Mark Ronson: Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)
Details
Genre: Funk, R&BPros:
Fun funk done in the name of Prince and James BrownCons:
Even with all the cool horn riffs, slick guitar lines and cool lyrics, it still feels like a "Partyup" band jam and not a timeless masterpieceOn Ronson/Mars team-up, funk becomes the new hip
On Ronson/Mars team-up, funk becomes the new hip
It feels pretty good to know that the newest Number One hit of 2015 is a song that sounds like it was cut from the same cloth of the Gap Band and Prince. Not that it holds up well against sizable favorites like the Gap’s “You Dropped the Bomb on Me” or The Time’s “The Bird,” but it’s a slice of decent funk regardless. Let it also be said that the sing-a-long formula isn’t exactly tight like a Bruno Mars hook, but this is more Mark Ronson’s “fantastic voyage” than it is Mars and the Smeezingtons. And this is supposed to be fun and silly, proven on some of its cool lyrics (‘This shit, that ice cold/Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold”) and the stanky jam repeats of “Uptown funk ya up.”
If you recall the funk of Prince’s yesterday, you will remember Uptown being a nod to Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis. And this is definitely a time warp to that great land of Eighties pop-funk. What Ronson and Company have done — along with paying homage to the Purple One — is redeveloped a style that’s been so removed from the lexicon of pop and making it hip again.
