AMERICAN IDOL’ IN BLACK AND WHITE: Article points out Billboard disparity between pop- and R&B-flavored winners.

Eurweb.com - Los Angeles, CA, USA - An article by Rodney Thrash of the St. Petersburg Times points out the record sales gap between the finalists of “American Idol” who record pop records, and those who sing R&B.

“Except for Taylor Hicks, last year's top vote-getter, the white winners have outsold the black ones,” writes Thrash. “To be sure, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino have done well for themselves. They've gained entry into a world that, without ‘Idol,’ would have been inaccessible. But their success has been confined to a narrower audience than that of more successful Idol alums.”

Thrash continues: “The disparity isn't so much an issue of race as it is genre. Studdard and Fantasia sing a throwback style of R&B, which ‘is in absolute free fall,’ says Kyle Anderson, assistant editor of SPIN magazine. It doesn't appeal to the young, MTV generation that has made Idol a pop juggernaut. Top 40 radio stations don't give it much airplay. And ‘that's a genre that has always been victimized by bootlegging,’ Anderson says. ‘You are able to get records in other places."