news: there were no black artists with #1 singles in 2013

Not a single black artist scored a No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2013? This cannot be true. People of color have always been innovators of culture amongst different communities in various arenas, let alone music. Does this confirm a lack of diversity in an industry fueled by POC? 

“2013 marked the first-ever year since Billboard began charting Top 40 songs in 1958 that zero black artists made their way to the top of the singles chart,” says Soundcheck.

“It almost reminds me of the ’50s and ’60s when you had a lot of music that was being made by white artists and being popularized by them but it was coming from black artists. It’s much easier to sell a Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, an Eminem, a Justin Timberlake, to mainstream audiences than it is to sell a Jay Z. It is still a preferred feeling in mainstream pop culture that if we can find an attractive white act to do it, why not?”

Listen to the full interview here: http://soundcheck.wnyc.org/story/black-artists-top-singles-chart-2013/