For many African American music artists, it was a down year with respect to record sales. Technology may have contributed to the lackluster numbers. For instance, Rhapsody International Inc. and Thumbplay Inc. offer the ability to pick almost any song or album and play it instantly on a mobile device that connects to the Internet for a cost of $10 a month. Also, the downwardly spiraling economy led to a huge drop in concert ticket sales in 2010.
Although these factors have impacted the industry across all genres, African American artists have not been able to weather the storm as well as their white counterparts. For example, with respect to concert revenue, many major African American artists did well but not when compared to whites. Bon Jovi’s top-ranked tour raked in $108.2 million, and hot newcomers like Lady Gaga ($51 million) and Justin Bieber ($48 million) pulled in a fair share of loot, too. Then there were old-school artists like James Taylor and Carole King, who also did well ($50.7 million). Country music had eight acts among the top grossing 30 concerts of the year.
In terms of sales, the year’s top-selling artists, in units sold in 2010, were white — with the exception of Michael Jackson, who ranked eighth, just above the Zac Brown Band. The top five in order were Taylor Swift, Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Justin Bieber, and the “Glee” cast. Four of those five had the year’s best selling album. Sade, Drake and Usher were in the bottom 10, all with sales of less than 1.3 million in 2010.
What does this mean? It is not an indictment of talent or the artist; however it may reflect the type of music and the lyrics people are willing to listen to and pay for. Many of the aforementioned do not sing of materialism, murder, sex, or violence but of subjects that transcend ethnic distinctions that a large number of African American artists, often in a fungible attempt to “keep it real,” fail to realize.
Yes, this is a lesson that many artists, particularly those in the genre of hip-hop and R&B, cannot comprehend, for they believe and accept without question that they can only survive and make money by speaking of such issues. As many know, money doesn’t lie, and in the case of 2010’s sales receipts, there definitely are other subjects music fans care to listen to.
–torrance stephens
Torrance Stephens, ph.d., is author of the blog rawdawgb.blogspot.com.
