Or more accurately...Stone lovers love anything Stone does
Why Did Joss Stone Sell More Reggae Albums Than Any Black Artist in 2015?
Joss Stone was crowned Billboard’s Reggae Artist of the Year, highlighting the whiteness of pop consumer tastes. Music fans should take stock of their biases.
Billboard announced Tuesday that British soul singer Joss Stone is their Reggae Artist of the Year, and the “accolade” sparked widespread scoffs and criticisms on social media. In a year when race, appropriation, and white privilege have been constant points of national conversation, one of the country’s biggest music media platforms continues to rub salt in the proverbial wound of the Black music-buying public.
As black commentators have only gotten more adamant in drawing attention to the industry’s penchant for celebrating white faces in black genres, Billboard has delivered an impressive litany of Caucasity-informed faux pas that fly in the face of good taste and judgement: its head-scratching Greatest Rappers list, a borderline-insulting Greatest R&B artists list, its ongoing commitment to legitimizing Iggy Azalea, delivering the single whitest music-related awards show in a season overstuffed with them and now—it’s crowned the most unconvincing soul singer in pop as reggae artist of 2015.
Why Did Joss Stone Sell More Reggae Albums Than Any Black Artist in 2015?
Joss Stone was crowned Billboard’s Reggae Artist of the Year, highlighting the whiteness of pop consumer tastes. Music fans should take stock of their biases.
Billboard announced Tuesday that British soul singer Joss Stone is their Reggae Artist of the Year, and the “accolade” sparked widespread scoffs and criticisms on social media. In a year when race, appropriation, and white privilege have been constant points of national conversation, one of the country’s biggest music media platforms continues to rub salt in the proverbial wound of the Black music-buying public.
As black commentators have only gotten more adamant in drawing attention to the industry’s penchant for celebrating white faces in black genres, Billboard has delivered an impressive litany of Caucasity-informed faux pas that fly in the face of good taste and judgement: its head-scratching Greatest Rappers list, a borderline-insulting Greatest R&B artists list, its ongoing commitment to legitimizing Iggy Azalea, delivering the single whitest music-related awards show in a season overstuffed with them and now—it’s crowned the most unconvincing soul singer in pop as reggae artist of 2015.
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