OT: Bruno Mars Primetime Special

[BRW]

Is it possible to see this anywhere?

 

I'm not a fan of his songs or songwriting, but the production / sounds on 24K Magic (the album) are on point. And there's no denying his talent.

 

"Kids" are pretty clueless about the sounds used in music. I've heard a guy claim a clearly "80's sounding" song sounded like "the 90's".

 

 

I'm not inspired to revisit the 1980s...

 

Typing this while rocking a Marty McFly Casio among other things...I sure would.

[ABECK]

Ive heard Bruno Mars described as James Brown meets Michael Jackson meets Elvis.

I'm still waiting for him to find his own sound. I think he will, but for now, he does carry some heavy influences. Nothing wrong with that. But, I think he'll eventually emerge with his own thing. Very talented.

[Bill H.]

Although his inspirations are pretty obvious, I believe Bruno Mars is not a retro artist at all - and truly has his own sound already.

 

So what's the key signature of this song - a minor hit from a few months ago:

 

[video:youtube]

 

To my old 20th Century ears, this is in Eb - with a largely unresolved chord structure, and the tonic only briefly referenced during movement in the bassline.

 

The songwriting team (which includes Bruno Mars and who are all much younger than I am) ID's it as Cm.

 

However you hear it, this is totally contemporary songwriting. And I am curious as to how you guys hear it too.

 

Do I dig Bruno Mars? Absolutely!

[MathOfInsects]

Although his inspirations are pretty obvious, I believe Bruno Mars is not a retro artist at all - and truly has his own sound already.

 

So what's the key signature of this song - a minor hit from a few months ago:

 

[video:youtube]

 

To my old 20th Century ears, this is in Eb - with a largely unresolved chord structure, and the tonic only briefly referenced during movement in the bassline.

 

The songwriting team (which includes Bruno Mars and who are all much younger than I am) ID's it as Cm.

 

However you hear it, this is totally contemporary songwriting. And I am curious as to how you guys hear it too.

 

Do I dig Bruno Mars? Absolutely!

 

I love questions like this.

 

I am going to throw Bb Mixo out there for argument's sake.

[mate stubb]

Chorus is definitely Cm to Gm.

[MathOfInsects]

Although his inspirations are pretty obvious, I believe Bruno Mars is not a retro artist at all - and truly has his own sound already.

 

I think of him a bit like I think of the Dap Kings. Does he have his "own" sound? No. Does he completely OWN his sound? Hell yes.

[Cliffk]

He's a rather special talent.

[Bobadohshe]

 

So what's the key signature of this song - a minor hit from a few months ago:

 

To my old 20th Century ears, this is in Eb - with a largely unresolved chord structure, and the tonic only briefly referenced during movement in the bassline.

 

The songwriting team (which includes Bruno Mars and who are all much younger than I am) ID's it as Cm.

 

However you hear it, this is totally contemporary songwriting. And I am curious as to how you guys hear it too.

 

Cm and Eb it's in both

[David R]

Can't knock Bruno's talent, vocal chops or showmanship. Part of his schtick (to me) is making the hip-hop that he loves so much palatable to less easily offended sensibilities.

 

"Don't believe me just watch" from Uptown Funk is directly from Trinidad James. So much of the flow from "24K Magic" is straight from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. In a way it kind of reminds me when Pat Boone and Elvis would sanitize Little Richard and Earl King.

[MathOfInsects]

Can't knock Bruno's talent, vocal chops or showmanship. Part of his schtick (to me) is making the hip-hop that he loves so much palatable to less easily offended sensibilities.

 

"Don't believe me just watch" from Uptown Funk is directly from Trinidad James. So much of the flow from "24K Magic" is straight from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. In a way it kind of reminds me when Pat Boone and Elvis would sanitize Little Richard and Earl King.

 

I like this observation, but I'm struggling with the last sentence. Presley's record company forced him to change the lyrics of "One Night of Sin"; Boone willingly and intentionally "de-blackified" the SOUND of a song that was already a hit. One feels like a commercial consolation, a bit like cutting out the curse-words in hip-hop songs for mainstream release; the other feels fundamentally racist.

 

The rest of that story, by the way, is that Little Richard's version was already cleaned up from his original lyrics; his label made him rewrite what had essentially been a song about b*tt-f*cking, into that kind of happy little song about hot women. That would seem to be the same concession Elvis made with "One Night" for his label.

 

Boone, on the other hand...racist clod who liked the idea of releasing black-folks' music, but didn't want it to sound "black." So he smoothed out all the musical edges and made it a snappy little ditty (literally, if you've seen the videos) that might as well have been about taking attendance at a pre-school. Same lyrics, pretty much, just less edgy-sounding.

 

To me, this feels different--particularly since Little Richard was already making a top-20 hit out of it.

 

One more distinction, in my mind: the music industry was explicitly a "cover" industry back then. Now, we have some expectation of single-origin, even if that product samples previous songs. So now, if Mars cops Lamar....it's a bit harder to say, well, he had to do that to make it palatable. Lamar is plenty successful without Mars's help, and is not being credited with composition, so is not even getting the benefit of getting rich from it, as Little Richard did.

 

Thorny.

[David R]

I guess the end result to a listener is the same... it's also a similar feeling I had with Justin Timberlake's "Take Back The Night" which is a straight pastiche of various moments of Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson. Mars' wears his influences so obviously on his sleeve that it sometimes feels almost like a joke or parody if it weren't so well done.

[Joe Muscara]

I'm not sure if you're saying the same thing I am, but maybe you are. There are a lot of "references" in his lyrics and I can't tell where he's coming from. That being said, I don't worry about it and just enjoy it. I only asked because I was curious if anyone had a clue or idea.

 

Well, I thought we were, but I could have misunderstood. I was saying that I believe him to sincerely think those lyrics are hip, not to be wink-and-nod referring to others who use them sincerely. Which means that to me, they make him seem kinda dorky, lyrically speaking, for thinking those references are cool.

 

Is that what you were asking?

No, but it clarifies what you were getting at. What am I getting at? I dunno.

 

When he wears shorts and dress shoes, I feel the same way about that as his lyrics. Does he think that's hip? Is that hip? Is it dorky because he thinks it's hip and it's not?

 

 

Joe . I hope you know that we are always cool.

 

Be Joe, we are tight; right? Hey, that sounds like a song title.

Of course we are . It's tight.