UB Black Music Month Spotlight: The Album Era’s of Prince

UrbanBridgez.com June 7, 2021

5 minutes read

Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. Today we salute him on his Birthday with our special feature “The Album Eras of Prince.”

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 released, Prince showed 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 could blend so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole.

“Among major label American black artists, Prince’s sense of rebellion is even harder to find. Though Rick James, Funkadelic and Gil Scott-Heron do come to mind. More to the point, Prince instills a sense of fun and passion into his music.” – Billboard, November 1981

Prince took R&B and regally marched it into genre-blurring horizons previously unknown, fusing rock, funk, soul, psychedelia, pop, and singer-songwriter aesthetics into a sound that was mind-bending and booty-shaking. Sensual, literate, explosive, and groundbreaking, his artistry never stopped evolving, and the hits and acclaim never stopped coming.

His adventurous reinventions, bold experimentation, stellar instrumental and composing skills, and genius for showmanship have placed him high in the pantheon of all-time superstars !

During a career spanning four decades, Prince sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, making him one of the most successful artists of all time, with numerous No. 1 songs in the U.S. including “Purple Rain,” “Lets Go Crazy,” “Kiss” and “Cream.”

In addition to his own recordings, Prince was a prolific songwriter for other artists as well, with credits including “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Sinead O’Connor), “Manic Monday” (Bangles), “When You Were Mine” (Cyndi Lauper), “I Feel For You” (Chaka Khan) and “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” (Alicia Keys).

Prince won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Purple Rain. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility.

Today we celebrate not only a legend, but a musician who encouraged, inspired and devoted his life to the craft of real music. Gone way too soon, we salute Prince – The King of the Minneapolis Sound.

We’re going to take you on a trip, throughout the amazing discography of Prince.

For You was the debut studio album by Prince. Released on April 7, 1978 and bearing the tag “Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince,” the album is generally regarded as a promising but somewhat insubstantial early effort. The album peaked at #163 on the US Pop Charts (#21 R&B), and would go on to sell 430,000 copies domestically, 983,000 copies worldwide.

The self-titled Prince is the second studio album by Prince, released on October 19, 1979. It was a quickly written album in reaction to his debut For You. It took seven weeks to complete. The album needed to have hits and sell well to make up for the blown budget on his first release. Worries were stifled with the success of the lead single “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, which reached #1 on the R&B chart and nearly broke the top 10 on the pop chart.

Dirty Mind is the third studio album by American musician Prince, released October 8, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced, arranged and composed primarily by Prince, it contains prominently sexual lyrics and incorporates musical elements of funk, dance and rock music. The album debuted at number 63 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and earned widespread acclaim from music critics. On June 6, 1984, it was certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.

According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), “Dirty Mind remains one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history.” With this album, Prince makes a decisive change from his preceding more commercial album Prince. He seems keen to change his style from the disco-ish light soul of “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and experiments with a New Wave-influenced, rock and roll sound. The title track, complete with a demo-like organ, is rich with punk sensibilities.

Controversy is the fourth studio album by Prince, released on October 14, 1981. For the most part, the album was an expansion of its predecessor, 1980’s Dirty Mind. The title track is a funk workout, where Prince seems to be bored of the media attention he was receiving. “Do Me, Baby” is a classic Prince ballad, with falsetto whoops peppering the track. “Private Joy” is an upbeat, synthesizer romp layered with innuendo. “Let’s Work” is a highlight, based on a funky bass line with a stripped down synth-funk sound, foreshadowing Prince’s next album, 1999. “Annie Christian” is an odd political number with sinister lyrics. The album finishes with the rockabilly ode to mutual masturbation, “Jack U Off”. This record was considered to be his most political to date. The album was also an important stepping stone from his early works to the more mature song writing of the mid 1980’s.

1999 is the fifth studio album by Prince, released on October 27, 1982. It was his first top ten album on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States (peaking at number 9) and became the fifth best-selling album of 1983. 1999 was Prince’s breakthrough album, but his next album Purple Rain would become his most successful. The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit in countries outside the U.S.

It was also the first album to feature The Revolution. The band’s moniker is written in reverse on the front cover. According to the Rolling Stone Album Guide, “1999 may be Prince’s most influential album: Its synth-and-drum machine-heavy arrangements codified the Minneapolis sound that loomed over mid-’80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades’ worth of electro, house, and techno.” In 2003, the TV network VH1 placed 1999 49th in its list of the greatest albums of all time. The album was also part of Slant Magazine’s list “The 50 Most Essential Pop Albums”, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2003, the album was ranked number 163 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by Prince, the first to officially be credited to Prince & The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film Purple Rain. Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in pop music history.

The RIAA lists it as having gone platinum 13 times over. To date, it has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming the seventh best-selling soundtrack album of all time.

Prince designed Purple Rain as the project that would make him a superstar, and, surprisingly, that is exactly what happened.