I know, Prince has tried out so many different styles, has changed his sound so often during his career, but, what are in your opinion the three key-elements in his music, the elements that define 'Prince-music'.

For me it are these:

1. The beats and the way he uses them:
Prince has a tendency to used cleverly programmed beats (using the Linn drum machine), or real drums that sound 'electronic', especially in the eighties it was a trademark element: listen to 1999, Purple Rain and Around the world in a day for some great drum programming on the Linn, listen to the electronically altered drums on Parade and Sign of the times, or the more direct, simple beats on Batman.
In the nineties he used real drums more often, and he made some mistakes using Kirk Johnson for programming boring, unsurprising beats. But the way he recorded and produced the drumbeats by Michael Bland on Diamonds and Pearls and The Gold Experience still are very distinctive.

2. His background vocals.
It sounds like Prince often puts much care into his background vocals. Often he is using overdubs and effects to express what he is trying to achieve. Those background vocals can go from utterly beautifull (Still waiting, Adore, Betcha by golly wow) to creepy and unsettling (When doves cry, If i was your girlfriend,Thieves in the temple).

3. The way he treats his arrangements:
Especially in the eighties, Prince had the tendency to threat his arrangements in a surprising way, challenging himselve and the listener constantly. Wether it is the minimalistic approach on songs like When doves cry, Kiss, Sign of the times and The Question of U, or the dry, hard beat - orchestral music hybrid you can hear on The Family album, Parade and Jill Jones debut album. Delivering very sobre, lo-fi, demo-like songs on Sign of the Times (Forever in my life, The Cross), while a year later he expresses himselve in very busy, almost overproduced, stylistically rich music on Lovesexy (the title track mixes understated funk, gospellike chants and hardrock guitar with almost classical sounding rising chords, jazzy horns and weird sound effects).

In your opinion, what are the three key-elements of Princes music?

One of Prince's finest qualities as a musician, arranger, producer and composer is his knowledge and use of space with music. In the 80's he was phenomenal with this particular element - even Miles Davis commented on it.

I have never heard anybody make use of musical space like Prince.

A girl i was seeing once asked what i meant by musical space when i was raving about Housequake. I tried to explain but found it near impossible. Its just something u recognise and feel. There are great examples of it - SOTT instrumental as the credits roll, man, that synth sound (when it holds the really long chord at the the end and then stops leaving u with just the drum loop.. wow.. thats musical space. The long organ discord which is held over the drum pattern in housequake.. SPACE. The begining of joy in repetition (unreleased).. when them chords come in - it sounds like a place... again, great space.

Overall, I would say:

• Duality of religion and sex in his lyrics
• Balance of guitar, keyboards, and drums (especially the Linn machine)
• Effortless fusion of genres

Sex
Beats
Versatility

Big Backbeats
heavily layered background vocals
lots of funky riffs on Bass,Guitar,& Keys

I -AW
II-Funky beat (drums)
III-Rawing Guitar

Se7en said:

a corny cool vibe

a simplistic mix (every instrument maxed out on volume even little noises turned up)

complete twists in musical direction or in the layers within a song

wow! i was just gonna say: sexual, dance-able, spiritual - actually that's the 3 categories i slot Prince's music into - i guess that's not elements of his music.

i'm not a technical music person so i can't speak precisely but i will add:

his arrangements; his voice; his multi-tiered lyrics/hidden meanings

Thanks for the great thread!

extended grooves
linn drum
message

hi Chris! How are ya!?!

James Brown
Jimi Hendrix
Larry Graham

Angelic1302 said:

hey babe.. I'm great!