StrangeButTrue said: The OP omitted the follow-up question which addresses EmmaMcG's post on her cover album: . How fine is that balance between karaoke and artistic interpretation? . It’s really a matter of musicality and being able to manipulate the tropes in a way that makes it feel personal. It can’t just be a pastiche, where you’re copying or mimicking an old sound or just doing karaoke. There has to be a form of sincerity. . Also this piece a bit later in the article explains the inspiration for the cover album concept: . What was it that inspired you to focus on this particular era? . I guess it was sparked by just sitting around with my friends and sometimes we enjoy each other’s company by dialing through the periods of music that most affected us. The covers idea was more so the result of a very intense year I experienced with the death of a parent and the dementia of another. And it was nice to just sit with tunes that you love and you know in and out in an emotional way. It was cathartic for me to try to give them another life, these songs.
[Edited 3/8/18 13:43pm] Ah, so she's a hypocrite. I see. | |
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i suppose Meshell should start singing about corporate sponsors and doing a little razzmatazz dance to make u folks happy. I'll settle for a great album. if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2 | |
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StrangeButTrue said: i suppose Meshell should start singing about corporate sponsors and doing a little razzmatazz dance to make u folks happy. I'll settle for a great album. It wouldn't make me happy. I don't like Bruno Mars either. | |
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Meshell's music has made me so happy over the years, I hope others make ya happy too EmmaMcG as in my o - that is what music is all about. Struggling with first love, Bitter came along and added a much needed voice and perspective in my life and I still listen to it for guidance/peace to this day. I like that her musicianship and devotion to her instrument and the love of music has allowed her the ability to record albums and tour with/for others as a learning experience. . Mayyyyybe a headline diss at the biggest pop star at the moment wasn't a smart move, I don't know why she would be interviewing with Billboard magazine anyway, the core of this whole situation is that her appeal to that pop culture demo is super limited. if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2 | |
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StrangeButTrue said: i suppose Meshell should start singing about corporate sponsors and doing a little razzmatazz dance to make u folks happy. I'll settle for a great album. I think you will have to continue to wait | |
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I get your drift, but for better or worse she is about as far as anyone could get from being a karaoke singer. I haven't heard her covers, but I imagine some of them will almost be unrecognizable from the original. She didn't initiate the Bruno Mars topic, so I doubt it was her M.O. to make controversial statements about Bruno. She just responded honestly without regard to political correctness, which is exactly what I would expect her and only a few others to do in that situation. | |
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ala....the great interpolator | |
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People often jump to conclusions when they decide they wanna criticize some aspect of art, in this case: commercial music.Yes, that is an art in itself. People just don't see it. Most music journalists and folks like Ms Meshell are very adamant about the very faux fact that music is supposed to be about reinvention, breaking new grounds, that lyrics are supposed to reflect the human condition, that the artist's vision ought to be personal. No. The de facto attribution you can bestow on music is that it should bring people together (whether in bad or good). That's the only thing any song should have in order to be good, universally speaking.You just can't ignore how much flairs Bruno puts into one 3 minute song. He's mastered the art of commercial music to the point where anything funky/uplifting from the 2010s will immediately be refered to as "Bruno Mars sound". And I'm the first to say that all instruments/composition ideas he uses on his recordings are heavily rooted in 90s R&B and such styles. He doesn't steal the music note for note, it's not a precise manifesteo like that. The only samples he used in his music is The Gap Band for Uptown Funk and Shai for Straight Up and Down. All of 24K Magic is original in terms of notes/chords, but not ideas & flair, which is what bothers people (?) --- Contradictory as fuck! If this same method was applied to an obscure genre like IDM or Tri hop or jazz hip hop, I assure you, critics won't give A SHIT, because to them that sort of music is by default a "prestigious" style of music that should be criticized only in terms of lyrics or sonic quality, not its roots/influences.It's not even the "nothing is original" argument. It's just that renowned artists, whether filmmakers, designers, musicians... most challenge themselves to bring new stuff to the table. It shouldn't be the case. A good pop song sometimes is all it takes to uplift 10,000 people. Bruno does that like it's a piece of cake. His tour has broken records in all territories, most recently New Zealand. Get it? Guys? People love his sound, they love his voice. They don't care he stole Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis' keyboard sound or the new-jack-swing drum syncopation. Here you go [Edited 3/9/18 6:51am] | |
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I really enjoyed her album The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams. Her new album due out on 3/16/18 is streaming on NPR and it sounds great to my ears. | |
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Straight Jacket Funk Affair
Album plays and love for vinyl records. | |
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" No. The de facto attribution you can bestow on music is that it should bring people together (whether in bad or good). That's the only thing any song should have in order to be good, universally speaking.
Thank for this. Some commonsense for once. | |
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Just because Meshell has the same opinion of Gray doesn't make it fact. Like Gray always like to ram down our throats - think for yourself people! Enjoy what you enjoy!! | |
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. Its true, people truly don't care that his sound sounds like other people's sound. People also voted for Donald Trump and encourage each other to eat Tide Pods. if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2 | |
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Either you've never really heard Meshel's music in depth or you don't read too carefully because to me it's very clear what she's talking about. She interprets music with a huge range of personal investment in the sound and meaning she's giving the basic song structure and lyrics written by other people in this album. That's what true musicians are capable of doing that karaoke singer's can't. That's what separated Nina Simone from every other singer that played songs written for others. She makes them her OWN. It's never an issue of imitation because she has no need to do that. She's working basically in her own genre/style since many albums ago. Change it one more time.. | |
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Everybody is influcenced by somebody. No one seemed to mind Prince's Sly Stone influnces. You missed the point big time. | |
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Yeah, like her or not, she speaks the truth as she feels it. I've never known her to skirt around topics. She's straight forward and you either take it or leave it. She's not asking anyone to listen to her words as gospel, she's telling what she, as a person who knows rock & r&B genres and the musicianship behind them as well as many of the historical greats, hears and sees when she listens to him Change it one more time.. | |
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http://www.newsweek.com/b...sei-838558 . From the article: . This isn't the first time Sensei called out the "24K Magic" singer, and it likely won't be the last. "There’s been a question of whether or not he’s a cultural appropriator for quite some time now; it’s just really bubbled over since his Grammy win," she said. "Generally speaking, we focus solely on white appropriators. Yet artists like Bruno who are persons of color, but aren’t Black, muddy the waters a bit." . In the modern era of racial politics, where artists like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and others are held accountable for borrowing from non-white cultures, it's worth including Mars in that conversation. Perhaps this debate signals a need for more nuance when it comes to the topic of cultural appropriation—or maybe, as Sensei believes, it's simply time for Mars to face the ire his white peers are all too familiar with. . As for critics who say African-Americans have bigger fish to fry than Mars getting funky uptown? "Bruno is someone who, in my opinion, is willingly benefiting from his racial ambiguity in order to utilize the system of white supremacy to get ahead. That makes him an agent of white supremacy, and that makes this a BIG FISH."
if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2 | |
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March 9, 2018: A number of activists are calling for Black people to "boycott" Bruno Mars. The activists believe that Bruno is "culturally appropriating" African American culture. "Bruno Mars is 100 percent a cultural appropriator," Youtuber Sensei Aishitemasu states. "He is racially ambiguous. He is not black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to be able to do cross-genre and going into different places." "I don't even think that Michael Jackson, now, in this day in age, would be able to get to the point that he got to previously," she continued. "And a huge part of that is because people have realized that they prefer their black music and their black culture from a non-black face," adding "Bruno Mars got that Grammy because white people love him because she's not black, period. The issue is: We want our black culture from non-black bodies. And Bruno Mars is like — bam, I'll give it to you." This is not the first time that he has been accused of appropriating Black culture. Throughout 2017 there were several thinkpieces online debating the issue. A writer for The Root came under fire from Mars fans when she posted a thread about him saying: "I really need y'all to stop with this Bruno Mars praise and be more critical about the ways we understand appropriation. Bruno Mars does not identify as Black. Let's get that clear at the outset. These claims that Bruno Mars is "bringing Funk back" are erasive to Black Funk artists who pioneered the tradition. FUNK. NEVER. LEFT. Yes, he gives "credit" to Funk artists on occasion. He also has a primarily white audience which has no memory or care for Black artists." | |
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I'll pass, which really doesn't mean much since Bruno ain't making that much money off me anyways. So I guess I'll just sit and watch and smh. | |
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lezama said:
Either you've never really heard Meshel's music in depth or you don't read too carefully because to me it's very clear what she's talking about. She interprets music with a huge range of personal investment in the sound and meaning she's giving the basic song structure and lyrics written by other people in this album. That's what true musicians are capable of doing that karaoke singer's can't. That's what separated Nina Simone from every other singer that played songs written for others. She makes them her OWN. It's never an issue of imitation because she has no need to do that. She's working basically in her own genre/style since many albums ago. She seems very arrogant, which I don't like. Now, I'll admit that I'd never even heard of her before reading this thread but having heard some of her stuff on YouTube, I'm not impressed. And for the record, I don't like Bruno Mars either but I still think that this woman is being incredibly arrogant in calling out another artist as karaoke. What gives her the right to make assertions like that? How can she determine the artistic expression or lack of it in another artist's music? She's entitled to her own opinion but to present your opinion as fact is another thing entirely. | |
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Well fair enough. She's said thing in the past that I've disagreed with too. I think she has a point here, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, they occupy two different worlds in music. Change it one more time.. | |
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I can't get behind any of this argument. This hyper racial territorialization schtich is really dumb. If you don't like someone, don't listen to them. If somebody you're more in tune with in funk, R&B or whatever isn't getting recognition that you think they should have, then promote them! Give them the attention they deserve! There's zero need to crap in someone else's lane. . I'm not even a fan of Mars, but I can't support people who want to act as cultural guardians for the rest of a community as though the rest of the world shares their perspective. They need to take several seats. Change it one more time.. | |
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what sucks is when people comprare him 2 prince prince is a musican first this kind is something generated by the record companies to make a hit record yeah i like his little music but there is nothing great about it he makes lazy music no real energy | |
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the project is streaming on NPR... i dig it Nick Ashford was someone I greatly admired, had the honor of knowing, and was the real-life inspiration for Cowboy Curtis' hair. RIP Nick. - Pee Wee Herman | |
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If Prince was here right now looking at this bullshit Straight Jacket Funk Affair
Album plays and love for vinyl records. | |
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She's looking for the easiest promo to get R&B fans to try her music as a juxtaposition to Bruno's steez. Music is a tough biz. EmmaMcG said: StrangeButTrue said: The OP omitted the follow-up question which addresses EmmaMcG's post on her cover album: . How fine is that balance between karaoke and artistic interpretation? . It’s really a matter of musicality and being able to manipulate the tropes in a way that makes it feel personal. It can’t just be a pastiche, where you’re copying or mimicking an old sound or just doing karaoke. There has to be a form of sincerity. . Also this piece a bit later in the article explains the inspiration for the cover album concept: . What was it that inspired you to focus on this particular era? . I guess it was sparked by just sitting around with my friends and sometimes we enjoy each other’s company by dialing through the periods of music that most affected us. The covers idea was more so the result of a very intense year I experienced with the death of a parent and the dementia of another. And it was nice to just sit with tunes that you love and you know in and out in an emotional way. It was cathartic for me to try to give them another life, these songs.
[Edited 3/8/18 13:43pm] Ah, so she's a hypocrite. I see. | |
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Nah. Meshell has a solid fan base. And they're across the spectrum. I've seen her perform live at least 4 times and she always has a solid turn out. People into Bruno MIGHT like her music but I'd guess they're into a more mature sound if they're consistent buyers of her music and shows.
Change it one more time.. | |
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Mars has a level of musicianship that isn't necessarily "karaoke-ish" and he stays in his lane. So, my album: https://soundcloud.com/theroseparade
2004-2008 demos: https://soundcloud.com/th...aradedemos | |
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Yes, I'm one of her fanbase and also a listener across the spectrum. I think Bruno is alright. He does a different thing than Me'shell. She's also not selling to stadium audiences, not that she cares, but with that said she speaks in her music mag interviews to delineate the difference between Bruno and her own interpretive technique to let some of the thirsty masses in on her own artistic efforts and turn more ears to listen up to her music, and hopefully pay for the treat. You've got to blow your horn when you can to have a chance to collect hard-earned
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Meshell has a devout fanbase. Her remark has nothing to do with sales boasting. Not everybody who has a different opinion is "hating". Why are people so touchy? | |
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