jaawwnn said:

The Return:

>

https://www.youtube.com/w...sT_Rhw2bVs

MickyDolenz said:

JorisE73 said:
I completly agree with you that 'Black' musicians were treated badly and profitted of by 'White' execs and artists back in teh day.

Record companies ripped off everybody, no matter what race they were. That's how The Beatles & other songwriters lost their publishing that Michael Jackson could buy in the 1980s. Others like Billy Joel was ripped off by his manager. Concert promoters, record distibuters, club owners, etc. also ripped off acts. James Brown would not perform unless he got paid beforehand. Many businesses are not honest, why should people expect the entertainment business to be an exception? Nike has been known to use sweatshops. If you eat chocolate, there's a chance unpaid slave labor is behind it picking the beans. When there's a hurricane, some stores raise the price of products that have a high demand.

LOL, there's a BIG difference between 'White' artists getting recording contracts on a whim (and them only signing them without reading them) and 'Black' artists not even getting a chance at a meeting at the same company even tho there better artists. Back in those days racism was running rampant in the money business.

MotownSubdivision said:

OK but that's not the point. It doesn't matter how forward thinking Elvis may have been VS Bruno on the subject of cultural appropriation. Stop shifting the debate to "originality", nobody is saying that Bruno is some innovative new artist musically changing the world in his wake so I don't understand why people keep inserting this argument into the conversation.

This conversation seems to be about the term "culture vulture" that to my understanding always just meant someone who is very interested in the arts but in this thread suddenly seems to mean something about cultural appropriation and racism. Call it white privilege if you like but I think Bruno Mars is allowed make music influenced by whatever he likes, we are not obliged to like it or find it convincing though.

On the topic at hand, Elvis was also far more exploitative than Bruno has ever been. There's far more reason to deem a southern white man who rose to prominence during the Jim Crow era in Elvis Presley a culture vulture than a Puerto Rican Filipino who acknowledges what inspired and came before him as well as the historical plight of black music in Bruno Mars. [Edited 3/11/21 14:54pm]

Well I'd argue that Elvis was always very honest about what music inspired him but if you think i'm going to start denying that racism existed in Jim Crow then you're barking up the wrong tree.

Country is huge, wtf. I will say rock is dying.

2freaky4church1 said:

Country is huge, wtf.

Country has been really big since the Garth Brooks/Shania Twain days in the 1990s. It started with the crossover success of Kenny Rogers & the CB radio/trucker craze in the late 1970s plus the movie Urban Cowboy. Hee Haw was in production for 23 years. Garth is the only act to have 9 diamond albums. Neither Michael Jackson, The Beatles, or Eagles can say that.

MickyDolenz said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Country is huge, wtf.

Country has been really big since the Garth Brooks/Shania Twain days in the 1990s. It started with the crossover success of Kenny Rogers & the CB radio/trucker craze in the late 1970s plus the movie Urban Cowboy. Hee Haw was in production for 23 years. Garth is the only act to have 9 diamond albums. Neither Michael Jackson, The Beatles, or Eagles can say that.

His success is astonishing. I know a lot of it comes from gaming the system with weird album combinations and releases over the years, but even with that caveat, here in Ireland he is the biggest star on the planet and i'd say it's not even close. I don't think i've ever heard him on non-country radio but he's just everywhere. Every house here has a Garth Brooks album.

Garth has gotten a wee bigger wink.

Nice effort but it breaks no new ground. It reminds me of a Raphael Saadiq throwback song. But less interesting.

3rdeyedude said:

jaawwnn said:

His success is astonishing. I know a lot of it comes from gaming the system with weird album combinations and releases over the years, but even with that caveat, here in Ireland he is the biggest star on the planet and i'd say it's not even close. I don't think i've ever heard him on non-country radio but he's just everywhere. Every house here has a Garth Brooks album.

Country music is also popular in places you wouldn't expect like Jamaica, Japan, and a few countries in Africa. The banjo did come from Africa, so that might be a factor. But the banjo is more featured in bluegrass.

Gotta check this one out.

3rdeyedude said:

Nice effort but it breaks no new ground. It reminds me of a Raphael Saadiq throwback song. But less interesting.

Agreed, it is a total 70's Philly Soul throwback, well executed but no new ground like you said. The video is probably the best aspect of this new Paak and Mars song, really like it!

CynicKill said:

The Return:

>

https://www.youtube.com/w...sT_Rhw2bVs

She seems to know an awful lot about his career considering she hates him

funkypixie said:

CynicKill said:

The Return:

>

https://www.youtube.com/w...sT_Rhw2bVs

She seems to know an awful lot about his career considering she hates him

>

From my recollection after the Trinidad James thing she became obsessed.

>

https://www.youtube.com/w...K2FqPNIT_U

^^It's kinda odd she talks about "cultural appropriation" when uses Japanese words as a name

MickyDolenz said:

^^It's kinda odd she talks about "cultural appropriation" when uses Japanese words as a name

>

CynicKill said:

I'm sure the Sensei has not much to say about black blues artists getting the slide guitar sound from Hawaiian traditional music. So did country guitar players. What about all the soul & R&B songs that have orchestras or string sections on them? Or Marian Anderson & Leontyne Price doing opera? Bobby McFerrin's father was also an opera singer. He did the singing

CynicKill said:

RJOrion said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Nobody is saying non-blacks didn't have it hard in the music biz. However, much like life itself, for whatever hardships they've experienced, it was never due to their skin color.

that pretty much sums it up right there...that is the essence of white privilege...a disgusting dichotomy

You are aware Bruno is a man of color right?

paisleypark4 said:

RJOrion said:

paisleypark4 said:

You are aware Bruno is a man of color right?

im fully aware that Bruno Mars is not a so-called black man...there are plenty of "people of color" that hate and despise people of African descent...so Bruno Mars can be any color he wants...he's not black or African...and he never will be, no matter how hard he tries to sing or dance

Part of the legacy of racism is that anyone of color is considered Black by most racists. If Bruno wasn't so well known, he would be just as vulnerable to racist cops as African Americans. Overall, I respect that cultural apporptiation has been incredibly expolitive in the past, but I think these days music has gotten increasingly eclectic while Black producers and artists aren't nearly left out of the the money train as they were before. Beyonce does a wonderful countryish song on her Lemonade album, Kane Brown is huge in country, Joy Olaakadun is an emerging star in the folk scene who was inspired by Tracy Chapman,the hard rock of Living Color, and so forth. Also, when did it bcome such a thing for so many Black female artists to have long straight hair? Cool by me, but it seems everyone is borrowing from everyone else. Cultural appropriation seems to ring the most true when Blacks are denied success while mainly White artists profit by the style. It just doesn't seem to hold up as much these days, at least in terms of music.

I'm digging it. I appreciate just how dedicated this younger group of

musicians is to preserving the craft.

Even better is watching the video reactions of music professionals and elderly people who grew up living this music. Those have been the best entertainment I've had all week.

MickyDolenz said:

^^It's kinda odd she talks about "cultural appropriation" when uses Japanese words as a name

TELL IT!

The same young folks out here ready to tear Bfruno's arse up are many of the same ones upholding Cardi B on a pedestal, when this young woman has told us point blank in several long form interviews that she doesn't care about the craft of music making, she's only in it for the money. As an old black woman who grew up appreciating the importance of music as culture and how it influences the world across all genres and ethncities, please miss me with the BS. By today's standards of of what constitutes cultural appropriation, I shouldn't have family members who are classical musicians, jazz should not be one of the most rigorously studied genres of music on the planet amongst genius musicians, and I shouldn't have grown up studying ballet. This generation annoys the hell out of me.

Ottensen said:

TELL IT!

The same young folks out here ready to tear Bfruno's arse up are many of the same ones upholding Cardi B on a pedestal, when this young woman has told us point blank in several long form interviews that she doesn't care about the craft of music making, she's only in it for the money. As an old black woman who grew up appreciating the importance of music as culture and how it influences the world across all genres and ethncities, please miss me with the BS. By today's standards of of what constitutes cultural appropriation, I shouldn't have family members who are classical musicians, jazz should not be one of the most rigorously studied genres of music on the planet amongst genius musicians, and I shouldn't have grown up studying ballet. This generation annoys the hell out of me.

B.B. King has said that many black people in the 1960s were ashamed of blues music, they considered it country and backwards. He said it was the young white British acts who would shout them out and put the blues acts on their tours. Which increased their popularity. King also said that Frank Sinatra helped him to get gigs in Las Vegas during that time. Before then, many black performers only got booked on the chitlin' circuit playing in juke joints. If you look at the audience for blues and jazz today the audiences are often majority white and has been for several decades. So if they were depending on the black audience to make money, those genres would probably be extinct today or have a small cult audience.

CynicKill said:

The Return:

>

https://www.youtube.com/w...sT_Rhw2bVs

She promises that she's gonna make a video everytime Bruno releases music. She's obsessed.

jaawwnn said:

LouieLestate said:

MotownSubdivision said:

LouieLestate said:

She promises that she's gonna make a video everytime Bruno releases music. She's obsessed.

She's a damn idiot. There's nothing worse than a pseudo-intellectual. Of all the folks she could leading the charge against, she chose the guy who actually loves the music he makes. The fact that he keeps saying who laid the groundwork for him should be plenty of evidence to squash this one-sided grudge.

She kinda had the same arguement against Drake.

Now I'm no Drake cheerleader by any means, but her arguement that he was this big culture vulture who never put anyone on can be easily disproved.

All she had to do is look up how many records he's guested on and vice versa and she'd see that.

I don't know what his intentions are, and since I don't thought-police I don't care. The outcome is that he's put people on. He's the big name here.

I think her heart gets in the way of her head with her arguements.