Batman fan calls Prince's Batman soundtrack incredibly dated

Author of the Batman Reference Manual lists Prince's soundtrack as the most embarassing part about the Batman movie from 1989.

http://www.madatoms.com/s...nce-manual

What's your opinion?

I like this album, there are several very good songs like Electric Chair, Partyman, Vicki Waiting and Scandalous. While it definitely sounds like an 80s album I think most of it sounds fresh today, the two exceptions for me being Trust and Lemon Crush.

peter430044 said:

And might I add that nothing is more dated about the Batman movie than Kim Basinger's shitty hair.

Prince's Batman soundtrack will is still great, but I guess the're asking for a New Prince soundtrack

Well it is written by a geek for geeks. I think the Batman album hits the darkness Batman was trying to achieve far more than Tim Burton did.

my opinion is, that it put mucho $$$ in the bank of Paisley, after the costs of the Lovesexy Tour had emptied mucho $$$ from the same place !!

(and got P in the tub with Kim B and some whipped cream, all in all,a good deal all round !)

exenn said:

Well it is dated.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Do I think Prince's music is bad or doesn't fit the movie Batman? No. In fact I'd argue that the scenes with Prince's music are two of the most memorable scenes in the movie.

Hell, Joker at the art museum is THE most famous/memorable scene in the movie.

That said, any time you have pop/rock music in a movie, as opposed to just a classical score, it is gonna date your movie. Batman has a production design that is somewhat timeless. The men dress like the 1930's, the buildings are not futuristic, nor modern, even the technology is clunkier than 1980's tech.

However, somethings in the film are simply 1989. Kim Basinger, the cars, and Prince's music.

well, as a prince fan i think the 1989 batman movie is incredibly dated. i mean, just the hair alone should get its own VH-1 "I Love..." special. Kim Bassinger's mall hair. Michael Keaton's corpo-mullet (seriously, he looks like a cross between Bruce Hornsby and a butch lesbian here), even whatever was remaining on Jack Nicholson's head looks awful 20 years later! prince's soundtrack is the least of that movie's worries...and i LIKE that movie, so don't give me any crap, kthx.

Most electronic music dates due to the drum sounds and programming. Arguably, 'Purple Rain' and 'Sign 'O' Times' haven't due to the inventive Linn Drum use.

Prince's more organic sounding songs always sound fresh. See the 'band' songs versus the more electronic/programmed ones on 'Diamonds & Pearls' and 'Love Symbol' for example.

It took him 20 years to say the soundtrack was dated.
He must have been living in a cave!

Anxiety said:

peter430044 said:

The album still stands up with some great tracks...as for being dated arn't we all. hankering over an 80's icon.

Why do people look back at things in the past and say? - "Oh God that's dated" Yes it is, it's in the past isn't it? Surely we should look back with a nice retrospective view and remember the times whether they be good or bad.

We will look back years from now and say similar things about now, what we are wearing and doing etc.

drdiesel said:

This thread is so yesterday...

DelaFunk said:

Batman was on TV just the other night and as much as I love the movie...the movie it self it dated. It's very dark and the special effects are well..let's say...not so special. but still it's a great "older" movie with a great soundtrack.

obviously the soundtrack still sounds exactly the same as it did back in 1989.

if you like an album, you like it. the biggest plus of a lot of prince's music
is that it sounds so unique and "prince" that it ages very well.

fcuz the batman soundtrack sounds a bit cheesy in places. mostly the songs that
were actually full on "batman" tracks, such as partyman and batdance. but even
those sound great to me, still.

the same has been written in serious review magazines about a lot of 80s LPs,
from pet shop boys to eurythmics, to even bruce springsteen.

i don't understand really. 'aged badly', what does that mean? just because an
album sounds like the time it was recorded isn't a bad thing imo. if the songs
are good, they will always be good. the production might sound of it's time,
yes. but anyone who is innovative and uses new technology as opposed to just a
good solid live in the studio band with no frills, will eventually end up being
stamped "dated" just because technology moves on and what sounds new and fresh
today becomes yesterdays news by tomorrow.

big deal.

in a way, i guess a lot of people would label "1999" as sounding horribly dated
but it's still an über fantastic album imo. the songs are good, the production
is great etc etc. so what if the sound is 80s? it was recorded to be fresh and
great in 1982, not to be the latest fashion in 2010.

Meh, I like this album. So-called "dated" music of the past is better than most music of today anyway.

"I never self-proclaimed myself to be anything." - Michael Jackson
"You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee

I'd like 2 submit that it cannot sound "dated", as Prince was completely original, both vocally and sonically.

If Prince had mimiced the popular music styles and sounds of that era, then one could make that claim.

That album is Prince in high gear, playing with his new arsenal of toys, and creating something completely new, original, and distinctively PRINCE.

Prince's music is more timeless than certain aspects of the movie itself, as Anx has pointed out (which cracked me up).
[Edited 8/10/09 11:59am]

It's from 1989.....nuff said..... very cool at the time...classic does not mean dated!

I like it. Yeah, like all of Prince's albums, it would be nice to have a deluxe reissue, remastered, and with bonus a bonus disk containing unreleased tracks, bsides, remixes, etc - - and song-by-song liner notes by Prince himself.

And Yeah, i can keep dreaming, too!

No shit. He did this album just for the money..... sad after the the quality of Lovesexy and The Black Album. But the Black Album sounds dated as well....

"So strange that no one stayed at the end of the Parade..." - Wendy & Lisa's "Song About" on their 1987 self-titled album.
this was written, composed and performed on my iPhone
RIAA
'nuff said.

Most of the best albums ever done sound like the time in which it came out. Batman is one of those albums. It's still great now as it was this day in 1989. I'll take it over anything new today.

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

peter430044 said:

The author also states that Batman was the last time Tim Burton "tried"
Tried what?

Fuck the funk - it's time to ditch the worn-out Vegas horns fills, pick up the geee-tar and finally ROCK THE MUTHA-FUCKER!! He hinted at this on Chaos, now it's time to step up and fully DELIVER!!

KrystleEyes 22/03/05

TOSSER> NUFF SAID


END> no more post please.


/.....