See https://medium.com/the-ph...ad60bf495b for an interesting piece of research about music, styles etc over time.

I wonder: how would P's music come out of this type of research?

Very interesting. I think Prince would be in a number of these categories so it may be hard to calculate where his influence begins and ends.

The results make for fascinating reading. They found that the frequency of style 4 (jazz, blues etc) declined from 1960 onwards. Styles 5 and 13, which relate to rock music, fluctuate throughout this time. And style 2 (rap) is rare before 1980 but expands rapidly after that and becomes the dominant genre for the next 30 years before declining in the late 2000s.

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• Decline in blues music after the 60's
• Rock in the 70/80's
• Rap appears after the 80's.

hmmmm how much did this research cost