Bruno Mars’ 24k Gamble
Everyone’s favorite Filipino-Hawaiian Hispanic/Jew, Mr. Peter Gene Hernandez, is back. For those of you that don’t know, I’m talking about Bruno Mars. His third album dropped recently and while nothing on it is surprising, the direction he is taking with his music is quite a bigger risk than it seems.
Mars has always tread in the shallow end of the funk pool. His first two albums were Pop gems that had an almost Maroon 5 level of funky behind them. Last year when Mark Ronson and Mars broke the Billboard charts with “Uptown Funk” and his dynamite retro filled performances in 2 recent super bowls, it was obvious Mars had a new trick up his sleeve.
Mars was consciously re-making his sound into that of a 70s, 80s and even early 90s R&B Crooner/Soul Singer. Where his music used to be grounded in pop tropes with a mixure of flavors from all over the spectrum, 24K Magic, while still being a Pop album, sounds like a tribute to the heyday of disco/funk and new jack swing rolled into an R&B package. Oddly, that sounds exactly like the album he’s trying to make.
Objectively speaking, 24K Magic is wonderful, it’s tight 9 track length coupled with its inspired focused direction fills a hole in modern Pop music that has lingered way too long. The songs are catchy, clever and will absolutely make you smile. Now-a-days, that’s what we kinda need out of our Pop music, all smiles. What makes this a much deeper and conflicting album is that it’s a Bruno Mars album.
The whole time, Mars’ performance feels like an act. Like he got cast as the lead in “20th Century Black Music – The Musical”. The persona is played up to the point that it’s a caricature of what he’s trying to be. It’s hard to suss-out how much of this is done on purpose or how much of it is Mars not being completely locked into the character he’s trying to portray, which brings me back to the top of this review.
Everything culminates into what seems to be the most confusing cultural appropriation I’ve ever seen. The 24K Magic version of Bruno Mars is part P-Funk (Black Dudes), part Michael Jackson (a Black Dude), part R. Kelly (a Black Dude) and part Bobby Brown (yet another Black Dude). That’s all well and good, but Mars isn’t black…like…at all. I’m not even sure people realize this. His hair is permed, his skin is Brown-ish, he can dance, and he has an unquestionable swagger to his performances. How is he even pulling this off?
In our hyper-sensitive culture-war-prone world right now, if a generic white guy tried this he would be raked across the coals. Actually, Patrick Stump, of Fall Out Boy, on his solo album, went in this direction to a lesser extent and he was handily put back in his place by both critics and listeners. What is it about Mars that makes him so malleable? Is it his ambiguous heritage, is it his inherent likeability?
Personally I think it has a lot to do with Mars being the prototypical millennial American. He’s mixed race, grew up surrounded by all forms of American culture and mostly likely been told his life that he could be whatever he wanted to be when he grew up. Turns out he wanted to be a mid 80s caricature of black America…who knew that would work? Mars is a living breathing realization of race globalization, and is an ideological success story for the Millennial generation. It only makes sense that his music is a huge hit with them.
If this keeps up, and Mars can stay relevant, I totally see him taking a Modonna-like detour though all of American Pop Music. By 2020 he’ll make an old-skool hip-hop album, 2024 he’ll bend into a Mexican/Salsa influenced Don Juan, by 2030 he’ll moved all the way into Folk and Bluegrass, in 2035 (just in time for his mid-life crisis) he’ll release an arena rock album, very quickly followed by an EDM remix collection in 2036.
I joke, but Mars could get away with it, his ethically ambiguous style and talents are unique and while his delivery might be over-the-top and slightly cartoonish, his commitment to the bit will allow him to do anything.
As for 24K Magic, it might be his best album yet. There’s a naive charm to the songs and a general sunny demeanor that you NEED in your life right now.
Verdict: It might work even better if you pretend it’s a posthumously released Prince album. 🙂
