Beyonce is famous because light skin

[Luxe Ford 3,481]

I think these horrors have been around in America since the first slaves. There were lighter skinned house negroes working indoors and darker field negroes working outside.

I learned about it in the intro with Malcolm X in one of my house music records:

All my wokeness comes from dance music. Except that Malky X renounced his earlier surname because it was given to him by his "owner". I learned that from X-files.

[River 114,929]

11 minutes ago, Borislshere said:

It’s important to y’all about these things though. Many people go through this within their own community and from outsiders. Ignoring this issue because it makes a few “uncomfortable” isn’t going to make the issue go away. In a perfect world we’d all be seen as human and equals despite skin color but that’s just not how it is.

I agree, I just wish that we will get to the point where skin color is just not important anymore.. 

[Cheesy Potatoes 266]

Grace Jones

[brizoda 3,821]

6 minutes ago, Luxe Ford said:

I think these horrors have been around in America since the first slaves. There were lighter skinned house negroes working indoors and darker field negroes working outside.

I learned about it in the intro to one of my house music records:

All my wokeness comes from dance music!

This song was a hit in the UK Dance charts of the era

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

24 minutes ago, MannyMonroe18 said:

I mean there is A LITTLE hope (even though it's a tiny bit) because there is a movement of people saying that dark skin and natural hair is beautiful too, but there's still A LOT that has to be done to stop/reverse the hate for dark skin. Not only in the black community but in the Asian/Hispanic/Latinx community, too. 

 

And we need to teach children that they're beautiful, too. 

Coz God makes no mistakes 

[StrawberryBlond 14,773]

I've always found the "what ifs" of this situation a bit uncertain. I'm never really sure what to think. Are there executives who want lighter black faces selling music? Absolutely. But are there also executives who see dollar signs at the prospect of a dark black person who makes conscious, "woke" rap music that appeals to a very loyal demographic? Absolutely. Plenty of darker skinned singers have had huge success.There's much more than two or three. Missy Elliott, Jay Z, Lauryn Hill, Usher, Outkast, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, The Weeknd, Migos. Those are the darkest examples I can think of. Then you've got the slightly lighter varities with lots of success like Nelly, Timbaland and Pharrell. In 2004, every #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was by black artists, featuring black artists, singing black origin music. Black people are some of the most awarded artists in Grammy history. Music has welcomed black people for a long time and since roughly the 80's, they've been killing it. You have to remember, considering that we're speaking from a mostly American standpoint, that only 13% of the country's population is black and it was even less in the past. So, out of that 13%, how many will want to become singers? And how many of the darker one want to become singers? And out of that subsection, how many will actually get signed? Not because they're black, but because getting signed is very difficult, no matter your race? When you put all these factors together, it's not surprising that there's less black artists making it big, before you even factor in racism. Low representation in correlation to low population is the biggest reason. You don't see anyone in majority black or Asian countries complaining that there's not even white people making it big. Considering their low population, that would be difficult, no? A racial spread of artists that isn't equal across all races in a country where 77% of the population is white should not be a shock.

1 hour ago, PunkTheFunk said:

She was never marketed as a "beautiful woman"/sex symbol the way Beyonce and Rihanna are.

If she was thin, she would be. I think she's actually quite pretty post-weight loss. It's not just black women who suffer from lesser sales due to their weight and looks, though. White women also have to be thin and pretty to make it. Adele is the exception but there's always the one exception. And I stand by my belief that if Adele was a really thin, blonde, hot pin-up, she'd never have had the success she'd had. Heartbreak ballads tend to be received better when they come from plain girls. When a pretty girl cries over being dumped, no one feels sorry for her because they think that with her looks, she'll find another fish in the sea tomorrow but a plain girl might have lost her last chance at happiness. Harsh, but true.

1 hour ago, KingRedd said:

Nicki was the only female rapper doing anything for like 6 years haha. 

I don't think Nicki being the only rapper who has been doing anything for a while isn't so much racism, it's that the rap game is so sexist towards women in general. I just feel like they don't get the same support from their labels for their albums like male rappers do. There's a reason why Trina and Missy are the only female rappers to have reached as far as working on a sixth studio album. So many female rappers burn out before then as they just can't get the respect in a male-dominated genre, in addition to, in some cases, like the men, getting sent to jail for years, which cuts into their career (Lil Kim, Remy Ma). The odd thing is, why is it always the women who struggle to release their music post-jail, but the men have no problem?

23 minutes ago, NCgaga said:

Black people are hard on their own that are "too dark".

White people typically view really pale skin as unhealthy looking and prefer to get tans. You'll see famous white people get tans or even spray tans in appearances on tv or magazines. Ariana grande is about 20 shades darker than she was when she first came out. There is a reason Multi-ethnic or racialy ambiguous stars are famous(Ariana, Xtina, Demi,Mariah, Alicia Keys, Rihanna)- They appeal to a broader audience. 

There was a period when Xtina wanted to capitolize on her father's Ecuadorian Roots-so she did makeup that exaggerated her lips and narrowed her eyes,  and overtanned, died her naturally dirty blonde hair black. Yes Beyonce tries to look lighter, but many stars try to look darker too. 

You are most correct. Some are capitalising on going darker. Yeah, I lot of people think Ariana's mixed because she's so dark, a lot of people think she's Hispanic. Xtina was really into claiming her Hispanic heritage back in the late 90's-mid 00's when Latin pop was big, doing all the tricks to give her a "chola" look (black hair, heavy lipliner, beauty spots, heavy tan) and even claimed to have "a Latina butt." Mixed and ambiguously racial people are indeed very appealing to a broad audience. Non-white fans are very loyal when they think an artist represents them whereas whites don't have the same affinity for their own. It's no wonder so many white artists burn out and darker artists continue to reign. Rap fans especially seem to see it as their duty to keep buying their fave's music and make black rap popular. Being considered naturally dorky, tryhard and uncool for being white in comparison to cool black artists with "game" and "swagger" or who are "divas" also doesn't help. I've rarely seen a white contestant be referred to as cool on any of these singing reality shows but a hell of a lot of black contestants who are.

[Bonkiii 585]

Beyoncé is famous because of all the producers and songwriters credited on her songs. Lately I edited the metadata of my music library and I was really annoyed when her albums came up. I guess she isn’t really talented when it comes to music production. She’s a great performer and singer. Not more. 

[NCgaga 4,320]

13 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I've always found the "what ifs" of this situation a bit uncertain. I'm never really sure what to think. Are there executives who want lighter black faces selling music? Absolutely. But are there also executives who see dollar signs at the prospect of a dark black person who makes conscious, "woke" rap music that appeals to a very loyal demographic? Absolutely. Plenty of darker skinned singers have had huge success.There'sh more than two or three. Missy Elliott, Jay Z, Lauryn Hill, Usher, Outkast, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, The Weeknd, Migos. Those are the darkest examples I can think of. Then you've got the slightly lighter varities with lots of success like Nelly, Timbaland and Pharrell. In 2004, every #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was by black artists, featuring black artists, singing black origin music. Black people are some of the most awarded artists in Grammy history. Music has welcomed black people for a long time and since roughly the 80's, they've been killing it. You have to remember, considering that we're speaking from a mostly American standpoint, that only 13% of the country's population is black and it was even less in the past. So, out of that 13%, how many will want to become singers? And how many of the darker one want to become singers? And out of that subsection, how many will actually get signed? Not because they're black, but because getting signed is very difficult, no matter your race? When you put all these factors together, it's not surprising that there's less black artists making it big, before you even factor in racism. Low representation in correlation to low population is the biggest reason. You don't see anyone in majority black or Asian countries complaining that there's not even white people making it big. Considering their low population, that would be difficult, no? A racial spread of artists that isn't equal across all races in a country where 77% of the population is white should not be a shock.

If she was thin, she would be. I think she's actually quite pretty post-weight loss. It's not just black women who suffer from lesser sales due to their weight and looks, though. White women also have to be thin and pretty to make it. Adele is the exception but there's always the one exception. And I stand by my belief that if Adele was a really thin, blonde, hot pin-up, she'd never have had the success she'd had. Heartbreak ballads tend to be received better when they come from plain girls. When a pretty girl cries over being dumped, no one feels sorry for her because they think that with her looks, she'll find another fish in the sea tomorrow but a plain girl might have lost her last chance at happiness. Harsh, but true.

I don't think Nicki being the only rapper who has been doing anything for a while isn't so much racism, it's that the rap game is so sexist towards women in general. I just feel like they don't get the same support from their labels for their albums like male rappers do. There's a reason why Trina and Missy are the only female rappers to have reached as far as working on a sixth studio album. So many female rappers burn out before then as they just can't get the respect in a male-dominated genre, in addition to, in some cases, like the men, getting sent to jail for years, which cuts into their career (Lil Kim, Remy Ma). The odd thing is, why is it always the women who struggle to release their music post-jail, but the men have no problem?

You are most correct. Some are capitalising on going darker. Yeah, I lot of people think Ariana's mixed because she's so dark, a lot of people think she's Hispanic. Xtina was really into claiming her Hispanic heritage back in the late 90's-mid 00's when Latin pop was big, doing all the tricks to give her a "chola" look (black hair, heavy lipliner, beauty spots, heavy tan) and even claimed to have "a Latina butt." Mixed and ambiguously racial people are indeed very appealing to a broad audience. Non-white fans are very loyal when they think an artist represents them whereas whites don't have the same affinity for their own. It's no wonder so many white artists burn out and darker artists continue to reign. Rap fans especially seem to see it as their duty to keep buying their fave's music and make black rap popular. Being considered naturally dorky, tryhard and uncool for being white in comparison to cool black artists with "game" and "swagger" or who are "divas" also doesn't help. I've rarely seen a white contestant be referred to as cool on any of these singing reality shows but a hell of a lot of black contestants who are.

This. Your whole post is spot on. 

[He8MyHeart 9,765]

I'm really loving the positive discussion in this thread.

 

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

Not exactly correct:

- Whitney

- Brandy

- Kelly Rowland 

- Janet Jackson

- Tina Turner

- Grace Jones

Beyoncè is just overhyped by fans and GP alike because of the flawless and queen stuff  

[FGGrayson 9,670]

omg, this thread remind me Toni Braxton, someone mentioned her and wig, i remembered this song   a ****ing bop

 

[FGGrayson 9,670]

By the way, yall forgeting Aaliyah, she was so ****ing huge, i also remember Alicia Keys, Ashanti, and kween Macy Gray, and my fave band ever TLC, i also remember India.Arie, Erikah Badu, a lot of great music and artists with great succes that i used to stan and listen   I guess ppl were less racist in the 90s early 00s maybe

 

 

 

[FGGrayson 9,670]

31 minutes ago, Kylie Jenner said:

- Kelly Rowland

Kelly Rowland had so much potential smh, i love her  Dilemma, When Love takes Over >>>>>

Also this bop, ugh im shaking

 

[Avenues 4,370]

SZA? 

[T3ARS 4,132]

I'm so glad we're having a discussion about colorism in the world. He's completely right about the impact of lighter skin tones in the industry and the world. If Beyonce was Jennifer Hudson's skin complexion she would not be where she is today. Her lightening her skin definitely helped her appeal to a wider audience. 

And for everyone listing other black artists, there are many shades of brown: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XC7f7cXTsts/U2kd_-6KYgI/AAAAAAAAALI/bVekiLNGbXU/s1600/all+beaut.jpg

Light skin people, like Beyonce, Rhianna, and Nicki benefit from their complexion because people view lighter skin as being "better". Medium brown people, like SZA, Whitney, Brandy, etc. are the what some would call "safe brown", they're black but not too black, then you have Dark skinned people like, Kelly Rowland, Fantasia, Normani that don't get as much attention as the lighter counterparts, and it would be extremely naive to think that their complexion has nothing to do with it. 

Beyonce father is absolutely right, how many of you can name a FEMALE SINGER with DARK SKIN that is on the level of Beyonce and Rihanna? Sure, there have been a few but not many; not enough to discredit the truth about the industry standard. 

It's part of the reason why Cardi B is so hot right now, even though she encompasses every negative stereotype about Latino people. Cardi B isn't too different from Cupcakke, even though Cardi B isn't black she does benefit from being light skin. If Cardi B was Amara La Negra's complexion and acts the way she does now, she would not be where she is now. It would not be seen as being "real and refreshing" and "unapologetically unfiltered" she would be seen as "ghetto" and "rachet". 

https://wearyourvoicemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-28-at-11.07.15-PM.png

https://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/tumblr_ncui30jhx31tfq7vjo1_500.jpg?w=500&h=500

The industry has it's standard but it is dictated by what the people want. 

http://www.vh1.com/video-clips/r8v14k/love-and-hip-hop-miami-amara-la-negra-walks-out-of-her-session-with-young-hollywood  skip to 1:22

Once we change what we want to see then we'll see a diverse group of artist and hopefully more quality artist.