Er... interesting topic but... Is that a question about whether we agree with your personal classification? A proposal to debate the topic and confront perspectives? A definitive statement that isn't subject to discussion and that we'll have to cope with for the rest of our life?

Oh, and hello by the way.

If we gonna play the game I'd do it this way. Of course it's subject to debate and there's no such thing as a clear line between periods. For the sake of simplicity I'll list first and last albums using Prince studio albums, omitting side projects and live albums.

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- For You -> Purple Rain: Prince progressively develops the synthesizer/drum machine led sound known as the Minneapolis Sound, which will also become his own signature sound.

.

- Around The World In A Day -> Graffiti Bridge: Prince expands his musical vocabulary, includes horns and strings into his music, explores new genres such as jazz and develops a more European feel.

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- Diamonds And Pearls -> Chaos & Disorder: Prince goes back to his R&B roots by integratic hip-hop and more traditional jazz-funk and rock and roll elements into his music, also "takes responsibility" for being a black artist (including lyrics adressing being Black in America, something unheard of at earlier stages), his sound becomes somewhat more generic and less avant-garde.

.

- Emancipation -> NPGMC (The Chocolate Invasion/The Slaughterhouse): Prince adopts a softer, more delicate R&B sound, often dubbed as "plastic" by fans, and establishes musical patterns that will be present in his music up until the end while progressively reintegrating some earlier minneapolis sound elements such as the Linn drum machine.

.

- The Rainbow Children -> NEWS: A very short period where Prince explores jazz fusion pretty intensively, virtually banning all electronic elements from his music.

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- Musicology -> 20ten: A sort of "neo-classical Prince" era, where Prince reexplores various sound palettes and musical genres from most eras of his earlier career, with little if any innovation, establishing himself as an icon in the process.

.

- PlectrumElectrum -> Hitnrun Phase 2: Hard to say where this was going since it was all sadly interrupted by Prince's passing, but Prince clearly attempts to rejuvenate his sound by working with younger musicians, either in a garage rock direction with 3EG, or integrating Josh Welton's modern electronic sound palette for albums that were most likely aimed at younger listeners.

databank said:

If we gonna play the game I'd do it this way. Of course it's subject to debate and there's no such thing as a clear line between periods. For the sake of simplicity I'll list first and last albums using Prince studio albums, omitting side projects and live albums.

.

- For You -> Purple Rain: Prince progressively develops the synthesizer/drum machine led sound known as the Minneapolis Sound, which will also become his own signature sound.

.

- Around The World In A Day -> Graffiti Bridge: Prince expands his musical vocabulary, includes horns and strings into his music, explores new genres such as jazz and develops a more European feel.

.

- Diamonds And Pearls -> Chaos & Disorder: Prince goes back to his R&B roots by integratic hip-hop and more traditional jazz-funk and rock and roll elements into his music, also "takes responsibility" for being a black artist (including lyrics adressing being Black in America, something unheard of at earlier stages), his sound becomes somewhat more generic and less avant-garde.

.

- Emancipation -> NPGMC (The Chocolate Invasion/The Slaughterhouse): Prince adopts a softer, more delicate R&B sound, often dubbed as "plastic" by fans, and establishes musical patterns that will be present in his music up until the end while progressively reintegrating some earlier minneapolis sound elements such as the Linn drum machine.

.

- The Rainbow Children -> NEWS: A very short period where Prince explores jazz fusion pretty intensively, virtually banning all electronic elements from his music.

.

- Musicology -> 20ten: A sort of "neo-classical Prince" era, where Prince reexplores various sound palettes and musical genres from most eras of his earlier career, with little if any innovation, establishing himself as an icon in the process.

.

- PlectrumElectrum -> Hitnrun Phase 2: Hard to say where this was going since it was all sadly interrupted by Prince's passing, but Prince clearly attempts to rejuvenate his sound by working with younger musicians, either in a garage rock direction with 3EG, or integrating Josh Welton's modern electronic sound palette for albums that were most likely aimed at younger listeners.

.

that's a really good categorization!

databank said:

Using some of my Anthropology, science lingo.

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Formative period: - For You, Prince

Pre Classic period: - Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999

Classic period: - Purple Rain through to Sign o the Times

Post Classic period: Black, Lovesexy

Decline: Batman, Graffiti Bridge

Revival: D and P, Lovesymbol

Instability: Come to Crystal Ball/Truth

Nadir: - NPS to NEWS

Early Modern Revival - Musicology to Planet Earth

Modern era - Lotisflow3r to Hitnrun Phase2

.

Another way

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Beginnings - 94East, Demos, 4U, The Rebels

Growth and Development - Dirty Mind up to 2nd coming Vanity 6

Early Peak period - 1999 to ATWIAD (Commercial - Both peaks known as Trend setting)

Late Peak period - Parade to Lovesexy (Creative peak period)

Trend Chasing era (Batman to Goldnigga)

Corporate rebel period (Hits to Crystal Ball)

Wilderness Years (NPS to Musicology)

Statesman of Pop period (Musicology to Planet Earth)

Jazzique period (21nites to 20Ten)

Modern Legend period (3rd eye girl to his death)

The warming up period - For You, Prince

The shining genius period - DM to Lovesexy

The genius on the wane but still genius period - Batman to TGE

The doldrums period - Emancipation to TCI/Slaughterhouse

The midlife crisis period - TRC, Xpectation, NEWS etc

The I-am-back period - Musicology, 3121

The I-was-back-but-now-i'm-outta-here-again-period - PE to 2010

The working with kids period - PlecElec to Phase II

Jokes aside, I can hear the progression of his sound from the get-go right up to TGE. Each album followed on from the last and added to it. How he got from For You to TGE is easily understood if you listen to all the albums back to back. The only caveat is you have to put TBA in the 1987 context and not the '94. And within that period the DM to Lovesexy run is mind bogglingly incredible. A standard and quality that probably won't surface again in our lifetimes.

After TGE the evolution stopped and we started getting ideas from all kinds of directions coming at us. Not that it was bad, but the trajectory and momentum of the first decade and a half was simply unsustainable. Even to a genius like Prince. Warner Brothers were very fortunate indeed to have had Prince in his prime.

In my head it's like this:

.

Early days: For You, Prince

Getting interesting: Dirty Mindy, Controversy, 1999

Hitting his stride (Revolution): Purple Rain, ATWIAD, Parade

Post Revolution: SOTT, Lovesexy, Black Album

Hungry for Chart positions/fame: Batman, Graffti Bridge, Diamonds and Pearls, Symbol

Pissed at WB: Gold, Come...

Then the rest just feel like he's knocking out albums of songs, nothing special... but more interested in touring for the money (Except the Rainbow Children, when he went back to making a concept album again).

[Edited 8/29/17 5:37am]

the Black album to me is removed from and predating 'New Power...'

the music, a lot of the music was recorded in the 1986 period

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SOTT is definately not 'New Power' either, it really wasn't until he pulled the Funk Bible this 'newley' evolved sound/direction came thru Lovesexy.

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I connect Lovesexy & the 'Rave 89' Batman material with each other Flashy & Sparse.

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Graffiti Bridge music is hard to even catagorize, since a lot of it is 1981-1987 recorded music, some remade like Tick Tick Bang etc

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But I would say the Lovesexy-Graffiti Bridge stuff is more connected. And when Diamonds & Pearls came on it was a totally different sound look direction band concept etc

That 1978-1989 was such a spectacular run of music visuals shows concepts etc

.

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I always hear For You Prince & Dirty Mind together. And I think it is because of the ballads, and the undertones of 'innocence' carrying the raw, the adult, the tension.

.

Even though Dirty Mind & Controversy carry the New Wave -1999 Purple Rain and even ATWIAD carries some, Controversy is such a bridge from DM 2 1999, but feel more like 1999 and 1999 ie Prince & the noituloveR is very much [Revolution] and Purple Rain connected in sounds visuals concepts music seeds.

I alway connect Chaos & Disorder with Emancipation -the Truth is definately connected to Emancipation

Broadly:

• Analogue drums and filthy lyrics
• Linn drums and Wendy and Lisa
• Fairlight, Linn drums
• Post-Revolution big bands and Batman
• Albums with really shit rappers on
• I give up on Prince for a decade
• Albums given away with newspapers that sample the Linn drum stuff
• Third Eye Girl and stuff

[Edited 8/29/17 7:40am]

Yeah struggled a bit with the Black Album. Not quite the Revolution period and not quite LoveSexy but I think it fits more as the opposite of (and gave birth to) LoveSexy given that their releases are so connected and they share a song. Back in the day I had a casettee with Black Album bootleg and LoveSexy back to back. Even the concert was sort of in that format.

SOTT has enough Revolution input that is a Revolution album to me.

OldFriends4Sale said:

the Black album to me is removed from and predating 'New Power...'

the music, a lot of the music was recorded in the 1986 period

.

SOTT is definately not 'New Power' either, it really wasn't until he pulled the Funk Bible this 'newley' evolved sound/direction came thru Lovesexy.

.

I connect Lovesexy & the 'Rave 89' Batman material with each other Flashy & Sparse.

.

Graffiti Bridge music is hard to even catagorize, since a lot of it is 1981-1987 recorded music, some remade like Tick Tick Bang etc

.

But I would say the Lovesexy-Graffiti Bridge stuff is more connected. And when Diamonds & Pearls came on it was a totally different sound look direction band concept etc

Some of these lists are hilarious in a good way.

Haven't laughed so hard here in ages

.

"Albums with really shit rappers on"

"The working with kids period"

"I give up Prince for a decade"

.

So true though, I kind of went off Prince between 1997 and 2005 as well.

Yeah.
I think 4 me, because I heard the Black album in 1987 and it sounded so much more like pre-New Power sounds and felt like a SOTT next move

When I heard Lovesexy it really sounded so much different.

The Black album had a more sparse feel too it, much like 1/2 of SOTT, vs Lovesexy sounding like an explosion of sound

emesem said:

Yeah struggled a bit with the Black Album. Not quite the Revolution period and not quite LoveSexy but I think it fits more as the opposite of (and gave birth to) LoveSexy given that their releases are so connected and they share a song. Back in the day I had a casettee with Black Album bootleg and LoveSexy back to back. Even the concert was sort of in that format.

SOTT has enough Revolution input that is a Revolution album to me.

OldFriends4Sale said:

the Black album to me is removed from and predating 'New Power...'

the music, a lot of the music was recorded in the 1986 period

.

SOTT is definately not 'New Power' either, it really wasn't until he pulled the Funk Bible this 'newley' evolved sound/direction came thru Lovesexy.

.

I connect Lovesexy & the 'Rave 89' Batman material with each other Flashy & Sparse.

.

Graffiti Bridge music is hard to even catagorize, since a lot of it is 1981-1987 recorded music, some remade like Tick Tick Bang etc

.

But I would say the Lovesexy-Graffiti Bridge stuff is more connected. And when Diamonds & Pearls came on it was a totally different sound look direction band concept etc

I have always seen Musicology, 3121, and Planet Earth as a commerial trio of increasing blandness.

One Nite Alone is not a WTF album.

emesem said:

databank said: