I mean, he had a mysterious, dark look about him, even in his flamboyent Purple Rain days.

He looked goth in the Batman and Come eras.

Actually, yes. I would say there's a hint of goth there (not that I know much of this style of music). The Come and Chaos and Disorder albums come to mind for me as well. "Had U" is the main song I think of when I think of him doing goth, but "Loose" and "Solo" flirt a bit with the genre as well. At least I think they do. I might be way off base. "The Future"? Sure. I'd say that counts.

.

What do you think of "My Little Pill"? Would you consider that as falling under the heading of goth? Musically I think it would.

[Edited 3/9/15 22:13pm]

Sure. He was "kinda goth" during certain periods.

The Batman and Come albums have already been mentioned, but the New Wave movement had very close connections to goth music too. So the DM / Controversy / PR eras all had influences from that end too.

The two unreleased tracks, "Others Here With Us" and "Dance With The Devil", could be easily seen as gothic industrial stuff. Tracks like "Something In The Water" or "Darling Nikki" aren't that far removed from such things either.

I don't know about goth, but he's been consistantly EMO throughout.

His only goth type songs are Others Here With Us, Annie Christian and possibly Solo. Solo is like goth, opera.

Yes yes yes, I LOVE his more 'goth' eras. I mean Dance with the devil kind of sounds a bit like the sisters of mercy! Others here with us is also spooky and could of come straight off something like 'Faith' by The Cure.

Looks wise I'd say Batman (he wore a lot of black then and had a clean shaven face) and Graffiti Bridge (He had his biker jacket and even wore fishnet type material under one of his outfits! Those outfits were baggier too), Come era (his typhoon hairdoo was quite gothy I guess, it was big and out there, his style of facial hair then was also pretty wacky and I can imagine people from the subculture maybe taking inspiration from that). Prince's style overall could be seen as 'goth' because it's so out there. I mean, even if the colours from some of the clothes her wears if dyed black I can totally see goths wearing.

(the fishnety thing I was talking about).

On a shallow level I often find his more gothy eras more attractive because I'm a goth myself haha

now if only he would make some music close to that

There is a tinge of sadness to many of his songs, particularly the ballads/heartbreak songs. I wouldn't say he was Goth so much though, it's not a way of life for him.

I don't think you guys know what goth means.

Dogsinthetrees said:

I don't think you guys know what goth means.

We don't? I'd have to disagree with that seen as I've been one since 2010 and the first band I ever hardcore fangirled over was The Cure lmao

NERDALERT

Dogsinthetrees said:

I don't think you guys know what goth means.

I have hundreds of records associated with the genre and I still go out to clubs that play 80s goth music about once a month (I don't give a shit about the 00s stuff though).

I don't know what you yourself have in mind with the word, but the most common misunderstanding is to associate the term mainly with heavy metal music and the type of clothing items the American chain Hot Topic sells. That's as far removed from proper goth stuff as current mainstream hiphop is from 70s funk.

JoshuaWho said:

NERDALERT

lmao if that was directed at me I aint even denying it

I'm a huge fuckin nerd okay, I enjoy Japanese cartoons and dress up as said cartoon characters I aint denying anything

yeah, he did look dark/edgy in Grafitti Bridge, especially with the fishnet tops and his fondness for leather!! OMG

I never thought of Prince being a goth, but he seemed to like to dive into strange, mysterious, sometimes morbid ways, and for some reason it made me think of goth, even though I'm not goth myself.

strangley enough he called that short film GOTH

luvsexy4all said:

strangley enough he called that short film GOTH

which short film??

Angelsoncrack said:

luvsexy4all said:

strangley enough he called that short film GOTH

which short film??

empty room/zannalee/18 and over

luvsexy4all said:

Angelsoncrack said:

which short film??

empty room/zannalee/18 and over

Ooh thats really cool! I didn't know that~

Angelsoncrack said:

luvsexy4all said:

empty room/zannalee/18 and over

Ooh thats really cool! I didn't know that~

forgot ...its actually called "Gothic"

I love The Cure, and I can't stand that Hot Topic-style metal that passes for "goth". I just don't see any in Prince. At all. Just my opinion, which, of course, I think is correct.

Dogsinthetrees said:

I love The Cure, and I can't stand that Hot Topic-style metal that passes for "goth". I just don't see any in Prince. At all. Just my opinion, which, of course, I think is correct.

Hahaha nobody who calls themselves goth that are my age do not buy things from hot topic.

In fact most goths look down on it and prefer to buy their threads from charity shops and modify them old skool. Most people simply don't have the money to buy a closet full of ready made gothic clothes anyway seen as most labels that sell goth clothing are independant and cost a bomb.

The whole Prince with goth clothes things still stands imo. He is wearing clothes/styles closely resembling the style.

Graffiti Bridge is the closest he came to trad goth:

VVVV

Dude is rocking a leather jacket with fishnet type material underneath his turtle neck top thingy!

I mean of course he isnt going to be wearing ankh's and wearing heavy black eyeliner, but honestly if he walked into a goth club in that outfit I highly doubt anybody would bat an eyelid.

Angelsoncrack said:

Yes yes yes, I LOVE his more 'goth' eras. I mean Dance with the devil kind of sounds a bit like the sisters of mercy! Others here with us is also spooky and could of come straight off something like 'Faith' by The Cure.

Looks wise I'd say Batman (he wore a lot of black then and had a clean shaven face) and Graffiti Bridge (He had his biker jacket and even wore fishnet type material under one of his outfits! Those outfits were baggier too), Come era (his typhoon hairdoo was quite gothy I guess, it was big and out there, his style of facial hair then was also pretty wacky and I can imagine people from the subculture maybe taking inspiration from that). Prince's style overall could be seen as 'goth' because it's so out there. I mean, even if the colours from some of the clothes her wears if dyed black I can totally see goths wearing.

(the fishnety thing I was talking about).

On a shallow level I often find his more gothy eras more attractive because I'm a goth myself haha

I instantly thought of this album cover... Vampiric goth...

Yep, what everyone else said. 1989 and 1994 were his main goth years (arguably 1980, but that was more of a sex-crazed hooker/weirdo)

The Batman Era. The long shiny straight black hair, capes, Batman-and-Joker makeup, bat logos, all-black clothes, every photoshoot dark and forboding-looking, etc... I feel like after the mainstream's reaction to his Lovesexy look (when 'fey' was no longer popular), he really toned it down for Batman.. check out the Batdance video.. Prince playing the guitar solo looked like a completely 'normal' rock star jamming on the guitar in a typical dark outfit with typical long hair.. JMHO.

Then of course, the Come Era, which was far more. From the makeup, 'beard' (I really hated that squiggly line though), and that graveyard pic. He went crazy in 1993/94. He soon transcended 'goth' and entered the Gold Era in 95.

I always referred to the Come album as New Jack Goth. Gothic theme/tone, gloomy cover art, rich with atmosphere and a lot of angst. Potentially the album Billy Corgan wished he had made.