Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Prince: The Last Interview is a collection of interview articles curated to create a comprehensive story using primary sources for insight into the superstar’s psyche. Nobody has had a bigger influence on modern American music than the Minnesotan native, bending the boundaries of genre. Born in 1958 and rising to international fame through the 80s and 90s, Prince’s sound couldn’t be described by any classical music labels of music, mixing elements from jazz, funk, synth-pop, rock, and more. Despite his parents both being musicians, Prince claims they never influenced his musical development. Instead, he was influenced by musicians such as James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Wonder.
Introduced by Hanif Abdurraqib and by the interviewee Prince, Prince: The Last Interview and Other Conversationspulls together interviews at different stages of his life that begin to unravel the mysterious persona that was known to have an adverse relationship with the media. The collection gives us a glimpse of the icon from back from an interview in his school’s newspaper where his tremendous talent began to be recognized, through the struggles and freedom from the Warner Bros. Records label, his adaption to the computer age, and even his veganism.
Despite his tragic early death in 2016, Prince’s impact can’t be underestimated. Prince: The Last Interview showcases the artist’s thoughts on identity, freedom, religion, the art industry, sexual expression, forgiveness, and most of all how he continued to evolve his beliefs but not falter from them. If you want to know more about this generational talent who experiments with multiple types of artistic expression, you can check out the book from the Parsons Music Library.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
“Nothing Compares 2 U” was intended for The Family, a band formed by Prince in 1984, and was released on their self-titled 1985 album. The song was not released as a single, and the album bobbed around on the Billboard R&B Chart. While The Family was a favorite of Prince fans, “Nothing Compares 2 U” received little recognition. The song was offered to a young Irish singer, Sinéad O’Connor, fresh off releasing her first album. O’Connor embraced “Nothing Compares 2 U” in her own style, and it would end up introducing the artist to a massive global audience.
The Parsons Music Library contains two parts of this story in its collection. In 1993, Prince released his own version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” on Hits/the B-Sides. While this album is easily accessible on Spotify, it’s worth a trip to the Library’s CD collection to take a glimpse at the album itself. Flip open the first few pages of the liner notes, and the throwing-fists-in-the-driveway story gains credulity.
Excerpt from liner notes to Prince’s Hits/the B Sides
“When Sinead O’Connor took Nothing Compares 2 U to the top of the charts in 1988, Prince was damn near obliged to perform it himself… leaving no doubt whose song it was.” Fair enough. On Hits/The B-Sides, the song feels completely Prince. The song is performed live, it’s sensuous, and it has gentle echoes of Purple Rain. There’s a trumpet solo. Rosie Gaines contributes her vocals, telling a story in a way that one person just can’t do alone.
Prince’s take on “Nothing Compares 2 U” speaks to a level of artistry that only Prince could embody. Everything about the song is lush and performative. While the vocals yearn for the personal, there is a feeling that the song is still far beyond its listener. The song belongs near the center of a concert, capturing a feeling both grand and ethereal. It’s hard for me to imagine this version being excerpted on the radio or in coaxed into a short music video.
The song belonged to Prince, but it was a song that Sinéad O’Connor would succeed at first. There’s one more part of this story, one which Marcy Rose Chvasta finds related to Sinéad O’Connor’s body. Political Rock, available in the Parsons Music Library, offers a collection of critical essays on politically linked recording artists from Peter Gabriel to Pearl Jam. While O’Connor has been rooted in the political since the beginning of her artistry, Chvasta’s chapter looks to probe a little deeper. For a singer so deeply connected to the authenticity of Bel Canto, how should we handle an O’Connor who no longer feels authentic to the work and person she began with?
As O’Connor has moved on from “seven hours and fifteen days,” Chvasta notes that O’Connor has sometimes defined her popularity in relative proximity to the song. It was “Nothing Compares 2 U” that was popular, not necessarily O’Connor. The song becomes a story of O’Connor’s body, in a certain place and time, a forcible societal imagination of O’Connor as a permanently androgynous 20-something wandering around Parc de Saint-Cloud. As O’Connor has aged, she has aged out of this song, “her” song, due to an unstable and unreliably political body.
The O’Connor of today can’t quite be pinned down, and that’s a good thing — it is not the place of a 1990 hit song to define a career. Chvasta notes that O’Connor’s body and artistry are dangerous because of what they are not: lacking in eroticism, narcissism, and self-indulgence, this duality could not be popularly sustained. As an unwieldy body, O’Connor moved in directions far from her youth, and far from a place “Nothing Compares 2 U” could ever relate to.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
It’s 1984. Prince has just dominated the music industry with his iconic album, and equally iconic film of the same name Purple Rain. With a top-selling album and film under his belt, Prince has officially solidified himself within the music industry as a creative genius. After the immense success of the album, fans and critics anticipated and longed for his next album to match up sonically. However, Prince’s next album, Around the World in a Day, flopped in every regard – sales, expectations of fans, and ratings of critics. With the release of his next album, Parade, fans and critics still hoped for an album with the same sound as the iconic Purple Rain. Similarly to Around the World in a Day, the album did not have the same sound. While Parade, the source of my current analysis, did not flop in the same way that Around the World in a Day did, it was released to very mixed reviews.
Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1958, made his initial rise to fame primarily as a rock, pop, and disco artist. Though Prince was always an unpredictable, wild artist, it came as a complete surprise to fans and critics when he practically changed his whole sound to a much more psychedelic sound on Around the World in a Day. Similarly to the previous album, Parade maintained facets of the 1960s British boy rock-band inspired neo-psychedelia genre with distorted vocals, instruments and synthesizer sounds on songs such as “I Wonder U.” However, this album was also very much Prince’s introduction of the exploration of a genre known as “Baroque pop.” An infusion of rock and classical music, Baroque pop is a form of rock with a much more orchestral sound, as opposed to heavy guitar riffs. With this genre, the focus is on layered harmonies, as well as dramatic, intense strings and horns. There are also, for the most part, subtle elements of funk on the entire album. With prominent bass guitar, and noticeable drums and synthesizers, Prince and his backing band The Revolution certainly incorporate funk along with the experimentation of Baroque pop. Written as the soundtrack for a black and white romantic drama film, and Prince’s directorial debut, Under the Cherry Moon, Parade has a quite equal mix of slow tempo, somber songs (i.e. “Under the Cherry Moon” and “Do U Lie?”), as well as more upbeat, heavily-textured songs (i.e. “New Position” and “Girls & Boys”). To this day, fans and critics discuss the album Parade with mixed reviews. However, what practically everyone agrees on is that the standout song, and one of the biggest songs of Prince’s nearly four-decade long career, was the iconic “Kiss.”
Arguably the most “funky”song on Parade, Prince’s “Kiss.”
Originating as a short, acoustic demo given to funk band Mazarati, “Kiss” almost did not make the cut for this Prince album. However, after the band reworked the song into a much funkier tune, Prince decided to take the song back for himself and include it on the album at the last minute. Because of this, it makes sense that, while listening to the album in its entirety, it may seem to the listener that this eventual lead single off of the album does not quite have the same sound as the rest of the songs that make up Parade. Though the rest of the album did have characteristics of funk, the seemingly “plucked” and distorted bassline and the prominent steady synthesizer-created percussion, along with Prince’s quite soulful and sensual vocals, give this song has a much more funk-inspired vibe. Known for being unconventional, Prince, throughout this song, shatters expectations of women to constantly be beautiful or “cool” to be attractive and appealing to him. Donned in slicked back hair, makeup, and heels, Prince shatters stereotypes and norms even more in the video as he sings the lyrics in a falsetto. Though the rest of the album did not receive Purple Rain-level critical acclaim, the single “Kiss” topped charts across the globe, holding the Number 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart for two weeks. The song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and has sold over 1,000,000 copies since its release in 1986.
When thinking about this album Parade, and its iconic single “Kiss,” it is interesting to think about the tensions that arose between the two main reactions to the album. While some think of it as a minimalist masterpiece and an interesting follow up to Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day, others view it as a disappointment and throwaway album in Prince’s lengthy discography. One question that one may consider is, what do the overwhelming number of negative reactions to this album say about artists, specifically Black artists, and changing their sound? Why is the music industry so restrictive to artists and so reluctant to accept changes in their music? For scholars who may be studying and analyzing questions like these, comparing this album and its reactions to the music and reactions of Purple Rain could lead to very interesting analysis. Also, with the extremely prominent facets of Baroque pop present on this album, those interested in studying the genre and its then, new, success in Europe could also use this album as a site of analysis. More related to my research of the shattering of gender and sexuality norms and stereotypes for Black artists in music, one could compare the lyrics of the song “Kiss” to its representations in the music video. Analyzing Parade and “Kiss” will certainly help me in my research, as they both give me insight into Prince’s views on gender and sexuality at the time, with the aural representations of his high-pitched voice, etc. in the music, as well as visual representations in music videos such as “Kiss.”
Though Prince and The Revolution’s album Parade still receives mixed reviews, it certainly provides multiple sites for analysis. I’m sure it will assist me in my research of gender and sexuality norms for Black artists in music, as well as numerous other topics of research for other scholars.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
To understand the importance of Prince’s CD album, or CDs in general, during the 1980s one must take a step back and look at the differences between our modes of listening to music today as opposed to the 1980s. In the 2000s CDs began to be phased out of popularity due to the improved technology that came about to form Itunes. This decade has seen an even bigger change transitioning from the Itunes format of music listening to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. The concept of paying a monthly fee to gain access to a massive music library had not even come to fruition as a concept back in the 80s.
Created in 1982, CDs were the easiest method to listen to music to during that era. CDs were the most compact and easiest to transport at the time and as long as someone had a CD player or a car stereo then the stage was set. Getting a new CD in the 80s would be comparable to taking a kid to the candy store or getting a new video game in the modern era. I was never able to really experience the true atmosphere of a music store where shelves were lined with records and CDs as seen in movies like Wayne’s World but it appears to be very similar to going to the video store back in the 2000s to get the latest movie that had come out.
Music store in the 1980s
Since CDs were commonplace at the time and hundreds were displayed next to each other on shelves, it was also important that the cover art of the CD case and the design of the CD were eye-catching and could convince someone to purchase the album. Designed by art director Laura LiPuma and photographed by Ed Thrasher and Stuart Douglas Watson, Purple Rain’s album art has since become iconic and has been especially useful in defining an identity for the city of Minneapolis (where Prince was born and raised). The picture of Prince sitting on his purple motorcycle clad in his quintessential purple suit with smoke billowing out behind him is only further emphasized by the words “Purple Rain: Prince and the Revolution” in thick purple letters. This is also symbolic in the sense that this was the first time Prince included his band, “the Revolution,” in the album art. The photo is lined on both sides by beautiful flowers which can be tied back into the perception of androgyny in his music and fashion. The inside flap of the case is made up entirely of these flowers and their petals. The album art breathes mysteriousness and insinuates that seeing this movie will give you the full “Prince experience” in regard to his musical and acting abilities. The effects of this album art can still be felt in popular culture today with the city of Minneapolis “adopting” purple as their color and even blanketing the city in purple during the halftime performance at the Super Bowl last year after Prince passed away in 2016. In addition to this the basketball team located in the city, the Minnesota Timberwolves, have also created Purple Rain-inspired jerseys for this upcoming season.
The city of Minneapolis lit up in purple during the Super Bowl, Feb. 4, 2018
The album art of Purple Rain has also been differently portrayed by other artists using its major themes and elements. In 2016, hip-hop artist Future dropped an appropriately titled mixtape named Purple Reign, where the cover art to the album draws off of Prince’s style with the title of the mixtape in thick purple letters and a near dark background.
Future: Purple Reign mixtape art 2016
As far as relevance I wanted to research a topic for this assignment that was fascinating to me and the success of soundtrack albums in music especially piqued my interest after having watched the movie Purple Rain for class in early October. Overall, this CD album art was useful for the movie because it was an excellent marketing tool for Prince. As discussed previously, the compactness of CDs made it the most popular mode to listen to music with in the 1980s. With over 25 million copies sold worldwide, this can be translated as 25 million advertisements for a movie in marketing terms. The album art not only represented the contents (songs) inside the CD case but also signified the opportunity to see a good movie. The movie Purple Rain cost $7 million to make and achieved box office sales of $70.2 million while Prince took home the Academy Award for best original score. It was Prince’s entrance into the film industry and he went on to further direct, compose, and act in other classics such as Under the Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge.
The album art of Purple Rain also represents the precedent that Prince helped set that a soundtrack album can produce quality music. Until Purple Rain came out there was no real popularity in soundtrack albums besides other classic movies like Grease and Saturday Night Fever in the late 1970s. Since then there has been an explosion in popularity with soundtrack album especially within the last 20 years. Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem or The Real Slim Shady, put together a highly successful soundtrack album for his 2002 biopic 8 Mile. His song “Lose Yourself,” which is played in the ending scene as Eminem walks away down the street after winning the final battle, became a hit sensation and is often seen as one of his best pieces of work if not the best. Recently, “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth from the movie Furious 7 (Fast and Furious movie franchise) set streaming records for most streams in a week and in a day in 2015.
In summation Purple Rain and its album art helped usher in the popularity of soundtrack albums, give an identity to the city of Minneapolis, and promote Prince’s now classic movie Purple Rain.
