Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958), is a popular and influential American musician. His music has spanned myriad styles; though his early material was firmly rooted in R&B, funk and soul, he has constantly expanded his musical palette throughout his career, absorbing many other genres including reggae, pop, rock, blues, jazz and hip hop. The distinctive characteristics of the early-to-mid 1980s work which brought him to superstardom (that include sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements, as well as the use of synthesizer riffs to fulfill the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music) became known as the “Minneapolis sound,” which proved heavily influential. [citation needed] He has a reputation as a workaholic, having released over a thousand songs both under his own name and through other artists, and is known for having composed and recorded many more songs that remain unreleased. Regarded as a perfectionist, Prince has a reputation as being somewhat difficult to work with, and for being highly protective of his music. He writes, composes and produces most of his music single-handedly, and plays most of the instruments on his albums. He also is a well-known songwriter for other artists, and some of those songs have topped the charts as well. Critics and colleagues have referred to the quality of Prince’s work and its versatility as being indicative of musical genius. Rumour has it that a lot of the material Prince has written and composed is still on the shelves, refrained from publishing.
Prince And The Revolution existed between 1982 and 1986. The cover of “1999”, in fact, has “and the revolution” backwards inside the “i” in Prince. The lineup then consisted of Dr Matt Fink (keyboards), Dez Dickerson (guitar), Brownmark (bass), Bobby Z (drums), Lisa Coleman (keyboards), and Jill Jones (occasional vocals). Wendy Melvoin was suggested by childhood friend Lisa upon Dez Dickerson’s leaving, and became a member just before recording the movie “Purple Rain”, and contributing backing vocals on “Irresistible Bitch”, a B-Side to “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”.
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