Just curious to see what everyone here thinks: was Prince part of New Wave, or not? A lot of people seem to have a dismissive mentality of Prince being too "pop" or "R&B" to fit into the new wave category, while ignoring how experimental he was with his first 3-4 albums of the 1980s. Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, and even Purple Rain to an extent all share quite a bit of musical DNA with the new wave movement: punk and rockabilly influences, electronic drums and synthesizers galore, and a genre-appropriate aesthetic and fashion sense. The people who dismiss the idea of Prince as a New Wave artist altogether seem to conflate his later status as a larger-than-life Pop Icon with what he was doing during the early 80s, when the two couldn't be further apart. Prince wasn't a worldwide superstar before Purple Rain came out, and he very much was an alternative to fellow funk/R&B/pop artists on the scene. Songs like "When You Were Mine" and "Ronnie Talk To Russia" would fit in alongside the likes of Elvis Costello, while "Automatic" isn't entirely dissimilar from what Gary Numan or Thomas Dolby were doing. So what exactly is it that causes this aversion to labeling Prince as a "New Wave" artist? It seems like arbitrary gatekeeping at best, and old school race-based musical segregation at worst. Any thoughts or takes on this topic?
I think CONTROVERSY and DIRTY MIND and chunks of 1999 were both then and now easily slottable as "new wave" but Prince in general is too huge and capacious a character to be contained within any singular genre i.d.
Right, I didn't intend to reduce Prince as solely a new wave artist, of course. Just wanted to make a case for Prince being included in the New Wave canon rather than excluded
Prince could fit himself into any genre he wanted to. He was extremely versatile as a musician and a songwriter. Putting a brand on him would be pointless because the brand itself would keep changing. Calling him a pop artist simply means that he was a popular artist. It doesn’t dismiss him from being anything. He had some new wave elements in his sound but there was so much more. I think of him as a pop artist who was capable of going into any direction he wanted to at any given time.
Pretty much agree with eric777 and Neonbeam. Prince was a gigantic musical talent and while there were a lot of influences apparent in his music including new wave he was completely his own thing starting with Dirty Mind - from that point on, forget about genres, he just made Prince music.
Definitely seems like New Wave is way too small a categorization for Prince - and as a designation nearly forgotten about. That genre seems kind of dead, like still referring to REM as College Rock. Obviously they became more than that and College Rock itself switched it's branding to Alternative Rock and then Indie Rock (even if the artist is on a major label.) Terms like New Wave and Post Punk seem very quaint and out of fashion. New Wave artists either became classic rock or grandfathers of alternative rock. Retroactively wanting Prince to be considered New Wave is fine, but he definitely wasn't thought to be at the time - which may have a lot to do with race.
Part of the problem is trying to define what New Wave was - very nebulous. I think a few tracks may fall more into what I think of as New Wave - When You Were Mine especially - but most of his stuff is just too original, too idiosyncratic, to be so neatly categorized.
Agree with you on this, but I'd narrow Prince's "New Wave" period to 1980-82 (Dirty Mind through 1999). I'd even throw in some of the songs he gave to other artists (such as After Hi School to The Time and He's So Dull to Vanity 6) as fitting squarely into the New Wave category as well. Post-'82, Prince's ambitions of rock superstardom far eclipsed the narrow confines of New Wave, though elements were still there in parts of Purple Rain (especially Computer Blue). By 1985 however, all traces of the genre has basically vanished from his musical pallette.
Yes, though it's still applicable to describe an element of his music. "College" and "indie" overlapped, but neither were synonymous with "alternative," a far wider net encompassing many different flavors and ethos. In my experience; I was in high school during the 1980s window when the distinctions between the mainstream and all its alternatives seemed sharpest - though Prince had already transcended that line, too, for a couple records.
Maybe not for Entire Albums, but definitely a Few Songs on the 1999 Album, including the Title Track, Delirious and Automatic(Let’s Pretend We’re Married, which is my All Time Favorite Prince Song, probably is a Blend of FUNK & New Wave), and also his Title Track to the Controversy Album. This Song not only seems like New Wave to me, but is one of the Best New Wave Songs.
Totally understand where you are coming from with that comment. His New Wave-ness (though Pop Rock might be a better designation) on albums 3 -9 certainly played a part in him becoming one of the biggest artists on the planet. On the first two records, which I like a lot (especially the second one) he comes off as kind of a hyper sexualised Shuggie Otis though there are hints at what was coming. These days it is the s/t sophomore record that I play the most often. That or the fantastic 12" singles from the 1999 to Batman era. There are exceptions (Sign and Lovesexy for sure) but I get a lot more pleasure out of his work as a maker of killer singles and b-sides than as an album artist which maybe confirms or at least suggests that he was Pop radio guy at heart. At least up to the Symbol era.
There is certainly a New Wave influence in some of his earlier albums, yes--particularly Dirty Mind though 1999, as others have said.
There's a Gary Numan influence on Dirty Mind. Tubeway Army - We Are So Fragile https://youtu.be/NWDnqUnp-WY
I tend to agree with what seems like the majority, surprisingly... Some new wave songs, but not really a new wave artist
Good question. I never really thought of Prince as New Wave, but after reading the comments, yeah, some of his music does fit the genre.
