I was introduced to several great artists by being a Prince fan.

As a 12 year old kid in 1984 my older nephew showed me pictures of Jimi to prove his point that Prince kinda copied his look, guitar playing and poses. Later when I was a bit older I read in in music magazines that Prince was amongst others influenced by Parliament/Funkadelic, Sly & The Family Stone, Joni Mitchel and Jimi Hendrix. Although those names didn't say much to me at that time, I remembered them because they were apparently an influence to Prince, who was my idol at that time.

One day when I was about 16 one of my Prince mates all of a sudden had a Jimi Hendrix 'best of' album. He had also heard that Prince was a fan and he ran into it at the local library that had quite a good selection of CD's and vinyl and had recorded it. He played it for me and I thought it sounded really cool and so my mate made me a cassette copy as well. That was the start of an everlasting love for Jimi and his music for me.

Then, not long after, I was babysitting some kids and as they had gone to sleep I was going through the record collection of the parents. It was a very poor selection of records and I saw nothing of interest, but then I saw a freaky cover of a spaceship with an outrageously dressed black bearded space man coming out of it. It was Parliament's "Mothership Connection" album. The cover looked very promising and I got all excited. I couldn't believe my ears when I started to play the record and "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" came on. This was the deep, authentic pure funk that I had been craving for! That day a die hard P-Funk fan was born, thanks to our "dearly beloved" Prince.

Later I also got into Sly and Joni, but not as much as I got into P-Funk and Jimi. Anyway, I would love to hear about the musical discoveries you've made by being a Prince fan...

• Sheila E
• Chaka Khan
• Ingrid Chavez
• Liv Warfield
• Judith Hill
• Laura Mvula
• Lianne La Havas
• Joni Mitchell
• Kate Bush
• Janelle Monae
• Harts
• Hiatus Kaiyote

And I forgot Esperanza Spaulding..

.

None.

Prince had a terrible track record of introducing new artists onto the music scene.

Sly and The Family Stoned and Funkadelic (well, with the latter i'm just getting into it), actually i was introuduced to Prince and Bob DYlan by Michael Jackson.

A few names i found listening a much more because of Prince in last 3 years.

.

Betty Davis

Miles Davis

Santana

Bruce Springsteen

Sly Stone

Earth, Wind & Fire

Joni Mitchell

Just Joni and Gustav. All of his funk, soul and rock influences I heard (as a kid) before he came on the scene. I think I've learned more about new music/artists from being on the org. than through him.

Cloreen said:

lezama said:

Carlos Santana,

Joni Mitchell,

Sly and the Family Stone,

Larry Graham (duh!) ,

George Clinton and P-Funk ,

Andre Cymone,

Jody Watley,

SOS Band, anything produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis,

the Minneapolis Sound in general

, Alexander O´Neal,

The Time.

Of course Sheila E.

Jill Jones,

Vanity 6 / Apollonia 6

Chaka Khan

Kate Bush

Judith Hill

Andy Allo

Kara said:

Prince and his music turned me into a major guitar and rock fan, even though he didn't necessarily name-check those who would become my favorite artists.

Yeah that's always been one of my favorite things about him. When you become a fan, most of the time you have to open your mind to styles and things you might not be that receptive to at first. I didn't really listen to R&B or Soul or rap before I listened to Prince.

Being a Prince fan introduced me to all of his influences.. such as Hendrix, Santana, Sly Stone, and other guitarists in general like Stevie Ray Vaughan

214 said:

The Time, Wendy & Lisa, Jill Jones and Maceo Parker.

Aerogram said:

When I was a kid, I trained to be a classical musician and spent all my money on classical records and music sheets. By the time I discovered Prince, I knew the Eurythmics and MJ, so Prince was my gateway drug to all of his influences, plus his influences'influences. Love and Rockets, The Cure, New Order, the Smiths, joy division, Velvet Underground, REM, U2... those were more via Annie Lennox, but that's it.

Wow, Prince and Eurythmics! Those (and The Cure, who you also mention) are my 3 favorite artists.

As for this thread, his proteges certainly count, but I don't know if I would have listened to Stevie Wonder if not for Prince. P-Funk, Gap Band, Zapp, et al as well, though I wonder whether it was just a natural liking of funk or Prince making me like funk that led me that way.

Leaving aside the numerous Prince associates - of whom there have been no decent ones since the 1980's anyway - it was through listening to Prince and hearing of comparisons that I first listened to James Brown and Santana.

SLy and the Family Stone

Besides artists from the Mpls scene, Paisley Park label and side projects, there was a lot really, in the sense that I checked out the work of most of the artists Prince worked with, covered or gave his songs to, and started to listen to a lot of them. Really significant discoveries, i.e. artists I really became a massive fan of, would be:

George Clinton and the whole P-Funk crew

Chaka Khan

Larry Graham and GCS

Kid Creole And The Coconuts

I was into Kate Bush and Madonna before they worked with Prince.

Proteges and artists Prince was influenced by aside (most have already been mentioned), these are some of the artists I started enjoying because I could hear the influence Prince had on them.

Terrence Trent Darby

Lenny Kravitz (before he became formulaic)

Basement Jaxx

LCD Soundsystem

Outcast

TLC

Beck

Hot Chip

Soul II Soul

Ingrid Chavez

Elisa Fiorillo

Taja Sevelle

Jill Jones

Madhouse

T.C. Ellis

Alicia Keys

Rebeljuice said:

Proteges and artists Prince was influenced by aside (most have already been mentioned), these are some of the artists I started enjoying because I could hear the influence Prince had on them.

Terrence Trent Darby

Lenny Kravitz (before he became formulaic)

Basement Jaxx

LCD Soundsystem

Outcast

TLC

Beck

Hot Chip

Soul II Soul

Same here!

NorthC said:

214 said:

Sly and The Family Stoned and Funkadelic (well, with the latter i'm just getting into it), actually i was introuduced to Prince and Bob DYlan by Michael Jackson.

What's the connection between Jackson and Dylan?

Who's Dylan?

214 said:

NorthC said:

214 said:

Who's Dylan?

Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham. Now stop trying to be a wise guy. Okay?

Well, i'm part of the mjhideout forum so one day in 2008 there was an article Rolling Stone magazine 500 greatest songs of all time; and at the top of all them it was Like A Rolling Stone from a guy called Bob Dylan and i did not have idea who the hell this guy was, i could't believe at that time that my hero Michael Jackson weren't at top of it. So, for the very first time i listened to Bob Dylan; and my ears could not believe that song was considered the greatest of them all, to me he sounded like a drunk guy tryin hard to sing.