Tinashe vented her frustrations over the way the music industry categorizes artists in an interview with Rolling Stone. The 27-year-old singer expressed her desire to see genres completely removed from the conversation, blaming them for racially segregating music.
“I’m going to go as far as to say we need to abolish genres in general,” she declared. “I think that the way that many of them came to be and have continued to progress is very much so based on race and the segregation of music based on race.”
She continued, “By putting artists either in an urban category or an R&B category or rap category, a Hip Hop — these really general umbrellas that we use to define different genres — it creates a huge sense of isolation for the creative when they’re trying to experiment, especially for creatives that don’t necessarily feel like they fall into one of the genres, which was my experience.”
Tinashe said being labeled as an R&B singer affected her career, limiting her from opportunities on pop radio. She specifically cited picturing herself as an artist who could be played on the pop-centric Z100, which is billed as New York’s No. 1 hit station.
“When I first came on the scene, I felt a real aversion to being labeled as like a new R&B girl,” she explained. “Not because I didn’t love R&B, but because I could see, especially within my own label, how different the team operated that was marketing [and] pushing the urban department at the company, and how it was not the same department that was pushing the pop acts.”
She elaborated, “Those were the stages I wanted. That was the radio station I wanted. I always saw myself as like a Z100 artist. I always thought that my material and my music and my art fit into that category already.”
The Recording Academy Cuts 'Urban' Grammy Months After Tyler, The Creator Called Them Out
Organizations such as The Recording Academy have gotten rid of the “urban” category for the Grammy Awards after famously being called out by Tyler, The Creator. But Tinashe was skeptical about the impact of these types of rebrandings.
“I think changing the name from, like, urban contemporary to R&B or whatever is just like a new title for the same issue,” she opined. “It doesn’t get rid of the problem of categorizing people and putting them into places where there’s just less promotion, less mainstream fucking respect. It’s deep.”
She concluded, “Across the board, it’s not just from the labels, it’s also the radio stations. What they choose to put [out], people who book live performances, award shows. Those things all play a huge part in what makes artists really mainstream and successful, and to not have the same amount of exposure and support in those areas is really detrimental.”
Tinashe’s latest album, 2019’s Songs For You, is listed in the R&B/Soul category on Apple Music. The streaming service’s writeup for the LP calls her an R&B-pop eclecticist though and notes the project revolves around a “traversing genre.”
Stream Tinashe’s Song For You below.
Ummm….what???
Mannnnnn shut that shit up
I definitely get the point Tinashe is making here. The characterization of music under genres has created room for label executives, radio stations, DJs, Award Academies and even music fans to continually associate certain types of music with certain races and their community despite their being a common market where all the music being put out can find cross over appeal. Her words are understandable given her and the journeys of some other artists through the industry. Whilst it is a good point it cannnot be embraced fully. Genres are still necessary in order to identify the true roots and the pioneering of the sound of the different types of music we listened to. The lesser regard for genres should happen in the marketing of the music in order to allow the artists to get fairer chance of accessing the same high profile platforms and same amount of spins as each other. The problem with that is some of the label heads are not musicians themselves and they cannot appreciate themusic the artist is making in order to give what it needs. She’s clearly been frustrated by that.
-Beta Male
Funny chap
Nah, I’m not. I just went over in over your head. Sorry I can’t help you.
She black and white tho lol
Yes, because Drake belongs in the same genre as Five Finger Death Punch. Who is this mongoloid?
This bytch lost her goddam mind.
Can’t wait to search for new artists online. I’ll just type “music new people” in on Google and hope for the best.
I did not know Trump had a black daughter
She so self absorbed and narrow minded as far as music goes that she doesnt realize how many genres there are outside of “black music” which shes is focused on because she is obsessed with race.
Let’s not get carried away.
Meanwhile in things that matter in life, Black Lives Matter is openly calling for the return of segregation, and heir idiot cult members embrace it.
Their*
Black ladies think that just cause they like ghetto music that everybody has to. They want to hijack award shows and pretend genres dont exist all in an attempt to stand on a soap box with a little tiny violin and scream “HEY LOOK AT ME”.
The problem is not the genres, they should make a difference between music and noise. For example this bitch makes noise, so when you type in google new rnb music she would not come up!
Perfectly articulated. Thank you for your service. God bless you and god bless America.
Baby girl need a good spanking on that sexy lightskin ebony ass! So talor swif is r and b and and snoop is dance how will this work? Your sexy ass reaching for free marketing huh? With your sexy ass…
Shut up dumb bitch. Djeezes Christ that new generation is as dumb as a sack of duckshit.
i get her desire to not want to be put in a box when being judged for her music, but theres a reason genres is a thing. if people wanted to listen to a punk rock album or classical or even reggae dub, they’re not going to want to listen to a tinashe album as her sound and style nowhere near resembles those genres specifically. hell, if people wanted to listen to boom bap, they’re not going to listen to her shit lol just saying
Chick is an idiot for sure, but I would DESTROY that pussy ngl