demographic fragmentation was a condition of the advertising industry in the States and not some arbitrary caste system that we supported.

more.

These sessions yielded “All I Have,” a duet with Jennifer Lopez and LL Cool J…[songwriter Makeba] Riddick not only had her first song on the radio, but it soared to No. 1…“I was 21 years old, I didn’t know what that meant…Not only did it go No. 1 but it stayed there for [four] weeks and I was just like ‘OK,’ and everybody was calling me and congratulating me and asking me if I knew what it meant..It didn’t really impact me what that meant until after the record was over. Now it was time to do it again.”

more.

'For decades, the song of the summer would emerge each year following a pattern as predictable as the beach tides. Pop radio would get it rolling before school let out, and soon the song — inevitably one with a big, playful beat and an irresistible hook — would blare from car stereos everywhere. Then came prom singalongs as the song finally became ubiquitous around the Fourth of July. In 1987, it was Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” In 2003, Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love.” But the success of this summer’s hit, Carly Rae Jepsen’s cheerfully flirty “Call Me Maybe,” shows how much the hitmaking machine, as well as the music industry itself, has been upended by social media.