Racial Mixture and Musical Mash-ups in the Life and Art of Bruno Mars

This book explores how Bruno Mars draws on his mixed cultural, ethnic, and racial background in his music and performance to create "new music nostalgia." The complexity of the celebrity's racial identity informs his performative politics of blackness and forms the basis for a reconceptualization of race and a reimagining of the future.

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This book argues that Bruno Mars is uniquely positioned to borrow from his heritage and experiential knowledge as well as his musical talent, performative expertise, and hybrid identities (culturally, ethnically, and racially) to remix music that can create "new music nostalgia." Melinda Mills attends to the ways that Mars is precariously positioned in relation to all of the racial and ethnic groups that constitute his known background and argues that this complexity serves him well in the contemporary moment. Engaging in the performative politics of blackness allows Mars to advocate for social justice by employing his artistic agency. Through his entertainment and the everyday practice of joy, Mars models a way of moving through the world that counters its harsh realities. Through his music and perfomance, Mars provides a way for a reconceptualization of race and a reimagining of the future.