Bruno Mars is a hot topic on Twitter this morning.
After he swept at this year’s Grammy Awards, there has been some dialogue around his success.
Some feel he benefits tremendously by his racial make up.
And some also feel like he does nothing more than copy iconic black artists who came before him.
A writer by the name of Seren Sensei brought up these points when she discussed Bruno for a recent panel for The Grapevine.
Here’s what she had to say:
Bruno Mars 100 percent is a culture appropriator. He is racially ambiguous… he is not black, at all… he plays up his racial ambiguity to…cross genres and to different places. And you guys are bringing up Michael Jackson. Number one, me personally like I don’t even think that Michael Jackson now this day and age would even be able to get to the point that he got to previously.
And a huge part of that is people realize that they prefer their black music and black culture from a non black figure.
And in a lot of different ways, we have artists now that are much more willing to step into quote on quote black genres who were not willing to do it. Like they didn’t want to be in black music. Black music was seen a certain type of way. We are at the point now where Hip Hop recently surpassed Rock and Roll as the most listened to genre in the United States. But American culture has reached a certain point in this time period it was not at when Michael Jackson was popping. People had to campaign to get Michael Jackson’s video played on MTV. He’s not in that same time period right now so that’s a false equivalency to even bring up.
I also want to say that Bruno Mars is not an original artist in the same way that Michael Jackson was an original artist. The same way that Prince was an original artist. What Bruno Mars does is he takes preexisting work and he completely word for word recreates it…he does not change it… he does not improve upon it… he does not make it better.
He’s a karaoke singer. He’s the person who’s hired to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers.
Yet Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy. Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy.
So how are you gonna say that people who are originators of the funk genre, who are the originators of the R&B – the New Jack Swing – Bobby Brown and New Edition don’t have no Album of the Year Grammy.
Bruno Mars got that Grammy because white people love that he’s not black, period.
The issue is we want our black culture from non black bodies. And Bruno Mars is like, “I’ll give it to you.”
Check out the video below:
this is why i hate bruno mars @seren_sensei says it all pic.twitter.com/CRLktsA2ea
— hannie (@hannahmburrell) March 9, 2018
I mean she’s right but black people are going to drag her and defend Bruno. I’ve learned from this whole Monique situation that black people are the ones who maintain white supremacy. We are harder on actual black people but make passes for the “almost” black people or white people who we would invite to the imaginary cook out. So I don’t even try anymore. We are a lost cause.
Are people really out here comparing Bruno to Mike and Prince? I enjoy some of Bruno’s music but let’s not go that far.
Yeah they do. I’ve even seen some of us say Bruno is better. They say Chris Brown is better than MJ as well. I don’t understand why people are downplaying two of the greatest inspirations to artists (Prince and MJ) for the people they inspired (Bruno and Chris).
They are delusional then. Very delusional.
The same thing can be said about Adele but black people love to use her to drag actual black singers. A lot of us have internalized anti-blackness so we don’t mind what’s going on.
I love Bruno but she’s right about why he’s winning. He has the right look. But you can’t take away from his talent. He can sing, write and play instruments. He’s not a karaoke singer.
Quiet as its kept this applies to Card B as well.
Sort of her mom is from Trinidad which is black
Uh oh. I’m sure her mentions are a mess.
Chile you do not come for Bruno. Black people love his a-s. They are going to drag her by every hair follicle she has!
I’m not going to lie, this was my first thought when he started blowing up. Notice how he only really blew up when he started making our music. It’s the truth.
The capes are out too on Twitter. If only we defended each other like we do the others. We could change so many things and finally get ahead as a race. Oh well.
Bruno is not original. He kind of reminds of Teyana Taylor but with more talent. Some artists are just so inspired by artists who came before them that they never figure out their own sound. I hope one day he does because this conversation won’t stop until he does.
She made a lot of good points. Remy is another artist who puts out music with a very dated and throw back sound to it and she continues to flop. Didn’t Big Sean and Chris Brown put out a song together that had a 90s vibe to it as well? Black artists aren’t allowed to do 90s music like Bruno and thrive. Bruno clearly has advantages that black artists do not have right now.
I never really thought about any of this. Damn she’s right.
This is true. Right now on the Grownish post, there was discussion from one of the twins about how black men want black women in non black bodies. Well this sums up what’s going on with Bruno. Many of us don’t like our blackness and have been brainwashed to believe it’s more acceptable coming from non blacks. So we are extra critical of our black singers or anyone black who points this out. It’s sad when you think about how pro black everyone pretended to be after Black Panther came out. That last for a week and now we’re back to hating ourselves and defending white supremacy. Bruno is a product of white supremacy. Period point blank.
I do not get the hype over Bruno. He keeps doing the same thing which is releasing music that we’ve heard before in a previous era. It’s actually lazy to me. Meanwhile he gets a pass because a lot of black women want to sleep with him and the black men want to be him. Just saying.
? hmm. I think that Bruno is very talented in his musical abilities and dancing regardless of racial background. I guess if you’re placing it into a black and white category than the argument maybe valid. However, there’s been many white ppl in so called black music such as Teena Marie, and Jon B. Not to mention Eminen in rap. I enjoy Bruno’s music and I’m not mad at his success. Why do we have to place labels on folks? Can’t we just enjoy the person for the musicality and gift? Finally, IMO he looks more black than white anyway. Smh ??♀️
Everyone benefits off the culture except black folks. We make it and can’t be mad we let people in. Look who is running our creation. We can’t have anything for ourselves. And the person above who said we lost as a people is right. We let everyone slide and fake outrage over dumb stuff
It’s interesting how the black men in the video defended Bruno while the women called it for what it is; appropiation. ?
Eh I see both sides. But at the end of the day Bruno makes music that makes everybody feel good and want to dance. I’m sorry but I don’t enjoy being called a b-tch and a hoe in my music.
I’ve heard this before. But most feel like Bruno is harmless so they aren’t trying to hear this reasoning. I enjoy him but I hope we don’t come to the conclusion that we willingly went along with our own erasure in music in about 15/20 years.