Bruno Mars name has become synonymous with cultural appropriation.
Bruno Mars is undoubtedly one of the most successful artists on the planet over the last decade. He consistently delivers hit music and almost always maintained a presence on the charts. But is he culturally appropriating black music? The Hawaiian singer is currently trending on Twitter because of that same topic. The debate started from the below video by The Grapevine’s host and a large panel discussing Bruno Mars culturally appropriating black music. Almost everyone on the panel seems to think that he is, but folks on Twitter thinks they are just hating on Bruno.
The debate went a step further than just cultural appropriation into Bruno Mars’ race, use of classic black music, and colorism. “People can’t complain about Bruno Mars “appropriating Black music”, when it’s Black people who abandoned the old school R&B/funk genre that we created,” Tariq wrote on Twitter. “We have a bad habit of that. Then we won’t find it relevant until white people think it’s relevant.”
“The thought that Bruno Mars has to steal to be successful is hilarious. That man is walking raw talent. He could literally turn the national anthem into a top 40 hit,” another fan wrote while another added, “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.”
Some fans even suggested some other names that are more worthy of the slander than Bruno Mars. Tekashi69, Lil Pump, Post Malone are just a few names that came up in the debate.
https://twitter.com/nikesonmyTWEET/status/972150596034850816
People can’t complain about Bruno Mars “appropriating Black music”, when it’s Black people who abandoned the old school R&B/funk genre that we created. We have a bad habit of that. Then we won’t find it relevant until white people think it’s relevant
— Tariq Nasheed ?? (@tariqnasheed) March 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/kingsleyyy/status/972152416832438273
The thought that Bruno Mars has to steal to be successful is hilarious. That man is walking raw talent. He could literally turn the national anthem into a top 40 hit.
— Instagram: AskTrillAC (@AskTrillAC) March 9, 2018
I woke up to Bruno Mars slander. Not here for it. Ya'll not about to ruin my Friday. How about ya'll focus on the real culture vultures? pic.twitter.com/Hul0k7RvSB
— ShyJigglyPuff ? (@Unclocked_DVa) March 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/ouminous/status/972150057876287488
When Bruno Mars disrespects the culture, then we can revisit this. He literally is never in the news for anything but coke lol leave him alone.
— OXTAIL GAWD (@ThatDudeMCFLY) March 9, 2018
Bruno Mars trending is a good example of fake controversies- 5 or 6 folks don't like what they think of as his cultural appropriation & 100k people who love Bruno Mars get pissed off at them. It's a conversation about the vast majority being aghast, not a real controversy.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 9, 2018
If we go far enough down this road of "Bruno Mars can't do 'Black' music cuz he's not 'Black'" how soon r we gonna say I shouldn't have played the European classical music I studied growing up because I'm not white. Musical genres r meant 2 b enjoyed by all us. TWITTER PLZ RELAX
— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) March 9, 2018
