dont get me wrong i love it when the work is acknowledged..but for fucks sake...the grammys??
they didnt deem 'sign o the times'good enough..not to mention LOVESEXY,TRC,PARADE,THE TRUTH,EMANCIPATION etc.
and i mean when u listen to N.E.W.S does it really strike as a "pop instrumental"..i mean who the fuck is categorising the music here?
lets hope prince does not play the game that night..no big hits etc..he one of the few musicians to remain true to his art..lets hope he plays NORTH as opposed to nothing compares!

jonylawson said:

I don't think Prince's Grammy nominatioin for N.E.W.S is a "sympathy" vote. But, I do think that it was acknowledgement of Prince doing something extremely well in another genre of music. On top of that, it's really hard to catergorize exactly what type of music that makes N.E.W.S what it is. A lot of fans will say, "but what about Madhouse?" and to that I say that there are times when N.E.W.S does remind me of Madhouse, but for the most part, as an entire body of work, N.E.W.S really does stand on its own. Also, don't forget that Prince never officially took credit for Madhouse, no one ever knew officially who was involved in creating the Madhouse albums. So it's kind of hard to recognize someone for something when they won't take credit for it.

Finally, I think there are two other things to consider. I think there may be more to Prince's conections with the Univeral Music label than is being publisized. And then of course, this is the year that Prince is being officially recognized for life long contributions to music by being inducted into the Hall of Fame. So there are probably a lot of factors coming into play. And when the panel realized that Prince was still out there not conforming and doing his own thing and doing it very well, I think recognizing N.E.W.S became the perfect way to acknowledge all of that.

yep i agree mostly but one thing i dont get is the lazy comparrison between madhouse and NEWS...the 2 projects couldnt be further apart...

Either way, it's stupid. Maybe there just weren't many known artists doing instrumentals this past year. I'll tell you one thing, if he performs any of NEWS on the Grammy's he'll put everyone to sleep. Not a good way to get back attention.

EvilWhiteMale said:

You'll be amazed by Beyonce's whistling-solo in East!

find it funny that N.E.W.S is up 4 "Best Instrumental Pop LP" even thought it isn't pop. it's kinda like jazz, mixed up with music from the East and the West and etc, hence th LP name.

if it wins the award, it will only mean more instrumentals as P will see it as if everyone enjoys/ed it even though alot people (inc. me) didn't like it very much.

MashedPotatoKid said:

You could be right about P thinking that a win (or even the nomination for that matter) will mean more instrumentals. But I don't think so. I think that historically, whenever Prince has been nationally or internationally recognized for some kind of musical accomplishment, he instead seems to go out of his way to do something completely opposite of what he last accomplished.

Take Purple Rain for instance. The success of the movie and the soundtrack just begged for Purple Rain part II. His answer to Purple Rain was "Around The World in A Day". And when he did make another movie after Purple Rain, his answer was "Under The Cherry Moon". Prince has NEVER conformed and that's one of the things that I love most about what he does.

So from my perspective, the fact that he has finally gained some recognition for his instrumental work, that means he can now move on to something else.

no. it's a fucking great album.