It amazes me that folks who champion Prince as one of their favorite artists really aren't big fans of R&B and funk. When I look at some of the critical responses in this forum (i.e., I'm sick of the horns, pimp suits, jam sessions, wholesome image, etc) I check the profiles of the author to see what other artists they dig. Usually I see Marilyn Manson, Tori Amos, Nine Inch Nails and artist that really wouldn't be remotely connected to Prince. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong those artists or with people in general for listening to them.

But usually the opinions of Prince fans make more sense to me when they have a more diverse range of taste in music.

So it's hard for me to fathom how one can be sick of jam sessions, horns, and R&B when the first five albums of his career were centered around that material. Even though Prince covers a lot of genres of music, he has been and probably will always be predominantly an R&B/funk artist. So I guess my question is this:

If you are a current fan who is not happy with the R&B/funk driven music Prince has released within the past 10 years, what is it that drove you to listen to him musically in the first place?

[Disclaimer for lock-happy mods: this is not bait. My intentions are for this to be a learning experience... at least for me]
[Edited 5/28/05 17:52pm]

This is an interesting question...

Personally, I still love hearing Prince's RnB and funk tunes but, there's a but here...

The earlier records, including The Time and Vanity projects, well, they were funk and RnB records but you could hear the elements (keyboards, guitars, drums, vocal melodies, harmonies, bass lines) that made you know that the songs were Prince compositions.

Today, Prince's RnB and Funk songs, although, I still love most of them, well, they sound like things that have been done before. Take for instance the track Musicology - from the bass line, to the drums, to the horns, to the rhythm guitar - this is a total James Brown homage track... it sounds like something he would've done. It sounds safe where housequake or head or tamborine or america or we can funk or shockadelica or erotic city (and the list can go on) sound daring and have a flare to them.

The same goes for his RnB tunes like Call My Name - he sounds like he's playing it safe with the musical arrangement and instrument selection. A lot of Prince's older material (think between Dirty Mind to parts of The Chocolate Invasion) has a lot of bite and flare.

All My Dreams, Alphabet Street, Dance On, Anna Stesia, there's so much from Prince's earlier catalogue that blurs the lines between funk and rock and rnb. That's what drew most of us in - it sounded familiar but at the same time like nothing else. His music used to be fresh but with Musicology and his entire religious conversion, he's toned things down so much that he's beginning to sound like everyone else. Case and Point: Life O' The Party, Musicology and Call My Name.

I get annoyed with the fact that he adds horn to all his hitsongs nowadays like
When Doves Cry and I Would Die 4 U , fe , there's no need to !
They sound better without imo
[Edited 5/28/05 18:30pm]

Dewrede said:

When Doves Cry had horns as early as 1988... while I Would Die 4 U had horns as early as 1984. Although, his use of the horns has increased so much over the last 15 years beginning with the Symbol album.

My first favourite band growing up were the Red Hot Chili Willis. Then I listened to all the classic rock bands and at about 11, I got into Maceo Parker; I listened to Live At Planet Funk about a million times… God, what an amazing album. I developed a funky ear and soon afterwards James Brown, Wayne McGhie & others marched into my cd player. I could never get into R&B though. Some McGhie songs were, and i'd skip them. In the years to follow my musical garden grew to include jazz, classical, world music, electronic, Van Halen8-), delta blues… but still no R&B!

I decided to download a few Prince songs about 3-4 years ago after remembering a few good words from my brother and seeing Batdance on TV when I was small. Even though Alphabet St. is funky, i didn't really like it… I couldn't get into Prince much at all (I think it was something about the dated sound). Purple Rain (the song) wasn't impressive at all. I had to sit down and feed myself Prince songs. After a while though, I really dug his music. Downloaded a few albums and subsequently started to buy the albums.

Out of all Prince's range of music, R&B was the last style I got into. Purple Rain is now amazing, then Scandalous received continual play, followed by IIWYG, Adore, Call My Name … When 2 R In love is playing right now

R&B was an acquired taste for me. New R&B though, I still can't listen to.

I hope that partially answered your question

yoshimaroka said:

You did answer my question. It's very understandable why you don't listen to new R&B. Very insightful... I appreciate it.

psykosoul said:

I have always been a fan of Prince's R&B/Funk driven materials.

My all-time favorites are the ones with synths (the albums 1999 & Batman comes to mind). To my ears, THE real Prince sound came from synths first.

yoshimaroka said:

Don't you mean Life on Planet Groove?