MattyJam said:

EmmaMcG said:

MattyJam said: Despite my earlier comments about not liking the majority of Prince's early 90's stuff, I still think Cream and The Continental are much better than the MJ songs you list here. Masterpieces? Seriously???

Who Is It is widely considered by a lot of fans to be the best song he ever wrote.

Really? I'm a big MJ fan but to my ears Who Is It is based on a keyboard/synthesizer line in Smooth Criminal, and I'm not sure if MJ arranged that himself.

Pentacle said:

MattyJam said:

Who Is It is widely considered by a lot of fans to be the best song he ever wrote.

Really? I'm a big MJ fan but to my ears Who Is It is based on a keyboard/synthesizer line in Smooth Criminal, and I'm not sure if MJ arranged that himself.

He is credited as the sole songwriter. And you only have to watch his acappela beatbox performance on Oprah from 93 to see that he was the brains behind the composition of that song.

Michael released 2.5 discs of music between 1990-2000.

Prince released 16.

That fact alone kinda makes this thread a bit moot.

If you're talking "early 90's" alone, which I would consider to be 1990-1994 you're talking one Michael album - Dangerous. It contains 14 songs.

For Prince, you're looking at 4 albums.

So the question becomes - If you are of the opinion that none of 'Dangerous' sounds dated (which I'd probably mostly agree with), can you then name 14 songs from Prince's 4 albums released in that timeframe that are as timeless as the 14 songs on Dangerous?

And for me, the answer to that question is yes.

My 14 picks:

The Question Of U

We Can Funk

Joy In Repetition

Thieves In The Temple
Diamonds & Pearls

Cream

Money Don't Matter Tonight

Love 2 The 9's

The Morning Papers

Sexy MF
7

Come

Space

Dark

For the record - if I were to pick my 14 favorite songs from those Prince albums, you'd be looking at a completely different list. But I can see how some might consider songs like "My Name is Prince" and "Pheromone" to be 'dated', although that doesn't personally bother me.


In essence, if the thread title were to be rephrased as a question, ie, "Has time been kind to Prince's early 90's music?" then my answer would be - "Which music?" - because like any era of Prince's career, there's no singular answer to any question.

Furthermore - you could also tip the scales further in Prince's favor by pointing out that "The Undertaker" and "The Gold Experience" were both recorded in this same time frame, and "The Black Album" was finally released in this time frame.

If you take this into consideration, then Prince has more timeless material from this time frame than Michael does.

Every music is part of its time. It's just a question of quality.

I didn't like D&P and Dangerous back then and I don't like them now.

[Edited 10/18/15 9:05am]

trax said:

MattyJam said:

MattyJam said:

Haha, I've obviously hit a nerve! If you think crap like Daddy Pop, Willing & Able, Tick Tick Bang, Thunder, Cream, Strollin, The Continental, The Max, Push, Jughead stands alongside masterpieces like Who Is It, Give Into Me and Will You Be There then you're in denial.

[Edited 10/18/15 2:49am]

Now you are arguing quality of songwriting, before you were talking about tracks that sounded 'dated'

You don't get it... the tracks on Dnagerous were 5 years dated when they came out. Guy, Keith Sweat, Johnny Kemp and Bobby Brown were all 1987-1988. The Teddy Riley/ NewJackSwing trend was over when Dangerous dropped. If anything sounds dated, it's the Dangerous album, for bandwagon jumping onto a trend that had already faded.

So to clarify for you: Dangerous doesn't sound like 1990's albums because it's dated to, and sounds exactly like the newjackswing era of 1987-1988.

Awesome post, Militant (not going to quote it for everyone's sake because it's long)

Michael released fewer songs from 1990-1994, and every one he released was great (imo). Prince released a whole shit ton more, so of course there were some clunkers in there (just like how Mike would have had clunkers had he released so much).. but what discredits OP's post is that if you take 14 of the best Prince songs of the early-90s and compare them to "Dangerous", then Michael and Prince will be pretty even when it comes to 'dated' songs. Actually, dare I say it, Prince may have had more dated songs overall in his '90s catalogue, but he also had at least 14 genius songs which, together, actually sounded less dated than "Dangerous". This is the benefit of releasing more.

In the end though, both of these men's '90s catalogues are severely underrated. Some people on the Org act as if MJ's last great album was in 1979, and I'm NOT ashamed to admit that I find "Invincible" a great listen. In fact, recently "History" and "Dangerous" have been getting more play from me compared to "Thriller" and "Bad"... all are masterpieces though imo.

NorthC said:

So this is really just another Prince vs Michael Jackson thread again?

Let's be honest.....most music from the early 90s now sounds horribly dated All of those new jack swing sounds and having a rapper on every other song....Prince and MJ are both guilty of this,but they're not the only ones.

All music is music of ITS time, what did you expect? Do you think 1999 sounds like it was released yesterday? i do not find a song like Who is it that dated, and for me it's a great song.

To keep it real -

MJ & Prince both weren't so hot in the 90's...

IMO 1987-ish was kinda the beginning of the end of the 'Untouchable' era for Both of them...

thedoorkeeper said:

NorthC said:

So this is really just another Prince vs Michael Jackson thread again?

Yes it is. MJ fans hate being marginized.

Ego101 said:

To keep it real -

MJ & Prince both weren't so hot in the 90's...

IMO 1987-ish was kinda the beginning of the end of the 'Untouchable' era for Both of them...

thedoorkeeper said:

NorthC said: Yes it is. MJ fans hate being marginized.

Would agree normally. But Prince topped Purple Rain with SOTT, so it's a contradiction that Prince stopped being untouchable. SOTT made him a musical otherworldy entity. It's GB that tell you the truth in my opinion.

blackbob said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/361168

What a shit album that would be

214 said:

214 said:

blackbob said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/361168

What a shit album that would be

What a shitty and rude comment.

feeluupp said:

Joy in Reptition sounds timeless... Yes recorded in '86 but released in 1990.

because it was recorded in 1986

same with Power Fantastic, made available in the mid/late 1990s but recorded live in 1986

Power Fantastic timeless

MODERATORS WARNING: A lot of posts have turne into a Michael Jackson music discussion.

Don't not continue with it, and just a heads up, all MJ album discussions will be deleted.

Time hasn't been kind to Prince's early 90s music.

Is the discussion

214 said:

blackbob said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/361168

What a shit album that would be

it works as a fantastic album actually!

Mid 90's is not early 90's though...

Guitarhero said:

214 said:

What a shit album that would be

What a shitty and rude comment.

ok sorry, but it's not the best album, not the best songs. Some of them are great of course

If it is not novelty music and it is true good music, it is always good.

most of what i heard from Prince in the 90's sounds form the 90's but not that dated.Except for the first albums.

Artists who make a sound their own tend to do far better with time. James Brown, The Beatles, The Kinks, Nirvana, U2, 80's Prince.

Those that just ape a popular trend are marginilized becasue they time-stamp themselves to that particular fad. That's what "dated" means. The Monkees, all the grunge bands who are not Nirvana, all the 80's Prince clones. etc.

Good Music is timeless, artists who ape and pander popular fads and trends sound dated. Copying is the sincerest form of flatery, but a real diamond has more worth than a cheap immitation hastely made to make a buck.