Every Black Music Month, as we celebrate that vast collection of iconic Black music, the conversation about genre diversity, pulls me in.
And now, more than in recent years, the need for a diverse selection of music can yield high profits for Black creatives.
Simply put, there is an opportunity for Black artists to thrive in almost every genre in the world.
How is that different from the past?
It’s a good question because Black artistry has always been relevant. And Black people have never been a monolith, so music output will naturally be diverse.
Answer: Today, I’m not necessarily looking at it from an artistic lens. I’m looking at markets.
EXPANDING MARKETS
Each genre is a market for creatives to generate income and establish their brand presence. The more we see these markets overlap, the more opportunities artists have to find their audiences.
With increasing technology, artists can create and release music without the supervision of labels. Historically, a label’s financial support for an artist is contingent on how much the label executives understand that artist’s creative output. Though we’ve had anomalies, record labels tend to ration their resources until they can get a handle on an artist’s brand identity.
Now artists - even those signed to major labels - experience more flexibility when creating their music. Independent artists can directly connect with their audiences. Digitally or in-person, artists can test the waters based on how their audience responds to their music.
SN: This applies to artists at record labels too. Generally, the more high-profile an artist is, the more restrictions they may face. It seems contradictory, but they can be more
limited by the label because their success has a direct correspondence with the label’s brand image. In those cases, however, the music an artist creates can still be genre-
flexible. The freedom to release requires a bit more leverage, though.
DEMAND VS. NEED
By nature, record labels and data analysts are reactive. They respond to what is trending in the music industry and feed what people are already asking for.
Artists and creatives have a specific ability to anticipate what audiences need. Everyone doesn’t get it right. But when someone does, they are a phenomenon.
Muni Long is a perfect example. Not only has the collective music audience been listening to a lot of rap, but the R&B we do listen to has been riddled with pain and resentment. And yet Muni’s back-to-back hits are standard R&B records that highlight blissful love. The societal state of ‘romantic’ relationships doesn’t outright demand this type of love-talking, but it desperately needs it.
Currently, we are seeing a need for genre diversity.
And by genre diversity, I don’t mean ‘avant-garde’. I mean a 'variety'.
We need more R&B ballads.
We need more up-tempo pop records.
We need kids like Heiress and Van Van to turn up the youth.
We need more lyrical rappers.
We need more bands.
We need groups.
We need another Cupid Shuffle.
We need some more Black rockstars.
We need more of that record-breaking Black country music.
We need Buddy Red to jam to folk and the blues.
And guess what? People are creating those very things. They’ve been doing it for a while, but my spidey senses are telling me that the audiences are slowly realizing how much they enjoy this variety.
So let me give you some of my predictions:
Normani and Chloe Bailey are going to thrive in pop R&B spaces.
Willow Smith will have many more bangers if she chooses to continue making music.
Gen Alpha is going to love girl groups.
Disney needs to get their songwriter game up because there’s a market there.
Lyrical rappers - pick up that mic and pen because people are willing to listen again.
POTENTIAL CONCERNS
Naturally, major shifts in music will come with friction. Creatives can expect challenges on all sides as they navigate these emerging markets.
FORCED CATEGORIZATION: The music industry operates on categories. Categories determine charts, awards, tours, airplay, brand partnerships, and more.
Thus, the entire industry will work endlessly to put artists in a box during this time. After all, you can’t calculate data based on vibes.
If you didn’t know: when music data analytic companies - like Luminate and Billboard do their yearly data reports, they assess R&B/Hip-Hop under one umbrella. Those are very different genres that sometimes overlap, but the infrastructure lumps them together. This overgeneralization ends up shrinking access to bigger stages and better-aligned audiences.
Stepping away from the business side for a second, this wide umbrella also hinders talented artists from being seen as great in their actual genre. That’s messing with the Black historical archives, and I’m not fond of that.
‘DON’T PUT ME IN A BOX’:
While many artists hate to be put in a box, another challenge is how audiences respond to artists who refuse to be miscategorized.
Recently, Chloe Bailey got backlash for saying her music is automatically categorized as R&B because she’s black. Because people love R&B, some took offense to her statement.
Truth is, she’s right. You are wild if you think Chloe Bailey does not love R&B. She’s not rejecting the value of the genre.
The pop music she has released is simply not traditional R&B. Chloe Bailey dropped ‘Boy Bye’, which felt like a pop-rock with some R&B essence. She released it on April 12, and as of June 20, it has 1.7 million views on YouTube. Overall, R&B audiences didn’t latch onto it ... because it’s not really R&B.
And to be honest, many claimed they felt Chloe was being ‘forced’ on them. That’s because her music is miscategorized as R&B.
But Chloe Bailey has an audience – and if directed correctly, artists like her, Normani, KeKe Palmer, DivaGurl, Psiryn, and more will capture currently untapped markets.
RECOGNITION WITHIN BLACK SPACES FOR ALL GENRES:
This renaissance of genre diversity will bring amazing Black acts to the forefront. Many of these individuals deserve recognition for their creativity.
Brands like Afropunk have done a great job of creating space for alternative Black artists.
Yet many of the larger Black organizations have fallen into the categorical restrictions the music industry promotes.
This past Black Music Month, I’ve seen multiple conversations about BET allowing genre-bending Black artists to go unrecognized. On the R&B Money Podcast, Lalah Hathaway pointed out the juxtaposition of her five Grammys and 0 BET or NAACP Awards.
Of course, BET recognizes her talent — but do they have enough categories to highlight her without snubbing another deserving artist?
On Threads, many explained that the MOBO Awards, held in the U.K., had similar issues. After fans pushed back, the MOBO Awards seemingly took that criticism and added more categories. I would love to see that with the BET Awards and NAACP Awards.
Again, this is about our historical archives.
Give them folks the trophies they deserve so we can look back decades later and never stop clapping for them.
KEY TAKEAWAY:
Make the music you want to hear! The time is now. And if you’ve been doing that, promote that music. This is the time.
The music infrastructure is working for your benefit right now. Take advantage.
Sincerely,
Latifah
Comments