Week 28: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[3-LockBox]

I agree with your James Brown statement (I had mentioned this on the James Brown post).

But Prince had already established himself with his real breakthrough album, 1999,a couple of years before; so I disagree with this rag's album selection, though the artist does merit mention.

Yeah, Purple Rain was a big album, but hardly groundbreaking. And once again they vomit up another ridiculous "without this there'd be no ________". Janet Jackson was on a hit TV show and had the coattales of a famous family name to ride and absolutely did not need Prince. And "no Beck".....wtf ?

[BarryL]

I'm not a big Prince fan and have none of his records. I've heard his hits.

But in an age of musical crap, along came this little guy who was absolutely committed to his music. He was a writer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and just freaky enough to be interesting. He was the antithesis of Michael Jackson at the time. Yeah, MJ could dance and sing, but Quincy Jones did most of the work in the way that Todd Rundgren and Jim Steinman baked Meat Loaf.

So, Prince was very influential only in that he established an artistic standard of excellence in an age of musical pomposity. He was someone that other artists could look up to and aspire to. But I'm not sure I ever saw much of a musical influence. Certainly not as much as Michael Jackson. Maybe there is some Prince in Terence Trent D'Arby.