(for me it was around 2020 - 2021), what did you go to next?

For me it was an exploration of other funk ( I HAD to hear that funky bass every day) and other black music

And a revisitation of 80s and 70s soul.

Even rap and learning about that culture followed (although I have mostly dropped that because it doesn't really fit in with my spiritual values).

I think a lot of the world followed me (I am always ahead of my time).

I started exploring older funk, soul, and R&B. But there was still stuff I'd not heard of for years after. I really didn't know much about who George Clinton was, or that he came from Parliament. I remember "Atomic Dog," but it didn't resonate with me the first time. I loved disco and soulful music, but I never paid attention to who was who.

For a long while, I compared everything to Prince. If it didn't measure up, I dismissed it. A foolhearty notion, for sure. It was my pal Steve Carter (who was my age and passed away a couple of years ago) from the Navy that introduced me to Parliament/Funkadelic, and even more obscure things like Process and the Doo-Rags, The Sequence (Angie Stone's first group), and tons more.

I believe realizing how wide encompassing Prince's music was made me want to explore anything else. Once I realize he wasn't just a genius, but he was influenced and had his own favorite artists, well why wouldn't I go find those guys and listen?

Sidenote about rap/hip-hop: When you dig into the past (and you'll never hear everything by everyone), you start to hear those samples in hip-hop. You hear where even those guys were being influenced by funk, R&B, and soul artists for their own genre of artistry.

TrivialPursuit said:

I started exploring older funk, soul, and R&B. But there was still stuff I'd not heard of for years after. I really didn't know much about who George Clinton was, or that he came from Parliament. I remember "Atomic Dog," but it didn't resonate with me the first time. I loved disco and soulful music, but I never paid attention to who was who.

For a long while, I compared everything to Prince. If it didn't measure up, I dismissed it. A foolhearty notion, for sure. It was my pal Steve Carter (who was my age and passed away a couple of years ago) from the Navy that introduced me to Parliament/Funkadelic, and even more obscure things like Process and the Doo-Rags, The Sequence (Angie Stone's first group), and tons more.

I believe realizing how wide encompassing Prince's music was made me want to explore anything else. Once I realize he wasn't just a genius, but he was influenced and had his own favorite artists, well why wouldn't I go find those guys and listen?

Sidenote about rap/hip-hop: When you dig into the past (and you'll never hear everything by everyone), you start to hear those samples in hip-hop. You hear where even those guys were being influenced by funk, R&B, and soul artists for their own genre of artistry.

Same here.

Yes I have watched videos where some rappers and others say that genre was influenced partially by by funk - can def hear the beat!

My fam kind of raised me on Parliament and Zapp and my mom was a big late 80s/early 90s R&B person, so that element of Prince wasn't super expanded or explored after getting into his version of funk. He definitely took it to the next level, however.

Old-school slow jams/ballads are different, however, as I definitely did not appreciate those until Prince, and it took many years of Prince to fully appreciate them. I knew a couple of the biggies like the two Thom Bell covers he put on Emancipation, but otherwise.... Now that's one of my favorite genres, all eras, any eras, nothing better than a really old-school slow jam or ballad or pure direct love song in the pure style of love, like even going back to the 50s and doo wop.

In general, Prince made me stopped feeling like the confines of genre or "taste" are all that super necessary. Like on the internet it's a lot of "give me similar stuff to ___x artist/band___". Prince and his diversity being the thing that was so enticing about his music made me want the opposite of "similar". N.E.W.S. was also one of my very first Prince albums and it made a big impact, you know, checking out the brand new "most recent" Prince album after only 2-3 of the 80s masterworks which kept... changing album-to-album and then getting hit with N.E.W.S. like....

I was like "rock" or "indie kid" pre-Prince. After Prince it was like, hey, whatever. Used to just randomly click through genres and subgenres at the old AllMusicGuide.

[Edited 8/11/23 0:20am]

[Edited 8/11/23 0:21am]

Hmmm.

Were you locked in a purple room until 2020-2021???