Which Prince albums/songs do you think have dated the worst?

Lyrically it would have to be Ronnie Talk 2 Russia, but musically I would say the 1992 Symbol album (even though I love it). What are other people's views?

Symbol?!?

Lord christ! If there is one single album in the history that will always sound like it was recorded last week. Then it's Symbol! It's a masterpiece on production values.

You're on crack or something? I mean, this is just the kind of "opinions" you tend to see on the org...

Upbraid me.

Err, yeah right!!! Are we talking about the same album? Naturally, Tony M's contributions are timeless - heck they could have been recorded anytime between 1992 and 1992 and the production on My Name Is Prince, The Max, I Wanna Melt With U, The Flow and The Sacrifice Of Victor don't sound at all like Prince was trying to follow trends about three years too late.
As I said, I like the album but if it sounds to you like it could have been recorded only last week, then I suggest you listen to more music.
And I do apologise for having a different opinion to you. I know that we should all think exactly the same and have no personalities of our own.

For obvious reasons,I think the 'Batman' album sounds really dated.

after long thinking; ronni talk to russia.
also sign of the times because of the dated reference to the space shuttle (at that time fresh news) ,that's all.

I'll go with something from the 'Tony M' era.lol. Don't get me wrong, I still like those albums but I wish we could get a non Tony M version.

And also 'ronnie talk 2 russia' mainly cause of the references made.

Haystack said:

More music? Okay, I'll try to. I've listened to only like 3000 albums during the last five years. I'll probably have to look for another job as a producer and a studio engineer because one job as such isn't obviously enough. Hey, I might even denounce all my reviews I've written for magazines because you just say so.

That is not an opinion unless you rationalize it. Please specify what is it exactly that sounds dated on Symbol if you want to rant about other people's work (and want to start a negative thread for that matter - don't just say this is MY opinion). If you can point out one single sound that couldn't be used in context of today's music - any synth patch, any drum sound, any effect, what about the dynamic range? The guitar sounds? Come on, go ahead.

I should have known this was all about fucking Tony M... figures.

In popular music there are three main factors that can make a recording sound "dated". These can occur at the performance process as well as during recording, mixing or mastering - or even in your home hi-fi for that matter.

1) The dynamic range of the recording equipment. Analog boards and storage mediums were not capable of handling much excitement on the frequencies over 8000kHz, which resulted in lost of brightness but also provided a much more pleasant distortion. The accuracy wasn't the greatest either. Also there were no processors in the past.
2) The character of the synthetic instruments and their usage. With certain analog and FM synthesizers the sound can be immediately traced back to the period before ROM-playback instruments became the standard. These are sampleplayers so the sound can hardly be dated since they usually reproduce the sounds from actual instruments. Of course comprised quality of the construction can lead to somewhat dated sounds, as is the case with cheaper gear that doesn't have good enough bitrate and converters. Also playing synthesizers in a more melodic way might easily remind the casual listener of the 80's (and sitll early 90's).
3) More lately the use of reverb has been given a rethought and everything isn't soaked in it totally like before the year 1996 or so. Modern reverb generators are also much more 3-dimensional in their sound production, but they've used the same Lexicons and TC electronics for a decade now.

The fourth factor could be songwriting, but in an era when The Strokes are considered the best band in the world that argument hardly makes much relevance.

And what trends are you referring to? In 1992 the trends were basically grunge and music styles derived from house that had just strated its development process. The biggest hits of the year? Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and Billy Idol's "Cradle Of Love" not hardly akin to the Symbol -album! That sir, is a the sound of a dated production.
What trend was "The Sacrifice Of Victor" following? Gospel vocals with horns on a funk track? What an awfully all-covering trend that must have been back then! Your name-checking of tracks is completely unrelevant and the reason behind that is nothing else than the fact that you don't like Tony M. (fuck, I don't like him either), which hardly equals with the universal verdict of the album sounding dated.
And since when does following trends mean inexorably a dated production? Prince was following the trends althrough the 80's as well as every other artist in the world. Look at what's on the number one spot on the US charts right now, does that really sound to you that much different than the ballads on the Symbol -album? It doesn't. Pop music has developed very little from the early 90's if you compare it to the change that happened between 1979-1993.

Think of "Let's Pretend We're Married" , "Let's Go Crazy" or "It". Honestly would you release those as singles in the year 2002, or would you rather release "And God Created Woman" or "Allegiance"? Your claim is one of the most ridiculous ones I've heard.

AND HERE'S THE POSITIVE PART:

But hey, you're right about the fact that the raps were essentially very contemporary (early 90's party-bullshit) and "rhyming", as it seems to be called these days, is quite different. And lyrically speaking that album just might be the most dated, I have to admit. But those things do not consitute as substantial portion of the record to call it "the most dated thing Prince has ever done".

But since you asked what's my opinion on the most dated product, I'll have to say "1999" - altough it's one of my favourite albums of all time, but really? Well, I won't underestimate you that you wouldn't get the point on that.

freshwater said:

Interesting concept. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. I find a lot of early 70s fusion that featured FENDER RHODES sound tinkly and exceptionally dated. Though the ROLAND keybonds are in vogue a lot, I still have a strong love analog based synthesizers like the ARP and MOOG. Most of all, I really love a creaky old, splintery HAMMOND B3. That's the epitome of funky keyboards!

freshwater said:

freshwater, if you're so good as a 'producer' or 'engineer' how come no-one has heard of you? Maybe it's because you still see something like Prince's 1992 album as a timeless classic. It's a shame that you can't see any further than the end of your own nose. What a sad case.

Haystack said:

What a personality. (sigh)

Well, because very few producers and engineers are well known around the globe, especially if you live outside the United States. There are a whole lot of people working in the industry that you have never heard of especially behind the desk. Plus I am only an assistant producer, next to being an engineer in a small studio. But that does give me a whole lot more leverage in such matters than just screaming "how come no-one has heard of you?".

From everything you have posted here I can see certainly that you are not a very mature individual and neither do you seem to know much about music. However if you cannot behave please do not bother posting any threads anymore. You cannot seem to make a simple argument and you obviously cannot respond to anyone else´s posts because if that's all that you can throw... hell, why do I even bother writing this at all?

Plus, I don't think anybody really agrees with you.

Grow up. I hope this thread dies off as soon as possible.

Haystack said:

No, sir. Who do you think you are to say The Symbol-album ISN'T a timeless classic? I think that is the reason why I am here at least, because I like all these timeless classics by the artist called Prince.

the symbol album is a classic...however some of it is dated. the scratching and tony m's lame ryhmes put some of the songs in 1988. most dated work i would have to say for you,the first album..it sounds sooooo seventies. so does the next album,prince. HEAD IS THE ISHI!!! thats his best album.

"for you" sounds dated to me.

peace

"AMERICA" that whole red scare crap was f'n lame.

funkycomic said:

I have to disagree to a degree (altough I would like to agree - I dislike the raps even myself). We are talking about regional issues here. Scratching is not by no means unused in the marginal fields of hip-hop to this day. There is such thing as European hip-hop as well, and as ridiculous as it may sound to some nationalist US citizens, the scene is definitely very strong. And you can hear scratching on all of the best European hip-hop artists' records, because they realize that it's an essential element of the whole musical idiom. The L.A. based hiphop of today's teen markets isn't everything there is to that brand of music even though the record companies would want us to think so. I've said this before, but there is a world outside the LA. As for the rhymes, no matter how lame they might seem, The difference between them now and the "rhymers" of today is that contemporary rappers talk pretty much the same shit just lazier. Okay, there are bigger differencies than just that, but when it comes time to, like, year 2006 you'll notice it's all just the same bollocks just in a different era.

And when you are talking about the concept of "datedness" it refers to productional values, not conceptual or compositional (because they're all highly recycleable). But yes, "For You" is another good example of clearly dated production. But I mean fuck this, there isn't a single Prince song that I wouldn't like. And if you compare something like "Parade" to the hits of the time, like Bananarama's "Venus" or Sandra's "In The Heat Of The Night" Prince's music is hardly dated at all.

Emancipation - DATED.