paulludvig said:

Did Prince start to record more genre specific music in the 90's? Every album had to have a 'rock' song, an r&b ballad, a quirky number and so on? At least than seems to be the case to me from listening both to the albums themselves and to how the engineers he used at the time talk about the music.

I agree that many of P's albums had those different "sorts" of songs on them. Of course, within a song, P did his cool overlaps and category-disregarding from early on in putting out albums. e.g., some would say Bambi is a pretty quirky rock song. : )

By more genre specific, are you thinking of, e.g. Chaos and Disorder is sometimes described as mostly a P rock album?

[Edited 7/27/18 6:28am]

[Edited 7/27/18 6:39am]

rednblue said:

paulludvig said:

rednblue said:

Obviously not the 90's, but the Prince album was a little like that, at least to me.

When you say obviously not the 90's, do you mean the description doesn't fit the albums of the period? What about Prince's approach to writing? I think his later (post 80's) are more easily defined in terms of genre.

Agree I wasn't clear. Edited above, then saw your question.

I meant that the Prince album featured different "sorts" of songs, though songs still had those wonderful P category-defiers and quirks.

By obviously not the '90s, I meant the Prince album was obviously not made in the 90's. I wasn't sure if you found pre-90's or '90's to be more easily defined. Just me. Need more coffee. : )

As for the later albums being more easily defined, IDK. Like, Chaos and Disorder and Plectrumelectrum are often described as rock albums, but looking at all the songs, I think it's more of a mix.

Anyone else want to chime in? Don't want to hog this topic, especially as I may have misunderstood Paul's question.

Paul -- How do you answer your question? What do you think?

rednblue said:

paulludvig said:

rednblue said:

Anyone else want to chime in? Don't want to hog this topic, especially as I may have misunderstood Paul's question.

Paul -- How do you answer your question? What do you think?

Don't think you misunderstood thevwuestion. I think some of his best music is hard to describe, there is no definite genre that can be applied. I also feel that later in his career he started to write more genre spesific music. Maybe because he had the reputation as someone who could do it sll, pop, rock, rnb, jazz, he felt he had something to prove, and ironically ended up being more conventional? I also think there is a difference between mixing genres (which he continued to do) and writing completely outside the usual genre frameworks.

Interesting thoughts on possible ironies, and the concept of mixed genres vs. outside of genre. Maybe a bit like the idea of a recipe that mixes familiar ingredients vs. bringing in new ones. Or maybe (LOL) introducing salty to a world that had only cooked with mixes of sour, sweet and bitter flavors.