# Why was Prince considered revolutionary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114 "2004-11-22T15:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/1 "2004-11-22T15:16:14Z")
Don’t get me wrong; I loved his stuff from the _Purple Rain_ era. But over and over, I’ve read music critics describe his music as “revolutionary”, “completely new”, etc., and I just don’t see it. Could someone enlighten me? Sua ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/2 "2004-11-22T15:30:03Z")
I don’t know if you were there at the time, but sometimes you have to consider the work of an artist in context, i.e. what were other people doing at the time. I’m not too fond of Purple Rain, myself. There are many other albums which are far more “revolutionary”. Ultimately, he was a good song writer and a very clever producer, using sounds and instruments in new ways and incorporating it all in catchy tunes. However, I have a nagging suspicion that some of the (overly positive) laudings from music critics has to do with him being black and playing a guitar, i.e. crossing the line between black music and white. As I understand it, even in the 80’s, black artist were mostly played on black stations, unless they were very mainstream, as Jacko. The way Prince refused to play along in that game might very well be an important reason so many critics loved him. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/3 "2004-11-22T15:33:46Z")
Revolutionary might be the wrong term, but if you listen to “Around the world in a day” you will find that he did take music in a very different direction than contemporary “pop”-musicians. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/4 "2004-11-22T15:39:27Z")
I don’t think he was revolutionary – just very, very, very good. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/5 "2004-11-22T15:52:51Z")
IIRC His first two albums didn’t cause much of a stir (outside of MN, at least). But when he released _Dirty Mind_ in 1980 and then _Controversy_ the next year, \*Rolling Stone \*magazine went nuts. A lot of had to do with the fact that he wrote all the songs, played most (if not all) the instruments, and even produced the damn things. And yes, as **The Gaspode** stated, he was a black man playing rock. About his only peers in this respect were the guys in Living Color. Remeber, this was in the early days of New WaveTM, and there were still a lot of post-disco R&B out there. His songs were raunchy, catchy, and really, really different from a lot of other musicians, black, white or green. By the time _1999_, was released, MTV was a firmly established pop phenom itself, and his sexy videos for “Little Red Corvette” and “1999” were incredible eye-candy, fitting right into their playlist - especially since they were looking for black artists that fit with their format. I saw a _1999_ tour show in 1982. I think I was the only white guy there, but I loved the whole evening. With him were The Time and Vanity 6. He had started branching by then, writing and producing material for those (and a host of other) acts. This also fed into his reputation as a musical force. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/6 "2004-11-22T15:55:27Z")
Prince did a lot more stuff than just _Purple Rain_. I think one aspect of his critical praise certainly is the fact that he was played on white radio stations, but there’s no denying the fact that the man is a musical genuis of the first order. He could just as easily write a guitar-based rock song as a groove-based funk song or Beatlesque psychedila. At one point during the 80’s, he was writing half the songs on the radio, whether it was his songs, The Bangles, Sheena Easton, etc. When he mashed together genres, it just seemed right–everything seemed to fit together. If you want an example of what it sounds like when mashed together genres don’t fit, think of the rap-metal experiments that ended up producing Linkin Park and their ilk. His instrumental prowess is absolutely second to none. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame he played “While My Gutar Gently Weeps” with Tom Petty and George Harrison’s son. He took the solo and it was stunning. Could Michael Jackson have done that? Could Usher have done that? Could P. Diddly have done that? This set of skills is not unique in music history, of course. It’s actually kind of the definition of “pop”. The Beatles and Ray Charles were both very good at it. His downfall, of course, was that he never really understood or respected hip hop. At first he ignored it, then, when it became obvious that it was the future, he dabbled in it like he dabbled in everything else, but it always came out sounding forced. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/7 "2004-11-22T17:17:32Z")
For what it’s worth, here’s what [AMG](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781ED948A97520CE992D4DDABD7DF529D64CEE831F29461BDFBA3C54851472F353F28C93FDFB74AB7BADE02CA45A0B9FCBEC5CFED46C393C9D8EDB&sql=11:4ucyxdkbjolg~T1) has to say: > [@All Music Guide](#): > > Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only did he release a series of groundbreaking albums, he toured frequently, produced albums and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With each album he has released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music can be maddeningly inconsistent because of this eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeed; no other contemporary artist can blend so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole. I also don’t know that I’d hold up Linkin Park as an example of genre fusion gone wrong; despite the fact that I don’t particularly care for them, I think they do the mix of hip-hop and nu metal pretty well. I know I’ve heard some failed eclecticism, but I’m having a hard time thinking of any examples that aren’t incredibly obscure. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/8 "2004-11-22T17:44:55Z")
I was in my mid-teens in the early 1980s, and had the Top 40 station on 24 hours a day. When I first heard “Little Red Corvette” I hated it. When I saw Prince’s skinny little greasy ass lip-synching to it on “Solid Gold”, I hated it even more. The rise of Prince and Madonna was my signal that pop music was no longer for me. Prince was seen at the time as the next generation of funk. IMO, he took funk away from its best roots, which Lenny Kravitz finally made sprout again. I’ve grown far more charitable of him more recently, and consider his appearance on “Muppets Tonight” to be one of the great moments in late-1990s television. But, overall, I have about 50 artists at least that I like better than him. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/9 "2004-11-22T18:06:16Z")
Chalk another one up for “musical genius, wrote in many styles, etc…” I would add: - took electronic music and instruments - e.g., LinnDrums and other early technology - and made it sound organic and natural in a way that most other artists on the pop scene couldn’t dream of. I remember reading one respected female musician (can’t remember who, sorry) who said “Prince could make electronic drums sound like fucking” - crossed over in the new wave genre - whereas Michael Jackson was more R&B cross over, Prince’s stuff was more new wave and electronic dance crossover. It was legitimate in club circles, African American circles and pop circles. - Other than maybe James Brown, he is pretty much the most influential non-hip-hopper in the world of hip hop, IMHO, in terms of how he wrote and produced his music and the beats he used. Every hip hopper I have ever read about holds him up as the Man. ---
**Author:** ![Paisley\_Park](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Paisley\_Park](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paisley_Park)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/10 "2004-11-22T18:57:48Z")
The man is a musical genius. His [Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame](http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=2179) bio says it all, really: > [@](#): > > Prince (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums; born June 7, 1958) > > Prince arrived on the scene in the late Seventies, and it didn’t take long for him to upend the music world with his startling music and arresting demeanor. He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties. Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone. From the beginning Prince and his music were androgynous, sly, sexy and provocative. His colorful image and revolutionary music made Prince a figure comparable in paradigm-shifting impact to Little Richard, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton. While 1999, Purple Rain and Sign ‘O’ the Times remain Prince’s best-known albums, the artist’s deep discography is full of funky treasure. > > To understand Prince, one must appreciate the extent of his musical obsession. He has always been a willing servant of his tireless muse. “There’s not a person around who can stay awake as long as I can,” he claimed in a 1985 interview. “Music is what keeps me awake.” Because he is a workaholic, it’s difficult to keep track of all he’s recorded for himself and others in his orbit. There are reputedly hundreds of unreleased songs in Prince’s vault. In 1998, he unveiled some of these leftovers on the five-CD set, Crystal Ball. That leviathan followed Emancipation (1996), a three-disc set of new material. The single discs Chaos and Disorder (1996) and Newpower Soul (1998) also came out during the same time frame. That’s ten CDs’ worth of music in a three-year period - much more material than most artists manage in a lifetime - and it doesn’t even include albums by Chaka Khan (Come 2 My House) and Graham Central Station (GCS 2000) on which Prince played a major role. Given such prolific output, it doesn’t take long to realize that Prince isn’t just a musician but a force of nature… > > …Over a 20-year period, Prince placed 32 singles in Billboard’s Top Forty, from 1979’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” to “1999,” reissued in the very year it referenced. From the early Eighties to the mid-Nineties, Prince was a near-constant fixture on the album charts. To date, 18 Prince albums have been certified gold or platinum, and five of them - 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Batman and Diamonds and Pearls - have sold more than 2 million copies apiece. Purple Rain alone sold 13 million copies and topped the album charts for nearly half a year at the height of Prince’s reign in the mid-Eighties. As Rolling Stone contended in 1989, “Perhaps more than any other artist, Prince called the tune for pop music in the Eighties, imprinting his Minneapolis sound on an entire generation of musicians both black and white.” - In my mind, he is one of the Top 5 songwriters of all time. - He is the best stage performer/showman I have ever seen. - _Little Red Corvette_ is the best pop song I have ever heard. - _Adore_ is the best R&B song I have ever heard. - _Sign O’ the Times_ is the best album I have ever heard. - He is probably the most underrated guitar player of all time. His 5-minute guitar solo in _Just My Imagination_ (Small Club, The Hague, 08/1988) is the best guitar solo I have ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/11 "2004-11-22T19:12:11Z")
> [@Paisley Park](#): > > The man is a musical genius. \ > > - He is probably the most underrated guitar player of all time. His 5-minute guitar solo in _Just My Imagination_ (Small Club, The Hague, 08/1988) is the best guitar solo I have ever heard. Yeah, but then he had to go and release “Batdance.” Something that made me long for the days of the “Batusi”. I agree he was revolutionary. But by the time _Under A Cherry Moon_ rolled in, he was just cruising on his reputation, and hasn’t done anything to change my opinion of his work. He alienated most of his fans - I don’t give a damn what the press reported about his life or personality - with his musical antics. Growth is a good thing, but changing his output a radically as he did messed it up. There’s no way anything done after _Purple Rain_ is as consistantly good track for track as _Controversy_, _Dirty Mind_ or _1999_. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/12 "2004-11-22T19:47:43Z")
The soundtrack to _Under the Cherry Moon_ is the album_Parade_ which contains “Kiss”, which is, to this day, his biggest hit. His next album was _Sign o’ the Times_, which is considered to be his masterpiece. The aborted _Black Album_ was next, which has some incredible tracks and some stinkers. _Lovesexy_ is solid–it has “Alphabet Street” and “When 2 R in Love”, which are both incredible songs. Then came the Batman soundtrack, which, although much and rightly maligned, still had a couple of interesting songs on it. (“Party Man”) His 90’s output wasn’t up to the glory days of the 80’s, but every album (except for _Graffiti Bridge_) had three or four worthy songs. To say that he never did anything worth a damn after _Purple Rain_ is just wrong. Hell, 2004’s _Musicology_ is a pretty good album! ---
**Author:** ![Paisley\_Park](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Paisley\_Park](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paisley_Park)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/13 "2004-11-22T20:05:47Z")
Well said **vibrotronica**. I would also add _Diamonds & Pearls_ (1991) to that list as well. > [@Sean Factotum](#): > > He alienated most of his fans - I don’t give a damn what the press reported about his life or personality - with his musical antics. For a relatively brief period of time in the mid-90s. He’s back stronger than ever with a great new album and tour. His 2004 _Musicology_ Tour was the **Top Draw** of 2004: 1.47 Million tickets sold! \* - Source: Billboard ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/14 "2004-11-22T20:56:15Z")
It was considered revolutionary because it put into words all the conniving, underhanded tricks that royal families do to one another, and suggested ways in which they could even improve their chances for dirty, underhanded success. Or weren’t you talking about the well-known book by Machiavelli? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/15 "2004-11-22T21:14:39Z")
… and don’t forget that, according to Eddie Murphy’s brother, Prince got some serious game on the basketball court, too. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/16 "2004-11-22T21:33:12Z")
Revolutionary is a little strong but my goodness was a he a great musician. Purple Rain is still a great albulm and doesn’t really sound dated at all. Ok, so perhaps he lost the plot a little with some of his movies and he can be accussed of self-indulgence to the extreme but so what! He produced some great music so I can forgive Under the Cherry Red Moon. Also, isn’t his mother white so he’s actually a mullato (is that the right term?) or half-black/half-white. ---
**Author:** ![Paisley\_Park](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Paisley\_Park](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paisley_Park)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/17 "2004-11-22T22:37:45Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Also, isn’t his mother white so he’s actually a mullato (is that the right term?) or half-black/half-white. No, both of his parents are African-American. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-prince-considered-revolutionary/276114/18 "2004-11-22T22:52:44Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > - took electronic music and instruments - e.g., LinnDrums and other early technology - and made it sound organic and natural in a way that most other artists on the pop scene couldn’t dream of. I remember reading one respected female musician (can’t remember who, sorry) who said “Prince could make electronic drums sound like fucking” This was going to be my angle. 🙂 Prince was an early adopter of samplers and sample-based instruments, like the aforementioned LinnDrum (the first drum machine to use samples of a real drum kit rather than making “bleeps” and “bloops” from an internal synthesizer). He lent legitimacy to these techniques and sounds, often by using them in a non-novelty context (contrary to the way many new wavers presented them) like any other instrument. His studio, Paisley Park, was instrumental in pushing these new technologies, and was a precient precursor to today’s moder digital studios. Also - incredible songwriter. MC Hammer’s “pray”, Sinead’s “nothing compares 2 U”, and a million others. 😉