thebanishedone said:

Prince is often associated with organic band sound but in the past he was one of the first electro funk musicians.1999 was the first mainstreem album to have almoust all of the song with a drum machine.everybody imitated that sound even prolific bands like cameo,bar kays ,isley brothers,sugarfoot from ohio players...many synth pop performers name him as a big influence ,so how come even people on this city overlook prince electronic artist and innovator in that field of music.

I thought 1999 was influenced by Kraftwerk and Gary Numan?

I always assoc Prince with electro rock funk but was miffed when he went "organic" after Purple Rain.

rdhull said:

thebanishedone said:

rdhull said:

I thought 1999 was influenced by Kraftwerk and Gary Numan?

I always assoc Prince with electro rock funk but was miffed when he went "organic" after Purple Rain.

inflenced by kraftwerk yes but he made new style electro funk and everysong was based on drum machine

Cameo was doing electro funk way before 1999..so was Clinton (the artist not the president) amongst others.

rdhull said:

thebanishedone said:

rdhull said: inflenced by kraftwerk yes but he made new style electro funk and everysong was based on drum machine

Cameo was doing electro funk way before 1999..so was Clinton (the artist not the president) amongst others.

You can go back to Bernie Worrell and Stevie Wonder to hear guys using keyboards to play basslines. Prince was definitely very influential but I am not sure that it is accurate to claim that he was an innovator when it comes to electronic music. It's probably fair to say that he helped popularise the use of synths and drum machines but I think he took his cues from things that others were already doing.

rialb said:

rdhull said:

Cameo was doing electro funk way before 1999..so was Clinton (the artist not the president) amongst others.

You can go back to Bernie Worrell and Stevie Wonder to hear guys using keyboards to play basslines. Prince was definitely very influential but I am not sure that it is accurate to claim that he was an innovator when it comes to electronic music. It's probably fair to say that he helped popularise the use of synths and drum machines but I think he took his cues from things that others were already doing.

Agreed with all you wrote. How could I forget teview. And when I mentoned Clinton, that inlcudes all pfunkster members (Bernie W, not Grundman). However, I was thinking the OP was speaking in the manner of electro future type funk, not sinclavier etc as Stevie popularized etc. But I hear you and agree still.

Rick James won't agree

Yeah, Prince put a stamp on it, put it out there etc, but I'm having a hard time thinking how he's a pioneer here. Where ever you look - New Wave, funk, electro - it was done way before Prince came along, he is a musical magpie.

There were indeed a number of artists who picked up Prince's sound, with the "Dirty Mind" album as one of the first inspirations:

The late producer Allen A. Jones mixed those elements in recordings of The Bar-Kays, Ebonee Webb and Kwick:

Ebonee Webb - "Something About You" (1981) similar to "Head"

Ebonee Webb - "Are You Really Ready" (1983) intro similar to "Sexy Dancer"

Bar-Kays - "Dance Party" (1984) similar to "DMSR"

There are more examples on their "Night Cruising" album from 1981

Kwick - "I've Been Watching You, Watching Me" (1983) somewhat has the vibe of The Time's "Get It Up"

Kwick - "Stuck Up" (1983) has a keyboard-loop similar to breakdown-loop in The Time's "The Walk"

Motown showcased their Minneapolis-inspired catalogue with multi-instrumentalist Bobby Nunn,

who also sang with a falsetto voice on his 2 albums (1982 + 1983).

Zapp's Roger Troutman started mixing elements of the sound around 1985 ("Itchin For Your Twitchin"),

and the Human Body ("Can We Touch")

Some more artists/groups who picked up the sound were Dreamboy (1983) , Jack "JAK" Bailey (1985), Q.T. Hush (1985), Circuitry Featuring Sam Bostic (1985)

Although Cameo had an occasional P-Funk sounding track such "Funk Funk" on their debut-album, they kept on molding their own sound. "Knights Of The Soundtable" was their last recording as a big band with horns. Next was the "Alligator Woman" album which still had a recognisable Cameo-sound but contained more New Wave and Rock elements, though a drum machine was not used. Their bandleader, Larry Blackmon, performed drums on many (if not most) of Cameo's albums. The "Style" album from 1983 was the first recording with an electronic drumset (likely a Simmons kit) instead of a Linn or Roland, and that drumset was also used in 1984 on their "She's Strange" album. By the time that they started recording their "Single Life" album in 1984/1985, i believe they used a drum-machine for the first time with their own industrial-sounding beat on tracks such as "Attack Me With Your Love," "Single Life" and continued with that on their next "Word Up" album and other projects.

[Edited 10/25/11 3:14am]

yup, indeed. Just listen to Anne Christian!

btw, i'm from the D and Derrick May (who is a considered a pioneering techno god; see "Strings of Life") credits the Electrifying Mojo (a visionary local DJ who is a HUGE Prince fan) with playing tons of Prince, Kraftwerk, and PFunk as the impetus for his techno innovations!