First of all, I'm only 20 so I grew up in the era of shitty music. I'm not a music snob or anything, but I believe if anyone has any decent taste in music then they would prefer older music to newer music imo. I listen to most types of "black" music. I like Adult Contemporary artists like Levert, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, etc. But I'm also a funker, I love Shalamar, Midnight Star, The Bar Kays, The Gap Band, Parliament/Funkadelic, Zapp, etc. I'm a music lover, even in today's music I can find something enjoyable.

Initially, the only Prince songs I knew were "When Doves Cry" and "Kiss" which are great songs and among my favorite from Prince. About two years ago, I heard "Purple Rain" on Pandora for the first time and I immediately fell in love with it. I truly believe it's a masterpiece of a song and amongst the greatest ever recorded. Then I began to research his music more and I found out I liked A LOT of his songs. As far as being a music "artist" Prince is the best in the history of commerical music. Amongst my favorites are:

Diamonds and Pearls

D.M.S.R

1999

Erotic City (one of the best funk songs ever)

Adore

Nothing Compares 2 U

I Wanna Be Your Lover

I Would Die 4 U

Little Red Corvette

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad

Head

Do Me, Baby

You Got The Look

And so on..

I know he has a ton of other albums that are relatively unknown outside his coure audience, like The Rainbow Children (which I haven't heard), which one of those would you guys recommend?

Isn't Prince amazing?

Welcome new fan!

I recommend:

Controversy

Around The World In A Day

Come

3121

Lotusflow3r

^^^ those are my top favorites!

Hi there,my favorites are Sign O' The Times and Parade!

Lady Cab Driver. I'm 16 and I agree most modern music sucks some serious ass.

Start at 'For You' & work your way up. Judging by your music taste, I can already tell you'd enjoy his first album!

Hi! I'm the same age as you and I love Prince. He's by far my favourite artist, even though I only started listening to him almost four years ago. Your thread reminds me of myself a few years ago. I had so much fun discovering the albums, researching and reading about his history, background, career. Reading threads on the Org (to be honest, I'd been aware of these forums since 2007, but I wasn't a Prince fan), looking up live setlists, learning about the associated artists, the unreleased material, getting the bootlegs. There's so much stuff to discover, I'm so glad that I became a Prince fan.

Sometimes that's an advantage of being a young fan. For the older fans, they've lived through those times, heard those albums and songs countless times, they probably know everything already. But for the newer fans, it's really amazing listening to those same albums and songs for the first time and being completely blown away.

Welcome! You'll probably eventually get most of his stuff, or at least hear all or most of his released stuff, but I'd suggest the album. For some "historical" context, you ought to know that the 1990's were a crazy, weird, odd time for music generally, and for Prince too in his unique way. If he didn't give the impression that he'd lost his mind already in the '80s, he most certainly gave that impression with the album. But for all the "wtf" sensation you'll get listening to it, there are some truly uncomplicatedly beautiful moments, like "And God Created Woman" and "Damn U." Along the '90s vein are the NPG albums, which I think have some good funky pelvic grinders.

Enjoy!

The Gold Experience, Crystal Ball, Emancipation albums also; for Prince Die Hards really every album has a few gems

You know what. I'm just going to tell you what I tell all knew fans.

Go through Prince's career up until LoveSexy as if you were there, and

he was releasing them to you.

Start in chronilogical order starting with Dirty Mind (the first two albums are non-essential )

Dirty Mind

Controversy

1999

Purple Rain

Then....brace yourself

ATWIAD

PARADE

SOTT

LoveSexy

Listen to each album and put yourself in that period. Absorb each album.

Pay attention to how it improves upon or tweaks the previous a bit. (or

how it seems to divert from the genius of the previous but offers something

strange and new). Marvel at the pace with how he reinvented himself,

(remember most of these albums were released a year apart--that's

blazingly fast for a man to change the sound, look, and feel so dramatically).

Don't just listen to them all in a few days. Spend a few days on one album,

then move to the next once you've 'gotten' the album.

YOu'll really start to see his true genius this way.

After LoveSexy, you no longer need to do this, because it becomes so spotty,

often completely shitty...so my recommendation for post 90s material:

Graffiti Bridge (strip out all the non-Prince tracks)

D&P: No need to really get into it, but just know it was a hit.

Now this fucker was what D&P should have been. Crazy, spotty, genius.

The Gold Experience

Emancipation

Rainbow Children--I really don't like this album at all, but it's so different from

his plast '90s' material that it's worth a listen. Intrumentally the most profound

since , but lyrically a mess. And, it's too slow and long.

3121

Lotusflow3r

Non-essentials:

COME

Musicology

MPLSound

Planet Earth

20Ten

The rest I have no opinion on, so you can listen as you want.

Prince has written and painted with such a broad brush, that where some see

garbage, others see genius, and vice versa. So, to each their own.

imago said:

Prince has written and painted with such a broad brush, that where some see

garbage, others see genius, and vice versa. So, to each their own.

The beauty of being a Prince fan

I would recommend:

basically the warner bros albums:

from "For You" 1978 to "The Gold Experience" 1995:

Here is how I rate these 1978-1995 Prince albums...

For You (8)
Prince (8)
Dirty Mind (10)
Controversy (9)
1999 (10)
Purple Rain (10)
Around The World In A Day (10)
Parade (10)
Sign "O" The Times (10)
Lovesexy (10)
Batman (8)
Graffiti Bridge (8) - only the Prince songs are good
Diamonds & Pearls (9)
Love Symbol Album (9)
Come (9)
Black Album (9)
The Gold Experience (10)

[Edited 4/20/12 1:02am]

My advice, there's good stuff to be found on everything he's released. Tastes are subjective, but whatever you listen to next, I'm sure you'll find something of interest.

My personal view is that the more recent stuff is more patchy, and his earlier works had less filler, but like I said, subjective.

Have fun, it's a hell of a discovery... Just wait til you stumble across the unreleased stuff... That's when he's 'got ya!'

If you want some modern funk then try this...

http://www.flowdynamics.com.au/

For me it's awesome and I'm always shocked when people say funk is being released, written or played anymore. I live in a small UK city and even our local clubs have the odd funk n soul night.

In case you miss the free stuff at the bottom... http://www.flowdynamics.c...celona.htm

Also tearing up the dancefloors of late is this mix by Funkanomics which I think is excellent. PS: Prince if you want someone to remix your recent lame efforts then try these guys. They may not like it Stateside but who gives a fuck as they're always well behind the times anyway

http://soundcloud.com/the...der-higher

[Edited 4/20/12 5:35am]

As most people say, start with the 'golden' years, the white heat period - that's the first 10 years, 78-88.

NouveauDance said:

Nice too see you've embraced the Purpleside

For A "Baby" Prince fan Imma say check out Sign O The Times, The Hits i.e. Power Fantastic and of Course Diamonds & Pearls as you've done

I'd check out Controversy. It's got a great combination of Funk and Slow R&B which you seem to really like.

imago said:

Terrib3Towel said:

Isn't Prince amazing?

No.

smoothcriminal12 said:

Terrib3Towel said:

Isn't Prince amazing?

No.

Smooth, quit playing.

Terrib3Towel said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

No.

Smooth, quit playing.

smoothcriminal12 said:

Terrib3Towel said:

Smooth, quit playing.

Th best part about new fans is that they have no idea how much of a bitch Prince can be sometimes

aardvark15 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

Th best part about new fans is that they have no idea how much of a bitch Prince can be sometimes

It's a rude awakening when they find out too.

smoothcriminal12 said:

aardvark15 said:

Th best part about new fans is that they have no idea how much of a bitch Prince can be sometimes

It's a rude awakening when they find out too.

I know it was for me.

Terrib3Towel said:

First of all, I'm only 20 so I grew up in the era of shitty music. I'm not a music snob or anything, but I believe if anyone has any decent taste in music then they would prefer older music to newer music imo. I listen to most types of "black" music. I like Adult Contemporary artists like Levert, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, etc. But I'm also a funker, I love Shalamar, Midnight Star, The Bar Kays, The Gap Band, Parliament/Funkadelic, Zapp, etc. I'm a music lover, even in today's music I can find something enjoyable.

Initially, the only Prince songs I knew were "When Doves Cry" and "Kiss" which are great songs and among my favorite from Prince. About two years ago, I heard "Purple Rain" on Pandora for the first time and I immediately fell in love with it. I truly believe it's a masterpiece of a song and amongst the greatest ever recorded. Then I began to research his music more and I found out I liked A LOT of his songs. As far as being a music "artist" Prince is the best in the history of commerical music. Amongst my favorites are:

Diamonds and Pearls

D.M.S.R

1999

Erotic City (one of the best funk songs ever)

Adore

Nothing Compares 2 U

I Wanna Be Your Lover

I Would Die 4 U

Little Red Corvette

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad

Head

Do Me, Baby

You Got The Look

And so on..

I know he has a ton of other albums that are relatively unknown outside his coure audience, like The Rainbow Children (which I haven't heard), which one of those would you guys recommend?

Isn't Prince amazing?

I'm Glad to see That Our Generation stills has hopes and Can be saved I'm Fifteen Man, We are doing a great Job

Dude You should Listen to his Firsts albums you know, controversy, 1999, Dirty Mind...