Many blame Kirk Johnson.

i say technology. in the 80s you really had to create patterns, by the 90s though every drum machine came with 1000s of patterns you could use and i think it became easy to just use whatever already came in the box rather than take the time to create drumpatterns.

I think he just lost his creative way.

First we shouldn't mix everything. P's signature Linn drum machine sound lasted after Parade, it's all over the place on SOTT and TBA. Then with Lovesexy and Batman P tried some new things and produced very fascinating and experimental beats (Alphabet St., The Future, Lemon Crush, etc.) that sounded like nothing at the time and are very underrated IMHO. Then starting with GB it sounds like he started to catch-up with both new jack swing and hip-hop esthetics, which made sense in a way because Linn drums started to sound really outfashioned at this point and P had to evolve and remain relevent while not being able to reinvent music again and again (u can't be avant-garde for a whole career, it's near impossible, almost no one has). He also went through a renewal of interest in live drums at some point, through Michael B. (as he would again 10 years later through John Blackwell). He also experimented sometimes with house/techno beats in the early 90's but save a few exceptions it was a disaster every time so thanks God he didn't go too far in that direction. While people complain about his Kirk Johnson-style beats just try to imagine a whole decade of songs à la Go Go Dancer and Children Of The Sun and then u'll have an idea of what a disastrous decade the 90's could have been

Then comes Kirk Johnson AND west coast rap with it's strong p-funk vibe. U can feel that P was trying to emulate the smooth, somewhat plastic sound of west coast hip-hop as early as 1994 but indeed he was (according to CB's liner notes) very impressed by Kirk's series of remixes in 94 or 95, and he decided to adopt that particular sound. This by the way didn't culminate with Emancipation but started with it. Once again I can't complain because I was myself very found of the sound of the plastic years. Prince of course was more following the trend of the era than making it but I had no problem with that for the reasons mentioned above. It had little to do with lack of interest, it was indeed change of gear and the desire to remain relevant to the esthetics of the 90's. Another thing is that while P's drum programming became quite simplistic and his style became generally more trendy, at the same time his music gained a lot in complexity. Basically what it lost in wilderness and creativity, it gained in sophistication, and that's something I really appreciated in the 90's because it allowed P to explore new things (just the horns work done with/by Michael B. Nelson and the Hornheads on the oh-so-hated NewPowerPak trilogy is mind blowing and was unthinkable 10 years earlier! Same goes with the album version of Come for example: the beat as as basic as can be but this horns opera was unthinkable a few years earlier).

Then in the 2000's P started to re-use his old Linn, first merged with the plastic sound (The Slaughterhouse and TCI) then in full revival mode (Mplsound and 20ten) and unfortunately we can't say that fans reaction to these projects was very warm, so in the end I tend to wonder what exactly P was supposed to do (create jungle/drum 'n' bass, maybe?). Beats in the 90's were in the expert hands of Detroit and West Coast producers on one side of the atlantic, and UK electronic innovators on the other side. Prince tried to catc-up with the first and totally missed the second (I guess besides Björk he wasn't really aware of the crazy things happening in Europe musically at this time) but hell, 10 years earlier he'd shaped the sound of a DECADE, that's enough for a lifetime isn't it?

[Edited 12/25/13 11:42am]

databank said:

First we shouldn't mix everything. P's signature Linn drum machine sound lasted after Parade, it's all over the place on SOTT and TBA. Then with Lovesexy and Batman P tried some new things and produced very fascinating and experimental beats (Alphabet St., The Future, Lemon Crush, etc.) that sounded like nothing at the time and are very underrated IMHO. Then starting with GB it sounds like he started to catch-up with both new jack swing and hip-hop esthetics, which made sense in a way because Linn drums started to sound really outfashioned at this point and P had to evolve and remain relevent while not being able to reinvent music again and again (u can't be avant-garde for a whole career, it's near impossible, almost no one has). He also went through a renewal of interest in live drums at some point, through Michael B. (as he would again 10 years later through John Blackwell). He also experimented sometimes with house/techno beats in the early 90's but save a few exceptions it was a disaster every time so thanks God he didn't go too far in that direction. While people complain about his Kirk Johnson-style beats just try to imagine a whole decade of songs à la Go Go Dancer and Children Of The Sun and then u'll have an idea of what a disastrous decade the 90's could have been

Then comes Kirk Johnson AND west coast rap with it's strong p-funk vibe. U can feel that P was trying to emulate the smooth, somewhat plastic sound of west coast hip-hop as early as 1994 but indeed he was (according to CB's liner notes) very impressed by Kirk's series of remixes in 94 or 95, and he decided to adopt that particular sound. This by the way didn't culminate with Emancipation but started with it. Once again I can't complain because I was myself very found of the sound of the plastic years. Prince of course was more following the trend of the era than making it but I had no problem with that for the reasons mentioned above. It had little to do with lack of interest, it was indeed change of gear and the desire to remain relevant to the esthetics of the 90's. Another thing is that while P's drum programming became quite simplistic and his style became generally more trendy, at the same time his music gained a lot in complexity. Basically what it lost in wilderness and creativity, it gained in sophistication, and that's something I really appreciated in the 90's because it allowed P to explore new things (just the horns work done with/by Michael B. Nelson and the Hornheads on the oh-so-hated NewPowerPak trilogy is mind blowing and was unthinkable 10 years earlier! Same goes with the album version of Come for example: the beat as as basic as can be but this horns opera was unthinkable a few years earlier).

Then in the 2000's P started to re-use his old Linn, first merged with the plastic sound (The Slaughterhouse and TCI) then in full revival mode (Mplsound and 20ten) and unfortunately we can't say that fans reaction to these projects was very warm, so in the end I tend to wonder what exactly P was supposed to do (create jungle/drum 'n' bass, maybe?). Beats in the 90's were in the expert hands of Detroit and West Coast producers on one side of the atlantic, and UK electronic innovators on the other side. Prince tried to catc-up with the first and totally missed the second (I guess besides Björk he wasn't really aware of the crazy things happening in Europe musically at this time) but hell, 10 years earlier he'd shaped the sound of a DECADE, that's enough for a lifetime isn't it?

[Edited 12/25/13 11:42am]

Wow this is one of the best post ever on Prince.org and you did it in my thread,thank you very much. you are right on point

prince needed to take beat drum making lessons from Dr.DRE! if he can let Larry teach him how to thump properly he should have let dre show him how to lay a sick beat!

Dr. Dre vs. Kirk Johnson? no contest!

databank said:

First we shouldn't mix everything. P's signature Linn drum machine sound lasted after Parade, it's all over the place on SOTT and TBA. Then with Lovesexy and Batman P tried some new things and produced very fascinating and experimental beats (Alphabet St., The Future, Lemon Crush, etc.) that sounded like nothing at the time and are very underrated IMHO. Then starting with GB it sounds like he started to catch-up with both new jack swing and hip-hop esthetics, which made sense in a way because Linn drums started to sound really outfashioned at this point and P had to evolve and remain relevent while not being able to reinvent music again and again (u can't be avant-garde for a whole career, it's near impossible, almost no one has). He also went through a renewal of interest in live drums at some point, through Michael B. (as he would again 10 years later through John Blackwell). He also experimented sometimes with house/techno beats in the early 90's but save a few exceptions it was a disaster every time so thanks God he didn't go too far in that direction. While people complain about his Kirk Johnson-style beats just try to imagine a whole decade of songs à la Go Go Dancer and Children Of The Sun and then u'll have an idea of what a disastrous decade the 90's could have been

Then comes Kirk Johnson AND west coast rap with it's strong p-funk vibe. U can feel that P was trying to emulate the smooth, somewhat plastic sound of west coast hip-hop as early as 1994 but indeed he was (according to CB's liner notes) very impressed by Kirk's series of remixes in 94 or 95, and he decided to adopt that particular sound. This by the way didn't culminate with Emancipation but started with it. Once again I can't complain because I was myself very found of the sound of the plastic years. Prince of course was more following the trend of the era than making it but I had no problem with that for the reasons mentioned above. It had little to do with lack of interest, it was indeed change of gear and the desire to remain relevant to the esthetics of the 90's. Another thing is that while P's drum programming became quite simplistic and his style became generally more trendy, at the same time his music gained a lot in complexity. Basically what it lost in wilderness and creativity, it gained in sophistication, and that's something I really appreciated in the 90's because it allowed P to explore new things (just the horns work done with/by Michael B. Nelson and the Hornheads on the oh-so-hated NewPowerPak trilogy is mind blowing and was unthinkable 10 years earlier! Same goes with the album version of Come for example: the beat as as basic as can be but this horns opera was unthinkable a few years earlier).

Then in the 2000's P started to re-use his old Linn, first merged with the plastic sound (The Slaughterhouse and TCI) then in full revival mode (Mplsound and 20ten) and unfortunately we can't say that fans reaction to these projects was very warm, so in the end I tend to wonder what exactly P was supposed to do (create jungle/drum 'n' bass, maybe?). Beats in the 90's were in the expert hands of Detroit and West Coast producers on one side of the atlantic, and UK electronic innovators on the other side. Prince tried to catc-up with the first and totally missed the second (I guess besides Björk he wasn't really aware of the crazy things happening in Europe musically at this time) but hell, 10 years earlier he'd shaped the sound of a DECADE, that's enough for a lifetime isn't it?

[Edited 12/25/13 11:42am]

Good post.

Thanks Layzie and Banished