Is Planet Earth like a sequal of 3121, because on the album cover of Planet Earth, it said 3121 in the backround, and in the middle of the chours of Mr.Goodnight, prince said "3121" in the song.

Any thoughts, guys?

IWouldDie4U666 said:

Not necessarily a sequel.

The expression, '3121', is possibly a cryptic way of Prince conveying something through his work on an ongoing basis.

In the past, Prince has done this more overtly, for example, with an expression such as 'new power'. This maybe the same technique to convey something that goes beyond its first reference as an album title.

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[Edited 2/27/08 15:32pm]

For the sake of eliminating the confusion, Maybe we can design a key ring fastener to link them ourselves.

Prince loves the number 7, 3+1+2+1 is 7 I think thats it to be honest, makes me smile that I saw 4 main shows and 3 aftershows at the O2 which added up to 7 as a total fluke
[Edited 2/27/08 17:52pm]

If Planet Earth was a sequel to 3121,
how come Prince didn't just name it "3121-II:Electric Boogaloo"?

I think of 3121 as the new phase of Prince's music. Another muse in a way.

In the past we had other forms of this, The New Breed, The Revolution, New PowerSoul/LoveSexy, The New Power Generation, the period, The Rainbow Children. 3121 is the lastest incarnation of Prince's musical evolution.

I would almost think Musicology and the tour as the end of the Rainbow Children phase.

Just an idea.

Interesting point...

I wouldn't go as far to say "sequel" but musically, the two albums in the same neck of the woods.

I don't own these, but I think The Rainbow Children and One Night Alone were supposedly more sophisticated projects and would be closer in relationship to Musicology than Musicology is to the more recent albums.

Prince's albums, from what I understand, come in threes. People want to put Musicology, 3121 and PE in the same triad because Musicology was his return to mainstream (according to public opinion) cuz all three were more commerical projects.

When I listened to Planet Earth, it made Musicology look like its miles away, like it has nothing in common with 3121 and PE.

If his albums do come in threes like they typically do, the new album should fall into the same vein as the previous 2, but it'll be on a different plane, hopefully where it'll be celebrated as his best work in years.

The only difference between the wo albums, is that 3121 is more various and the spread of genres is more obvious. PE is a tighter projecte where one track flows into the other and the genre change is less obvious.

Actually, 3121 is like the album of the 00's and PE is like Come, though with Come, the genre change is barely noticable at all.

if PE was a sequel 2 3121 it would have been much funkier and not some lame duck music like all the midnights and chelsea bullshit

L4OATheOriginal said:

duck music?

ok guys I get what your saying!

I was just wondering what it was.

IWouldDie4U666 said:

if you understand anything that has been posted so far, I take my hat off, coz I have understood none of the posts so far, but there is one common factor, contradiction, but that is the joy of P and his music, it allows one to think and make their own evaluation.

It broadens our minds and wills us to expand into other realms which would be lost to us today, if we were to concentrate on the 24/7 trip.

Prince, today, is about education.....Peace

IWouldDie4U666 said:

if it quacks like a duck ..it's still a duck

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

I agree that musicology cannot be linked to these two.

I think musicology was written when he was still with mani or am i wrong, these next two have a totally different feeling. theres little love expressed in either of them except perhaps for the soulmate theme throughout planet earth

Planet earth is not a sequel! its completely different to 3121, it has a return to the old prince genre of a theme, a story told through the songs, with the exception of chelsea rodgers i can see how they are all linked but then like parade you needed to see the film to fully understand the flow of that collection of music and how it fitted together as an album. I think alot of people have been very derisive about planet earth but i actually think its very good and a return to carefully thought out music as a piece of theatre that you cannot do anything else except listen all senses tuned to the music. It has to be played LOUD!

3121 however was more a collection of abstract tunes to me almost like a compilation, similar to musicology. A collection of tracks that were not linked in any way. An album to work to, to do the washing up in fact an album full of pop. Funky airtime grabbing tunes. However still a very enjoyable album with some superb tracks, I love the title track 3121 its so camille sounding, a hint at what he can really really do - funk!