Maybe there's a nu-metal album in the vault

1.) He always did dance music and still did funk.. (billy jack Bitch, 319, Ripopgodazippa, Crystal Ball)

2.) he always did pop music (not that erupt of a change)

3.) the New Jack Swing and light R and B was a bummer, I agree, Most of his rap (unless it was parody like Now and Face Down) was also ill adviced.

4.) Not all of his R and B was light (the song Dark is far from light)

5.) He did do rock in the 90's and some of it is rawer/edgier than the 80's stuff...

6.) Prince doing only rock music might have sounded derivative. I think Ripopgodazippa and Blue Light prove that Prince could have branched out into more reggae-influenced pop. Also, some more accoustic folksy/soulful music like the Truth album would have been cool.

Rock songs during the 90's (ironically, some of his rock songs in the 90's are actually edgier than his rock songs in the 80's)

Endorphinemachine

Shy

Dolphin

Same December

I like it There

Empty Room

When I lay my hands on u

Beautiful Strange

accoustic songs on The Truth album

the Ride

Question of U (its guitar heavy)

Prince seemed weary of albums that were just solely rock. Even Chaos and Disorder isn't all rock.

It's funny but guitar rock seems almost completely out of style now, making some of Prince's choices less uncool now.. his versatility although not always advisable does keep him from sounding like Soul Asylum or another outdated grunge rock band.

fourletterwords said:

I often wonder whether, irrespective of the name change, P would have remained more present in the charts and a better seller if he wrote more rock oriented material in the early-mid 90s, rather than abruptly going the pop/dance/hip-hop route. For instance. If, for instance, Emancipation had more of a rock sound permeating the triple disc project, would that have been well-received by fans of albums such as SP/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and other rock opus' of the era. A lot of interesting, cutting edge genres other than light r&b/hip-hop/dance pop were available, for me, Come came closest to an edgy sound. From a technical perspective P basically smoked most if it all of the bands of the era, but came from a different era and couldn't emotionally reach the disaffected young rock fan base... Prince's record label anger probably couldn't touch kurt cobain's existential despair... Would a rock focus have mattered? Do you think a lot of that type of stuff resides in the vault? Or did things happen the way it was meant to be - a wilderness decade and a huge comeback (from a press/public perspective if not sales) in a more pop centric 2000s.. ?

[Edited 4/26/17 17:10pm]

[Edited 4/26/17 17:21pm]

fourletterwords said:

I often wonder whether, irrespective of the name change, P would have remained more present in the charts and a better seller if he wrote more rock oriented material in the early-mid 90s, rather than abruptly going the pop/dance/hip-hop route. For instance. If, for instance, Emancipation had more of a rock sound permeating the triple disc project, would that have been well-received by fans of albums such as SP/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and other rock opus' of the era. A lot of interesting, cutting edge genres other than light r&b/hip-hop/dance pop were available, for me, Come came closest to an edgy sound. From a technical perspective P basically smoked most if it all of the bands of the era, but came from a different era and couldn't emotionally reach the disaffected young rock fan base... Prince's record label anger probably couldn't touch kurt cobain's existential despair... Would a rock focus have mattered? Do you think a lot of that type of stuff resides in the vault? Or did things happen the way it was meant to be - a wilderness decade and a huge comeback (from a press/public perspective if not sales) in a more pop centric 2000s.. ?

i don't know, times just changed, the music market has always been fickle and rapidly changing. Most careers are pretty short, the beatles were together six years, Elvis' prime was between 56-58. The grunge thing was a radical change in direction which is just how the business goes; in cycles. the 80's had all the big hair, the glitz, the ostentation and so the stripped down, unkempt image was a rebound from that. It definitely killed some of the older icons Terence trent d'arby was doing all the prince stuff and had an album as brilliant as any and it went ignored, Prince had problems and even MJ was knocked off the number one spot by nirvana. Whether Prince would have fared better? I don't know, it wasn't just the black artists who were shut down, the rockers were too, poison, guns and roses and all the rest of the rock bands were just suddenly obsolete. so, even if prince were to go heavy, i don't think he'd have done much better. For what it's worth, i never liked the grunge movement, never, that's when the term Poser came in and it had merit. the dirty white boy routine is just as much of an image to sell as the chicks and alcohol of guns and roses and probably more insincere and a lot more whiny. Prince could rock with anyone, i had an old post where i said he was outdoing the whiteboys even on Bambi, someone laughed at me and said he might have rocked about as hard as donna summer, no, the dude could rock, i think he always resented that fact too. that he played the white rock and still had problems with U2 winning grammy's over him.

wouldnt matter....shelf life of an artist isnt forever

PeteSilas said:

Musical movements can get really tired and annoying. I like many alternative rock bands from the 90's... Nirvana, Pearl Jam's got some great songs,but the brilliant and weird Radiohead tops them all due to the fact that (even though they were 'whiny'), they were also constantly reinventing themselves and not just trying to sound like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. There was a lot of crappy grunge rock whose sound has not aged well like Soul Asylum, STP, but there is also the truely original bands like Red HOt Chilli Peppers.

BTW, I do like U2 but I think they write great melodies and the spectacular "Sometimes you can't make it on your own" about Bono's father...well, I sometimes wish P could have as been as confessional and cathartic at that song is. Prince is more talented than these folks however.

fourletterwords said:

PeteSilas said:

i don't know, times just changed, the music market has always been fickle and rapidly changing. Most careers are pretty short, the beatles were together six years, Elvis' prime was between 56-58. The grunge thing was a radical change in direction which is just how the business goes; in cycles. the 80's had all the big hair, the glitz, the ostentation and so the stripped down, unkempt image was a rebound from that. It definitely killed some of the older icons Terence trent d'arby was doing all the prince stuff and had an album as brilliant as any and it went ignored, Prince had problems and even MJ was knocked off the number one spot by nirvana. Whether Prince would have fared better? I don't know, it wasn't just the black artists who were shut down, the rockers were too, poison, guns and roses and all the rest of the rock bands were just suddenly obsolete. so, even if prince were to go heavy, i don't think he'd have done much better. For what it's worth, i never liked the grunge movement, never, that's when the term Poser came in and it had merit. the dirty white boy routine is just as much of an image to sell as the chicks and alcohol of guns and roses and probably more insincere and a lot more whiny. Prince could rock with anyone, i had an old post where i said he was outdoing the whiteboys even on Bambi, someone laughed at me and said he might have rocked about as hard as donna summer, no, the dude could rock, i think he always resented that fact too. that he played the white rock and still had problems with U2 winning grammy's over him.

I agree with your points. Especially with the fact that the grunge movement was largely underwhelming. It's kind of insulting in retrospect that bands like STP were selling 20M records when Prince had issues going gold all of a sudden. But as everyone has noted the public is fickle; however an artist of P's caliber could have.should have transcended that (in a fair alternate realty)... I'm not suggesting that sales make the work more valid or important but it's kind of stunning to hear in retrospect major stars of the day were clammoring to work with P (not least Notorious BIG, 2PAC) when he was sort of being couched as a has-been by the media at large.... I guess my question stemmed from the fact that many fans went full circle to "rediscover" P after seeing him grossly overshadow has colleagues at the RRHOF induction and ROCK convincingly at the Super Bowl...

purplerabbithole said:

Musical movements can get really tired and annoying. I like many alternative rock bands from the 90's... Nirvana, Pearl Jam's got some great songs,but the brilliant and weird Radiohead tops them all due to the fact that (even though they were 'whiny'), they were also constantly reinventing themselves and not just trying to sound like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. There was a lot of crappy grunge rock whose sound has not aged well like Soul Asylum, STP, but there is also the truely original bands like Red HOt Chilli Peppers.

BTW, I do like U2 but I think they write great melodies and the spectacular "Sometimes you can't make it on your own" about Bono's father...well, I sometimes wish P could have as been as confessional and cathartic at that song is. Prince is more talented than these folks however.

fourletterwords said:

PeteSilas said: I agree with your points. Especially with the fact that the grunge movement was largely underwhelming. It's kind of insulting in retrospect that bands like STP were selling 20M records when Prince had issues going gold all of a sudden. But as everyone has noted the public is fickle; however an artist of P's caliber could have.should have transcended that (in a fair alternate realty)... I'm not suggesting that sales make the work more valid or important but it's kind of stunning to hear in retrospect major stars of the day were clammoring to work with P (not least Notorious BIG, 2PAC) when he was sort of being couched as a has-been by the media at large.... I guess my question stemmed from the fact that many fans went full circle to "rediscover" P after seeing him grossly overshadow has colleagues at the RRHOF induction and ROCK convincingly at the Super Bowl...

sure, i like u2 too I'm mentioning Prince seemed insulted by U2 winning the grammy over him for SOTT. And yes, there were some good songs in the grunge era, the one thing cobain had a talent for was songwriting, he wasn't good at much else. Personally, I have always lived in Seattle where a couple of these bands started from and all I can say is that all the musicians who scrambled around in their wake were not very likeable people. Entitled, bratty, never had a good thing to say about anyone's music but their own and they were just nasty, drug addicted and those are their good qualities.

purplerabbithole said:

There was a lot of crappy grunge rock whose sound has not aged well like STP

you forgot 'imo'

IMO..

But really are you implying that all grunge rock bands were good????

IMO--all musical movement had crappy musicians who jump on the bandwagon.

TheFman said:

purplerabbithole said:

There was a lot of crappy grunge rock whose sound has not aged well like STP

you forgot 'imo'