Apple Music executive Larry Jackson has explained how black artists have changed the face of pop music in the last few years in an interview with the New York Times.
Apple’s streaming service had a big 2016, working closely with Drake in promoting his VIEWS album — which became the first to reach a billion streams on Apple Music. The record was premiered on Apple Music’s OVO Sound Radio and released exclusively through the Apple streaming service and iTunes.
Asked about the surge in streaming for Hip Hop and R&B artists, Jackson explained how the popularity of black artists has changed the very face of music. It’s a change Jackson has seen happen over the years, and he says that rap has nearly overtaken rock music among young audiences.
“From my perspective and from Jimmy’s, we’ve always had a very strong knack for signing and nurturing hip-hop and R&B acts. The thing I find more interesting now is: What’s the new pop? Pop has always been considered to be one thing, if you know what I’m saying. But when I look at the top albums of the year — it’s Drake, Beyoncé, J. Cole, Frank Ocean and the Weeknd — all black artists. How is that not pop? You don’t really hear Frank Ocean or J. Cole on pop radio, but streaming has ushered in what the new pop is.”
Speaking on the release of The Life Of Pablo through TIDAL, Apple’s Jimmy Iovine explained that “[Kanye] was part of Jay’s thing and chose to make a deal with his friend, and I respect that. I kind of felt like it was going to happen before it did.”
Read the full interview with Larry Jackson and Jimmy Iovine here.
Neat!
That Black guy could fuck me in the ass any day. I’ll tuck my penis so it looks like a pussy.
Chill…
pop music is trash!!!
FUCK FAKE DRAKE! BITCH MADE POP PUPPET CHOKE ON A CANDY CANE COCK!
This is what happens when you go from “fuck the police” to “call me on my cellphone”.
If you really think BLACK people are new face of pop, you dont know world wide music. Nobody in Europe listens to these imbeciles. Especially Frank Ocean. European music scene is way better and actually has talent. J.Cole is never Pop, he’s Rap/Hip HOp all day so go fuck yourself
lmao what are you so mad about? did the man insult you personally? He gave his opinion and you don’t have to agree with it although there is some truth in it. Drake broke the one billion stream mark. Whether you fuck with him or not that’s a big fucking deal. Very much so, what is now considered “pop” has changed due to technology. I think that is the basic gist of what the man is saying. Pretty much everything you said in your post is personal opinion so relax
“Personal opinion my ass” and its a sad day when you have to count STREAMS but no sales. You niggaz dont travel so you wouldn’t know whats going on around the world anyway. BYE FELICIA
I think he meant pop as in popular music.
that’s what pop music is…. the actual genre of pop music hasn’t existed for a long time
But Frank Ocean is sexy. He can hit this boy booty anytime.