“I’m not a fan of self-indulgence. For me, music is ‘I want to feel good’ or ‘I
want to dance,’ as opposed to me singing about me growing up in Hawaii and ‘my
struggle to relate.’ Ain’t nobody trying to hear that. I’m not even trying to
hear that, and that’s my story!”—Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars quoted in Brian Hiatt, “The Golden Child: The Secret
Origin of Bruno Mars, Natural-Born Pop Star,” Rolling Stone, May 9, 2013
My close following of pop music ended at, oh, about
1982. But over the last several months, whenever I heard snippets of popmaster
Bruno Mars on the radio or TV, I became interested in his music, and even, to
an extent, himself. Brian Hiatt’s Rolling Stone interview supplied some details
on the latter. I’ll continue to hunt out the former.
As far as I’m concerned, few things will inspire the
thought “I want to dance” like this YouTube performance, live in Paris, of “Locked Out of Heaven.”
As for “I want to feel good”: I submit, for your
consideration, this brief but joy-filled cover of the Spiral Staircase’s 1969 pop hit, “More Today Than Yesterday,”
from a session at 95.95 WPLJ’s “The Big Show.” (Oh, would that it were longer!)
"My close following of pop music ended at, oh, about 1982."
ReplyDeleteI've got the Under. Southside was never (and generally didn't try to be) "pop music."*
Bruno Mars is acquired vocal taste. But his uncle did a great commercial recently, so I look forward to your explanation of the fascination.
*And, to his credit, didn't try to be even after accidentally having a Pop Single, which should be known as Steve Miller Disease.