...after 1984?

why?

Why standardise your art?

Why?

Because everybody else started imitating it.

I mean.... shit.... the Minneapolis Sound dominated black music for the better part of 5 years AFTER Prince made "1999"....

Ready For The World, New Edition, SOS Band, Klymaxx, Janet Jackson, Alexander O Neal, Charlie Singleton (Cameo) and so many more cats..... pretty much everything Jam & Lewis produced in this time period was Minneapolis Sound..... plus you had all the other cats that left Prince's camp and were still making Minneapolis jams, like Jesse Johnson and all the people he was producing for, Vanity, Morris.......

Prince does a style and then moves on..... he doesn't care whether he invented it or not.... once other people catch on to it, he's gonna start making something else.... That's just how Prince does.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I want him to come back with a slamming drum machine and analog synth throwback Minneapolis record maybe more than anyone..... and at this point he could do it. But back at that time, he wanted to progress from that.

Thats a good answer. I just remember in the 80's all the way up to the 90's that Prince's sound was everywhere. You couldn't avoid it. And he wanted a way to differentiate. He matured and evolved. But he brings it out here and there when he wants to flaunt that he can do this and that.

Am I the only fan who wishes that Prince had stuck with the Minneapolis sound a little longer? Maybe just a few more albums? I think he moved away from that sound too quickly,allowing others to copy it and score big hits (Ready For The World being the prime example).1999 is my favorite Prince album and I wanted MORE of that sound,dammit! Don't get me wrong,I understand his reasons for moving on (as militant pointed out),but that sound was just too good to abandon so soon.

Militant said:

Why?

Because everybody else started imitating it.

Yeah Joe I think u knew that already anyway so I assume it was a rhetorical question. In the 80's was constantly challenging himself and his audience, there was no way he'd keep doing the same thing forever particularly since EVERYONE else was now doing it. I'm glad he did, I mean would u rather have had 1999 pt. II and PR pt. II instead of the likes of ATWAIAD, Parade, SOTT, TBA, Lovesexy, 8, 16, etc.? I sure wouldn't.

Also, when he came back to the Mplsound to some extent in 2000 and 2001, then more obviously in 2009 and 2010, he got a shitload of negative feed-back in return so I don't really know what people expect in the end...

If he'd stuck to the mplsound after 1984 he probably wouldn't be so much more remembered than as being another Jesse Johnson or Morris Day. Moving on and expanding his sound palette is what made the difference and made him a legendary contemporary artist.

Militant said:

Why?

Because everybody else started imitating it.

I mean.... shit.... the Minneapolis Sound dominated black music for the better part of 5 years AFTER Prince made "1999"....

Ready For The World, New Edition, SOS Band, Klymaxx, Janet Jackson, Alexander O Neal, Charlie Singleton (Cameo) and so many more cats..... pretty much everything Jam & Lewis produced in this time period was Minneapolis Sound..... plus you had all the other cats that left Prince's camp and were still making Minneapolis jams, like Jesse Johnson and all the people he was producing for, Vanity, Morris.......

Prince does a style and then moves on..... he doesn't care whether he invented it or not.... once other people catch on to it, he's gonna start making something else.... That's just how Prince does.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I want him to come back with a slamming drum machine and analog synth throwback Minneapolis record maybe more than anyone..... and at this point he could do it. But back at that time, he wanted to progress from that.

True, even some other pop/rock groups were adding the Minneapolis sound to their music.

.

Even though the 1984 Purple Rain music was much more different and more unique.

.

I will say though "that's just how Prince 'did'" after 1989 Prince sound was no longer a game changer.

Even though I understand that core foundational 'Minneapolis Sound'
I think it did evolve and was still incorporated into the sound heard in the 1985-1988 years

.

I think one of the things that made his sound so unique and still what we call 'Purple Music' then was that his 'competition' or should I say his evolving of sound and foundational music came because he had a camp of people from his band to the proteges that he could continue to look at/listen to in order to continue developing 'his sound'

.

Yes he had inspiration from people from James Brown, Joni Mitchell, J Hendrix, Rolling Stones,

But the development and evolution of sound that is so definative and golden during that 1980-1988 period is because he had an isulation of his own reflection (from his band - his proteges)

I'm really glad Prince refused to rest on his laurels and stagnate. That's part of why we all love Prince. However, 'The Dance Electric' sounds like an evolved MPLSound, and it sounds incredible, I'd be happy if Prince had made an album's worth of that and knocked the evolution and ATWIAD back a year.

Prince has obvious music attention deficit disorder. He should have worked in some of the classic MPLS sound back into his work after SOTT or perhaps even stuck with the SOTT "sound" and aesthetic a bit longer. A combo of both would have been amazing. This is what I though Grafitti Bridge should have been. Instead we got Levi's plastic production and the movie's incomprhensible mash-up of bad pop music.

When you really look at it Prince had a fundamental crisis of identity and it affected his music in that crucial Black Album/Lovesexy period. The success of hip hop shocked him to his core and he never really recovered. You can see the entire 90s period as the work of someone trying very hard to reconcile his internal musical instincts built over a lifetime through the 60 and 70s with what passed for urban/contemporary "pop" music after RUN DMC's Raising Hell. You still see it now but the approach seems a little less desperate (or perhaps I just got used to it).

thisisreece said:

I'm really glad Prince refused to rest on his laurels and stagnate. That's part of why we all love Prince. However, 'The Dance Electric' sounds like an evolved MPLSound, and it sounds incredible, I'd be happy if Prince had made an album's worth of that and knocked the evolution and ATWIAD back a year.

I agree, if you listen to a lot of the 1984/85 period stuff it's Minneapolis sound but on a different level. Or should I say it's a different direction that includes the Minneapolis sound. A lot of the PR era stuff (which also includes the ATWIAD music) sound very much different from the traditional Minneapolis sound. And let's face it even 1999 music does not sound like 'traditional Minneapolis sound'

.

Dance Electric, Manice Monday, Our Destiny, Roadhouse Garden, 17 Days, Computer Blue, God(both versions) 4 the Tears In Your Eyes, IWD4U, Purple Rain, Erotic City and so much other music from that period stands alone and apart from a generic lable.

We know there's at least 2 discs worth of Minneapolis Sound jams in the vault. Hell, maybe more, you're talking really from 1981-1985 where Prince was recording in that style.

Brothaman needs to release that shit.

Militant said:

We know there's at least 2 discs worth of Minneapolis Sound jams in the vault. Hell, maybe more, you're talking really from 1981-1985 where Prince was recording in that style.

Brothaman needs to release that shit.

MUCH MORE, if u look at the list of unreleased songs (that we know of) that were recorded between 1980 and 1984 that's DOZENS of tracks, so I'd say more like 10 discs

Isn't the first real defining moments of the minneapolis sound in Prince music heard on Head?

Hell, who knows why his crazy ass does the things he does?

SoulAlive said:

Am I the only fan who wishes that Prince had stuck with the Minneapolis sound a little longer? Maybe just a few more albums? I think he moved away from that sound too quickly,allowing others to copy it and score big hits (Ready For The World being the prime example).1999 is my favorite Prince album and I wanted MORE of that sound,dammit! Don't get me wrong,I understand his reasons for moving on (as militant pointed out),but that sound was just too good to abandon so soon.

Hell yeah. He should have stuck with the sound until the end of the 1980s and then released stuff like "Around The World In A Day", "Parade", "Sign O The Times", and "Lovesexy" in the 1990s. Those late 80s albums are much better than any of his 90s albums and we would have also gotten so more cold Minneapolis funk for a few more years too. It would have been a win win situation.

databank said:

I mean would u rather have had 1999 pt. II and PR pt. II instead of the likes of ATWAIAD, Parade, SOTT, TBA, Lovesexy, 8, 16, etc.?

Hell yeah, I'd rather have more "1999" type stuff instead of those late 80s albums. Folks used to laugh at those late 1980s albums, especially "Parade" when they heard those strings giving some of the songs a sort of "classical" feel. I remember a DJ in a club playing "Do U Lie", then telling the crowd... "Can y'all believe this is the same man that made Let's Work and Lady Cab Driver".... and letting the crowd laugh and boo and then putting on another record from another artist and telling them, they had better get down on the dance floor and make some noise or he was going to play another new Prince record again. Prince had become an absolute joke to a lot of people.

Also, when he came back to the Mplsound to some extent in 2000 and 2001, then more obviously in 2009 and 2010, he got a shitload of negative feed-back in return so I don't really know what people expect in the end...

Damn right, because he added elements of shit hop to it trying to get these dead ass youngsters to like his music also. Had he kept his sound in the 80s, there wouldn't have been that problem because shit hop didn't exist yet.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Isn't the first real defining moments of the minneapolis sound in Prince music heard on Head?

.

I'd say with 'Sexy Dancer', or perhaps even earlier with 'Just As Long As We're Together' and 'Soft and Wet'.

Giovanni777 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Isn't the first real defining moments of the minneapolis sound in Prince music heard on Head?

.

I'd say with 'Sexy Dancer', or perhaps even earlier with 'Just As Long As We're Together' and 'Soft and Wet'.

I never heard the 12 Inch version of "Sexy Dancer" until the 2000s but when I heard the breakdown with the synths toward the end of the song, that was straight up stuff like he did for "The Time" two years before they even existed.

thisisreece said:

I'm really glad Prince refused to rest on his laurels and stagnate. That's part of why we all love Prince. However, 'The Dance Electric' sounds like an evolved MPLSound, and it sounds incredible, I'd be happy if Prince had made an album's worth of that and knocked the evolution and ATWIAD back a year.

I totally agree! Imagine a 1985 album called The Dance Electric featuring that song,plus some of the other tracks recorded back then...like "ExtraLovable".I would have enjoyed that album much more than I enjoyed ATWIAD.

He never abandoned it completely did he? I mean, all over the 80s atleast he's got a signature Prince sound to his music, and alot of it comes from his minneapolis sound. It is just taken in new directions and not being the main ingredient anymore.

vainandy said:

databank said:

I mean would u rather have had 1999 pt. II and PR pt. II instead of the likes of ATWAIAD, Parade, SOTT, TBA, Lovesexy, 8, 16, etc.?

Hell yeah, I'd rather have more "1999" type stuff instead of those late 80s albums. Folks used to laugh at those late 1980s albums, especially "Parade" when they heard those strings giving some of the songs a sort of "classical" feel. I remember a DJ in a club playing "Do U Lie", then telling the crowd... "Can y'all believe this is the same man that made Let's Work and Lady Cab Driver".... and letting the crowd laugh and boo and then putting on another record from another artist and telling them, they had better get down on the dance floor and make some noise or he was going to play another new Prince record again. Prince had become an absolute joke to a lot of people.

Also, when he came back to the Mplsound to some extent in 2000 and 2001, then more obviously in 2009 and 2010, he got a shitload of negative feed-back in return so I don't really know what people expect in the end...

Damn right, because he added elements of shit hop to it trying to get these dead ass youngsters to like his music also. Had he kept his sound in the 80s, there wouldn't have been that problem because shit hop didn't exist yet.

I'm always amazed when credit is given to uneducated fools who laugh at sophisticated shit because they ain't got a clue. Do U Lie? By a DJ in a club? Yeah sure, any DJ can play music that ain't made for dancing and have the crowd booh it. Try playing Debussy or Ellington in a club and see how the music will be received So if Claude Debussy and Duke Ellington can't make people dance in a club their musical achievements are to be discarted and their work should sink in the oblivion of mediocre music? Basically this is what you are saying even though I'm sure u didn't mean that, but if u follow the logic of your claim this is exactly where it leads

Parade, SOTT and more or less everything recorded between 85 and 87 is universally recognized as being among Prince's greatest achievements alongside the likes of 1999 and PR. If it was too sophisticated for some idiots who were lost the minute the music was different from their Billboard Top 10, I say screw them, we should not let uneducated people dictate what's good and what's not. In the hip circles and among musicians Prince's music was appreciated for what it was: daring, innovative, unexpected and different from the shit that was on the radio. Parade is a totally brilliant achievement, beyond personal tastes I think this is hardly debatable, it sounded like virtually nothing at the time, the album's structure was highly uncommon and risky for a mainstream pop-star, and at the same time the sensemble was highly cohesive. And Clare Fischer's conributions, I fail to see how they could be considered inadequate, they just totally fitted in.

I can respect that YOU would have liked more mplsound if it was your thing, and I'll assume you are educated and u know a bit about music, but I can't accept the idiotic masses' opinion being used in order to try and make a point. It's those same people who booed Do U Lie? who buy all that shit-hop you denounce and who also claim it's the best music out there! You are basically declaring a war against intelligence with your post above. Intelligence will fight back

databank said:

vainandy said:

Damn right, because he added elements of shit hop to it trying to get these dead ass youngsters to like his music also. Had he kept his sound in the 80s, there wouldn't have been that problem because shit hop didn't exist yet.

I'm always amazed when credit is given to uneducated fools who laugh at sophisticated shit because they ain't got a clue. Do U Lie? By a DJ in a club? Yeah sure, any DJ can play music that ain't made for dancing and have the crowd booh it. Try playing Debussy or Ellington in a club and see how the music will be received So if Claude Debussy and Duke Ellington can't make people dance in a club their musical achievements are to be discarted and their work should sink in the oblivion of mediocre music? Basically this is what you are saying even though I'm sure u didn't mean that, but if u follow the logic of your claim this is exactly where it leads

Parade, SOTT and more or less everything recorded between 85 and 87 is universally recognized as being among Prince's greatest achievements alongside the likes of 1999 and PR. If it was too sophisticated for some idiots who were lost the minute the music was different from their Billboard Top 10, I say screw them, we should not let uneducated people dictate what's good and what's not. In the hip circles and among musicians Prince's music was appreciated for what it was: daring, innovative, unexpected and different from the shit that was on the radio. Parade is a totally brilliant achievement, beyond personal tastes I think this is hardly debatable, it sounded like virtually nothing at the time, the album's structure was highly uncommon and risky for a mainstream pop-star, and at the same time the sensemble was highly cohesive. And Clare Fischer's conributions, I fail to see how they could be considered inadequate, they just totally fitted in.

I can respect that YOU would have liked more mplsound if it was your thing, and I'll assume you are educated and u know a bit about music, but I can't accept the idiotic masses' opinion being used in order to try and make a point. It's those same people who booed Do U Lie? who buy all that shit-hop you denounce and who also claim it's the best music out there! You are basically declaring a war against intelligence with your post above. Intelligence will fight back

I know Andy, he meant that at that time people (many, remember the drop in sales) were disappointed that the BEST DANCE ARTIST of his generation had (as far as album tracks goes) turned into a vanguardist...

I think SOTT is miles ahead above Parade,... Hot Thing, U Got the Look, Housequake, etc, were MUCH needed returns to dance music...

JoeTyler said:

databank said:

I'm always amazed when credit is given to uneducated fools who laugh at sophisticated shit because they ain't got a clue. Do U Lie? By a DJ in a club? Yeah sure, any DJ can play music that ain't made for dancing and have the crowd booh it. Try playing Debussy or Ellington in a club and see how the music will be received So if Claude Debussy and Duke Ellington can't make people dance in a club their musical achievements are to be discarted and their work should sink in the oblivion of mediocre music? Basically this is what you are saying even though I'm sure u didn't mean that, but if u follow the logic of your claim this is exactly where it leads

Parade, SOTT and more or less everything recorded between 85 and 87 is universally recognized as being among Prince's greatest achievements alongside the likes of 1999 and PR. If it was too sophisticated for some idiots who were lost the minute the music was different from their Billboard Top 10, I say screw them, we should not let uneducated people dictate what's good and what's not. In the hip circles and among musicians Prince's music was appreciated for what it was: daring, innovative, unexpected and different from the shit that was on the radio. Parade is a totally brilliant achievement, beyond personal tastes I think this is hardly debatable, it sounded like virtually nothing at the time, the album's structure was highly uncommon and risky for a mainstream pop-star, and at the same time the sensemble was highly cohesive. And Clare Fischer's conributions, I fail to see how they could be considered inadequate, they just totally fitted in.

I can respect that YOU would have liked more mplsound if it was your thing, and I'll assume you are educated and u know a bit about music, but I can't accept the idiotic masses' opinion being used in order to try and make a point. It's those same people who booed Do U Lie? who buy all that shit-hop you denounce and who also claim it's the best music out there! You are basically declaring a war against intelligence with your post above. Intelligence will fight back

I know Andy, he meant that at that time people (many, remember the drop in sales) were disappointed that the BEST DANCE ARTIST of his generation had (as far as album tracks goes) turned into a vanguardist...

I think SOTT is miles ahead above Parade,... Hot Thing, U Got the Look, Housequake, etc, were MUCH needed returns to dance music...

I see where y'all coming from, but well if u ask me drop in sales equals better quality in the work, for good shit usually don't sell while ready-made crap does. The masses are idiotic, they don't know shit about artistic achievements because they've been brainwashed by the media (look who gets the music awards for chrissakes!) and to them music is just a hobby, entertainment, a minor distraction, most of them aren't really into music in the first plave at all, so their opinion is irrelevent. IDK I have this friend who told me the other day that to him movies are just entertainment, a way to relax, he likes them or not but he couldn't xplain why a movie's good and why another isn't and he doesn't care at all. He knows he hasn't got a clue and he admits it because he knows better than to be a phoney. Now that's honesty! I wish more people were that honest

He's on record stating that when he realized everyone else was using drum machines, he decided it was time to throw his away.

U know it's like IDK shit about economics, I'm interested in it but I don't understand half of how it works so I ain't gonna start lecturing about if our politicians did this or that they'd get us out of the economic crisis in a second. I just know that I don't know and it's OK, but I keep meeting know-it-all people who claim if it was up to them their country would be the richest in the world after a year. This is nonsense and this is what most people do about arts, too

JoeTyler said:

...after 1984?

why?

Say huh? The next five albums had more of the sound, it was just leveled out with live instrumentation and actual horns instead of hoenz. Plus, who's to say that the definition of what that sound was couldn't change? Definitions of things change all the time. Why can't the MPLS sound include what it did in the last tour?

SoulAlive said:

Am I the only fan who wishes that Prince had stuck with the Minneapolis sound a little longer? Maybe just a few more albums? I think he moved away from that sound too quickly,allowing others to copy it and score big hits (Ready For The World being the prime example).1999 is my favorite Prince album and I wanted MORE of that sound,dammit! Don't get me wrong,I understand his reasons for moving on (as militant pointed out),but that sound was just too good to abandon so soon.

Define the MPLS sound for me, please. I bet you I'll name a few extra things you never thought of.