Do you think if 1999 were released as a new album by Prince this year, it would sound dated and he would be ridiculed? Before you mention the song 1999 and say 'obviously yes', let's imagine the title of the album and song was 2099.

With all respect, I think this is an utterly ridiculous and pointless question.

'1999' was released in 1982. THAT's what makes it a landmark album.

I wouldn't like Prince to release anything that was groundbreaking nearly 30 years ago.

That's my main beef towards 20Turds.

I think it would have to be titled "3000." Unless there is some type of armageddon is expected in 2100. I always like how this question comes up. We have our own ideas as to what sounds dated. I first heard Dirty Mind in 1984, and thought it was dated compared to Purple Rain. I thought the keyboard part to When You Were Mine sounded like leftovers from the Munsters theme song. (A friend pointed out that Gotta Stop Messin' About really sounds dated now.)

I just don't see massive style changes since about 1998, other than a few moderate ones in Rap, which I can hardly listen to anymore. The 80's take a big hit on dated synth sounds, but I find most of them to be pretty good. I find it easy to figure out a release date on most songs pre 1998, as I can just get a feel for when they came out. Not so much anymore.

this thread

tweaks my melon.

1999 holds up better than most early 80s records. But its innovations can’t compare to the way one can still listen to Dirty Mind and feel synths seem to be ripple out across time, constantly shaping the way everyone has used them since. And it definitely doesn’t have the overall polish of Purple Rain.

The first four tracks have aged best, and to a lesser extent D.M.S.R. have held. But from Automatic to Lady Cab Driver I often feel like the corvette just ran into a muddy puddle of filler that’s made all the more obvious by the filler tracks packed onto so many of Prince’s later albums and b-sides. From Lady Cab Driver to the end the tracks are better, but they’re all twice as long as they should be. Reading between the lines one finds a statement from Prince—that he wants to release at least one album a year and if that means having to pack it with filler instead of just releasing an EP, then dammit, buy it anyway!

As for those filler tracks: Automatic just sounds too much like Prince goofing off with cool new synths, the lyrics of Something in the… are just drenched in cheesy 80s computer culture. Free can now be regarded for the horrible Reagan-era, midwestern, jingoistic turd in the punch bowl it always was. It’s God Bless the USA by someone who doesn’t really believe what he’s singing. If Prince leaves free off the remasters I doubt any critics will notice, and if they do they’ll praise the decision. Lady Cab Driver, All the Critics… and International Lover are good, but should be half as long.

[Edited 2/19/11 0:03am]

I think that 1999 is the most dated Prince album, but there's nothing wrong with that.

It sounds dated, but in a good way.

It took decades for it to sound dated. On the other hand, much of his late 90s material sounded dated right out of the box--and I'm not talking 'retro'...just dated.

SagsWay2low said:

It sounds dated, but in a good way.

It took decades for it to sound dated. On the other hand, much of his late 90s material sounded dated right out of the box--and I'm not talking 'retro'...just dated.

[Edited 2/19/11 2:10am]

Musically it has aged well imo, rather better than much of the pugwash on Diamonds & pearls and Sillysymbol for example.

I agree with 802 and TheDigitalGardener.

Don't know about SagsWay2low's comment about it "taking decades to sound dated" though. I remember when I first heard it in 1993-4 it sounded so dated to my teenager's ears that It was hard to even listen to it at first. That's not to say I didn't learn to love the album, but only "Little Red Corvette", "Free" and maybe "International Lover" sounded closer to what contemporary music sounded like back then. That type of synths and drum machine beats were almost completely absent from popular music by that point. Of course, it's exactly those two factors that make it sound so great today.

I'd argue that it has aged the best, as most of its style is being re-used in current pop music. Timbaland, Kanye, Dr. Luke, Will.i.am, whatever- they're all trying to recreate the Minneapolis sound.

That said, "Free" gets the most skips for me.

All of his 80's work sounds as pure and badass today as they day they were released.

Works age when they follow a trend. They are easily identifiable for the time because of tell tale signs, like haircuts and bell bottoms. Any "me too" trend that outlasts it's welcome.

The synths and beat syncopations were the birthplace for modern music today. They seemed out of place then, but are commonplace today.

Prince in the 80's was doing his own thing. Innovators do not "date" the copies do.

Look at Miles Davis, The Beatles, The Stones, Cole Porter,...Freeking Beethoven. Time is not a "dating" factor, it is the content.

On the other hand his 90's stuff was DOA for all the reasons above.

[Edited 2/19/11 7:04am]

I'm amazed that you're all 'complaining' that it sounds dated.

The album is 29 years old. You can't listen to it and just say it's dated. You have to listen to it with your 'musical clock' set in 1982.

The album was groundbreaking and still is if you listen to it that way.

On the contrary, 20Turds sounds dated, unnecessarily shameful and out of place even before you take the disc out of its lousy carton bag.

Let me put it this way:

If Lady Gaga (or some other "new" "current" artist) put out an album that shared 1999's sonic dna, would it sound dated?

^Of course, not.

People would call that 'futuristic retro' or 'avant-garde vintage' and then it would be a cool move.

But when it comes to bash Prince's classic works (who made him who he is was) everybody jumps in.

And then you have to read that they love 20Turds because of its (stale) 'controversy-feel'...

Like Purple Rain the music is electric and still futurist,

1999 has aged better than most fans.

vitriol said:

^Of course, not.

People would call that 'futuristic retro' or 'avant-garde vintage' and then it would be a cool move.

But when it comes to bash Prince's classic works (who made him who he is was) everybody jumps in.

And then you have to read that they love 20Turds because of its (stale) 'controversy-feel'...

LOL irl @ "futuristic retro"

xlr8r said:

1999 has aged better than most fans.

and so has Prince.

one of my first loves.

what an album.

if released 2day it would wake up the world like it did in the 80's.

masterpiece

millwall said:

You'd think that new-wave synth-y stuff would easily sound dated, and usually it does, but somehow the 1999 album doesn't sound all that dated to me.

...Especially with all the imitation "80s Prince" songs coming out in recent years .

aged well?

- hell yes, 1999 is timeless IMO.

Classic Prince.

Yes, but it's always good to hear something *new*

A timeless production is a timeless production.

What was fresh in 1982 is still fresh by 1982 standards. We're talking about pop history. Comparing a production of the early-80s with a production of the late-00s is pointless...

By that logic, Mozart's music would be dated as hell

xlr8r said:

1999 has aged better than most fans.

you can say that again

SagsWay2low said:

It sounds dated, but in a good way.

It took decades for it to sound dated. On the other hand, much of his late 90s material sounded dated right out of the box--and I'm not talking 'retro'...just dated.

This. Exactly this.

I do think the entire album would sound a whole lot better with a remaster that has low end and a better tape-to-CD transfer. At least on CD the entire album sounds like it’s coming through an FM radio.

I don't know. The title does not lend a hand to timeless.

Part of the song are, yes.... I think this song should be split up into sample pieces because elements of it are timeless....but the entire song from beginning to end? I would never listen to it.

But I enjoy it at a concert, just for listening to those certain outstanding parts. It's too slow. Modern life is so fast, the rat race, communication, the demands etc ....1999 feels like a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit the current picture for me.

yes it has aged beautifully , its still a masterpiece