I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

"Around the World in a Day"?


Maybe I'm off, but...

"Do U Lie" sounds french cabaret to me, "The One" sounds arabic, "Everytime" is breezy bossa nova pop, "Te Amo Corazon" similarly latin. Lot of new wave/techno for the "white european" sound. Classic rock, jazz, etc, but that's American.... Stuff like the hook of "Hypoparadise" and "Supercute" I know are something.... fusions of the aforementioned like "Ain't No Place Like U" or "The Screams of Passion"...

but there's a fair amount of funk, sure.

[Edited 9/5/19 3:31am]

Cutz - contemporary music

77 Beverly Park - is similar to south Italy "traditional" songs

3y3no said:

I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

I would say he mainly did pop music, actually.

But he dabbled with everything - blues, jazz, rock, hiphop, reggae, soul, country, folk, theatrical, latin etc.

ian said:

3y3no said:

I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

I would say he mainly did pop music, actually.

But he dabbled with everything - blues, jazz, rock, hiphop, reggae, soul, country, folk, theatrical, latin etc.

Maybe classical as well, as from what I remember, N.E.W.S. isn't based on repetitive melodies as pop music is.

3y3no said:

I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

Actually Prince mainly did FUNK ROCK FOLK-BALLADS He never did a specific genre, but these 3 in my opinion from beginning to end always defined his music

3y3no said:

I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

I wouldn't say he mainly did funk. He was known for exploring, combining and experimenting with lots of genres. Most of his music you could generally fit under the umbrella of "pop" -- e.g. rock, dance, R&B, etc. In fact, if you Google Prince you'll see many articles describe him as "genre-defying". He was incredibly eclectic.

For starters, he made a ton of jazz music. Listen to Madhouse, NEWS, C-NOTE, and the Rainbow Children to start. Plus he touched on other genres. Some of these were mentioned in earlier posts, but off the top of my head I can think of reggae (Blue Light), blues (The Ride, Purple House), bosa nova (Te Amo Corizone), cabaret (Do U Lie), gospel (Still Would Stand All Time), burlesque (Darling Nikki, Temptation).

Graffiti Bridge (the song itself) sounds like a show tune from Broadway. I always thought Starfish and Coffee sounded like a children’s' song you might here in Peanuts, and sure enough he played in on the Muppets. And then think of all the stuff he made that doesn't fit neatly into a category, like the Undertaker which is kind of blues and metal and soul all at once. Or take a listen to Kamasutra (I don't think it's very good, but it's another example of him trying to expand his range).

Even when you talk about Prince playing "rock", rock is a very broad category with lots of subgenres. Think of the following Prince rock songs and how different they were, ranging from new wave rock to heavy metal to classic rock: When You Were Mine, Plectrum Electrum, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, 5 Women, Crimson and Clover. Those all may generically be rock, but they're not even close to the same style of music.

Willing and Able always sounded like South African township jive to me

emesem said:

Willing and Able always sounded like South African township jive to me

Nah. That would be Paul Simon

OldFriends4Sale said:

3y3no said:

I'm a newer Prince fan and haven't listened to anywhere near all of his music...I know he mainly did funk, which is a black/American genre. Did he ever do anything that was clearly from another culture? (bachata, reggae, etc)

So far the closest things to this I've heard from him are some french words and the spanish intro to P. Control...

Sorry for the lazy grammar, I didn't grow up on Alphabet St...

Actually Prince mainly did FUNK ROCK FOLK-BALLADS He never did a specific genre, but these 3 in my opinion from beginning to end always defined his music

"Folk"?

[Edited 9/5/19 15:20pm]

The Truth sounded like a Tracy Chapman song.

lurker316 said:

Even when you talk about Prince playing "rock", rock is a very broad category with lots of subgenres.

I mean, it's never acknowledged from the crowd that loves to group all his "ballads" together, but those ballads usually stem from a myriad of soul genres like Philly soul, quiet storm, Chicago soul, neo-soul... "You're My Love" on Originals was borderline blue-eyed soul yacht rock.

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Mikado said:

Wasn't there an unreleased song from around the 1999 era that was vaguely raggae?

It's called "If It'll Make You Happy"!

If It'll Make You Happy, if it'll blah blah blah...da da da da da....something something...right away!

I'd like for that to be on 1999 Deluxe. So, I can get the words right!

Euphoria Highway sounded like... unlike anything