Consider the body of work(Vanity6,The Time,etc.)Prince was involved in,they all had that underground/new wave sound to them.

not underground, surely not new wave .... rebelish funk

The Time is pure classic funk .. nothin new, but brilliant! their (= Prince's) first two albums
[Edited 5/15/05 11:45am]

ThataintFunky said:

paging NWF...

I would have considered it New Wave back then, just because it was slotted with other New Wave groups on certain radio station line-ups.

Now I realise that it was just music from out of left field that radio could not figure out where to place.

Underground for sure, because Prince had a huge following(sans airplay) prior to his "1999" breakthrough.

squirrelgrease said:

yeppers. i'll go with the 'underground' pinning too--you really couldn't call it new wave.

NWF here.....over.

It was a fucking brilliant addition to Prince's sound. Jill Jones did tell me he was listening to stuff like Gary Numan and The Cocteau Twins, so he was influenced into going into that direction. And a lot of other folks in R&B at the time were moving into that direction too(Rick James, Earth Wind and Fire, Gap Band, etc.) but I think it was Prince that kinda blazed the trail.

It was amazing how he mixed the synths with the beats and all that. He composed some really wicked tunes after having been influenced by Post-Punk/New Wave. He had tracks that could've contended with anything by The B-52's, Devo, The Cure, Missing Persons, The Suburbs, Blondie, etc.

You really see this sort of direction shine on his Vanity 6 album. Songs like "Bite The Beat" and "Wet Dream", as tongue-in-cheek as they are, still reflected that mix of Synth-Pop/New Wave and Soul/Funk. Prince also dabbled in that New Romantic clothing style, which was derived from the likes of Duran Duran, Steve Strange, David Bowie, Adam Ant, etc. He was rocking the ruffled shirts, lace gloves, heavy make-up, leather pants, and shit and he was doing it to great effect. He took those elements to kinda create his own identity and image.....or rather that identity and image at that time.

You won't see him do that style these days, which is a damn shame.
[Edited 5/15/05 15:37pm]

This was the great thing about that era and Pince overall. You couldn't securely place it anywhere. Until 'Little Red Corvette' put him on pop radio. I would here him on the Rock, R & B and late night niche shows.

Rev said:

Damn, I miss the 'old' Prince....

great songs from the mpls raw new funk era....
Private Joy
Jack U Off
Something In The Water
777-9311
After Hi School
Make-Up
Wet Dream
Vibrator
I Dont Wanna Leave U
Wild & Loose
Miss Understood (I swear this song was made in 1982 not 85)
the underground versions of:
Tick Tick Bang
Feel U Up
Irresistable Bitch
Extraloveable
Sexuality
uptown
Head
Do It All Night
DMSR
Lets Pretend Were Married

Ugh I wish there were more and more and more!

Vannelli said:

It may bordered on underground/new wave but it was more Funk based if any thing else.

Rev said:

And the one thing that i hated it but was happy at the same time when the rest of the whole world got "hip" to his music,I wanted it all to myself.

Vannelli said:

I don't think his music was underground/new wave, but he was influenced by the new wave scene obviously. I think he mixed the new wave style with his funky side to create a new and original sound...
A lot of artist during this time was doing that though...

But truly I prefer his work with the Time, it was his best and funkiest work in HIS ENTIRE career... Love it...