Bruno Mars fans have defended their fave and vowed to continue listening to his music after the singer was accused of ‘cultural appropriation’.
A deep-dive analysis of Bruno’s music on The Grapevine claims that he is ‘profiting’ from ‘black music’ as a non-black artist of colour.
YouTuber Sensei Aishitemasu says that he ‘plays up his racial ambiguity to be able to do cross-genre and going into different places’.
Entertainment host Jameer added: ‘He creates great art but a lot of cultural appropriators do. The thing about Bruno Mars is his racial ambiguity helps him transcend genres and cultures.
‘He is literally the guy invited to everybody’s cookout because you don’t know if he’s black, you don’t know if he’s Latino, you don’t know if he has white in him.’
Panellist Uchechi Chinyere added: ‘He is benefiting off of what a black person would not be able to benefit off of, and that is the issue.
‘Bruno Mars is more popular because of his racial ambiguity.’
Sensei added: ‘What Bruno Mars does, is he takes pre-existing work and he just completely, word-for-word recreates it, extrapolates it.
‘He does not create it, he does not improve upon it, he does not make it better. He’s a karaoke singer, he’s a wedding singer, he’s the person you hire to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers.
‘Yet Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy and Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy.’
Cryptology podcast host Karl disagreed, saying: ‘Outside these records he’s making, I don’t see Bruno Mars trying to act like a black person. When Justin Bieber is running with his pants sagged and acting like a rapper, that’s cultural appropriation and trying to monetise black culture. With [Bruno] I look at it more as how artists view music created prior to them, and they show appreciation. All music is a fusion of other past music.’
But Bruno Mars stans are having none of it, and pointed out on Twitter that black people have more important things to worry about than the guy who sings Uptown Funk.
One tweeted: ‘Take that same energy you have to be mad at Bruno Mars and bring it over to Tekashi, Post Malone, Lil Pump, etc.’
if y’all want to attack the culture vultures attack the real ones. how you gon attack bruno mars for making good music and always quoting his sources and mentioning his inspiration pic.twitter.com/LSwOOWcRTJ
— oum (@ouminous) March 9, 2018
lmfaoooo y’all think Bruno Mars has to “steal” our culture to sell?!? This man has been providing BOPS for over a decade, not only as a solo artist but for some of your faves
—
(@colorme_unfazed) March 9, 2018
All this talk about Bruno Mars from these “woke” people feeling like they’re making a point, when instead they could be putting all that energy into supporting and buying music from black musicians they feel are underserved. pic.twitter.com/a9qbNpF7ER
— ѕlіск nіск (@Creat1ve) March 9, 2018
Take that same energy you have to be mad at Bruno Mars and bring it over to Tekashi, Post Malone, Lil Pump, etc
— hey football head (@nikesonmyTWEET) March 9, 2018
I personally think Bruno Mars is very talented and a great artist. Those who would spend time insulting and hating him because of his cultural background are the individuals with the issues, not Bruno.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) March 9, 2018
When you see Bruno Mars trending and you think it’s about him releasing new music but it’s just people taking about him not being cultural appropriate again pic.twitter.com/q2IvVLBNvk
— luisa (@luisagibsonxo) March 9, 2018
‘I personally think Bruno Mars is very talented and a great artist. Those who would spend time insulting and hating him because of his cultural background are the individuals with the issues, not Bruno,’ another tweeted.
Another comment read: ‘If y’all want to attack the culture vultures attack the real ones. how you gon attack bruno mars for making good music and always quoting his sources and mentioning his inspiration.’
‘Y’all think Bruno Mars has to “steal” our culture to sell?!?’ another fan wrote. ‘This man has been providing BOPS for over a decade, not only as a solo artist but for some of your faves.’
The full 30-minute long Grapevine debate is definitely worth watching, as there are some interesting points made on both sides of the argument.
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