Here's my opinion on the Minneapolis Sound in the 80s. It all began (of course) with Prince when he debuted in the late 70s, then he unleashed The Time and Vanity 6, whom I consider the newcleus of the Minneapolis Sound. By the time Purple Rain broke and became an explosive phenomenon, that gave Prince an huge opportunity to expand his sound to an even more broader audience and it wouldn't be just with Morris Day and the Time, Dez Dickerson and (the now/then newly reformed) Apollonia 6 (whom all appeared in Purple Rain), it would also expand to other artists whether they were from or not from Minneapolis. For instance, many of the Minneapolis acts he worked with like

Maserati

Morris Day

Jesse Johnson's Revue

Ta Mara and the Seen

Sheila E.

Andre Cymone

Brown Mark

The Family

Jill Jones

Taja Sevelle

Alexander O'Neal (he's originally from Mississippi)

Just to name a few

But that sound wasn't just limited to just those artists from Minneapolis, other artists got songs that were pinned by Prince (under so many different names) like

Sheena Easton

The Bangles

And producers/part-time Time members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis would go on to help pioneer the New Jack Swing sound, but I only scratched the surface when it comes to the Minneapolis Sound, if anybody else wants to adlib on this, feel free, just as long as its not negative.

Remember Alexander ONeal was produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (the Time) and U can add Janet Jackson -also produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.

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Yes the Minneapolis Sound via Purple Music is definately Prince and all those people you mentioned were/are branches of Prince

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Prince

*Andre Cymone(1978-80) *BrownMark(1981-1986)

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Jody Watley Mazarati

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the Time Vanity 6 Sheila E. the Family Madhouse Jill Jones/Taj Sevelle

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Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis/Morris Day/Jesse Johnson's Review

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Janet Jackson

Alexander O'Neal

.

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I don't think Sheena Easton or the Bangles actually did the Minneapolis Sound -just 1 song (Stevie Nicks also had a touch of the Minneapolis Sound on Stand Back -Prince on keyboards/guitars)

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Not to mention the copycasts like Ready For the World

OldFriends4Sale said:

I don't think Sheena Easton or the Bangles actually did the Minneapolis Sound

Um, Hello?????????

The Bangles - Manic Monday

Sheena Easton - Strut, Sugar Walls, 101

And don't forget "U Got The Look" and there's also Elisa Fiorillo (Oooh...This I Need), just to name a few

[Edited 1/15/16 17:11pm]

JabarR74 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I don't think Sheena Easton or the Bangles actually did the Minneapolis Sound

Um, Hello?????????

The Bangles - Manic Monday

Sheena Easton - Strut, Sugar Walls, 101

And don't forget "U Got The Look" and there's also Elisa Fiorillo (Oooh...This I Need), just to name a few

[Edited 1/15/16 17:11pm]

Yeah I know Manic Monday, but they didn't 'take the Minneapolis sound' to the world. I don't think most people would recognize it as 'the Minneapolis sound' I call it Purple Music(wider range of sounds)
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Yep I kknow Sugar Walls, and U Got the Looks was a Prince album song featuring Sheena
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Can we really attribute Strut to Prince/Minneapolis Sound? I mean a LOT of artist did that sound in the 80s. "Strut" was composed by singer/songwriter Charlie Dore (who had had a moderate solo hit of her own in the U.S. with "Pilot of the Airwaves" several years prior) and her longtime songwriting partner, Julian Littman

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Thanks for the nod to 101, never knew Prince ie Joey Coco wrote that one. Nice, I will add this one to my (1989) Prince playlist. Definately has a feel that reminds me of Batman sessions, but also sounds non Prince. Thanks. She sounds like Jill Jones on this one

he did Cool Love too listening now

U 4got about Ta Mara (Margie Cox) and the Seen.

JabarR74 said:

U 4got about Ta Mara (Margie Cox) and the Seen.

Yep I remember her, she was a Jesse Johnson protege

and then later Prince took her for MC Flash band and had her backing him on the SNL Electric Chair/Future performance

I think the Minneapolis sound knock-off artists should be mentioned as well. From the most obvious examples such as Ready For The World to all those not so prominent examples, they all were inspired by the Minneapolis Sound and wrote some great, catchy tunes in that timespan.

It all ended when the Jheri curl era ended.

Too bad that they didn´t continue a bit longer, that sound is one of my favorite genres ever. I still listen to those old songs on a regular basis.

Cherelle, The SOS Band, Alex O´Neal, some of Jody Watley´s songs like Still A Thrill, Some Kind of Lover, Don´t You Want Me, and so on.

Part of the reason why I didn´t like the MPLSound album that much was because Prince, an essential creator of that sound, called his album MPLSound but it sounded nothing like that old Minneapolis Sound.

KoolEaze said:

I think the Minneapolis sound knock-off artists should be mentioned as well. From the most obvious examples such as Ready For The World to all those not so prominent examples, they all were inspired by the Minneapolis Sound and wrote some great, catchy tunes in that timespan.

It all ended when the Jheri curl era ended.

Too bad that they didn´t continue a bit longer, that sound is one of my favorite genres ever. I still listen to those old songs on a regular basis.

Cherelle, The SOS Band, Alex O´Neal, some of Jody Watley´s songs like Still A Thrill, Some Kind of Lover, Don´t You Want Me, and so on.

Part of the reason why I didn´t like the MPLSound album that much was because Prince, an essential creator of that sound, called his album MPLSound but it sounded nothing like that old Minneapolis Sound.

Yep, we mentioned the same, that outside of Ready For the World(and Janet Jackson) all those others were some kind of 2-3 musical generations away from Prince

The Time ->Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis ->Cherelle/Alexaneder O'Neal the SOS band

Prince(band) ->Andre Cymone -> Jody Watley

I too felt the same about MPLSound

JabarR74 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I don't think Sheena Easton or the Bangles actually did the Minneapolis Sound

Um, Hello?????????

The Bangles - Manic Monday

Sheena Easton - Strut, Sugar Walls, 101

And don't forget "U Got The Look" and there's also Elisa Fiorillo (Oooh...This I Need), just to name a few

[Edited 1/15/16 17:11pm]

Oldfriend is right: Manic Monday had nothing to do with the Minneapolis Sound, just because it was a Prince track doesn't mean it was Minneapolis Sound, as in a musical genre. Prince distanced himself from the Mpslsound in his own records after Purple Rain, and lots of his own music wasn't Mpsl sound at all anymore.

And it's Mazarati not Maserati.

But back to your original post, and to support KoolEaze's statement, the MPLS sound soon spreaded all over the world of funk and dance music, way beyond the scope of the associated artists you mention and Jam & Lewis' productions. Ready For The World and The Deele were particularly blatant rip-offs of P's trademark sound but being a hardcore collector of 80's funk and synthpop records, I actually realized that I could find typical trademarks of the Mpls sound on dozens and dozens of albums from circa 1984-1988.

I think u may be more or less where I was 10 years ago, finding your Mplsound fix in related artists and a bit frustrated not to be able to get more. In fact if u keep digging you'll find that there's a shitload of music that sounds more or less like those artists Not all is unforgettable music and the people formerly from P's camp were usually the best at that game, but lots of others managed to get decent stuff around.

Then there's been the revival of electrofunk and synthpop that began with the electroclash wave a bit more than a decade ago and still goes on to this day: a lot contains bits and pieces of Mpls sound mixed with other genres and sounds. Actually, and strangely, the American black scene almost entirely gave-up on this heritage in the early 90's, but the aforementioned (mostly) european and (mostly) white underground music scene that emerged in the early 2000's kept it alive. My take is that the Mpslsound was in fact some sort of a bourgeois music scene, it was never truly connected to the street, and I think that's why the American black scene turned its back to it as soon as it could, favoring the new jack swing movement (that was in fact born of it, mostly thru Jam & Lewis), rap and hip-hop, and eventually the R&B/neo soul revival. Funnily enough Morris Day and Prince nearly admit this with the "artistocratic black" chant in Murph Drag/Pandemonium: "artistocratic" isn't really a word connected to "street cred"

databank said:

JabarR74 said:

Um, Hello?????????

The Bangles - Manic Monday

Sheena Easton - Strut, Sugar Walls, 101

And don't forget "U Got The Look" and there's also Elisa Fiorillo (Oooh...This I Need), just to name a few

[Edited 1/15/16 17:11pm]

Oldfriend is right: Manic Monday had nothing to do with the Minneapolis Sound, just because it was a Prince track doesn't mean it was Minneapolis Sound, as in a musical genre. Prince distanced himself from the Mpslsound in his own records after Purple Rain, and lots of his own music wasn't Mpsl sound at all anymore.

And it's Mazarati not Maserati.

But back to your original post, and to support KoolEaze's statement, the MPLS sound soon spreaded all over the world of funk and dance music, way beyond the scope of the associated artists you mention and Jam & Lewis' productions. Ready For The World and The Deele were particularly blatant rip-offs of P's trademark sound but being a hardcore collector of 80's funk and synthpop records, I actually realized that I could find typical trademarks of the Mpls sound on dozens and dozens of albums from circa 1984-1988.

I think u may be more or less where I was 10 years ago, finding your Mplsound fix in related artists and a bit frustrated not to be able to get more. In fact if u keep digging you'll find that there's a shitload of music that sounds more or less like those artists Not all is unforgettable music and the people formerly from P's camp were usually the best at that game, but lots of others managed to get decent stuff around.

Then there's been the revival of electrofunk and synthpop that began with the electroclash wave a bit more than a decade ago and still goes on to this day: a lot contains bits and pieces of Mpls sound mixed with other genres and sounds. Actually, and strangely, the American black scene almost entirely gave-up on this heritage in the early 90's, but the aforementioned (mostly) european and (mostly) white underground music scene that emerged in the early 2000's kept it alive. My take is that the Mpslsound was in fact some sort of a bourgeois music scene, it was never truly connected to the street, and I think that's why the American black scene turned its back to it as soon as it could, favoring the new jack swing movement (that was in fact born of it, mostly thru Jam & Lewis), rap and hip-hop, and eventually the R&B/neo soul revival. Funnily enough Morris Day and Prince nearly admit this with the "artistocratic black" chant in Murph Drag/Pandemonium: "artistocratic" isn't really a word connected to "street cred"

While it´s true that the new genres such as New Jack Swing and Rap took over , it is not really true that the Minneapolis Sound wasn´t connected to the street, but then again I don´t know what you truly mean when you say that.

I mean, EVERYBODY loved that sound, including tough guys from all walks of life, even nightlife kings, gangsters, club people, simply everybody. They surely weren´t really into rap (I was, but I was just a teenager back then).

Styles just come and go.