OK, these “Beatles vs. …” threads are getting silly and bizarre. Here’s one where the matching seems to be a bit more even: Prince vs. MJ.
Most of us have been to (or seen posters for) Prince vs. Michael nights at clubs and discos. So here’s your chance to pick the winner.
My vote goes to Prince. Excluding Michael’s work with the Jackson 5, I don’t think he was as good a singer. He damn sure couldn’t touch Prince in the instrumental prowess category, and his ballads were gloppy and cloying compared to (most of) Prince’s (compare “Man in the Mirror” or “You Are Not Alone” with “Do Me, Baby” or “The Beautiful Ones” if you dare). I also think Prince had a much greater variety stylistically - Michael rarely did rock well, and forget about psychedelia.
Prince is undoubtedly an asshole, and he’s probably overstayed his welcome at this point, but he’s always got something worth hearing, even on his post-hit albums. Michael’s later work, however, just seemed to get more and more banal, IMHO. So, what say you?
I wasn’t a huge fan of either of them either; but it seems to me that Prince is/was the all-around better musician than Michael. MJ had bigger hits and more mass appeal, but I have to recognize Prince as more talented.
Prince fell off my radar many years ago, so I have no idea what he’s been up to except for when something crazy happens. (“I’m going to sell my album exclusively at Target!” [Or Walmart, or wherever.] “The Internet is dead!”). Of course his form of craziness is far, far less alienating than Jackson’s.
With that disclaimer, he is or was by far the more talented composer and instrumentalist. (Did MJ even play an instrument?) Jackson had better moves, of course, and, for a while, was the more charismatic of the two. As a child singer, Jackson was phenomenal. As an adult, he was passable. I don’t think singing was ever actually Prince’s claim to fame, but he was all right.
Chris Rock had a joke about this after the MJ molestation accusations reached a fever pitch, that Prince won by default.
I’ve seen both in concert, have most of the albums made by both, love it when either one gets thrown into the mix at a dance club. Both have an impressive body of work, having been in the industry for decades.
However, Michael’s hits are mostly the creation of his producers, while Prince’s hits are his own. Prince doesn’t just write the songs and sing, he also plays a wide variety of musical instruments (often playing all of the instruments on a track), and handles his own production. Prince is also comfortable with a wider variety of styles, recording albums of instrumental jazz (see the Madhouse records) as well as his more usual rock, funk, and pop stuff; MJ pretty much just did pop vocals.
Prince for me, although it’s close. I think both were/are phenomenally talented musicians, but Prince to me has a bit more depth in his work, along with his instrumental skills. They both wrote great songs, but I think Prince has the edge in the songwriting department. So, Prince for me, but not by knockout.
I went with Prince as well for the same reasons as everyone else: greater depth of talent. Not that MJ was talent-less, but he had less talent.
I thought it interesting; I have a Cult Rule about supporting artists who belong to cults. If I am aware that a given artist is a member of a cult, I will not purchase their art (music, movies, books, etc.) out of concern that the artist will take whatever money he or she makes from that art and in turn donate it to their cult. I will not support cults by proxy because I fought so hard to get out of one. Just my own little “personal is political” thingy.
MJ was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and IIRC, left the organization as an adult.
Prince joined the JW as an adult.
They canceled each other out! Both drank the Kool Aid. That said, I still will not purchase Prince’s music, even if I liked it. Everything he’s recorded since his conversion has sucked ass IMO, so I’m not interested. I think his faith has watered down his talent.
I think Prince is the better musician and songwriter, while MJ was the better entertainer.
I go with Prince since I find his music more interesting and varied, although to be honest I don’t think I could hum anything either one of them did after 1992 or so.
Saw them a few weeks apart in 88 - when I guess both were at the apex of their popularity (MJ’s death notwithstanding) and tho I knew it before, it can only be Prince. Musicianship, songwriting etc all were his already - but his show was infinitely better.
It’s Prince.
It’s a toughie. I love them both, I do. In fact, they are the only two artists that I have their entire discographies on my mp3 player and listen to religiously.
While it’s true that Prince is an amazing musician in every sense of the word, I think people in this thread thus far are too quick to discredit Michael. Sure, he couldn’t even read music, but the man could literally beat box every musical part of a song to his producers, so they could then transcribe that into actual music notes. It’s amazing. Here is a video of him testifying (and beatboxing) in court-- he was being sued by someone who said he stole a song, so he was explaining his song writing process. Sure, it isn’t the traditional way that Prince does it, but I’d say it’s no less genius. In fact, it’s pretty astonishing that someone who couldn’t even read music could discern each little part of a song - every instrument, no matter how minor. And then to present that to “real” muscians in a way they can understand? If you listen to that beat boxing video, it sounds literally identical to the finished song.
Both are amazing performers, but I’d give MJ the edge just on the basis that the man created a spectacle (in a good way). All anybody has to do is watch any of the opening of his Dangerous Tour in Bucharest to see what I’m talking about. Sure, it’s not the raw guitar energy Prince brings to a show, but it is on a whole nother planet of showmanship. And I really think that showmanship shouldn’t be discredited.
I’d give a kidney to see either of them, but I’d probably have given both kidneys to experience an MJ show.
And this? Honestly? I think his Invincible album (last full album out) is one of his best works. Sure, it’s not Thriller, but it’s one of my favorite CDs of all time. It was totally under repped by Sony, but it really is solid RnB. I love it.
I think the opinion that Michael became worse as time went on often stems from the popular opinion that music itself has gotten worse as time has gone on - and Michael followed the trends of R&B, so as R&B “declined” so did he. I’m not of that opinion and I can appreciate all of Michael’s work right up to 2008’s Akon collaboration. Invincible was a different sound to Michael’s classic records, but not necessarily a lesser sound.
Prince on the other hand, is still making music in much the same style as he always has - but his songwriting and quality control has suffered. With every new album (last year’s Lotusflow3r was disgustingly bad) he gets further and further away from his genius period of roughly 1980-1995.
In particular, his new album (the one released only in the UK for free-- because the internet is dead or some such nonsense) isn’t particularly good. Don’t me wrong, I actually was a huge fan of 3121, but this new one (“20ten”) is meh.
I thought 3121 was great too, a brief return to form. I haven’t heard 20Ten yet, I’m currently waiting on a copy to be airmailed over by a British friend! I wouldn’t say my hopes are exactly high, though.
Prince might have been the better musician, singer, and artist in general, but MJ was a social and cultural phenomenon. While I like Prince’s songs better, I’m going to have to say that in a 100 years, MJ will be in history books alongside the Beatles and Elvis, but Prince won’t.
I acquired a copy via the internet (which is amazing, since it’s dead and all). Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be in my Prince rotation, but it’s not anything to write home about. I mean, I suppose if you’ve got 33 studio albums or some such, they’re not all going to be gold, but there ya go.
Personally, aside from 3121, I think the moment Prince went back to being super religious was the moment his music really started to go downhill. Maybe it’s because some of my favorite Prince tunes are the filthy ones, but things seemed to have really mellowed out.
I will have to disagree with that. Prince has a huge body of work, has had several proteges, and has influenced many other musicians and even whole genres of music. He’s quiet and doesn’t get a lot of publicity, by choice, so I don’t think a lot of people realize how huge in the music industry he actually is. He has been just as influential and important to music and pop culture as MJ, just in a quieter, less freakazoid way.
