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Billboard releases their Top 100 Year End Artists Chart and only one artist in the top 10 is female

Vector

Banned
Feb 28, 2018
7,266
So Billboard announced the year-end music charts and there is a grand total of one woman in the top 10 and 4 women in the entire top 20 which got me thinking - why is it that music made by women is considered uncool?

Men and women of all backgrounds have no issue listening to male artists and admitting to liking them, but it's not the same with female artists - they're often seen as guilty pleasures or "too mainstream" (which is ironic as the actual stats point to female pop and music in general NOT being remotely as popular)

What can we do to change this perception if anything?

Billboard Year-End Artists Chart for 2020 said:
1. Post Malone
2. The Weeknd
3. Roddy Ricch
4. DaBaby
5. Drake
6. Juice WRLD
7. Lil Baby
8. Harry Styles
9. Taylor Swift
10. Pop Smoke
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List is based on chart performance/overall music consumption (sales, streams and airplay)

source
 
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MIMIC

MIMIC

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Dec 18, 2017
8,918
Megan Thee Stallion didn't make the cut? I figured she would be in the top 5.
 
JakeNoseIt

JakeNoseIt

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Oct 27, 2017
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Taylor Swift should be higher & Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion should easily be in the top 10

edit for the record, I believe this is based on their actual charts. Just saying not enough of ya'll listened to them or Hayley Williams lmao
 
dyelawn91

dyelawn91

Member
Jan 16, 2018
477
Quite a conclusion to reach from one data set. Go look at the year end lists from Stereogum, Pitchfork, and other music blogs. You'll seen tons and tons of female artists.
 
OP
OP

Vector

Banned
Feb 28, 2018
7,266
dyelawn91 said:
Quite a conclusion to reach from one data set. Go look at the year end lists from Stereogum or Pitchfork and you'll seen tons and tons of female artists.
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Those are critics - this chart is based on music consumption (streaming, sales, and airplay) and reflect the general public's preference (which apparently is not kind to female artists)
 
mreddie

mreddie

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Oct 26, 2017
46,186
WAP was only one song and I think Megan's album came out too late to be on the list which is why I hate year end lists when it isn't even the 2nd week of December yet.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

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Oct 27, 2017
22,216
dyelawn91 said:
Quite a conclusion to reach from one data set. Go look at the year end lists from Stereogum, Pitchfork, and other music blogs. You'll seen tons and tons of female artists.
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Yep. Billboard lmao
mreddie said:
WAP was only one song and I think Megan's album came out too late to be on the list which is why I hate year end lists when it isn't even the 2nd week of December yet.
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Should do it as my dad does it. Top 75, one week past January. Pick one song from the next year as a bonus. (Or 25)
 
collige

collige

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Oct 31, 2017
12,772
I think the big trend is that hip-hop has almost completely taken over the pop charts and it's traditionally very male focused. 2020 is a particularly skewed year too, the numbers don't seem quite as bad (though still bad) if you go back a few years.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

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Oct 25, 2017
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How exactly are they calculating Top Artist status? Seems like it's heavily weighted towards artists with a catalogue of existing content, which is why legacy acts like Queen and The Beatles have placement on the chart. Also explains why Taylor was the only artist to crack the overall top ten. Comparatively, Megan Thee Stallion only put out a full album late into the year.
 
Peru

Peru

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Oct 26, 2017
6,499
Hip hop has dominated these charts for the past couple of years and that genre is unfortunately male and macho dominated.

Some years ago the chart was more equal
 
Goldenroad

Goldenroad

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Nov 2, 2017
9,475
blame space said:
when did liking pop music become cool
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Maybe in the '60's. British Invasion, that era...because let's be real, the Beatles WERE cool as fuck. Probably the coolest. But what made them the coolest is that their success making pop records allowed them to start making experimental music and pushing the boundaries of the genre, and it just sucks that musicians don't do that anymore. If anything they start making less "risky" music, and all hiring the same producers and engineers to make sure their records sound fit for Top 40 radio. I know I'm being very reductive here, and I don't think all pop music now is inherently bad, but to me, it feels like musicians used to dictate the music that was played on the radio and now the radio dictates the kind of music that musicians have to make. Just look at the variety of music that used to be in the charts in the '60's, 70's, hell even into the early '90's, and now look at the charts. It used to be acts like the Who, Pink Floyd, the Talking Heads, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder could all share space on these Billboard lists and now it basically all has to sound relatively within the same style of music to be able to make the charts.

Sorry...end of my old man rant. I'd just love to hear more variety in pop music these days.
 
Jersey_Tom

Jersey_Tom

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Dec 2, 2017
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Y'all need to stop sleeping on Phoebe.

RecklessWideAlabamamapturtle-max-1mb.gif
 
Gustaf

Gustaf

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Oct 28, 2017
14,926
i dont agree with OP conclusion,

but i belive that there are men that probably dont listen to music made by women because they see it as "girly" or something

while women will listen to everything independently of the author.
 
Pein

Pein

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Oct 25, 2017
8,494
NYC
you'd think Ariana grande would be up there, hell I don't think post Malone even released anything this year
 
Goldenroad

Goldenroad

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Nov 2, 2017
9,475
Mushroomer25 said:
How exactly are they calculating Top Artist status? Seems like it's heavily weighted towards artists with a catalogue of existing content, which is why legacy acts like Queen and The Beatles have placement on the chart. Also explains why Taylor was the only artist to crack the overall top ten. Comparatively, Megan Thee Stallion only put out a full album late into the year.
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It's a little more complicated than it used to be, but it's based on physical record sales as well as "on-demand streaming, and digital track sales by way an an algorthim utilizing data from all the major on demand audio subscription services including Spotify, Apple Music, etc." It's basically assessing "Who's music is being listened to the most, or purchased the most, via sources that are trackable by Billboard?" There's no real subjectivity to it. It's not like Billboard says "We as critics subjectively decided that Post Malone is the #1 artist of the year". It's pretty much entirely based on record sales and amount of times a given artist is streamed on various streaming services.

I'm just going to add, the streaming things skew the numbers in a way that I don't agree is really fair. Like, if I own the White Album on vinyl (I do), and I listen to 100 times in 2020, that doesn't even count as a single "purchase" or "listen" for the Beatles based on the Billboard charts because I bought that record back in high school. But if I listen to the White Album on Spotify 100 times then that does count towards their Billboard numbers...so it's not necessarily a metric of who's music is being listened to the most...but I can't really think of another way to measure these kinds of numbers either so Billboard charts are kind of as close as you can get to figuring out what people are listening to the most.

It used to just be record/album sales. That was it. It didn't matter if you bought an album and never listened to it, or bought it and listened to it 1000 times. It was still just one sale. It was just easier to compare apples to apples doing it that way I guess.
 
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Kurita

Kurita

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Oct 26, 2017
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Goldenroad said:
Sorry...end of my old man rant. I'd just love to hear more variety in pop music these days.
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TheBaldwin

TheBaldwin

Member
Feb 25, 2018
8,526
Main thing I notice as well is that a lot of these artists had work that was there at the beginning of the year.

most of the main competitors in this I think had albums come out in the latter half of the year


Pein said:
you'd think Ariana grande would be up there, hell I don't think post Malone even released anything this year
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Her album came out at the end of October so it's only really had a month to make major sales

post's album came out December 2019 but has had the whole of 2020 to accumulate sales and streams
 
Zemst

Zemst

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Oct 27, 2017
3,368
This chart is dominated by rappers, which has been the dominant popular music for the longest, which in turn is dominated by male voices. I don't think it has anything to do with uncool... and people not reading a simple op talking about pitchfork list. This is based on sales and consumption.
 
kirby_fox

kirby_fox

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,733
Midwest USA
These numbers are weird. #3 Roddy Ricch has had one song peak at #66 on their charts. But was featured in 2 songs- one by Pop Smoke that hit #40 and one by DaBaby that hit #8.

I don't get how that translates to #3 artist overall. They got a weird algorithm.
 
Zemst

Zemst

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,368
kirby_fox said:
These numbers are weird. #3 Roddy Ricch has had one song peak at #66 on their charts. But was featured in 2 songs- one by Pop Smoke that hit #40 and one by DaBaby that hit #8.

I don't get how that translates to #3 artist overall. They got a weird algorithm.
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Roddy had a number one song on the hot 100 though.
 
Bigwombat

Bigwombat

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
3,416
All I'm getting out of this chart is that I am old. Fuck, I haven't even seen half of the names on this top ten list.

As old as it sounds I might throw on the mtv or vh1 music video channels to see what is what. Or youtube.
 
kirby_fox

kirby_fox

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Oct 29, 2017
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RPGam3r

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Oct 27, 2017
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I think I know 3 or 4 artist in this list. Never heard of the rest so just assuming I'm old.
 
T0M

T0M

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Aug 13, 2019
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I think this OP isn't accounting for the rest of the list

Billie Eilish at #11
Dua Lipa at #12
Megan Thee Stallion at #20
Doja Cat at #22
Lizzo at #25
Ariana Grande at #27
Halsey at #35
Lady Gaga at #44
Jhene Aiko at #50

So many great women artists! Because the top happens to be male heavy shouldn't discount the above's accomplishments in the world of music.
 
Treythalomew

Treythalomew

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Oct 27, 2017
495
Juice and Pop both had big years due to posthumous releases and gained a lot of new listeners because people get into artists more once they've passed. I never listened to a single Pop Smoke release until he died this year and he was in my top 5 artists on AM.
 
AyaisMUsikWhore

AyaisMUsikWhore

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Oct 25, 2017
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moblin said:
ikyfl sis!
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I'm cackling! No shame, I loved Chromatica.

John Rabbit said:
Chromatica is a dance pop album. Future Nostalgia is a better dance pop throwback than Chromatica and you've got Gaga on a list with acts like KAYTRANADA, Sofi Tukker, ODESZA and Disclosure. Shit is whack.
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Truth especially with these three acts. However, maybe I'm in the minority, I wasn't in love with Disclosures album this year. I liked like,..3 songs? I have to give it a re-listen to see if thing have changed but it was my most anticipated and biggest let down.

Alice, Free Woman, Sine from Above, those were pretty electronic if you ask me.

Also I loved Future Nostalgia but......i thought chromatica was better. Don't shoot me TT_TT
 
John Rabbit

John Rabbit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,694
AyaisMUsikWhore said:
I'm cackling! No shame, I loved Chromatica.



Truth especially with these three acts. However, maybe I'm in the minority, I wasn't in love with Disclosures album this year. I liked like,..3 songs? I have to give it a re-listen to see if thing have changed but it was my most anticipated and biggest let down.

Alice, Free Woman, Sine from Above, those were pretty electronic if you ask me.

Also I loved Future Nostalgia but......i thought chromatica was better. Don't shoot me TT_TT
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I like Disclosure's new album but it is pretty forgettable. My larger point was mostly the schizophrenic nature of a list with those acts on it and then having Lady Gaga at the top.
 
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