Originally posted: July 27, 2007
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2007/07/princes-innovat.ht
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Prince's innovations strictly business these days
Another year, another Prince album.
The one-man band and music mogul from Paisley Park has licensed "Planet
Earth" to Sony, and it's in stores now - in America, at least. Over in
England, Sony didn't bother to release the album at all, because Prince
struck a deal with the London tabloid the Mail on Sunday to give away the
album to its 2 million-plus subscribers.
U.K. retailers went ballistic, but what did they expect? It's Prince,
the man who plays by nobody's rules but his own.
Since breaking away from his longtime home at Warner Brothers in the
mid-'90s, where he once famously said he was treated like a "slave," Prince
has been in the news as much for how he's chosen to release his music as he
has for the music itself. In 2004, the ticket price for his arena tour
included a copy of his album "Musicology," which was given to ticketholders
as they entered his concerts. The record sold nearly 2 million copies
through this scheme, by far the biggest total Prince had achieved in the
post-Warner era. Other records have been released solely through Prince's
Web site, which enabled the singer to keep the profits instead of splitting
them with a distributor and a record label.
Prince has been nothing short of a one-man revolution when it comes to
distributing his music. In finding new ways to reach his fans, he
anticipated the seismic shifts now rocking the music industry.
But Prince's innovation as a businessman has not been matched musically.
While his concerts affirm that he's still one of the greatest artists of his
time, his albums have been inconsistent and surprisingly bland.
"Planet Earth" is no exception. It hopscotches genres in the way classic
Prince albums such as "Sign O' the Times" and "Purple Rain" once did.
Indeed, it kicks off with a "Purple Rain"-style guitar anthem ("Planet
Earth"). There's also a jazzy piano ballad ("Somewhere Here on Earth"), a
slow jam ("Future Baby Mama"), the funk workout ("Chelsea Rogers"), a
rewrite of "U Got the Look" ("The One U Wanna C"), and dusky pop-rock ("Lion
of Judah"). Prince's role-playing feels familiar too: the guy who loves his
"Guitar" more than his two-timing girl, the suave "Mr. Goodnight" playboy.
It's a compendium of the artist's best moves, undercut by the notion
that we've heard them all before done better on previous Prince albums.
At this point, expecting musical greatness from Prince on album is like
waiting for Michael Jackson to repeat "Thriller" or the Rolling Stones to
make another "Exile on Main Street." Yes, he's a legend, but he's no longer
an innovator as he was in the '80s. Back then, he merged the funky
eclecticism of Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic with the
latest technology: synthesizers, electronic keyboards, drum machines. His
sound was not only fresh, it was the future.
Now Prince is once again drafting a future world for music. But he's
applying his rule-breaking irreverence to his business, not his songs. He's
content to be prolific. Unmoved by Prince's new album? Don't worry, there'll
be another one soon.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<Moderator: I agree with this album 110%. From beginning to end this article
speaks my thoughts in a more organized fashion. I like the article so much I
made it point to post the following comment....
" I agree with you whole heatedly Greg! This has been going on for way too
long and I really wish it would stop! Since Prince's break with Warner
Brothers Instead of getting new innovative music with each new album you
get a new parlor trick to put money in Prince's bank.
I am all for Prince making money, but what about the music? Does it have to
suffer with each payday?" -Derek>
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