Listicles Don’t Mean Shit: Key Takeaways From The Apple Music Top 100 Albums.
For years music lists have always been used as a pivotal point in grading artists and determining the magnitude of their artistic success. From Billboard charts, the Grammy’s to Nigerian based music data company Turntables, the success of a song has always been recorded and determined by available data. Now that’s why we have the “Best Original Song” category in the Grammy Awards that has seen several industry players, including Eminem, Billie Eilish and more scoop the much coveted award. So it's quite comprehensible that the “Apple Music 100 Best Albums Of The 21st Century” has ruffled a couple of feathers, especially the individuals in music and the music business.
In the past month, Apple music has run a campaign ranking the best 100 albums of the 21st century. As usual, music is a relative consumer product, what fancies me will definitely not match with everyone’s taste, so kudos to the efforts put by the whole team to compile this list. Using professionals in the music industry, Apple music teamed up with songwriters, producers, selected artists among others to curate, according to them, a compilation of the best 100 Albums.
Sadly prejudiced nature of these lists have always been a reflection of society, while most may assume that streaming platforms are affordable to most habitants of Africa, unfortunately it is quite the opposite. According to researched date, less than 3.3% of Africans use streaming platforms, it basically means that traditional media still rules music consumption and promotion. Yes avid reader, Spotify, Apple Music ,Deezer and the likes still have a long way to create a similar monopoly in music output as compared to Radio and Television.
Fela Kuti
For a long time Africans have seeked external art validation, perhaps it's the inferiority complex from having been dominated by our colonial masters but we have positioned ourselves to be at the mercy of those that are presumably above us. Backing up the statement we can see Africans reaction from missing on the list, we are NOT happy. The greats of our continent: for instance a trailblazer like Angelique Kidjo, who took over the continent with her crystal yet powerful voice or the genre bending wizard Fela Kuti who curved his own genre, were given a cold shoulder. If you know the story behind Kalakuta, you realise that maybe Water does get enemy. With a “diverse” list that reflected intentional white privilege, genre ignorance and of course poor archive strength, the album list concentrated on the American audience with Jamaicans (Bob Marley) and Latinos (Bad Bunny) making a brief but non-impactful appearance.
While we applaud the efforts and time spent by the panel, you can clearly see the lack of recognition of the African talent despite it being a big role player when it comes to global sound. At the moment Afrobeats has been facing a graceful paradigm shift receiving international recognition. From Selena Gomez collaborating with Rema on the “Calm Down” remix, to Asake selling out the O2 arena, the shrug was definitely an insult to our ancestors and victims of the slavery market in pre colonial Ghana. This might be the case if most Africans still rely on traditional media for their music. Remember it was not until less than five years ago that the Digital Streaming Platforms opened their market for Africans. When all is said and done, maybe it was not intentional that Africans were missing from the list. Perhaps our data was not sufficient enough or someone made sure the available data was not sufficient.
“Blond” - Frank Ocean
So the shift in conversation switches from a lack of recognition point to the gender wars conversation. Arguably, the top ten list was quite predictable , well apart from Frank Ocean’s “Blonde.” The lonesome, gentle and luscious curation of the project from songs such as ‘Pink + White,’ that depict the grueling emotion of proving to your muse while ‘Nights’ sum up the melancholia experienced by our individualist nature. The rest of the candidates fitted in perfectly with a mixture of new and old age artists: Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles and more. As for the gender balance, let’s take a deep dive. For its inaugural list, Apple music featured 25 female artists and 75 male artists (this is inclusive of the bands). I think this conversation is a bit outdated, I can already predict what music critics, journalists and feminists will say, “there aren’t enough women in the industry.” Well hello? We had influential projects from female heavyweight Nicki Minaj’s debut project “The Pinkprint,” Emotional Oranges “The Juice:Vol II” trust me the list goes on.
I am sure you are asking yourself what is the real issue here? The constant ignorance, mistreatment and misplacement of women in the entertainment scene. I do not mean to sound woke or trigger any of my fellow twitter fingers, nay that is not my intention. As a woman in the industry, I heavily face challenges of male chauvinism and ignorance in rooms where men are involved. What bothers me most is the constant mansplaining as if I do not possess self awareness as a fruit of the unholy spirit, constantly testing my intellectual ability. Back to the main point, I believe the industry players should create a space and an opportunity to highlight women in the industry. As music taste is subjective, we often get men and women gravitate towards different genres. The lack of female representation in the boardrooms brings a vacuum in some of the genres and definitely in the artists and their products. For instance, the rise of female executives in the African market has resulted in an increase of music consumption all over the continent. Apart from more mentorship spaces for women in the industry, this enables the creation of a chain system that enables reliability and flow of information within the community.
When the cycle of information is steady, it creates more executives in the space creating a boomerang effect with the listicles, if they are necessary at all. That is how we have more people in the academies and boardrooms understanding the impact of different genres to different communities. With this information, the Apple Music 100 Albums chart was a reflection of lack of representation. In addition the Apple Music Round Table that recently premiered on the company’s YouTube channel further echoes my concerns. Despite HipHop/Rap and R&B increasing in streaming over the past ten years, it was a shame to see the two genres heavily discriminated against. While it paid homage to some of the best HipHop albums: 50 Cent’s “Get Rich Or Die Trying” and N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton,” I was quite disturbed to learn none of D.M.X’s albums made it to the list despite achieving astronomical success during its release. Every HipHop head knows that “aaaaayo“ concert that cemented DMX as one of the best crowdmovers of our time.
Actually it’s now sinking in that EVE, Lil Kim, or even Nicki Minaj didn’t make it to the list. How enraging is it that the women who actually changed the trajectory of HipHop did not even get their flowers. Once again, having the wrong people in the wrong room. According to R&B Jermaine Dupri’s tweet, he expressed his disappointment with the list as he felt it was heavily ignored. While most people might oppose this since Lauryn Hill’s tape was ranked as the Best Album, it doesn't bring to understanding how, SZA’s “SOS,” Lorde’s “Heroine” or even “All Eyez On Me,” by Tupac were on the bottom half of the list.
Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director, acknowledged that putting together the list was “practically mission impossible.” At the end of the day, one thing is clear: music is absolutely subjective. While the English preached to each their own, I would say we should take space and time to accommodate the artists, both new and old, and understand the concept and effort taken to put together the pieces. Just like how grades didn’t make an impact on our adult life, is the same way these lists are curated and propagated to create a conversation so trust me it's not that serious. If it was up to me, I might have placed E-Sir’s “Nimefiika” as the best album but hey that’s just me.
Check out the full Apple Music Top 100 list here.
