I am soooo torn on what type of musical direction to take. On one hand I wanna play hard rock (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), but on the other I wanna do something like Prince did. Funk stuff I mean. I'm so torn. The funk stuff doesn't come to me as easily as the hard rock stuff. And I can't get it to sound right. It always sounds wrong, not like Prince or the Time, etc. I'm not trying to sound IDENTICAL but to have the same type of feel would be cool. But I just can't create music like that. It just feels like I'm not really trying. Like I'm just taking the piss, as the brits say. It never sounds right. And it's kinda make or break time. It's gotta be one or the other. I can always dabble in whatever one I don't pick. I LOVE the pop/funk stuff like Prince, but I just can't replicate the feeling of that stuff. It's too happy sounding and creating that style of music isn't in my blood. But I don't wanna give up on it because I really do enjoy listening to it. When I hear that stuff, I just get way inspired and get euphoric. Maybe I'm not cut out for playing it. In some ways, I tihnk I can pull it off, because I can play almost any song off of any Prince record I own, but when it comes to actually writing a song, I come up with hard rock sounding stuff.

I just feel lost now. Where do I go? Do I create what flows out of me now? Or do I focus my creative energy trying to develop my skill in a totally different style of music? Rock comes to me easier, but I feel like people (other people, listeners, not me) would draw so much more enjoyment from pop or funk stuff.
[Edited 8/2/08 5:49am]

Try finding Jesse Johnson's 1995 album (I forget the title) - what he does in that album is take the groove, which is common in both rock and funk music, and makes that strong, then adds (sometimes Hendrix-style) guitar. As it talks about in the liner notes of the album, the groove is the essential element in both.

As for writing a song, I know what you mean. I like to create nice chunky beats, but when I add guitar or keys, it goes in a new wave direction. But I like that. If the groove is good enough, I feel it can be heard like it was meant to be heard, no matter what, IMHO.

Maybe if you post a sample mp3 file here, and ask the orgers for feedback...