Of the pervasiveness of the male pop gaze: Bruno Mars’ ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’
Bruno Mars is ridiculously easy to like. His latest outputs in particular seem to be made to dance to. Juggling with soul, funk, and RnB influences, and adding to this an undeniable stage presence, the pop singer pleases many, a fact that is reflected in his unflinching popularity in the past decade. After being drowned with the sounds of ‘Finesse’ and ‘Please Me’, both of which delve more into RnB and hip-hop than ever before, it’s easy to forget just how genuinely pop Mars truly was only a few years ago.
Pop can mean nothing and everything at once. In the context of Mars’ discography, it mostly means that his earlier outputs showed only hints of influences that he now wears on his sleeve. His second album, Unorthodox Jukebox, hits a strange in-between place. After the undeniable success of his Doo-Wops & Hooligans debut, Mars had to put out something to please his fanbase. The result is, as most of his work is, unbelievably catchy, and for the most part an easy enough listen. It never gets anywhere near the unapologetically flamboyant production of 24K Magic, but it isn’t something you’d complain about listening to either. It’s perfect for a car ride or a throwback party, but certainly doesn’t show the singer at his best yet.
What is striking about the album is how consistent its themes are. Love songs sell, which is reflected in the lead singles ‘Treasure’ and ‘When I Was Your Man’. Not all of the songs on the album directly reference romance; however, all of them are, in some way, about women. So what is hiding behind the catchy beats and soulful balads ? What does Unorthodox Jukebox tell us about the strange yet completely normalized ways that pop thinks about women ?
The album’s opener, ‘Young Girls’ deals with more than the title would lead us to believe. As he starts to plan his sophomore album, Mars is still dealing with the novelty of celebrity. ‘I get lost under these lights’, he laments; but the downfalls of being famous are represented in quite the original way. Mars addresses the young girls of the title, presumably his fans, in quite an accusatory tone. ‘You make a mess of me / You’ll be the death of me’; these girls, even if they don’t do it on purpose, clearly have a nefast influence on the singer. The contrast between his complaints of being objectified by his audience and his parallel objectification of the young girls is at the very least interesting to consider. In the second verse, Mars sings of ‘a simple life’, one where ‘boy meets girl, makes her his wife / but love don’t exist when you live like this’. He’s tried to do the right thing and fall in love the right way — but both the girls and the pressure of the limelight have stopped him from doing so fully.
This isn’t the only time that Mars will decide to openly blame women for his suffering. The most obvious example of this is in the seventh track ‘Natalie’, where a particularly angry Mars lashes out at the eponymous girl for stealing his money. In this one, the incredibly violent narrative voice quite obviously (or hopefully) has nothing to do with Mars himself. ‘Well, I’m digging a ditch for this gold digging bitch’ / ‘I’ll spend a life time in jail, I’ll be smiling in my cell’: the revenge that the narrator is planning out is a cold one that can only end in murder. What strikes is how easily we can dance to a song that very clearly describes murdering a woman and having fun doing so.
These two songs are quite extreme in their depictions of women, and obviously embody a character that no one in their right mind should relate to. What is perhaps more interesting is to take a look at other, more seemingly innocent songs, and see what can be found there.
The disco beats of ‘Treasure’ were more or less impossible to avoid in the summer of 2013, and for good reason. It is an instantly memorable song, and has the perfect amount of happiness to turn into a summer classic. The song’s lyrics seem innocent enough; but they might be considered too innocent. Here, Mars plays on a theme that he already used in his breakout ‘Just The Way You Are’: the girl he’s attracted to (note that Mars liberally chooses to use ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ for people that are most likely of the same age depending on context) is beautiful, but needs him to realize it. It’s not particularly offensive, but this theme’s repetition in pop music (see One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ for a prime example of it) deserves to be questioned. ‘I know that you don’t know it but you’re fine, so fine / Oh girl I’m gonna show you when you’re mine, oh mine’: the promise of self-confidence in exchange of a relationship is something that the entire song builds on.
Another hit song that taps into Mars’ romantic side is the subtly moving ‘When I Was Your Man’. It is more of an insight into his own regrets that a depiction of the woman he loves, and captures poetically the tragedy of wanting someone to be happy and knowing their happiness doesn’t lie with you. It is probably the most universally appealing song on the album, as the narrative can dig up memories in anyone who ever had their heartbroken (although once again, it is worth noting that while in aforementioned songs Mars talked about ‘girls’, this is the first time one of them is a ‘woman’).
The theme of regrets comes back again at the very end of Unorthodox Jukebox, in the less popular ‘If I Knew’. Although it doesn’t share the melodic charm of the most successful songs of the album, it is worth examining if only for its unconventional narrative. In the country-influenced ballad, Mars regrets not preserving himself before meeting the woman of his life. This presumably includes many experiences and isn’t just limited to sexual ones, but it remains an interesting narrative reversal. The pressure for virginity and its correlation to purity is common to both men and women, but it is much more inforced for the latter. While Mars does reference the newest love of his life as ‘innocent’, it is interesting to see him apply the virginity narrative to himself — although it isn’t one any gender would really benefit from.
This leads us into the final category of the songs that make up the complex landscape of Unorthodox Jukebox: the ones that are very explicitly of sexual nature. There definitely ends the girl and enters the woman. Mars often correlates sexuality to something bigger. In ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’, the funk-inspired hit that started Mars’ second round as a radio favourite, the singer compares the experience of sex with religion. It’s a really fun song and heavily contrasts with the serious sensuality of ‘Gorilla’, which immediately follows it. This time around, sex is animalistic, something violent that both parties can’t escape (fun fact: apparently gorillas aren’t great sexual partners at all. But, y’know, whatever works for the imagery). Both songs reveal the unapologetic sexual side that Mars will build upon in his future releases such as the endless fun of ‘That’s What I Like’ or the seductive ‘Versace On The Floor’. ‘Show Me’, a lesser known look into Mars’ sexual escapades, largely follows the path that the two previous songs carved, although on a much less explicit level.
Finally, the electronic filled ‘Money Make Her Smile’ takes an unexpected dip into the world of sex work. It’s not a particularly subtle song, nor one that tries anything aside from reinforcing clichéd narratives. Framing sex workers in a positive light is most definitely needed among our overwhelming amount of anti-sex work narratives — however, defining these women only by the amount of money they make and how much they like said money isn’t particularly progressive. The song doesn’t delve very deep in its theme and is more of an excuse for Mars to explore different sounds, which isn’t a bad thing by any means. While his exploration of sex work is clumsy at best, it is a bit of a shame that he never got back to this type of sound.
What can we gather from all of these representations of women ? Well, certainly not that Bruno Mars is an evil misogynist who’s poisoning our radios to secretly infect us with some deliriously catchy sexist waves. What’s more interesting is the diversity of the way Mars represents women, and the problems that can be detected in each of these ways. Perhaps even more important is how common some of these trends are. While we can reject the over-the-top violence of ‘Natalie’ quite easily, the infantilization of ‘Treasure’ and ‘Young Girls’ can be much harder to detect because of how used we are to these tropes in pop music. Questioning what is established is an important part of moving forward, both in art and in life more generally — and since Mars is one of the best liked artists at the moment, it seemed appropriate to start with picking apart his work.
—
Find me on:
