tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post3835602245572572920..comments2024-03-28T02:53:44.198-07:00Comments on RETROMANIA: Is Bruno Mars the most emblematic pop star of the 2010s?SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-54256750920721966012014-03-09T12:09:41.784-07:002014-03-09T12:09:41.784-07:00The thing about Mars is that he grew up in Honolul...The thing about Mars is that he grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, whose radio stations play — and have always played — a completely idiosyncratic mix of soft American pop. As the most isolated landmass on the globe, with one of the most complex and polyglot populations, Hawaii has always been the most quixotic consumer of American pop culture — any culture, really, except for native Hawaiian culture — of any place in the U.S. The pop music that makes it in Honolulu is softer, sweeter, more syrupy, lusher, and less edgy than American pop elsewhere. Bruno Mars, a performer since he was a little kid, was seeped in it. And his pop is pure pop, so light and true its weight is profound. Just like Obama was, as a boy, steeped in Honolulu's post-racial equanimity.silverswordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11501332468122470869noreply@blogger.com