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PrintablePrettyMan72 said: Ifsixwuz9 said: Eh? "For You' and "Prince", his first two albums, were straight R&B. "Dirty Mind" wasn't a conventional R&B. It was more of punk/R&B album however, Controversy was R&B. "1999" was an R&B/pop album. Not entirely true. Those first two albums did mix other genres. "I'm yours", "Bambi", and "Why you wanna treat me so bad" sounded more rock IMO. "Crazy You" sounds like an acoustic ballad. "With You" sounds like a pop ballad. They were R&B records. As someone said before some people tend get confused when they hear a little bit of guitar in a record. But bands like the Isley Bros, Parliment and Cameo, who back in the day were classified as R&B bands used guitar all the time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later. -Miles Davis- | |
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Nasalhair said: PurpleCharm said: So, how did you end up being a Prince fan? I know that P fuses a lot of genres together, but he has never been rock heavy and it seems that quite a few fans have a problem with that.  I became a Prince fan in 1984 when I first heard "When Doves Cry" on its release as a single. The song isn't what I'd call R&B but is more of a middle-ground between rock and, say, the funk of Sly or James Brown, and it completely caught me off guard. To me, Prince may have always had elements of R&B in his music (the "soul ballads", the occasional - bad - dabbles with rap) but he only went more R&B from the "Symbol" album and beyond, by which time he started to lose me. All-out R&B-a-thons like "Emancipation" leave me completely and utterly cold, as did 90% of "Rave", and the music of his I like is where he melds together different attributes of different genres, like the "Purple Rain" album was rock-funk, "ATWIAD" was pop-psychedelia-rock, "Parade" was pop-jazz, "SOTT" was funk-rock-soul. I don't mind it too much when an artist uses elements of R&B in their music, as long as they colour it with something else and turn it into something new. For me, this is what Prince has always done - take something established and turn it into something different, distinctive, and his own - but now he seems to be moving more into a wholly R&B groove and treading water with it. See I think this is where a lot of the dissention hits. Because folks who were fans from For You on, were always pretty comfortable with the transitions Prince made from R&B to rock. Purple Rain was the pinnacle of it all so a lot of the fans he acquired jumped ship when he started using that rock/funk hybrid and began transitioning back into R&B. | |
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BSK3601 said: Nasalhair said: I became a Prince fan in 1984 when I first heard "When Doves Cry" on its release as a single. The song isn't what I'd call R&B but is more of a middle-ground between rock and, say, the funk of Sly or James Brown, and it completely caught me off guard. To me, Prince may have always had elements of R&B in his music (the "soul ballads", the occasional - bad - dabbles with rap) but he only went more R&B from the "Symbol" album and beyond, by which time he started to lose me. All-out R&B-a-thons like "Emancipation" leave me completely and utterly cold, as did 90% of "Rave", and the music of his I like is where he melds together different attributes of different genres, like the "Purple Rain" album was rock-funk, "ATWIAD" was pop-psychedelia-rock, "Parade" was pop-jazz, "SOTT" was funk-rock-soul. I don't mind it too much when an artist uses elements of R&B in their music, as long as they colour it with something else and turn it into something new. For me, this is what Prince has always done - take something established and turn it into something different, distinctive, and his own - but now he seems to be moving more into a wholly R&B groove and treading water with it. See I think this is where a lot of the dissention hits. Because folks who were fans from For You on, were always pretty comfortable with the transitions Prince made from R&B to rock. Purple Rain was the pinnacle of it all so a lot of the fans he acquired jumped ship when he started using that rock/funk hybrid and began transitioning back into R&B. Well said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later. -Miles Davis- | |
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BSK3601 said: Nasalhair said: I became a Prince fan in 1984 when I first heard "When Doves Cry" on its release as a single. The song isn't what I'd call R&B but is more of a middle-ground between rock and, say, the funk of Sly or James Brown, and it completely caught me off guard. To me, Prince may have always had elements of R&B in his music (the "soul ballads", the occasional - bad - dabbles with rap) but he only went more R&B from the "Symbol" album and beyond, by which time he started to lose me. All-out R&B-a-thons like "Emancipation" leave me completely and utterly cold, as did 90% of "Rave", and the music of his I like is where he melds together different attributes of different genres, like the "Purple Rain" album was rock-funk, "ATWIAD" was pop-psychedelia-rock, "Parade" was pop-jazz, "SOTT" was funk-rock-soul. I don't mind it too much when an artist uses elements of R&B in their music, as long as they colour it with something else and turn it into something new. For me, this is what Prince has always done - take something established and turn it into something different, distinctive, and his own - but now he seems to be moving more into a wholly R&B groove and treading water with it. See I think this is where a lot of the dissention hits. Because folks who were fans from For You on, were always pretty comfortable with the transitions Prince made from R&B to rock. Purple Rain was the pinnacle of it all so a lot of the fans he acquired jumped ship when he started using that rock/funk hybrid and began transitioning back into R&B.  | |
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ThreadBare said: Nasalhair said: Not sure what you mean by this...
If you're saying that not all R&B is the same, I appreciate that, but whenever I hear R&B music it all sounds more or less the same to me. I haven't heard of any of the people you mention I'm afraid, not being a fan of R&B. Could it be that you hear it from the same outlet(s) -- stations, networks, etc.? A lot of those are committed to a specific format that caters to certain artists and demographics. I say all this because I find myself often musing that I'm not a big fan of R&B, when it turns out my dislike centers mainly around Top 40 R&B. Somehow, I amassed all or most of the albums of Sade, Maxwell, D'angelo, Erykah Badu, Lalah Hathaway, etc. I guess I like R&B after all, just not all of it. 
[Edited 3/19/06 11:40am] Well if I don't like the songs I hear (mainly via music TV channels seeing as I rarely get the chance to listen to the radio) I'm unlikely to go out and buy albums of it just in case I like the non-chart stuff. Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of "old school" soul and have a few collections of Motown, Atlantic soul and Northern soul, as well as a James Brown CD and a few Sly & the Family Stone ones, but I class all of these as soul rather than R&B. Granted, I don't like absolutely everything on these, but what I do like I love with a passion. Somebody mentioned earlier in response to one of my postings that Prince's first two albums were "pure R&B". Maybe this explains why I never liked them much and didn't bother to get them on CD. |
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Not me, I love R&B!! "Just like the sun, the Rainbow Children rise."
"We had fun, didn't we?" -Prince (1958-2016) 4ever in my life |
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UndercovaBrotha said: PurpleCharm said: From my observation, it seems like a significant portion of Prince's online fan community have a strong dislike for r&b music. This really boggles my mind. How can anyone be a Prince fan and dislike r&b music. Can someone explain this too me?
You mean today's mainstream R&B. Exactly. | |
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What is R&B?
I'm not asking out of ignorance, but I think that ppl r using the term in all kinds of ways. I remember when I first visited the US in 1986, I was amazed by the way it was used to segregate music in the record stores: all black artists were in the r&b section, whereas in Australia at the time there were no such subdividions. THese days, music has become much more eclectic, witht he center being fairly bland, but I understand much better categories such as: soul, funk, hip-hop, jazz, rock, metal, punk, blues etc. than I do the general category R&B. Please everybody explain what you mean, and if you mean "black music" (i.e. soul, funk, blues, jazz, hip-hop etc.) then say so, and perhaps there should be a discussion about whether sucha category should, or shouldn't, exist. I think that some of the confusion is because often today, the term R&B is used to classify a lot of the most mediocre MOR stuff played by MTV and other music stations. OTOH, I think some of the people here are using it to refer to other things, so please clarify... "We've never been able to pull off a funk number"
"That's becuase we're soulless auttomatons" | |
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ThreadBare said: Nasalhair said: Not sure what you mean by this...
If you're saying that not all R&B is the same, I appreciate that, but whenever I hear R&B music it all sounds more or less the same to me. I haven't heard of any of the people you mention I'm afraid, not being a fan of R&B. Could it be that you hear it from the same outlet(s) -- stations, networks, etc.? A lot of those are committed to a specific format that caters to certain artists and demographics. I say all this because I find myself often musing that I'm not a big fan of R&B, when it turns out my dislike centers mainly around Top 40 R&B. Somehow, I amassed all or most of the albums of Sade, Maxwell, D'angelo, Erykah Badu, Lalah Hathaway, etc. I guess I like R&B after all, just not all of it.
[Edited 3/19/06 11:40am] And that's the thing. When put on the spot and asked if you like R&B you almost have to second guess what exactly the person is referring to when saying 'R&B'. I'd cringe at the thought of unwittingly suggesting I like R.Kelly or Usher. 
The answer necessarily needs a little expanding to allow for your Stevies and Marvins while making it quite clear you're not feeling the throwaway pop-R&B videos (that as a bonus include background music!) of today. | |
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PurpleCharm said: From my observation, it seems like a significant portion of Prince's online fan community have a strong dislike for r&b music. This really boggles my mind. How can anyone be a Prince fan and dislike r&b music. Can someone explain this too me? I think you may be confusing r&b with that fake watered down pop music. Most people on this site really like artists like Anthony Hamilton, Martin Luther, Alicia Keyes and Indie Arie. They do real r&b. Unlike artists like Ciara and Mario,
[Edited 3/19/06 5:14am] | |
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I like rock music. Prince's most successful albums were rock and rock/funk/pop albums. (Purple Rain/Sign o' the Times). R&B isn't really my thing, or Prince's strength. Notice how much better Prince's rock songs are compared to his r&b light stuff... Incense & Candles, Call My Name, On the Couch, Right Back Here in My Arms, Somebody's Somebody. Just too simple for Prince's skills.
Take The Dance for instance. The online version is plastic with little or no production. Just too simple... great vocals but very little going on around it. The version on 3121 is highly superior, completely alive. Prince is a great copier of other styles and genres. It's too bad that hip hop is popular because Prince still tries to fit in with the crowd (Incense and Candles) instead of doing his own thing (Satisfied). Notice the reactions from people once Prince actually plays guitar (Fury) compared to his r&b performance (BL&B) on SNL... like night and day. It's obvious that the majority of Prince fans are rock music fans. So no, I don't think highly of any current r&b or hip hop music. I don't listen to the radio at all, and I don't watch BET, MTV, VH1, or FUSE. "You don't exist again. It's all taken away from you. Even for the richest, happiest and most beautiful people, they move into later life and get old where things start to break apart. They don't exist anymore and they will never exist again." Woody Allen | |
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