How to explain the popularity of "Uptown Funk"?

Hello, long-time reader, but I don't post very often.

I am a huge fan of the early 80's electro-soul sound that "Uptown Funk" is emulating (well, besides Parliament and Prince) and I find it quite strange that it has turned into this absolutely massive #1 in the U.S. I mean, how long has it been in the Hot 100 now, two months? Anyway, I am curious how people feel about it as a popular song. I would imagine it is partly novelty, and partly this deep familiarity for listeners without knowing exactly where they heard this sort of thing before. It is a decent song, but I am guessing novelty is largely the appeal. It sort of reminds me of the pure stylistic exercise of "Treasure" and "Get Lucky" from the year previous. Thoughts?

I think it's quite gruesome. (Not big on the genre in general.) It strikes me as exactly the kind of song that a) wins Pazz & Jop, and b) no one can figure out why five years later.

"What really puts me off about [Robert Cray] is that you just can't do blues in the self-conscious way you can do a lot of other things. You can't get up and say, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, now I'm gonna do a blues song,' without immediately sounding ridiculous."

Greil Marcus...I'll leave aside whether that's fair or not to Robert Cray. But that's what I think about when I hear something like "Uptown Funk": "Ladies and Gentlemen, now we're gonna do a funk song."

It's totally "Get Lucky" pt 2. Maybe I'M the one who's getting old, but mainstream culture seems to be all about old shit. Music that sounds like peppy, modern sensibility covers of old music (see also Megan Trainer), TV shows based on films I liked as a teenager, films based on comics my granddad liked as a teenager. Maybe it's to do with money because the more something is safe and familiar to the larger amount of people the wider its appeal, and old people are more likely to buy a song instead of just rip/download it.

Or I dunno, maybe it's a really good song, I've only heard it in passing.

Sounds good, real good, at a wedding.

What's not to get? hugely familiar, extremely catchy, popular artist, memorable lyrical hook - even more so than Get Lucky, it's a recipe for a big hit.

Maroon 5's "Sugar" (#2 in America this week) is also a part of this trend. Wedding music otm - certainly the "Sugar" video acknowledges that unabashedly

It's the greatest Was Not Was hit of the 21st C

"What really puts me off about [Robert Cray] is that you just can't do blues in the self-conscious way you can do a lot of other things. You can't get up and say, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, now I'm gonna do a blues song,' without immediately sounding ridiculous."

Greil Marcus...I'll leave aside whether that's fair or not to Robert Cray. But that's what I think about when I hear something like "Uptown Funk": "Ladies and Gentlemen, now we're gonna do a funk song."

― clemenza, Thursday, March 19, 2015 5:27 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like this is a mounting complaint about 'new' music in recent times, and not without reason. A review of the US hipster-metal band Liturgy in Wire magazine this month was arguing that compared to the original Scandinavian black metallers, this band are very self-consciously 'doing' black metal and that even their more leftfield tendencies felt tokenistic or forced, whereas a band like Ulver at the time were genuinely pushing the boundaries of their abilities and what the genre could do.

The first few seconds of it before the song turns into sludge.

It's not a bad imitation, and by far my favorite Bruno Mars song. My favorite part is how spare it still manages to sound.

good use of live or at least live-sounding instruments too, without losing any polish, which is prob quite refreshing to radio listeners who are attuned to more processed production. I'm quite a big fan of the brasswork going on in the coda.

"What really puts me off about [Robert Cray] is that you just can't do blues in the self-conscious way you can do a lot of other things. You can't get up and say, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, now I'm gonna do a blues song,' without immediately sounding ridiculous."

I don't understand these sentences. When does Cray announce he's going to do a blues song (he was always a blues artist, not approaching electro funk secondhand like Mars)? And so what if he did?

and I consider the affection for "Smoking Gun" and that album one of the great wtf's of P&J history.

Driving around yesterday, heard "Uptown Funk" on a rap/r'n'b station, then changed the dial to an older folks urban contemporary station and heard it there too. Got home and started watching a public access hand dance tv show for an article I am writing, and yes the 60-something African American swing dancers were spinning and twisting to "Uptown Funk" (before the dj switched back to their usual old-school and southern soul)

Some Dude wrote elsewhere re "Uptown Funk" that it:

topped the Hot 100 this year during a monthlong stretch in which no African American artists had a top ten hit (although Trinidad James got a check for his lyrical inspiration for the song).

Any yea, its got that sound that will do well at weddings and elsewhere

it's great for commercial bumpers during sports

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/11476599/Watch-Michelle-Obama-dances-to-Uptown-Funk-with-Ellen-DeGeneres.html

As with Get Lucky, the richness of the production counts for a lot. Even though it's a busy record there's a spaciousness and range that you don't hear much in the Top 10 these days. (I realise that I sound about 83 but it's true)

What type of person would be mad that a song that sounds like Morris Day is all over the place?

it's a crazy song that references all gold everything and has the lyric "got chucks on with saint laurent" aka it's fire

It's so wild that "All Gold Everything," a song that barely broke the Top 40, ended up spawning the Number One song in the country and an old lady screeching the N-word on CNN in the same month

it's almost like mere chart positions are unreflective of wider popularity or cultural impact!

also i completely loathe "uptown funk" but am baffled that anyone would require an explanation of its popularity

I've had it in my head since reading the thread this morning. please help.

call the poh-lic and the fireman

there are like a million hooks and they all work

hooks + retro signifiers + EDM-like build for the kids (which is the worst part of the song)

I love The Time/Prince/electro-funk sounds and songs that inspired it but I really hate "Uptown Funk".
There's something so cynical and cold about it (the fact that I really dislike M. Ronson's approach of music and production doesn't help, of course). Also, I don't think there's much of a song behind the signifiers. And I don't know much about B. Mars but he seems like a diet coke entertainer to me.
bref, it's a shame that this kind of funk and sounds didn't get a better revival hit than this...

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN MAMBO NO. 5 FIVE TO ME!?!!?

Sometimes I regret there wasnt an internet around to log the teeth-gnashing over, like, the macarena

ILX would have raved about La Lambada.

I did!

the forbidden dance!

"get lucky" is basically the macarena right

diet coke entertainer

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vc4x9Q3F_ew/T6RtS73Xt-I/AAAAAAAAAY4/N-hKtVYjFiE/s1600/pepsi-michael-jackson.jpg

ahah. I had a summer crush on the girl (I was very young !).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyLdoQGBchQ

"Uptown Funk" sounds like it was written and recorded using the exact process described in KLF's The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way.

diet coke entertainer

yeah I had that in mind too !

Ronson's *last* album was great. especially this with Rose ex-Pipette singing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rktagwzW3XQ

and from the new album, Daffodils wipes the floor with Uptown Funk IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OWkLF2HLp0

he's basically something of a genius i think.

I love Daffodils (sounds like he's been listening to Mary Jane Girls on that one) but I can see why it's not the ubiquitous smash UF is.

the forbidden dance!

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:23 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SHHH jesus fucking christ do you want to get this msg board shut down???

vive la resistance ! (secret sign is : the forbidden dance)

*draws lambada symbol in sand, winks, wipes it away*

remember when Ronson had D'Angelo on his album a few years ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOAD0gu18wk

starts of very promising, almost like a Lone track or something, but ends up as a mess. the vocals and the music never mesh, even though D sounds great.

"lambada symbol" : 4 legs intertwined ?

even before clicking i thought 'this must be that thing i hear in every dr's office and supermarket'

btw is this the project that has michael chabon guest writing the lyrics?

nah, ronson feat mars credit aside, it's from the same team that made others mars hits like "locked out of heaven"

according to the liner notes on wikipedia, the two tracks featuring a bruno mars credit are the only two not featuring a michael chabon credit

Chris Molanphy wrote about this back in January:

This is why, ever since “Uptown” dropped two months ago, I’ve found it ironic to see so many bloggers, critics, and friends of mine calling it a ready-made smash. Sure, it sounds like an instantly familiar chart-topper to us now. But “Uptown Funk!” is to vintage electro-R&B in 2015 what “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Basket Case” were in the early ’90s to vintage punk: a catch-up. It’s a penance by America for not making an irresistible style the pop success it deserved to be the first time around.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/01/13/uptown_funk_mark_ronson_and_bruno_mars_hit_no_1_on_the_billboard_chart_why.html

i think a better comparison point might be "stray cat shuffle"

it's not like "living in america" and "you dropped a bomb on me" were pixies/buzzcocks levels obscure

strut

my apologies to the cats

ironically "basket case" only made it to #26 on the charts as an airplay only single (admittedly way higher than anything by the ramones)

Disagree strongly with Chris about grouping "Teen Spirit" and "Basket Case" together--I'd draw a very bright line between those two. (Does he mean that "Teen Spirit" was penance for Husker Du not selling millions of records? I don't know what percentage of the people who bought "Teen Spirit" were familiar with Husker Du, or at least who cared about Husker Du, but I'm guessing it was relatively small, even though it only appeared four years later.) Which has nothing to do with "Uptown Funk." Proceed apace.

yeah it's not the best comparison. people weren't buying Nirvana for nostalgic reasons.

also nirvana and green day represented cross-over breakthroughs from indie-based scenes - while it has a distinct sonic template, this is just the latest big hit from an established classicist Top 40 act who's already big enough to headline the superbowl

us chart nerds aside, how many people think of this as a Mark Ronson song rather than a Bruno Mars song?

so actually, forget "stray cat strut," this is more like "Crocodile rock"

The song also appears to have been strongly influenced by songs from the late 50s-early 60s ("when Rock was young"), including Del Shannon's 1962 "Cry Myself to Sleep", and "Little Darlin'" (recorded in 1957 by The Diamonds and The Gladiolas). The chorus resembles "Speedy Gonzales" by Pat Boone. While there was no actual "Crocodile Rock", there was a dance called The Alligator.

I remember when funk was young
Me and Bruno had so much fun

hard times befallin'
the funk survivors
she thinks i'm crazy
but i'm just growin' old

re this being a bruno or a mick ronson song, i should admit the song's profile is undoubtedly different in the UK, where Ronson's first Top 20 lead credit was over a decade ago and he's had four since. Meanwhile in the US, this remains his first and only Top 100. bruno's big in both countries, though.

lol MARK ronson, sorry.

crocodile rock otm

Big Mark strikes again

Haha I thought I was making a very clever reference to a previous Ronson hit, but I guess the Smiths cover was "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," not "Bigmouth Strikes Again."

I remember when funk was young
Me and Bruno had so much fun

― clemenza, Thursday, March 19, 2015 1:18 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

clearly "me and bruno and the smeezingtons" or i guess "me and smeezy and the mark ronson"

I love how k-pop this song is. It's all the edm.

i hear no EDM or k-Pop in Uptown Funk?

Ambitious, clocking in at 4:30.

It has a million hooks per minute and it mixes old school styles with new school dynamics. The drop into the horns are straight out of the skrillex-schoolbook. Or like Airplane by f(x).

It's basically engineered to make middle-aged people dance and has enough hooks for the kids.

Totally "Crocodile Rock". Crossed with "Groove Is In The Heart".

It has a million hooks per minute and it mixes old school styles with new school dynamics. The drop into the horns are straight out of the skrillex-schoolbook. Or like Airplane by f(x).

― Frederik B, Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is EDM's greatest success the fact that people now assume there was no such thing as a drop before 2007?

Yes. By saying basically 'the drop is edm-like' I clearly stated that no other music uses drops. That is what my sentence means.

I was thinking "Let's Dance" crossed with "Nasty."

But it also doesn't remotely resemble the way the drop typically works in EDM tunes.

No, but it uses those sounds. The rising siren and the quickening of drums. Come on, you've heard that sound a million times these last few years, but not in a number one hit like this, I don't think.

I see the resemblance in the build-up, but the trumpet drop itself doesn't work in the same way because EDM (and brostep) both use the drop as the effective chorus and pinnacle of the tune.

Calvin Harris has perfected (or "perfected") this: see "We Found Love" or "Sweet Nothing", the way that the drop into the synths (whether instrumental or with vocals over the top) goes into an extended repeat-arpeggio for at least 8 bars. In EDM (and increasingly, pop generally), the structure could almost be extrapolated from filter-house, the chorus/drop being the section of the tune where the key riff snaps into clear focus.

Whereas in "Uptown Funk" the trumpet drop lasts for 4 bars and then you get the call and response between Bruno and the trumpets/drums before plunging back into the verse.

On computer screen, the above may seem like a trivial distinction ("four bars, eight bars, what's the difference?") but it totally changes the dynamic of the track.

Brostep and EDM are structured around the drop as the focal-point of the tune. In "Uptown Funk" that build-up to the drop and the drop itself are one (or arguably two) dynamic moment(s) amongst many, several of which are of equal prominence - the "i'm too hot / (hot damn)" call and responses in the first pre-chorus, the first "girls hit your hallelujah" which sounds like it's bringing in a breakdown before you realise it's actually presaging a build-up, the actual breakdown with the "Uptown Funk you up" section, etc.

It's that relative equality of peaktime moments that make the tune's use of dynamism (not surprisingly!) resemble Wild Cherry much more than EDM, notwithstanding the presence of a drum build-up into a drop.

Has this thread made it this far without mentioning Kool and the Gang? Because I can't hear this without thinking hearing "Ladies Night," at least a bit.

Reaching back, but in what universe did "vintage electro R&B" not generate a bunch of major hits?

Plus go Tim.

Yeah, I am a wedding DJ and I KNOW I will be playing "Uptown Funk" at all the weddings this summer. Requestors will be like, "Um, do you have that one funk song? With Bruno Mars?" I guarantee it. The summer before I played "Get Lucky" and "Treasure" and "Blurred Lines" at almost all of the weddings. It is definitely wedding material. As for vintage electro r&b, when exactly was there last a hit in the charts that had that sound?

"Also, I don't think there's much of a song behind the signifiers."

Yeah, nope, there really isn't. At worst it is a mashing together of familiar sounds and tropes within electro r&b, and time won't to be too kind to it. Yes, the EDM build is the worst part.

Wedding song was the first thing I thought of hearing this. Like "I Gotta Feeling" it's pretty epic in length for a pop song, it has an intro that gives people a chance to run out onto the dance floor, etc.

As for vintage electro r&b, when exactly was there last a hit in the charts that had that sound?

― lowlytootle, Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:21 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ages, but if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, I understood the point to be that the sound was, in its earlier incarnation, widely successful - not an obscurity that Mars is translating for the masses (re: the Nirvana comparison).

Wedding song was the first thing I thought of hearing this. Like "I Gotta Feeling" it's pretty epic in length for a pop song, it has an intro that gives people a chance to run out onto the dance floor, etc.

― with HD lyrics (Eazy), Friday, March 20, 2015 3:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"I Gotta Feeling" is actually a really helpful non-obvious point of comparison, not just for length but also the sense that it's not ime. I heard it at lunch and immediately thought of "Uptown Funk" structurally.

Fixed:

"I Gotta Feeling" is actually a really helpful non-obvious point of comparison, not just for length but also the sense that it's not immediately apparent what is the key hook. I heard it at lunch and immediately thought of "Uptown Funk" structurally.

"Calvin Harris has perfected (or "perfected") this: see "We Found Love" or "Sweet Nothing", the way that the drop into the synths (whether instrumental or with vocals over the top) goes into an extended repeat-arpeggio for at least 8 bars. In EDM (and increasingly, pop generally), the structure could almost be extrapolated from filter-house, the chorus/drop being the section of the tune where the key riff snaps into clear focus."

i really love this paragraph

"Also, I don't think there's much of a song behind the signifiers."

Yeah, nope, there really isn't. At worst it is a mashing together of familiar sounds and tropes within electro r&b, and time won't to be too kind to it. Yes, the EDM build is the worst part.

― lowlytootle, vendredi 20 mars 2015 03:24 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The few times I've tried to listen to it I couldn't even make it past what you guys call the "EDM part" !

Ages, but if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, I understood the point to be that the sound was, in its earlier incarnation, widely successful - not an obscurity that Mars is translating for the masses (re: the Nirvana comparison).

― Doctor Casino, vendredi 20 mars 2015 05:11 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed. besides the quality of each song, there's a difference between making it big with alternative/underground influences and making it by reviving a genre that was popular AND cool.

Because it sounds like Walk the Dinosaur by Was Not Was?

It makes people dance and it's a palette cleanser from previous hit singles that made people dance.
Also Bruno Mars sort of inventing a dance move for it in the video. You have to do a dance move on your dance hit to seal the deal.
It also sounds familiar.
Also Bruno Mars is no stranger to the hit charts.
It follows every rule on the manual by klf.
Why would it surprise to anyone this is a number one hit?

one of the key influences i'm hearing in this song is 'more bounce to the ounce'

Better this than what would probably be number one if not this. What's number two right now? (/easyjoke).

I thought it sounded exactly like Oops Upside Your Head?

Man, saying that this sound hasn't been in a number one hit before this was way off the mark, I was way wrong. It was late at night, I was tired. Yeah, it also sounds like Calvin Harris, or something like Starships - which I've also always thought of as EDM-like. The new thing, for me, is the way the retro seventies sound is accented by these pop-EDM signifiers, and I love that, and think it's very k-pop like. Saying it's more like Wild Cherry misses the point, imo.

American pop is often eiter tasteful or -less. This mix of things I don't often see.

they werent making songs like uptown funk in the 70s - this is the 80s after get lucky's 70s, like 1985 after daft punks 1978

Eh, I think this and "Get Lucky," contemporary production flourishes aside, are straight up 1979/1980.

I find it awesome that this is peaking right after the "Blurred Lines" verdict, given how closely it approximates the "feel" of so many of the above.

it peaked in the UK in the first half of january, now we're back to ellie goulding and sam smith for the rest of the year

Man, my kids always want me to switch the Sirius station to Venus, which I think bills itself as "rhythmic pop," and it is always Ellie Goulding, or Clavin Harris or Zedd and someone.

I feel like this article is a pretty comprehensive list of various comparisons that this song gets in term of 80s funk songs:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/6327615/sugarhill-gang-to-trinidad-james-influences-mark-ronson-bruno-mars-uptown

And yeah the first two things I thought of when I first heard this song were Roger's So Ruff So Tuff and George Kranz's Din Daa Daa.

Cool. That would make a fun party mix.

I find it awesome that this is peaking right after the "Blurred Lines" verdict, given how closely it approximates the "feel" of so many of the above.

yeah, they're lucky it doesn't sound like one specific song otherwise it would have been the end for them !

Ask most people to name a Midnight Star song and you'll likely get the No. 81 "No Parking (On The Dance Floor)" long before the No. 18 “Operator.”

uhhh wtf this is "Freak-A-Zoid" duh

Good history lesson in that Billboard piece regarding how many African-american acts did not get crossover pop airplay from late 70s through 1983 or so.

yeah, nice article and pretty good party mix indeed !

That billboard article is great and furthers the point that this song must have been made reading 'the manual' for a number one hit.

The groove is one way and zapp, the chorus gap band and trinidad and elements from those other songs mentioned here and there. Only instead of going for top hits from the past they dug a little more but the point the manual makes when making a pop hit and not worrying about writing it yourself stands.

Good history lesson in that Billboard piece regarding how many African-american acts did not get crossover pop airplay from late 70s through 1983 or so.

I blame MTV.

But the first two years of what they're calling a disco backlash happened before MTV even existed and MTV wasn't widely available until about 1983, at which point they did play some of those crossover hits the article mentions ("Little Red Corvette," "Beat It"...) Not that they couldn't have done better (a lot better) vis a vis black music. There was also at the time MTV's rival "Night Tracks" on TBS that was equally available - though not 24/7 - which did play black music.

You should copyright the "How to explain the popularity of _________?" wording in the thread title. I've got a whole bunch of them.

"It’s a penance by America for not making an irresistible style the pop success it deserved to be the first time around."

this slate quote is crazy! it sounds like half the hit pop songs of the 80's! it sounds exactly like the 80's. like eerily so. in the 80's video they would have had a dog in sunglasses and at the end of the video the dog would drive away with the model in the sports car and everyone in the video would look at the car driving away and go WHUUUHHH????

he'd have a point re the modest chart placings of zapp, gap band etc if people didn't also think this sounded like "living in america" and "walk the dinosaur"

see, what i like about it is that it absolutely sounds like all of these different songs, but not really like any of them. like at first glance it's a straight homage to either of those latter two songs, but listening to those, actually neither of those late-80s songs is as fat and electro-dirty and loud as zapp or "atomic dog" or the other turn-of-the-80s things being invoked here, or "uptown funk."

so it's clearly a really loving celebration of all this music, and maybe part of what it does is redeem those earlier sounds (clearly still MUCH beloved on "older folks" radio as mentioned above) by way of those later ones that kinda-sorta but didn't quite carry them over to the mainstream. i dunno, i think it's cool. i know jack shit about bruno mars's upbringing or w/e but i'm kinda imagining it like a tribute to his parents' music.... like what he heard around the house growing up. i guess that makes it like vampire weekend and graceland or something. or maybe not - all the sounds in the song (and the vintage black male fashions in the video) were pretty much totally disappeared from the wider landscape by the time he was six years old, if not from other outlets including hypothetical parents' stereos.

so sure, potentially it's more arch and revivalist, a brian setzer deal as noted above - but it's kinda better than brian setzer. i mean it's a cool song. it would have been a hit back then too IMO. whereas it's hard to imagine "stray cat strut" or "jump jive & wail" actually competing with the hitmakers of their respective nostalgia eras.

maybe another way to articulate this is that while the video totally presents a pastiche of fashions, lighting, scenes and camera angles you might have seen in an 80s video, it's otherwise free of LOL SEE IT'S THE 80S stuff. like it's pretty clear everybody is totally stoked to be dressing up like this, they know they look cool as hell and have always wanted to be in such a video. i'm struggling to think of a counterexample here, but, i dunno, it's not like weezer being on happy days or nirvana being on ed sullivan and the gag is that they don't belong there and they're cooler than those cheesy old-timey things that we make fun of now. or insert any rock/punk band that goes "back to the 80s" and it's comical that they're wearing hair metal wigs etc. and maybe i'm mistaken, or giving the song too much credit, but part of me really wants to take that as a kind of transgressive gesture, reclaiming some kinda bypassed or overlooked urban cultural forms with strong black and latino roots, refusing to wink-wink around them, and making them into a gigantic hit song.

i may also just be mixing this up with the atomic dog/genius of love thread, where pappwheelie talks about playing these early 80s classics and getting told by bartenders "to stop as 'we're not selling beer to 40 yr old black men,' despite the 21 year old white girls dancing..." funk those bartenders.

reminds me of mj too. and jj. they were pretty big back then. mark/bruno could do a good cover of what have you done for me lately...

come to think of it, janet and cab calloway in zoot suits = bruno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Ow1nlafOg

wow i didn't realize dan hartman co-wrote 'living in america' (which honestly is the song that the duplo-house stylings of 'uptown funk' reminds me of more than any at this point)

whoops @ that edit resulting in a bad verb agreement

Huh, I don't think I've ever actually heard "Walk the Dinosaur" before! I mean, I probably did as a kid, but I'm listening to it now, and it doesn't sound familiar. Good example to bring up in this thread.

this slate quote is crazy! it sounds like half the hit pop songs of the 80's! it sounds exactly like the 80's. like eerily so. in the 80's video they would have had a dog in sunglasses and at the end of the video the dog would drive away with the model in the sports car and everyone in the video would look at the car driving away and go WHUUUHHH????

― scott seward, Friday, March 20, 2015 7:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

voting scott for king of 80s examination

also I am pretty sure jaymc is a complete alien if he has never heard Walk the Dinosaur, or his .xls started sometime after that era

so it's clearly a really loving celebration of all this music, and maybe part of what it does is redeem those earlier sounds (clearly still MUCH beloved on "older folks" radio as mentioned above) by way of those later ones that kinda-sorta but didn't quite carry them over to the mainstream. i dunno, i think it's cool. i know jack shit about bruno mars's upbringing or w/e but i'm kinda imagining it like a tribute to his parents' music.... like what he heard around the house growing up. i guess that makes it like vampire weekend and graceland or something. or maybe not - all the sounds in the song (and the vintage black male fashions in the video) were pretty much totally disappeared from the wider landscape by the time he was six years old, if not from other outlets including hypothetical parents' stereos.
so sure, potentially it's more arch and reviva

this is such a good post. yes it's referencing a load of things.but that's not necessarily a bad thing in itself. The number of times in my own attempts at music making I realise I've ripped off the bassline to 'Pass the Dutchie' or sang a melody line out the UB40 songbook or copied Wham or accidentally repurposed Men At Work or the Flying Pickets or A Flock of Seagulls. It's part of my upbringing really, and I don't see it as 'stealing' as it's totally subconscious stuff brimming up from the primordial ooze of my first musical impressions.

The video is very Moonwalker innit?

weird how Was (Not Was) went from no disco gurus to Mick-Keef enablers.

this is my jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8PjjxJ7v78

I saw Was (Not Was) play a reunion show here maybe, dunno, five years ago? Less? It was the day after New Year's Eve, there was a blizzard, and there were maybe 50 people there. Pretty good, iirc.

going back to Dr Casino's post, yes it's like a turbofied 'look what this could have been' best-of-all-worlds marriage of overlooked style married with new turbofied production values.

"Spy in the House of Love" video basically shows Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers backing "Living in America"-era Brown

If Marty McFly went back in time thirty years ago today, what song does he play at the dance to blow everyone's mind?

I thought the video was a reference to the closing credits in jay and silent bob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O3vC8tDj1M

For most of my life I've only known "walk the dinosaur" from the George Clinton & the goombas version

1 Walk The Dinosaur (Single Version) 3:48
2 Walk The Dinosaur (Club Remix Edit) 3:42
3 Walk The Dinosaur (Funky Goomba Remix) 6:14
4 Walk The Dinosaur (Goomba Dub Mix) 4:14

"I Gotta Feeling" is actually a really helpful non-obvious point of comparison, not just for length but also the sense that it's not immediately apparent what is the key hook

In a song that's all about anticipation (and basically only ever played at one point in the evening), surely it's instantly apparent what the key hook is? I still kinda think you could replace the boshing bits with virtually any EDM pop at the right tempo and no one would really care, as long as you also gave them the opportunity to sing the "let's do it" bit right at the end.

i like "i got a feeling" specifically for the fact that it rhymes "mazeltov" with "take it off"

You are literally the only non-lame person I have ever met who has admitted to that.

"i gotta feeling" is horse trash

i always thought it's funny that black eyed peas use "i gotta feeling" to close their shows

I've always suspected that Black Eyed Peas wrote "I Gotta Feeling" after a run of bar and bat mitzvahs will.i.am attended. He probably eyed all these rich and powerful LA industry friends and their children and the wheels started spinning in his head like a slot machine.

IMO this song is a stunning parade of signifiers and catchy as hell, deserves its success, but like crocodile rock of someone dismisses it as mindless ersatz bubblegum all I can say I don't hate that on principle.

I like this song, I mean of course I like the original 80s bounce stuff it co-opts a lot better but so what really....I can like both.

I will admit this is one of those songs people tend to beat into the ground quickly though - can't escape it lately.

It's not nearly as annoying as "Happy," that's for sure, not least because Pharrell's phalsetto sucks and Bruno's funk yelp is pretty on-point. I actually haven't heard it out and about so much, and my wife had somehow never heard it at all until yesterday. But my kids sure know it.

the thing I hate about "Happy" is shitting on it gets you a side-eye like you just ate somebody's beloved pet

"It's called 'Happy', do you hate the sun too?"

hard to drive when its blaring in my eyes iirc

i like "happy" loads more now that it's not fucking everywhere

You are literally the only non-lame person I have ever met who has admitted to that.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:28 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

....thanks?

really good post dr. c

I've really come to love a lot about this song, even - or maybe especially? - the build, because unlike all these half-assed EDM clowns like Calvin Harris, Zedd or Avicii or whomever, it doesn't just build to some louder, wall-to-wall amplification of already established lazy minor key riff, it builds to this totally ecstatic horn chart that actually, per Avicii, lifts you up, not in a pat bite-your-lower-lip-in-anticipation way, but in an honest to goodness celebration of upbeat release. I did end up making a mix for the family of many of the aforementioned "Uptown Funk" ingredients and influences, and darned if I'm not happy to head back to "UF" again when they get tired of Earth Wind & Fire. Though hilariously, my younger one has been walking around the house singing her own mash-up of "Uptown Funk," "Ladies Night" and "Walk the Dinosaur."

It's also better than "Crocodile Rock."

I remember when bounce was young

I unreservedly love Crocodile Rock

As you'd expect, I've heard Uptown Funk quite a lot at this point, but somehow every time I try to remember how it goes Young Guns (Go For It) pops into my head instead.

I haven't tired of it yet.

is there a spotify playlist of that mix you made josh? anyone done one with the influences listed here yet?

I haven't tired of hating it yet. Eventually I do.

Clem, do you listen to the acts the song alludes to? No ulterior motive in the question. I can understand loking The Time and Gap Band and not a pastiche.

I have some albums that I would have played once. As I acknowledged in my initial post, I'm not a fan of funk in general. But there's '80s stuff I like: "Word Up," "Crazay," a few Prince songs of course. Even as an outsider, though, "Uptown Funk" strikes me as this really bad and bombastic imitation, tantamount to having someone get right up beside me and yell in my ear for four minutes. I'll be interested to see how people feel about five or ten years down the road.

Most Embarrassing Pazz & Jop Top 3 Singles 2004-1979

I don't do Spotify, but I essentially used what that Billboard article mentioned, plus "Ladies Night," "Living in America" and "Walk the Dinosaur."

I do think songs like this are helpful in recognizing how relevant production is as much as arrangements. That is, you hear tons of songs in this, but this song, just by dint of being 2015, sounds totally different. Which is one reason my kids looked at me funny when I said this sounded like any of those other songs. Yeah, it sounds like them, but it doesn't really sound like them.

I'll be interested to see how people feel about five or ten years down the road.

Ha, come on, man. Try five months. But hit singles aren't necessarily built to last, they are built to hit. That said, I'm not sure what time traveling this one does that "Treasure" did not, though I do think this one is sharper.

"Treasure" always sounded good whenever I heard it somewhere. There was also some time traveling of a different sort in "When I Was Your Man," with that Otis Redding or whatever the heck that beautiful thing was that happened in the bridge.

(xpost) Yes and no. Whatever they're built for, the best singles last.

Hmm, I dunno. It's splitting hairs, but I think the best songs last. The best singles are not always the best songs, imo.

Add "New Sensation" to the list of potential influences.

a few Prince songs of course.

just a few?!

In terms of his funk side, yeah, just a few; I much prefer poppier stuff like "Raspberry Beret" and "Mountains," and I wasn't really including those. I think the least funkiest guy in the world should voluntarily remove himself from this thread.

oh I see your distinction

would love to see morris day/the time (or other old funkateers) getting some extra bookings on the back of this song.

esp as ronson thanked them during his brits speech

agree

i'm guessing there'll be plenty of opportunities to do performances of this w/ guest stars at award shows over the next year, would be surprised if they don't do something like that at least once

honestly it would be smart for Ronson, if he ever has to tour or a TV appearance when Bruno isn't free, to straight up have Morris Day or someone like that just do all the lead vocals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWhiND2qhZU

No longer #1:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6531861/wiz-khalifa-see-you-again-no-1-hot-100

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BElb7a1CYAIY2N4.jpg

lollll i was just thinking last week that if there was any dark horse out there it'd be the love theme from furious 7

doubted maroon 5's "uptown lite funk" or either of the 50 shades love themes would topple it as all are in maturity as pop hits

Morris Day + Time + "Living in America" >>>>> "I'll Be Missin' You."

yes but dear god man it's been more than 3 months of "Hooray For 80s funk-pop" let people enjoy their paul walker memorial vid

have you seen that tribute? really gets across what an enduring hottie we lost.

this might be the most baffling bit of trivia in that article for me

Flo Rida's "Right Round" holds the record for most weekly downloads sold: 636,000 (Feb. 28, 2009).

i know they have no motivation to do it but i do wish the streaming songs chart could distinguish between people on spotify yearning to hear wiz khalifa rap about brotherhood and people on youtube yearning to see paul walker's beautiful eyes one more time

though I guess the "On-Demand Songs" chart somewhat gets that distinction across as its strictly songs played and requested on streaming radio, and wiz is #1 there too

i know they have no motivation to do it but i do wish the streaming songs chart could distinguish between people on spotify yearning to hear wiz khalifa rap about brotherhood and people on youtube yearning to see paul walker's beautiful eyes one more time

I should solve the problem by creating an "Uptown Funk" fan video with scenes from Paul Walker's beach movie.

"How To Explain the Popularity of "See You Again"?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQE9Bi0-Ra0

Alfred how dare you compare "I'll Be Missing You" to this Wiz garbage.

finally figured out what uptown funk really reminded me of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI9uJbczhiI

leon haywood - don't push it, don't force it

good find! basis for a lawsuit I suppose

Write Haywood's lawyer.

well, I wouldn't wanna push it

basis for a lawsuit I suppose

only when Haywood gets out of court with Blood Sweat & Tears

This song is so many other songs it could single handedly clog the courts. Reminds me of the DJ Shadow frustration/surrender that you can only split a song's royalties 50/50 once.

MJ's "Jam" more than anything else imo... same hook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbHI1yI1Ndk

And anyone defending it hasn't had enough James Brown in their lives to recognize utter vanillatude when it's staring them square in the face.

(sorry, combined... nickB's otm for overall structure)

It's a better song than "Living in America"

what became of that whole "suing songs for being vague soundalikes" thing? I wasn't really following. Was the decision upheld? Have loads of people followed suit? Could massive attack sue over this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhc7Gqr1SwM