I would pick rock - Rock covers a lot of elements in Prince's songs (the progressive drum beats, guitars, occasional wailing vocals). In addition, a lot of Prince's songs cover various subgenres of rock - blues, alternative, soft rock, even metal ("Endorphinemachine").

Other people have defined Prince's music as dance or pop or soul or r&b.

What do you think?

Prince was primarily a funk artist, I don't think there can be much debate about this.

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Prince shaped funk and dance music (and even new wave and synthpop to some extent) throughout the 80's, however funk as a genre sorta became extinct after that decade, morphing into new jack swing, acid jazz, hip-hop and modern R&B. While at the same time synthpop/new wave would literally disappear for more than a decade before making a phenomenal come back in the mid 00's. Remarkably, P's lasting impact on dance music, synthpop and other related genres (electroclash, nu house, etc.) was probably more significant that his impact on R&B: I can hear less of Prince in American Black artists ever since 1990 than in the essentially white and European electroclash/synthpop/nu disco scene that emerged at the beginning of the 2000's and remains pretty active today. I'm only pointing that out because I'd assume the influence of a musician of further musical genres may contribute to defining what they were doing.

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As to Prince as a rock artist, I think Prince wanted to be a rock artist more than he really ever was, because for some reason he wanted to be remembered as aguitar virtuoso while, as several of his collaborators have said, he could have been equally, if not more, remembered as a keyboards virtuoso. But in the end what are the essentially rock albums he's put out? Purple Rain to some extent, then The Undertaker, The War, Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r. That's like 5 albums out of 80 if you include side projects and live albums. Prince has touched a great number of genres in his career but the bulk of his catalogue is R&B, and more specifically funk or electrofunk.

Alternative.

I would say funk too. Of course he did many styles, but his core was funk.

The whole Prince sound is funk.

ummm ... prince

"Lovesexy".

lemoncrush19 said:

ummm ... prince

This

Funk-rock, imo.

Definitely funk. And a groove being funky seemed to ALWAYS be one of the most critical elements to Prince in his performances, as he mentioned it without fail.

Princezart

He covered them all. i can't put him in a box.

When you look at artists like MJ and George Michael, they were primarily soul artists. GM loved Motown soul and the like. He covered Stevie all the time. He never really did a hard rock song. Whereas MJ would delve into that rock pool with "Beat It", "Morphine", "Dirty Diana", "Give Into Me", etc.

Funk is really specific to me. Parliament defined that. Graham Central Station is a funk group mostly, too. Then you have James Brown who had soul and funk blended so wonderfully.

Prince rose above just being that because I think from day one he wanted to be more than relegated to the Black Music section of the store. "I'm Yours" is a rock song on For You. Not exactly standard fare in a world of Earth Wind & Fires and Sly Stones were the token black artist on a show or on white radio. He continued the rock songs on almost every album. "Bambi", "Sister", "Jack U Off, "Ronnie Talk 2 Russia", "Little Red Corvette", "Let's Go Crazy", "Temptation", etc. That alone kept people guessing back when Black was a genre (as limited as that was).

But then you throw in those ballads, those quirky tracks, the rockabilly (mentioned), the heavier soul & funk-inspired stuff, the religious themed. His genre was as specific as it was ambiguous. Sorta like Prince himself. He was his music.

Prince was his own genre.

databank said:

Prince was primarily a funk artist, I don't think there can be much debate about this.

.

Prince shaped funk and dance music (and even new wave and synthpop to some extent) throughout the 80's, however funk as a genre sorta became extinct after that decade, morphing into new jack swing, acid jazz, hip-hop and modern R&B. While at the same time synthpop/new wave would literally disappear for more than a decade before making a phenomenal come back in the mid 00's. Remarkably, P's lasting impact on dance music, synthpop and other related genres (electroclash, nu house, etc.) was probably more significant that his impact on R&B: I can hear less of Prince in American Black artists ever since 1990 than in the essentially white and European electroclash/synthpop/nu disco scene that emerged at the beginning of the 2000's and remains pretty active today. I'm only pointing that out because I'd assume the influence of a musician of further musical genres may contribute to defining what they were doing.

.

As to Prince as a rock artist, I think Prince wanted to be a rock artist more than he really ever was, because for some reason he wanted to be remembered as aguitar virtuoso while, as several of his collaborators have said, he could have been equally, if not more, remembered as a keyboards virtuoso. But in the end what are the essentially rock albums he's put out? Purple Rain to some extent, then The Undertaker, The War, Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r. That's like 5 albums out of 80 if you include side projects and live albums. Prince has touched a great number of genres in his career but the bulk of his catalogue is R&B, and more specifically funk or electrofunk.

*

I agree with most of what you've stated, and I like the preciseness of how you stated it; but, I'll disagree with one point. Just like you stated regarding the number of "rock" albums Prince released, the same could be said for the number of pure "funk" albums that Prince released. That is--a funk purist could argue that Prince never released any more than maybe one or two purely funk albums. Now, I agree that funk may be Prince's base. However, I would also argue that Prince didn't really have a pure base. That is--did Prince love one genre of music more than he loved the other, or was it that he simply allowed himself to be free/accessible to all genres and wrote/created as the sound/moment inspired him. Additionally, I also think that lyrics or the story that Prince wanted to tell or the statement that he wanted to make greatly impacted what sound he used as a carrier of that story or statement. So, again, in that case, I'm not sure if I can agree that he was primarily a funk artist. Though, to be clear, unlike many, I don't see Prince being a funk artist as being something limiting or less than because I understand that funk--as created by James Brown and evolved by Parliament Funkadelic--is really blues, soul, rock, and gospel with a jazz sensibility. As such, funk may be the most sophisticated type of music that one can make. Still, I’ll end with an overly used but true cliché: Prince was one of those rare musicians who were able to craft his own genre by seamlessly blending the genres available to him.

yeahronimo said:

lemoncrush19 said:

ummm ... prince

This

Guitarhero said:

Princezart

Exactly!

Prince was his own unique genre.

I'm glad someone else said it.

LBrent said:

yeahronimo said:

Guitarhero said:

Princezart

Exactly!

Prince was his own unique genre.

I'm glad someone else said it.

TrivialPursuit said:

When you look at artists like MJ and George Michael, they were primarily soul artists. GM loved Motown soul and the like. He covered Stevie all the time. He never really did a hard rock song. Whereas MJ would delve into that rock pool with "Beat It", "Morphine", "Dirty Diana", "Give Into Me", etc.

Funk is really specific to me. Parliament defined that. Graham Central Station is a funk group mostly, too. Then you have James Brown who had soul and funk blended so wonderfully.

Prince rose above just being that because I think from day one he wanted to be more than relegated to the Black Music section of the store. "I'm Yours" is a rock song on For You. Not exactly standard fare in a world of Earth Wind & Fires and Sly Stones were the token black artist on a show or on white radio. He continued the rock songs on almost every album. "Bambi", "Sister", "Jack U Off, "Ronnie Talk 2 Russia", "Little Red Corvette", "Let's Go Crazy", "Temptation", etc. That alone kept people guessing back when Black was a genre (as limited as that was).

But then you throw in those ballads, those quirky tracks, the rockabilly (mentioned), the heavier soul & funk-inspired stuff, the religious themed. His genre was as specific as it was ambiguous. Sorta like Prince himself. He was his music.

Prince was his own genre.

cablanasian

Funk.

Funk.

Paisley.

Funk.

Funk,mainly.

I'm not sure which part of "I don't think there can be much debate about this" some of y'all have missed

But I appreciate the constructive and interesting discussion, nonetheless

You can't. But like most people suggest here, funk is the foundation.