#reservoirhooligans

I didn’t even pay attention to the chains. Probably because my brain thinks it’s just a part of his body now ha!

I think the overall ensemble looks fine actually. The chains and the red scarf complement the red tank top he has underneath. Always love when he wears red with black too - a sharp and sophisticated colour palette :D As you probably saw with my tag comments, I would agree with that. Polka looks more pleasing to the eye when paired with the scarf. I don’t even know what’s going on with the black/white print. Very unique and eye catching but it confuses me with the busyness of it…But I have to say, it appears to be growing on me with each succesive photo ;)

Don’t even know why I spend so much time spilling out random fashion comments or ‘critiques’ either! Don’t know shit about it :P

Her debut was pretty good here in the UK with a couple of hits but yeah, as you say, there probably wasn't much impact worldwide. It'll be interesting to see where she'll take her second album. It does look like her market is expanding to the US with her public appearances there. When it comes to it, I guess it's down to your choice as an artist for what you want to achieve at the end of it all. Some will want to create an entire brand for themself, enter social circles, do a bit of everything in the business...and others will just focus solely on their music by putting it out there and letting people enjoy without interference.

For Bruno, personally, I just hope that he utilises his promotion powers just a tiny bit more. He doesn't have to become a tabloid darling, give interviews or be the most active on social media platforms, but just a few more direct official messages about what's going on with his work would give that boost to his singles. Locked Out Of Heaven got major promo work but the latter singles didn't. For those releases, it's just a shame that they're getting overlooked because they weren't pushed to their full potential. Sometimes it's not even certain which song is the current single (e.g. Young Girls/Moonshine worldwide). Perhaps he doesn't want to push anything and it's just part of Atlantic Record's plan but even Gorilla, with basically a short film to complement it, hasn't gotten the attention that I think it should have - and that's his favourite. 

Yup yup! :D

Actually about cultural relevance, there was an interesting retweet that I saw last night. It was a comment about Rita Ora's publicity (I think they were implying success in that department). She's got all these deals with being the face of Rimmel make-up, hosting awards and going to these high profile events etc. but the twitter user also said that they couldn't manage to name Rita's last single. Rita gets her face out there and is photographed a lot so she's always in the consumer's eye in some way. It terms of business, Rita has achieved quite a fair amount. I'm not commenting on her music, because I don't particularly listen to much (you all know I'm picky/obsessive with my faves lol) but it was an interesting point raised.

On the whole, I personally don’t feel that the public see Bruno as a cultural icon - just yet anyway. At this point in time, he does make impacts on the music industry but he doesn’t do so directly with massive statements/pieces. For example, we can see that certain songs have had cultural success in being a part of people’s life, especially with Marry You, Just The Way You Are and The Lazy Song. For this era, the massive singalong piece is When I Was Your Man. In terms of being a cultural figure, unlike other “icons”, Bruno doesn’t necessarily have a quirk or something very unique for the public to identify him with. What people do is re-create the image of him in a hat, sometimes with a guitar and mostly with a pompadour. As Hooligans, we of course know his sense of style with fashion and live performance but I don’t think the audience has the same knowledge. And while I’m talking about fashion…Bruno wears high end labels but they’re simple pieces and sometimes you don’t even recognise that they’re designer (as with the Saint Laurent casual gear). 

Even though Bruno has kept (and refined) his original format over the years anyway, with the success of the Super Bowl this year, I think it has definitely helped (In the US particularly) with getting the masses to really think about his image - of him being a talented, well rounded live performer who’s backed by a very skilled band. I hope that when people see a full band performing in the way the Hooligans do, with slick footwork and matching outfits, they’ll think of Bruno Mars. 

I think Bruno has potential to become a massive cultural figure but I don’t think he wants that whole package. He lets things manifest naturally. Success isn’t forced, it just happens because it’s right and things fall into place. He stays out of the tabloid media and doesn’t draw much attention to himself unless he’s actually on the stage performing. To be a cultural icon, I think there needs to be some play with the media involved - at the end of the day, that’s what consumerism is. Media is what gets people talking and excited (and on the flip side, also brings out the negativity and criticism of celebrity status). Interestingly, just a couple of years ago (in the drought at the end of DW&Hs era), I remember talking to my friends about Bruno and they actually had no idea what he looked like. They could sing his songs, but just couldn’t picture him.