Why No White Boys With Pop Hits?
When I first listened to this mash-up of the top-selling pop from 2011, my first thought was: why so few white boys singing songs in there? (Justin Bieber doesn’t count.) I wasn’t the only one who had the thought. Doctor Science writes: ‘The majority of top-25 hits in recent years are one variety or another of hip-hop, very broadly speaking. I assume that young white males are still a huge segment of the music market, though I can’t find specific figures. Logically, then, I’d expect white guys to be buying a lot of hip-hop, as everyone else does. So why aren’t they *singing* it? Why would white guys prefer not to hear white male voices? Or is it a supply problem, such that white guys who try to make a career of music have fundamentally different tastes than the much larger group of white males who *buy* music? Or has music become something that isn’t considered cool or worthwhile for white boys to do for a career? That’s really hard for me to believe, frankly.’
