I have read a lot on various sites about Prince's music being groundbreaking and that he is (or was) a genius:

[img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/39.gif[/img:$uid] In truth, would you say that because we had perhaps 'young ears' and we had never heard anything like Prince before or was Prince's music (or lyrics) truly groundbreaking

Thinking on it, I know Prince is the 'main' reason why an album would have a 'parental sticker' on it, so that is a first of sorts for the MPLS Genius, one would think ...

Let's discuss this, shall we ...

Care to back up your own claim? Otherwise, this is just bait.

Genesia said:

Care to back up your own claim? Otherwise, this is just bait.

No baiting at all Genesia ...

I'm just asking the orgers if in fact they feel Prince's music/lyrics are/were groundbreaking

[Edited 10/12/10 8:31am]

PurpleLove7 said:

Genesia said:

Care to back up your own claim? Otherwise, this is just bait.

No baiting at all Genesia ...

I'm just asking the orgers if in fact they feel Prince's music/lyrics are/were groundbreaking

And what I'm saying is...you oughta get the ball rolling by telling us whether you think they were/weren't.

Genesia said:

PurpleLove7 said:

No baiting at all Genesia ...

I'm just asking the orgers if in fact they feel Prince's music/lyrics are/were groundbreaking

And what I'm saying is...you oughta get the ball rolling by telling us whether you think they were/weren't.

From one point of view I think his music was more 'fresh ears' then ground-breaking and then again, I had never heard anyone say "I sincerely wanna f@ck the taste outta yo mouth' back then. So on 'that note' it was ground-breaking.

I'm old school to the point where I 'thought' my parents music was my music until Hip Hop came along in the early 80's and then I became a fan of P's in 1996. Controversy was my 1st album I heard all the way thru but, I was too young to get where he was coming from. I knew 'Controversy' was a funky a$$ hypnotic type song ... [img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/4.gif[/img:$uid]

How about we break up this **** *** thread.

Graycap23 said:

How about we break up this **** *** thread.

[img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/39.gif[/img:$uid] ... so you have nothing to add to my question/statement, Graycap23?

Graycap23 said:

How about we break up this **** *** thread.

Why is it when someone posts a thread that's not to a certain person's taste its all "lets get rid of this sh*t thread...how dare someone suggest that Prince isn't a musical god"...

Valid question in the original post I think, and if its not a topic for a Prince fansite where else is it going to be asked?

So the question is did Prince break new ground? I wasn't around in the pre-Prince days so its a bit hard to say...but knowing what I know about music history I can't name anyone that combined the talents of Prince (song writer, competent on a number of instruments, great dancer, unique singer, etc) with the style he chose (provocative, sexy, moralistic) and the different types of music (funk, rock, pop, soul,etc). I think there were people that influenced him, and people that did parts of what Prince better than him (Hendrix was a better guitar player, Jacko a better dancer possibly, Dylan a better songwriter maybe).

But in terms of the overall package and bringing that unique package to the masses....its hard to name someone that did it like Prince, before Prince.

Sure, he was groundbreaking. He took performing to a place in the mainstream where it hadn't been before.

Musically? I'm not sure anyone is groundbreaking. That's not a knock on Prince or others, it's just recognizing that they got born well after others who had already laid the groundwork for pop, rock and funk music.

I have no doubt that if Prince had been born three days before Little Richard or Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis, that today the world would consider him the Father of Rock. But he wasn't, so it's a moot question to me.

Well I answer the OP's original question, since it has been asked of me more than once...My short answer is...when you make an ablum like "Purple Rain"..how can you NOT be a genius?

YES!!! Prince was groundbreaking, not only because it was new and fresh, but his lyrics were amazing and unique. And let's not forget, Prince was a 1 man show for his first 5 ablums and well, they were superb!! I"m not sure Prince has a string of 5 better ablums than those first 5, so yes, the man is a genius. The way he ties together so many different genres and succeeds at all of them...that alone makes him a genius. Because who else do we know that does so many different genres and makes amazing songs in each genre?

Prince revolutionized so much in music, live shows, and fashion, so yes, again, that makes him a genius because he did it and it was all him. NO one else was making him do it, it was all his brainwork. It's like everything Prince does, he turns to gold. The man is music, he is the artist. Yes, there are other artists with great songs, but non with truly remarkable music and talent that has spanned 30 years and still he can amaze you! And the great part about it all is that it comes from him..he does it all on his own. That is something most artist can't say...so he has all this creative genius inside of him and it is mindboggling!

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

My short answer is...when you make an ablum like "Purple Rain"..how can you NOT be a genius?

Ummmm...Purple Rain isn't even Prince's best album.

RodeoSchro said:

Sure, he was groundbreaking. He took performing to a place in the mainstream where it hadn't been before.

Musically? I'm not sure anyone is groundbreaking. That's not a knock on Prince or others, it's just recognizing that they got born well after others who had already laid the groundwork for pop, rock and funk music.

I have no doubt that if Prince had been born three days before Little Richard or Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis, that today the world would consider him the Father of Rock.

... my setiments exactly, RodeoSchro [img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/113.gif[/img:$uid]

My thinking on the subject was that since Prince's music/lyrics is of 'my era' or my time that I can related to what he's singing about. I give all the forefather's (and mothers) their 'just do' because without them we would not have the REAL music we know and love (or like).

... not including Hip Hop [img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/67.gif[/img:$uid]

PurpleLove7 said:

Did you post this at moquake as well?

skywalker said:

Did you post this at moquake as well?

I did 'ask' this on MoQuake, yes ...

yes

Prince was certainly groundbreaking. He's the reason there's something called the Minneapolis sound.

Is he groundbreaking today? Not really, no one person is going to be consistently groundbreaking for 30+ years.

alandail said:

Prince was certainly groundbreaking. He's the reason there's something called the Minneapolis sound.

Is he groundbreaking today? Not really, no one person is going to be consistently groundbreaking for 30+ years.

Who, in this current day and age, still produces the "Minneapolis sound", except for Prince?

groundbreaking definetly. his not at his best at the mo. but still relevent. listning alot 2 his live stuff at mo. really having fun . lots of music on the web. stuff ive never herd bn a fan since the 80's

still findin new stuff of his 2 listen 2.

PurpleLove7 said:

... we had never heard anything like Prince before ...

Surely that makes him groundbreaking. If you haven't seen or heard anything like something before, that breaks new ground.

Prince WAS (probably is, still) groundbreaking. Listen to the amount of rhythmic patterns in his drums from For You to now... Who else does THAT?! Nobody has such a range of styles, AND can nail each one with such precision... Nobody else has that, so (maybe) he doesn't so much break ground, he just owns it!

Didn't he blur the dividing line between disco and rock more than any other artist of the time?

Prince combined funk and rock......but Sly Stone did that well before Prince. P Funk too. (Though neither of these artists took it to the extremes Prince did imo.)

Prince combined funk and New Wave - you could possibly argue that Rick James did that just before Prince but I can't think of anyone else.

Prince's use of the drum machine/double synthesized keyboard sound was done by Gary Numan before Prince ever did it (in fact, I've always thought Gary Numan was an unspoken influence of Prince; listen to Numan's "Cars" and "Are We Electric?" and then listen to the 1999 album - the influence is there.) And David Bowie's Low album was Gary Numan's admitted influence.

Prince electronically altered his voice on many tunes but several artists including George Clinton did that before Prince ever did.

Prince was essentially a one-man-band in the studio from For You through 1999 (if not beyond that) but Stevie Wonder did that before Prince.

Prince's lyrically combining sex and God/religion was done by Marvin Gaye before Prince ever did it.

The thing is though that Prince singlehandedly wrote more great songs in a 9 year period ('79-'87) than any single other person in pop music history. I really believe that. Who else wrote more great songs in such a time frame? The only artist who is close is Bob Dylan. The Beatles did it BUT there were 3 songwriters in that group. There are only a handful of others even in the discussion: Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Michael Jackson. I think Prince wins out b/c of the songs not only on his albums during that time but also the entire albums he wrote and recorded which he gave to other artists such as The Time, The Family, Sheila E, etc. PLUS my goodness there are so many amazing Prince songs that he never bothered to release for one reason or another.

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[Edited 10/12/10 16:48pm]

[Edited 10/12/10 17:31pm]

nah he's just a pop singer, like justin beiber.

I never find it "fair" to try to judge the innovation of an artist years after their initial impact. Take any of the great from previous generations and it is really hard to measure their impact if you listen to them out of context. My early experience with Prince was that he was an awesome performer and pop/soul artist and just bold as hell, but as he built up from Dirty Mind through 1999 an element deeper than just "pop" was starting to come to life in his music. By the time When Doves Cry hit, his music was distinctly different that the other pop and soul of the time. Now there is little pop or soul where you can't here his influence, so it doesn't seem so innovative. But listen to him compared to his peers of the time and you can still hear and feel the difference.

The fact that so much music is reminiscent of his best work from 26 years ago says it all.

This man is actually the reason for the parental stickers you see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XPvxXSjn0

Tremolina said:

alandail said:

Prince was certainly groundbreaking. He's the reason there's something called the Minneapolis sound.

Is he groundbreaking today? Not really, no one person is going to be consistently groundbreaking for 30+ years.

Who, in this current day and age, still produces the "Minneapolis sound", except for Prince?

Only one artist: The Dream.

LinnLM1 said:

Prince combined funk and rock......but Sly Stone did that well before Prince. P Funk too. (Though neither of these artists took it to the extremes Prince did imo.)

Prince combined funk and New Wave - you could possibly argue that Rick James did that just before Prince but I can't think of anyone else.

Prince's use of the drum machine/double synthesized keyboard sound was done by Gary Numan before Prince ever did it (in fact, I've always thought Gary Numan was an unspoken influence of Prince; listen to Numan's "Cars" and "Are We Electric?" and then listen to the 1999 album - the influence is there.) And David Bowie's Low album was Gary Numan's admitted influence.

Prince electronically altered his voice on many tunes but several artists including George Clinton did that before Prince ever did.

Prince was essentially a one-man-band in the studio from For You through 1999 (if not beyond that) but Stevie Wonder did that before Prince.

Prince's lyrically combining sex and God/religion was done by Marvin Gaye before Prince ever did it.

[Edited 10/12/10 16:46pm]

[Edited 10/12/10 16:48pm]

[Edited 10/12/10 17:31pm]

Six very different artists and achievements are mentioned above...Can you name any one person other than Prince that did all of those things at once in such a short time period? Not to mention his own completely unique contributions to the soundscape. Genius.

LayzieKiddZ said:

This man is actually the reason for the parental stickers you see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XPvxXSjn0

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...rce_Center

Genesia said:

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

My short answer is...when you make an ablum like "Purple Rain"..how can you NOT be a genius?

Ummmm...Purple Rain isn't even Prince's best album.

LOL, that's your opinion.

My opinion is that it is his best. It's certainly my favorite. But since this is a subjective subject, someone could say "Jughead" is the greatest song ever recorded and they'd be 100% right - at least, for themself.

LinnLM1 said:

Prince combined funk and rock......but Sly Stone did that well before Prince. P Funk too. (Though neither of these artists took it to the extremes Prince did imo.)

[Edited 10/12/10 16:46pm]

[Edited 10/12/10 16:48pm]

[Edited 10/12/10 17:31pm]

Could you explain that a little more? I'm curious as to what extremes you think Prince furthered himself combining the two genres.