“24k Magic” is a song released by artist Bruno Mars from his studio album “24k Magic.” The song has been labeled as a combination of funk, disco, hip hop and contemporary R&B. It is a very upbeat song and infectious song in the key F minor with a tempo of 94 beats per minute. The heavy use of funk. synthesizers in the song led some to draw comparisons to Prince’s music. There is debate as to whether the song is more reminiscent of 1970s funk or 1980s hip hop and R&B.
At the beginning of the song, you can hear the distorted vocals of musician Byron Manard Chambers aka Mr. TalkBox who performs the intro using a talk box. A talk box is a device that allows a musician to create words through the sound of an instrument using a tube through a person’s mouth. The movements of the musician’s mouth manipulate the sound to be heard as words. The bridge of the song features record scratching, reminiscent of hip hop in the 80s, and the use of a vocoder (a type of synthesizer) accompanying the vocals of Bruno Mars. Throughout the song there are layers of funk synthesizers that give the instruments a “robotic sound” that some critics have say resembles “California Love” by Tupac Shakur.