It has always occured to me that Prince's music deeply influenced House Music, and is even one of its core elements. For instance:

- 1999 is amazingly modern in terms of sound and arrangements (check above all All the Critics Love U in NY, but also Something in the Water U drink and Automatic): very house-like;

- Daft Punk's first LP (Homework) is heavily influenced by Prince's music (Controversy - the song - clearly inspired them), and the French Touch in general (Cassius, Bob Sinclar, etc.) owes a great deal to Prince;

- America (the 20 minute or so remix) is everything a House DJ could ever hope to achieve;

- Detroit (the city where House music was created, by African-American musicians and DJs by the way) has always had a huge Prince fan-base (during the 1999-Purple Rain era in particular - see Nielsen's book DMSR) - coincidence?;

- The Minneapolis Sound (i.e. replacing horns by synthesizers) is an obvious influence of House Music as well.

And yet, it seems that Prince's influence in this respect is oddly ignored...

What do you all think about that?

See also:

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/63778

Romance1600 said:

Thanks for the link!

Sexy Dancer, Head, Controversy, Lady Cab Driver.. these are all brilliant house music tracks

What you said about Detriot was spot on, I hadn't thought of that.

And I'm in full agreement about the MPLS sound and the 1999 album.

Romance1600 said:

Yeah, it just struck me the other day as I was reading Nielsen's book (quite amazingly detailed btw).

didnt we do this one already??? like 6 months ago?

DaFunkFreak said:[quote]It has always occured to me that - Daft Punk's first LP (Homework) is heavily influenced by Prince's music (Controversy - the song - clearly inspired them), and the French Touch in general (Cassius, Bob Sinclar, etc.) owes a great deal to Prince;


when i first heard controversy i was playing it to all my friends and saying listen its fucking daft punk! and they were like i dont see it really...argh! and ive only heard daft punks second album!

dont forget they covered kiss too!

i think among dance/house circles prince is very acknowledged, only last year muzik mag in UKdid a piece on prince being one of msot influential dance artists, plus the editor names him ultimate dance hero. they also mentioned controversy as a huge influence on house music to this day! cool eh!

marcdeondotcom said:

A lot of renowned House DJs (Paul Johnson among many others) regularly insert Prince songs in their sets...And yet the general audience does not seems to realize how Prince influencial was...Well I guess no one really cares about him these days any how...
[This message was edited Mon Nov 3 9:40:54 PST 2003 by DaFunkFreak]

softandwet said:[quote]

DaFunkFreak said:

Cool and well deserved!

Finess said:

There's Joy in Repetition

And he returned the favor by have a few great house songs himself.

The Future
Housestyle
Cross The Line
Batdance

TRON said:

You got that right. Cross The Line with its hypnotic bass line is such a good house track, with a twist, of course, but basically house-style, that's very true. Thanks for the insight!

Finess said:

I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now. :confused: