Trey Songz has a question for the masses and it centers around Bruno Mars.
Full story below…
The crooner took to social media to ask why the ’24k Magic’ singer is rarely mentioned in R&B discourse.
He tweeted:
“Why y’all never put Bruno in the R&B convo? smh”
It’s an interesting question and one that is fast generating healthy debate.
It’s undeniable that Mars makes mostly R&B music, so why so often is his output categorized by others as “Pop”?
From our vantage point, it’s a an issue that is predates Bruno and is not his fault in any way.
Rather, there has long been the grating industry practice of christening R&B by Black artists as being “R&B,” but equally authentic R&B from non-Black artists as “Pop” – with the latter garnering more play and exposure.
Again, we don’t see this as a “Bruno Mars thing.” Especially as he has ALWAYS given props to his influences and referred to his own music as the R&B that it is.
That said, there is a broader industrial issue that ought to be addressed.
With that, what are…
His first inspiration was Elvis. Enough said.
Oh just Shut yo ass up, Trey. U just being mad and jealous of my daddy bruno💅🏿 Your career went down after Na Na.
You completely missed the point TGJ and went in another direction ENTIRELY. What great “journalism.”
Twisting it into a whole “he gets more because of his race!” instead of the actuality of him being SHUNNED because of his race. A lot of black people don’t embrace non-blacks as “R&B.” THAT was the point…
Trey needs to shut up, bcuz Bruno Mars is NOT R&B he’s POP like MJ
Justin Timberlake has R&B influences also, still classified as POP because his VOICE STYLE & OVERALL Appeal is POP. Same goes for Bruno Mars.
Robin Thicke is WHITE yet he is classified as R&B and so is Jon B.
It’s actually a good thing that a racially ambiguous Afro man with r&b influences isn’t automatically Classified as R&B, he us NOT an R&B act.
Because he’s light skinned. That’s it, that’s all. It’s funny how artist of a certain skin tone can make R&B music and still be labeled as Pop Because of their ability to pass a brown paper bag test. And I find it incredibly mind boggling how white Pop artist can make 1 or 2 R&B songs and automatically have #1 huts. If you listen to Bruno Mars entire catalog, there’s Pop influences but the bulk of it is R&B, vintage R&B at that, not the trendy trap b******* that’s considered R&B at the moment.
He is Pop
Stop trying to make fetch happen
This is great observation from both Trey and TGJ. We all know the reason tho.
Because Bruno is a pop artist with R&B influences. There’s nothing wrong with that. He still makes great music.
That’s exactly it. It’s not a deep discussion. By his logic, Trey should be considered a rap artist (“Bottoms Up”, “Blessed”, “Foreign”…) but we know that’s not his dominant style and influence just like Tyrese and his “Black Ty” phase.
Bruno crossed over like tina Turner and paid yall dust
As much as I love Bruno Mars’ wedding singer looking a**, he is not an R&B artist…period.
Like majority of the posters above have already said, he is a Pop singer WITH R&B influences/elements in his music and those type of songs have been the bulk of his success up til recent with a few songs coming from 24/K magic to him now fully venturing into R&B/Soul alongside Anderson Paak.
It has nothing to do with his skin tone because if that were the case, Robin Thicke, Jon B, Amy Winehouse and so many others would have missed the mark.
Trey songz is the LAST person who needs to be fact checking folks about categorizing incorrectly because the man has literally gained hits and won awards off of left over drake material that had more elements of hip/hop in them than r&b and has propelled far due to the fact. His last and only real, true r&b album was the wood-selling just gotta make it in ‘05
Exactly. Dabbling I’m r&b music does NOT make you an r&b artist. Skin color has nothing to do with it, as you astutely pointed out non-black r&b singers who were embraced by the black community.
TWO non-black “R&B” singers? Point proven.
The original commentor pointed out more than 2 non black r&b artists…and there are many more. Do your homework. The genesis of r&b music is in the black culture, so of course it’s going to be predominantly black. This doesn’t translate to nonsequitur, ignorant ideas like the r&b genre shuns white artists.
@Hmmm
Exactly!
That fool needs to focus on his dying career
Because Bruno has been a pop artist since “It’s Better If You Don’t Understand” EP
I thought we understood this lol 😂
He has soul. He’s R&B/POP. Pop can be whatever. It’s what’s popular. People act like he’s not R&B because of his massive success. A lot of his music has R&B elements to it or in it.
He’s not an R&B artist. He makes R&B songs but he’s not an R&B artist. We wouldn’t classify Nelly as an R&B or a Country artist.
For me Bruno is not R&B. When I think of R&B, it’s music that doesn’t rely heavily on Hip-Hop/Trap/Funk/Disco, EDM elements.
For example Donna Summer was a Disco/Pop artist whereas Anita Baker is an R&B. There is a clear distinction. Because a person is Black doesn’t mean their music is R&B.
And even though Lauryn Hill sing & rap, her music has a more traditional R&B sound. Same cannot be said for Drake although he does the same.
He shoulda ask . Why nobody buy his music no more or when they last time he had a hit? Basically mind his business. He just want attention. He should be upset about his own career. Now I guess he hoping Bruno will reach out and collab to put him on the charts again. Did he really have to tweet this . Was it really bothering him this much? Bruno is pop not r& b anyway. The slow music can be considered but he put out mostly pop hits. He put out great music and a great artist . Who will be around for awhile. Everything he drops is good.