Seriously. So today I was walking around and "I Like Funky Music" came on my iPod. Not one of his best, but even the funk on that is tons stronger than his latest funk/dance efforts. It's like his funk is getting progressively weaker as time goes by. There was a time when you could count on any Prince album to offer plenty of songs worthy of getting a cardiovascular workout to. But damn, those songs are getting fewer and farther between now. And let's face it...is MPLSound really deserving of its name?

The minneapolis sound http://en.wikipedia.org/w...olis_sound is a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B & new wave that was pioneered by Prince in the late 1970s. Its popularity was given a boost throughout the 1980s, thanks to his musical adherents, including The Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Morris Day, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Ta Mara & the Seen, Sheila E., Jesse Johnson, Mazarati, & The Family. Prince's third album Dirty Mind from 1980 also earns credit. Some artists who came from Minnesota were influenced by his work and some came from other parts of the U.S. or world, such as Scottish star Sheena Easton, Flint, Michigan's Ready for the World, Augusta, Georgia's Le Klass and Los Angeles, California's Cherrelle. The music is also known as a form of funk-rock.


I.e.: funk is not necessarily the main thing but I see what you mean.

Efan said:

Not sure about his BOX per se, but no, MPLSound is NOT deserving of the title. He made a bunch of songs, put a Linn drum in them here and there, and called it MPLS sound. I think Prince has forgotten what the MPLS sound really is/was. MPLSound is evidence to that.

ernestsewell said:

Not only did he say it on record ("...the new MPLSound..."), he also stated that people often forget that he has been there, he has done it, it would be boring for him to dig through the past, back in 2004. And I must say, as plausible and "easy" as this sounds, it's just true.

Miss the Minneapolis Sound? Go and listen to Controversy, Dirty Mind, 1999, ... If you don't like the new MPLSound, don't listen to it. Afterall the album title is just an album title and the music is what it is. Why would somebody restrict theirself to certain chord progressions, arrangements, production rules,.. just to live up to the criteria of a music genre? That would be taking away freedom from oneself just as much as forbidding oneself to cuss = stupid.

Dave1992 said:

Just because Prince labels it the "new Minneapolis sound" doesn't mean it is as such. The MPLS sound of the 80's wasn't labeled by Prince; it just WAS. It existed, and people recognized it. When you have to point a finger to it and put a label on it, it's not that special anymore. MPLSound sounds like his past few efforts, but does that make it the Minneapolis sound? Not at all.

ernestsewell said:

I do get what you mean, but I think my point hasn't come across well enough.

With my second paragraph I wanted to show that music just IS and it doesn't need a label to be. And that's kind of what you just said, with the difference that in your opinion it's not the "New Minneapolis Sound". Okay, so what? You can play a chicken grease on A6 for someone and they still must not call it "funk".
What you said doesn't compute, because either you need a label to identify with and to talk about 30 years later, or you take the music as what it is and find something unpronouncable to name it - memories, a feeling, whatever. Now, if Prince says "this is the New MPLSound", does it mean we all have to agree on it and the name has to reflect what we feel when we listen to it? Not at all. But: Does that have to affect how we feel about the music? Even less.

I don't think Prince wanted to copy his early 80s output. In my last post I gave his reason why.

His album has a title consisting of the letters M, P, L, S, o, u, n and d and I think 90% of the music that's in it is very good. Don't pay so much attention to trying to find his old music in his new music, because that's a game you won't win. But that doesn't have to be necessarily bad.

Dave1992 said:

another case of some wanting what was always done b4 and won't ever accept anything new

Efan said:

I get what you're saying...BUT this is where Prince is now musically. Either you're along for the ride or you're not. I can't think of any musician who has been around over 20 years who still makes the same kind of music...certianly not one that has as many albums as he has. I also can't think of any musician who has sustained "brilliance" for over 20...heck over 10 years. Sure they can have an album or 2 or a few songs that are still brilliant, but the creative peak and run is much less than it was.

Price still gets Brilliant...Rainbow Children is one example...before that I'd say The Gold Experience & Come...Before that Lovesexy (though some might say the Symbol album). IMO, I consider Lovesexy as the end of his creative streak, where all of the songs and records were SOLID.

Dave1992 said:

My point was more about the absolute weakness of the songs. I disagree with you about the label of MPLSound, but that's beside the point. Throw the last sentence of my first post out, and throw the MPLSound label out, and my point is the new funk/dance music is getting progressively weaker.

I'll give you another example: "Dig U Better Dead" is a hundred times harder than anything on MPLSound. And whereas Prince albums used to have several hard-hitting dance/funk songs, now there are very few of them on any given album. And since they're getting weaker along the way, I'm disappointed.

Efan said:

I don't agree with you on that. He has to adapt with the times and like what was said before, this is the Minneapolis Sound where Prince is concerned NOW, not in 1982. Doesn't matter if you agree with him or not. If you or anyone else here doesn't believe that it is, then listen to 1999, What Time Is It? or anything Prince did or was associated with in the early 1980's and get your fix there.

The funk stuff of today is still hitting me. Songs like Black Sweat, Love, The Word, Feel Better..., Dance 4 Me, Chocolate Box, Old School Company and No More Candy 4 U are funky to me and I can dance to it and that's all I ask for. Again if that's not hitting you where you live, you got your CD's to hold you through or you can be done with him. I'm not trying to be a dick here, I'm just being honest with you.

Well I tend to see life and Prince a glass half FULL,
for example he is half way in my life and the other half is yet to come,
anyway I am saying that to dwell on what u say is a negative output, or not meeting your standards for enjoyment in your world, sounds like the issue is yours and not Prince's. He makes music, you don't have to like it,

Anyway
I recently gave out 30,000 pounds of chocolate at an event, and it was alotta fun, I noticed that when we had tons of chocolate and we were handing it out, that it brought alotta joy to everyone, then when we were running out of chocolate, people became sad, and some workers didn't even get to take any home with them

I know this is Long, but what I am saying is Prince Music is like the neverending chocolate fountain in Willy Wonkas Castle, and we should appreciate what we have cause like my earlier experience, once we start to run out of chocolate; that is when we will really be missing it the most

purplecam said:

Hi, Cam.

I really don't want to reduce it to just a "Prince was better in the '80s" thing. That's not what I'm saying. For example, I don't relate to a lot of the lyrics in Lotusflow3r, but musically, I think he's as good as or better than ever on many spots in that album. I have no problem with how his R&B-style songs have evolved over the years and in fact absolutely love many of them. I really am just talking about the funk/dance songs (and I suppose I should say that what I label as that category might not fit the definition for others). That said...I agree with you about Black Sweat and I like Love a lot, but I wish for more...

Efan said:

Define "weaker". Is it the chord progression, the lyrics, the power of the bass, the sounds he uses, the arrangement? You are partly right about the creative choice of chords, for example. Housequake was funky as hell and used chords which were "out of the norm" for the progression and it made it special. His latest output is more commercial and conventional in chord progression, but sometimes the easy way can express things the harder way won't. That's why I love Dirty Mind for its simplicity (heck, the songwriting was so fucking blunt and easy on this one that it was brilliant again!), Parade for it being quite sophisticated musically and MPLSound for the playing with sounds and arrangements for songs with simple chord progressions. You can hear that he had fun playing around with all those sounds in the studio.

"Ol' Skool Company" is kind of cold, but that makes it so on point for me. No need for loads of live instruments. I don't even know how to put it into words yet, maybe in five years, but I just like the feeling this last record gives me and that's it. That's why it's funky for me. We could search for formulas to define good, sophisticted funk music and probably find out that what he did on MPLSound was "easier" than what he did 15 years ago, but is that really necessariy? Is that always the point musicians want to make? I doubt it. If Prince had wanted to put out a crazy album with challenging songs he would have done it.




P.S. Besides, I know it's on Lotusflow3r, but what do you think about Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful? If that one had been released in 1993 people would still drool over it. I'm quite sure about that.

Efan said:

I hear you but the thing with Prince is that we can't count him out. It may take a while, but Prince will come through for you at some point. I hope it's sooner rather than later. I was feeling like you in 2005 with Prince and dance music, then I heard Black Sweat. My devotion to Prince got deeper with that one song cause I knew he had it in him and he did. I would love to get an album like that and we might, but we have to be patient. I don't think you want to hear that but it's true.

I hope you are doing well out here in all of this rain Efan.

He's funky, based on todays idea of what is funky. He is going with trends, not going with his gut.

How ironic is this thread considering Chocolate Box is a track originally recorded for the Vanity project back in the early 80s

Everlasting Now, 1+1+1=3 - are recent funk gems - who on earth would want those horn lines replaced with outdated Oberheims or cheesey synth sounds.

Prince's progression as a musician and composer has resulted in different sounds and arrangements - chocolate Box is not a good example of that sadly

L4OATheOriginal said:

Don't misquote me. I never said that, or even hinted at it.

purplecam said:

That's the problem. Prince's music started the early stages of suffering when he adapted to the scene, instead of setting the standard. He invented the Minneapolis sound, as well as Jimmy & Terry with their producing efforts (it's hard to really pin point who started it, but I'd rather think they skipped along hand in hand, both creating it as time went on.) I don't want Prince to put out 1999 part 2. But when he touts a record as a big nod to his former sound, the record had better damn well live up to that. MPLSound didn't. Prince is the one who set the bar on any particular thing he's done. It's what we expect of him, and when he doesn't quite deliver, therein lies the debates for the future, which is great. No one here is out to convince someone else the superiority or substandard nature of any particular album, song, or whatever by the man. Prince started following the rap trend heavily, etc and that's when his creativity took a huge downturn for a while. He's had other downturns in his music based on those around him.




Some of those songs are good. I liked the 3121 album and most of the songs I can dig still. Same with Planet Earth for the most part. I just expect a higher quality of record from Prince. To me, he just hasn't quite delivered that in quite a while. I think Emancipation was his last really good record (and even that could have been whittled down a notch if needed). Rave was pretty damn decent, but had some flaws. Of course all records have a flaw here and there (read: Jughead).

2freaky4church1 said:

BINGO!

awwfrack said:

What? Is that true?



Those aren't recent, though. And the guitar work on those harks back to earlier work.

he created the Mplsound and therefore knows what it is. we didn't.

Hes updated HIS sound therefore, yes, it deserves the title and my god its good and up to date.
[Edited 6/18/09 14:30pm]

Efan said:

nope.

WetDream said:

just cause you came up with something doesn't mean you can still do it.

Zannaloaf said:

he hasn't repeated that old sound. Hes came up with a new one..."the new Mplsound"

awwfrack said:

WetDream said:

How did u come 2 that conclusion?

daPrettyman said:

"the new Mplsound"

and the fact it sounds fresh and uptodate?

good job too, would of hated a 1999 or controversy rehash ( an album of no more candy 4 u's) and would of been embarrassed by it. The new Mplsound is comfortably blazing from the subs in my car 8-)

and btw, if we talking about his new funk in general, F.U.N.K blows alot of his older stuff out the water. The only gripe i have with it is that it sounds a lot like some older stuff.
[Edited 6/18/09 16:24pm]

WetDream said:

To me, MPLSOUND does not necessarily sound up to date; it's just new music that he created using the lin drum machine. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the stuff on MPLSOUND as well as many of his recent songs. I think Prince wanted to capture the MPSLOUND that he helped to create. He touched on many of his techniques he used on many of his hits and album cuts during the 1999, Controversy and Dirty Mind eras.

There is NOTHING new about the MPLSOUND. It faded away a long time ago. Hell, Prince was one that helped to kill it. He kind of got rid of it after 87 or so. He was so hell-bent on trying to create new sounds and started following the trends that were current at the time.

Now, to say that a song like "F.U.N.K" blows a lot of his old stuff out of the water is an insult. I would love to know what songs you think it "blows" out the water. I can't think of one. Especially if we're talking prior to the name change.

purplecam said:

i agree with u. 4 me i never look at any of his albums with the perception of it better sound like this or that. the only thing i did with lotus and mpls was hoping that it was better than planet earth and 4 me it surpasses that with flying colors. his sound has evolved with the times, shame his fanbase is always trying 2 keep his sound grounded in a time capsule.

ernestsewell said:

did i flat out say ernestsewell said so and so? nope ..but if ur repsonding 2 me about it, then perhaps it's hitting more closer 2 home than u might think