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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Prince.jpg]]
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4[floatboxright: Influences: Music/{{Santana}}, Music/TheIsleyBrothers, Music/SlyAndTheFamilyStone, Music/MilesDavis, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/ToddRundgren, Music/JoniMitchell, Music/MarvinGaye, Music/JamesBrown, Music/AlGreen, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/GeorgeClinton, Music/StevieWonder, Rick James, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/LittleRichard]
5
6->''"My name is Prince\
7And ๐Ÿ‘ am funky\
8My name is Prince\
9The one and only\
10๐Ÿ‘ did not come\
11To fuck around\
12'Til ๐Ÿ‘ get your daughter\
13๐Ÿ‘ won't leave this town"''
14-->-- '''Prince''', "My Name Is Prince"[[note]]Yes, the "๐Ÿ‘" in place of "I" is part of the official lyrics. Prince did that a lot.[[/note]]
15
16Move over, Music/JamesBrown. There's a new sex machine in town, and his name's Prince.
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18Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 โ€“ April 21, 2016), generally known simply as "Prince," "The Purple One," or "His Royal Badness" to {{fan|Nickname}}s, was probably the most famous musician from UsefulNotes/{{Minnesota}} since Music/BobDylan to become incredibly successful and carve a place for himself in the annals of pop music history.
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20Known as a [[IAmTheBand multi-instrumentalist]] who could play several instruments pretty epically (keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, drums, drum machine) and a highly idiosyncratic (sometimes bordering on ControlFreak) songwriter, Prince had a future rock star's obligatory chaotic childhood and parent separation, though his mother has stated he only had "normal disagreements" with his father, and other people have suggested it wasn't anywhere near as bad as depicted in ''Purple Rain'' or songs like "Papa" (food for thought: Prince also co-wrote several songs with his father John L. Nelson). After running away from home and staying with his neighbors (where he met future bandmate Andrรฉ Cymone), Prince entered his first band in the early [[TheSeventies seventies]], playing piano and guitar. A demo recorded in 1976 brought the attention of a few major record labels, and he wound up signing with [[Creator/WarnerBrosRecords Warner Bros. Records]] because they offered him the most creative freedom ([[HilariousInHindsight commence laughter]]). His first two albums for the label, ''For You'' and ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Prince]]'', were full of rather generic, disco-influenced R&B, recorded in [[IAmTheBand one-man band mode]]. Prince nevertheless began to showcase his overwhelming preoccupation with sex and matters of the flesh in general: his first single was called "Soft and Wet"[[note]]Yes, ''Manga/{{JoJo|s Bizarre Adventure}}'' fans, this is where the name of ''[=JoJolion=]''-Josuke's Stand comes from[[/note]]; and his 1979 hit "I Wanna Be Your Lover" featured the line, "I wanna be the only one you come for," in the chorus.
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22With ''Dirty Mind'', Prince finally hit upon his SignatureStyle that would hereafter be called "TheMinneapolisSound": a fusion of funk (by way of [[Music/GeorgeClinton Parliament-Funkadelic]], Music/JimiHendrix and Music/SlyAndTheFamilyStone), New Wave (lots of robotic synths and drum machines), pop and rock. The sound was largely defined by its clean guitar sound, the fusion of the [=LinnDrum=] drum machine and live percussion, and the use of keyboards as both a horn section and as extensions of the guitar. It also helped that by ''Dirty Mind'', Prince had assembled a good backing band (bassist Andrรฉ Cymone, guitarist Dez Dickerson, keyboardists Lisa Coleman and Dr. Fink, and drummer Bobby Z.). Lyrically, ''Dirty Mind'' began Prince's descent into full-on IntercourseWithYou-mode, as showcased by such songs as "Head" (about him tricking a bride on her way to getting married into giving him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin head]]) and "Sister" (about really {{Squick}}y BrotherSisterIncest). The album was also recorded entirely by Prince on all the instruments except for "Head", which included vocals from Lisa Coleman and Dr. Fink contributing a noisy, atonal keyboard solo.
23
24Unsurprisingly, this all proved to be a bit too much for America in TheEighties (his bizarre wardrobe certainly didn't help matters) - while opening for Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} in 1981, Prince got pelted with trash and booed off the stage. Still, he soldiered on and released ''Controversy'', which was pretty much ''Dirty Mind'' again, but with more confident and exploratory songwriting (general consensus has pretty much branded ''Controversy'' with the ItsTheSameNowItSucks iron).
25
26By this time, Prince's backing band had crystallized into its most famous incarnation:
27* Brown Mark - bass guitar, vocals
28* Bobby Z. - drums
29* Lisa Coleman - keyboards, vocals (generally credited as "Wendy and Lisa")
30* Wendy Melvoin - guitar, vocals (generally credited as "Wendy and Lisa", replaced Dez Dickerson in 1983)
31* Dr. Fink - keyboards, vocals
32
33Now christened "The Revolution", Prince made ''1999'', his breakthrough album into the US mainstream - mostly on the backs of the hit singles "1999" ([[LyricalDissonance a catchy funk tune about nuclear armageddon]]) and "Little Red Corvette" (an entire [[DualMeaningChorus Dual Meaning Song]] using cars as a metaphor for a bad relationship), with the latter being a massive success on both sides of the Atlantic.
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35Prince's next project was a small film where he played a troubled musical prodigy who is trying to become a star despite his {{Jerkass}} behavior threatening to drive away his bandmates. The Revolution and other associates all appeared using their real names, except Prince's character who was named "The Kid". The film was called ''Film/PurpleRain'', with French composer Michel Colombier composing the score. 1984 thus turned out to be Prince's best year: the soundtrack album ''Purple Rain'' was a massive success, spending 6 consecutive months at #1 on the US charts; the film got nominated for Academy Awards and grossed over $68 million at the box office ($186 million when adjusted for inflation); and four of the singles drawn from it were smash hits: "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain" and "I Would Die 4 U", with the first two becoming Prince's first two #1 singles in the US, and "When Doves Cry" becoming the biggest-selling single of 1984 according to ''Billboard''. ''Purple Rain'' (the album) not only formalized Prince's burgeoning XtremeKoolLetterz spelling system but also showed a more theatrical yet still highly catchy variation on the Minneapolis sound, emphasizing a stronger lead guitar presence alongside more classical elements โ€“ย a recipe for crossover success.
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37In this period, Prince also got in trouble due to his explicit style. Then-Senator UsefulNotes/AlGore's wife Tipper was outraged by hearing her 12-year-old daughter listening to the explicit lyrics of "Darling Nikki" and founded the much-hated [[MoralGuardians Parents Music Resource Center]] (yes, the inventors of the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" sticker).
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39Following a successful tour marred by occasional tension within the band, Prince & the Revolution released another successful album, ''Around the World in a Day'', this time amplifying the psychedelic elements hinted at with ''Purple Rain'' to a vaguely [[Music/TheBeatles Beatlesque]] sound. The resulting tour worsened intra-band tension due to Prince's recruitment of additional members (Susannah Melvoin, Eric Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, Jerome Benton, Wally Salford, and Greg Brooks). He also began a new film project named ''Film/UnderTheCherryMoon'' โ€“ a dramatic work starring Prince and Jerome Benton as thieves attempting to swindle the fortunes of a Parisian heiress. While ''Purple Rain'' had a lukewarm-but-positive reception, ''Cherry Moon'' was savaged by critics due to bad plot and acting, but the film's soundtrack album ''Parade'' did well on the charts, with its lead single "Kiss" becoming Prince's third #1 in the US. For the first time, Prince began selling better in Europe than in the United States.
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41Since the intra-band tension had grown to severe levels by now, Prince disbanded The Revolution in 1986, firing everyone besides Dr. Fink, and Brown Mark, who had quit on his own. A new lineup was assembled, including guitarist Miko Weaver; drummer Sheila E.; Bliss and Leeds on horns; bassist Levi Seacer, Jr; and keyboardist Boni Boyer. Prince then unveiled ''[[Music/SignOTheTimes Sign 'โ˜ฎ' the Times]]'' in 1987, Prince's first solo effort after the disintegration of The Revolution. Prince was already abandoning the Minneapolis sound for leaner funk production at this point, basing it off of live show jams from the previous few years (one of which is included on ''Sign''.) While the album garnered a much better reception critically and commercially, it marked the beginning of Prince's feud with Warner Bros. Records, after they scrapped his plan to originally release a triple album, ''Crystal Ball,'' and forced him to reduce it to a double album - possibly a rare case of positive ExecutiveMeddling. (The ''Crystal Ball'' title would go on to be the title of a triple album of rarities released eleven years later.) Prince was still able to have his untitled follow-up album of dark funk replaced with 1988's ''Lovesexy'', a positive funk-pop work that was partially HijackedByJesus. Despite Prince's popularity beginning to wane, he was then tapped to create the soundtrack for the 1989 Creator/TimBurton ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'' film along with Creator/DannyElfman (Music/MichaelJackson had been in talks to do it, but it never panned out). The soundtrack scored Prince his 4th #1 in the US with "Batdance".
42
43After the rest of his Revolution bandmates drifted away (Dr. Fink, Sheila E., Leeds, Bliss, and so on), Prince debuted a new backing band, The New Power Generation, in 1990. Its members have included:
44
45* Levi Seacer, Jr. - rhythm guitar (1990-1993)
46* Kat Dyson - rhythm guitar (1996-1997)
47* "Rev." Michael Scott - rhythm guitar (1997-2001, 2004, 2006)
48* Sonny T. - bass (1990-1996)
49* Rhonda Smith - bass (1996-2004)
50* Rosie Gaines - keyboards, vocals (1990-1992)
51* Tommy Barbarella - keyboards (1991-1996)
52* Kip Blackshire - keyboards, backing vocals (1999-2001)
53* Renato Neto - keyboards (2002-2008)
54* Michael Bland - drums (1990-1996)
55* Kirk Johnson - percussion, backing vocals, dancing, drums, drum machine programming (1990-1993, 2000-2001)
56* John Blackwell - drums (2000-2004)
57* Maceo Parker - horns (1999-2007)
58* Tony Morris - horns (1998-2000)
59* Greg Boyer - horns (2001-2008)
60* Tony M. - rapping, dancing (1990-1993)
61* Mayte Garcia - backing vocals, dancing (1992-1996)
62* Mr. Hayes - keyboards (1993-2012)
63... and many others.
64
65Prince's introduction for the New Power Generation was ''Graffiti Bridge'', a sequel to ''Purple Rain'', in which The Kid is challenged by Morris Day of The Time into a battle of wits and music over the affection of an [[ManicPixieDreamGirl angel-like female character]]. The film fell out of the box office quickly, with praise going solely towards the music of the film. Undaunted, Prince released ''Diamonds and Pearls'', the first album under the name Prince and the New Power Generation in 1991. Combining funk with new jack swing and contemporary rhythm and blues, ''Diamonds'' yielded the highly successful singles "Gett Off" and "Cream", the latter being Prince's fifth and final #1 hit in the US. The ''Love Symbol'' album followed (so named after the unpronounceable symbol that graces its cover), which rounded out Prince's radio marketability for nearly a decade, with the singles "7" and "My Name Is Prince."
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67[[quoteright:115:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_love_symbol.png]]It was at this point that Prince's commercial success and audience began dwindling. Prince began publicly feuding with Warner Brothers over the terms of his contract. Albums of questionable quality were seeing release as a means to get out of his contract โ€“ including, unsuccessfully, the release of the shelved ''Black Album'' in 1994. Prince even wrote "Slave" across his face for public appearances, and changed his name to the unpronounceable "[[LuckyCharmsTitle love symbol]]" in 1993, leading to [[TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX the nickname "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince"]] courtesy of a befuddled media and public who had no clue what to actually ''call'' him. Like The Revolution, the New Power Generation only received co-billing credit on three albums. This band stuck around well into the 2000s, however.
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69Prince's freedom from Warner Bros. came in 1996 when he promptly released a triple album titled ''Emancipation''. He continued to release albums, playing to a small but dedicated group of fans while his work went largely unnoticed in pop culture. A failed attempt at recapturing success, ''Rave [=Un2=] the Joy Fantastic'', was released in 1999. When his contract with Warner Bros expired in 2000, Prince made a statement that he was changing his name back to Prince, rather than [[LuckyCharmsTitle the symbol]] he had adopted to detach himself from them. Prince made another bid for the mainstream with the album ''Musicology'', this time with a successful pair of singles and a performance opening the 2004 Grammy Awards.
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71Prince ended up holding a larger audience than during his off-label years in TheNineties but still not matching his peak popularity. He simultaneously released albums through regular distribution channels as well as online exclusive albums, eventually settling on platforms that benefit him the most artistically and financially (such as ''20TEN'' being released as a free covermount on some European newspapers.) In 2012, he became the frontman for an otherwise all-female rock band, 3RDEYEGIRL. The band also simultaneously acted as Prince's current backing band, transforming many of his older songs into classic hard rock tracks in the vein of his own "Bambi" and "Temptation"; and were sometimes augmented by the NPG Hornz. In 2014, he and Warner Bros. kissed and made up, and he released two new albums, ''ART OFFICIAL AGE'' and ''PLECTRUMELECTRUM'' (with 3RDEYEGIRL).
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73Prince reportedly had hundreds upon hundreds of unreleased songs, albums, and even ''movies'' in his "vault". If true, he had so much music in the vault that a new album could have been released every year for the next '''100 years'''. Prince wrote more than one thousand songs, making him a poster boy for ArchivePanic. Most were released under his own name, some were released under [[StageNames pseudonyms]] and {{pen name}}s, while others were recorded and released by other artists. Associates and "spinoff bands" of the latter mostly involved others recording vocals over his own songs with his own lyrics (Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mazarati, Madhouse, The Family), with some such spinoff bands managing to win creative independence (Sheila E., The Time), or others not being involved with him at all (Wendy & Lisa - considering Prince's conflicts with them led to The Revolution breaking up, that's not at all surprising.) We have a page for them over at Music/PrincesAssociates.
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75He won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, and was one of the few people to have simultaneously managed a #1 movie, album, and single in the same year (''Purple Rain'', ''Music from the Motion Picture Purple Rain'' and "When Doves Cry" / "Let's Go Crazy", respectively. "When Doves Cry" was also crowned the song of 1984 by Billboard.) He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible in 2004. In that same year ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. 2007 saw some of his biggest exposure ever when he played the halftime show of UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XLI (notable for being performed in a thunderstorm - "Purple Rain" indeed!), which is still considered one of the best halftime shows ever.
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77Even in his mid-50s, Prince never slowed down. His performances never became less impassioned but his intense dancing style finally caught up with him when in 2016, he began having severe hip pains, for which he was prescribed painkillers. That April, he was [[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36106778 found dead in his Minnesota compound]] at the age of 57 from what was originally described as flu-like symptoms, later revealed to be [[http://bigstory.ap.org/3c35f1efbd3a4ae1add3a3d787864475 an opioid overdose]].
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79Behind him, the Purple One left quite a legacy, and the Prince estate keep that legacy in the public eye with reissues of albums like ''1999,'' ''[[Music/PurpleRainAlbum Purple Rain]]'' and ''Music/SignOTheTimes,'' all of which are remastered and generously expanded with single edits, extended versions, and previously unreleased outtakes. They've also slowly rolled out some posthumous albums, most notably ''Originals,'' i.e. the original demos of songs he went on to give to other artists (such as Music/TheBangles' "Manic Monday"). And the estate is only just getting started.
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81He was apparently [[Series/ChappellesShow really good at basketball]]; just ask Creator/CharlieMurphy.[[note]]He actually did play basketball in high school, and multiple tour managers have described how Prince and his entourage would sometimes rent a local community center or gymnasium for a few hours before or after a show to play a few games. Micki Free even states Murphy wasn't exaggerating at all.[[/note]]
82
83----
84!!!Studio Discography:
85
86* 1978: ''For You''
87* 1979: ''[[Music/PrinceAlbum Prince]]''
88* 1980: ''Music/DirtyMind''
89* 1981: ''Controversy''
90* 1982: ''[[Music/NineteenNinetyNineAlbum 1999]]'' (with the Revolution)
91* 1984: ''[[Music/PurpleRainAlbum Purple Rain]]'' (soundtrack album; with the Revolution)
92* 1985: ''Music/AroundTheWorldInADay'' (with the Revolution)
93* 1986: ''[[Music/ParadeAlbum Parade]]'' (soundtrack album; with the Revolution)
94* 1987: ''Music/SignOTheTimes''
95* 1988: ''Lovesexy''
96* 1989: ''[[Music/Batman1989 Batman]]''
97* 1989: ''The Scandalous Sex Suite'' (EP, which extends the single "Scandalous" into a three-part suite, featuring then-girlfriend Creator/KimBasinger)
98* 1990: ''Graffiti Bridge'' (soundtrack album; with the New Power Generation)
99* 1991: ''Diamonds and Pearls'' (with the New Power Generation)
100* 1992: Love Symbol Album[[note]]the actual title being the symbol he'd change his name to[[/note]] (with the New Power Generation)
101* 1994: ''Come''
102* 1994: Untitled[[note]]Recorded and intended for release in 1987 as the follow-up to ''Sign'', but was shelved indefinitely; eventually released legally in 1994. Commonly called ''The Black Album'' due to its creditless, all-black sleeve; also called ''The Funk Bible'' in a hidden message on the album and in early press reviews.[[/note]]
103* 1995: ''The Gold Experience''
104* 1996: ''Chaos and Disorder''
105* 1996: ''Emancipation''
106* 1998: ''Crystal Ball'' (3-CD rarities collection)
107** 1998: ''The Truth'' ([[UnpluggedVersion acoustic album,]] shipped with ''Crystal Ball'')
108** 1998: ''Kamasutra'' (orchestral album credited to the NPG Orchestra, shipped with preordered copies of ''Crystal Ball'')
109* 1999: ''The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale'' (compilation of re-recorded rarities)
110* 1999: ''Rave [=Un2=] the Joy Fantastic''
111* 2001: ''The Rainbow Children''
112* 2002: ''One Nite Alone...'' (live album)
113* 2003: ''Xpectation''
114* 2003: ''N.E.W.S''
115* 2004: ''Musicology''
116* 2004: ''The Chocolate Invasion'' (online-exclusive)
117* 2004: ''The Slaughterhouse'' (online-exclusive)
118* 2004: ''C-Note'' (online-exclusive)
119* 2006: ''3121''
120* 2007: ''Planet Earth''
121* 2008: ''Indigo Nights'' (live album, released as part of a coffee table book)
122* 2009: ''[=LOtUSFLOW3R=]''
123* 2009: ''[=MPLSound=]'' (packaged with ''[=LOtUSFLOW3R=]'', and protรฉgรฉ Bria Valente's album ''[=Elixer=]'')
124* 2010: ''20TEN''
125* 2014: ''Art Official Age''
126* 2014: ''Plectrumelectrum'' (with [=3rdEyeGirl=])
127* 2015: ''[=HITnRUN=]: phase one''
128* 2015: ''[=HITnRUN=]: phase two''
129
130!!!Posthumous Discography:
131* 2018: ''Piano and a Microphone 1983'' [[note]]demo recorded in 1983, of Prince playing a round of songs on piano in [[TheOner a single take]][[/note]]
132* 2019: ''Originals''[[note]]Compilation of demo recordings of songs Prince wrote for other artists[[/note]]
133* 2021: ''Welcome 2 America''
134* 20??: ''Camille'' (upcoming)[[note]]recorded in 1986, but shelved at the last minute; eventually bought by Music/JackWhite's Third Man Records in 2022 and set for an official release at an unspecified later date[[/note]]
135
136----
137!!{{Trope Namer|s}} for:
138
139* TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX
140
141----
142!!Welcome 2 the dawn. U have just accessed The Trope Experience.
143
144[[foldercontrol]]
145[[folder:A-F]]
146* AlternateAlbumCover:
147** The original CD release of ''Music/AroundTheWorldInADay'' was in a longbox-sized gatefold package, with the CD held in a card sleeve tucked in a slot inside the gatefold. Later pressings would do away with this in favor of a conventional jewel case.
148** The American and initial European releases of ''Diamonds and Pearls'' feature a photo of Prince posing with Lori Werner and Robia [=LaMorte=], framed by a border depicting strings of pearls against a gold backdrop; early CD and cassette releases additionally featured a holographic effect on the cover. Later European releases and the international release, meanwhile, feature a different photo of the three that takes up the entire cover.
149* AmbiguouslyBi: Played with early on, before Prince jumped ship and decided to devote himself to women exclusively.
150* AndThisIsFor: Used in "Lady Cab Driver", except with sex instead of violence.
151* AppealToNovelty: There were several moments in the mid-nineties where Prince pointed out that his new material was better simply because it was new. He tried getting ''Come'' (the old and busted) and ''The Gold Experience'' (the new hotness) released at the same time to try to prove this point.
152** "Gold", the final song from ''The Gold Experience'', was called "the next 'Purple Rain'" in press releases. It tried but really fell short.
153* ArcWords: The phrase "May u live 2 see the dawn" in music and film credits. Reportedly at several points in his career, he considered releasing an album called ''The Dawn'''. Near the end of his Warner Bros. contract, the phrase became "Welcome 2 the dawn," with his first official website being named The Dawn and the last track of his album ''The Truth'' being titled "Welcome 2 the Dawn."
154* ArtistAndTheBand: The Revolution is one of his many side projects. The album ''Music/AroundTheWorldInADay'' is credited to Prince And The Revolution (the band was also present on ''Music/NineteenNinetyNineAlbum'' although uncredited).
155** After The Revolution disbanded in 1986, Prince assembled a new backing band called The New Power Generation (or sometimes NPG) that played on most of his albums from 1990 on, with five of those albums (beginning with 1991's ''Diamonds & Pearls'') specifically credited to "Prince and the New Power Generation". NPG also released three albums of their own material and have toured independently since Prince's death.
156** In relation to ''Music/PrincesAssociates'', The Time occasionally referred to themselves as Morris Day and The Time.
157* AscendedMeme: The 2014 song "THIS COULD BE US" was written about [[https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2014/06/this-could-be-us.jpg this image macro]].
158* AuthorAvatar: The Kid in ''Film/PurpleRain'' and ''Graffiti Bridge'', plus his character in ''Film/UnderTheCherryMoon''. All two of them are really unpleasant, annoying folks.
159* AuthorTract: ''The Rainbow Children'': a thinly veiled concept album about being a Jehovah's Witness.
160* AutoErotica: "Little Red Corvette". Also serves as DoubleEntendre.
161* AutoTune: First used on 2006's "Incense & Candles" on one of the backing vocals. Used a lot on ''[=MPLSoUND=]''.
162* BadassBoast: "My Name Is Prince" is basically a four-minute-long one of these.
163* BawdySong: The poster child of this trope, with a fair amount of IntercourseWithYou alongside, what with the number of colorful metaphors and outright requests for it in 90% of his back catalog. He even wrote a [[CallAndResponseSong call-and-response anthem]] for the act called "Sex", but when it comes to being explicit, the following pretty much take the cake: "Sister" (some MinisculeRocking about BrotherSisterIncest), "Let's Pretend We're Married" (with the charming declaration ''"I sincerely wanna fuck the taste out of your mouth. Can U relate?"''), "Darling Nikki" (the song that spurned the PMRC hearings that ultimately gave us the Parental Advisory stickers), "Erotic City", "Le Grind," "Cindy C," and "Lady Cab Driver" (''"come and take me for a ride"'').
164* BalladOfX: "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker".
165* BigRockEnding: "Let's Go Crazy" appears to end with one of these, but then [[{{Subversion}} goes into an unaccompanied guitar solo]] which leads back into [[DoubleSubversion another Big Rock Ending that closes the song]].
166* BoastfulRap: "My Name is Prince".
167* {{Bowdlerise}}: What he did with many of his lyrics in live shows after his conversion to Jehovah's Witness.
168* BrainlessBeauty: Alluded to in "Raspberry Beret."
169-->She wasn't 2 bright \
170But I could tell by the way she kissed me \
171She knew how 2 get her kicks
172* BreakingTheFourthWall: A quick instance of this occurs in "Take Me With U"; after Prince sings the line "You shoot perfection", Apollonia says "Thank you!".
173* BrotherSisterIncest: "Sister". Apparently, incest is all it's cracked up to be...
174* CampStraight: For his dedication to women and female pleasure, his outfits and personality are wildly outlandish and flamboyant. In fact, he takes his obsession with women up to eleven with his songs, which feature topics that most musicians wouldn't touch upon, like incest ("Sister"), and rape (the demo of "Extralovable").
175* CarefulWithThatAxe: Dude could ''scream'' -- even [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl if it does sound feminine]].
176* TheCasanova: He's probably "recruited" more "proteges" in a week than any man can in five years, despite [[RealMenWearPink looking like he frequently wears said "proteges"' clothes and looks better in them than they do]].
177* ChildProdigy: Rumor has it that he had an album's worth of songs written, for which he could perform all of the instruments, as young as ''fifteen'', and only didn't record his first album at that age because the record labels didn't want to sign a minor, forcing him to wait four years to do so.
178* CleavageWindow: Invoked with a pair of ''[[http://estergoldberg.typepad.com/views_from_a_broad/2009/11/prince-gets-it-up-the-butt-in-ass-less-pants-on-mtv-awards.html cleavage window pants]]'' at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.
179* ClusterFBomb: You think "Darling Nikki", the song that almost singlehandedly spurred the formation of [[MoralGuardians the PMRC]] and the invention of the Tipper sticker (you know the one - 'Parental Advisory: Explicit Content') was scandalous? A full 2 years earlier, Prince dropped the following ad-lib on "Let's Pretend We're Married":
180-->''I want 2 fuck U so bad it hurts, it hurts, it hurts''
181-->''I want 2, I want 2, I want 2, I want 2, I want 2, I want 2, I want 2 fuck U''
182-->''Yeah, I want 2, I want 2, I want 2 want 2, I want 2 fuck U''
183-->''Look here Marsha, I'm not sayin' this just 2 B nasty''
184-->''I sincerely want 2 fuck the taste out of your mouth''
185-->''Can U relate?''
186* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Downplayed. A lot of people expected this trope to be a norm for him, being a reclusive, creative genius who worked all hours of the day and night. While he was extremely flamboyant and sometimes didn't understand that the world didn't revolve around his own idiosyncrasies, he was rather grounded in business and maintained a healthy private life with a family that he adored. However, by the end of his life, Prince claimed that he didn't have to eat or drink anymore. He also believed in the chemtrail conspiracy theory.
187** Creator/KevinSmith spent roughly 30 minutes of his Q&A film ''An Evening With Kevin Smith'' talking about Prince's eccentricities when he was invited to film a documentary for the musician.
188--->'''Kevin Smith''': ''[recalling one of Prince's employees]'' "Let me explain something to you about Prince. Prince doesn't comprehend things the way you and I do...Prince has been living in Prince World for quite some time now."
189** In one interview, Prince claimed that he was born epileptic and suffered from seizures in his childhood, and all but confirmed it in the lyrics to "The Sacrifice of Victor".
190* ComplimentBackfire: [=Supermodel=] Creator/CindyCrawford, the subject of "Cindy C" on ''The Black Album'', didn't like the song.
191* CompositeCharacter: In "Partyman" [[PracticallyJoker his character]] looks like a mix between [[Film/{{Batman1989}} Nicholson's Joker]] and [[Characters/BatmanTwoFace Two-Face]] just not disfigured.
192* ConceptAlbum:
193** ''Love Symbol'' was supposed to be one, in which the "crown princess of Cairo" (played by then-girlfriend Mayte) is saved by Prince from her double-crossing bodyguards, who were after her "3 Chains o' Gold". Most of the story got cut out so Prince could fit one more song in, so all that's left on the album is Creator/KirstieAlley trying to interview Prince.
194** ''Come'' is linked conceptually by a poem that appears in bits throughout the album.
195** ''The Rainbow Children'' is ostensibly about the Banished Ones taking over all of Earth save the haven of the titular Rainbow Children, which is covered in a "digital garden"; the Rainbow Children then go canvassing to collect enough people for a fight between them and the Banished Ones, cribbing a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses spirituality into a more Princian dialect along the way. Its real concept might as well be "[[AuthorTract Prince ranting about shit for an hour]]. {{Fauxlosophic|Narration}}ally."
196** ''The Scandalous Sex Suite'' is a concept EP. The concept is Prince getting it on with Kim Basinger. (They were dating at the time.)
197* ControlFreak: One of pop music's most notorious.
198** Even in his heyday with The Revolution, ''Purple Rain'' is the only album that features the full band performing for the majority of the record (six songs, compared to ''Around the World in a Day''[='=]s three and ''Parade''[='=]s two.) Very few artists got a decent level of respect for their own style and input out of him (Wendy & Lisa, Matt Fink, Sheila E., and Eric Leeds being among the few.)
199** Prince also had a habit of micro-managing every band he formulated. Albums by Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Jill Jones, The Time, The Family, Sheila E., and more were written, recorded, and performed entirely by him, rarely with contributions by the bands in question (in the case of the first four artists, only the singers contributed and even then, they followed Prince's guide vocal track to the letter and Prince was always involved on backup vocals.) The Time famously never got to play on their own albums until their fourth one. Only time will tell if his more recent projects, such as New Power Generation and Bria Valente, will reveal that they received the same treatment.
200* DarkerAndEdgier: The cyber-funk moodiness of ''1999'' flew in the face of his first four records. ''The Black Album'''s trip into Bizarro World flew in the face of ''everything''. ''Come'' was also pretty moody, as it was intended to showcase how bad Prince was and how awesome The Artist Formerly Known as Prince was. Warner Bros. chose not to release ''Come'' and ''The Gold Experience'' at the same time though, so that last one went unnoticed for a while.
201* ADayInTheLimelight: The song "Around the World in a Day" owes its existence to this. Long story short, Prince invited Lisa Coleman's brother David to their then-studio (an abandoned warehouse full of recording equipment on Flying Cloud Drive in Eden Prairie, Minnesota) for his birthday in June 1984 and [[http://www.princevault.com/index.php/Around_The_World_In_A_Day allowed him two days of studio time as a present]]. Afterward, Prince listened to what David had recorded and liked it so much that he added his own input, and after a re-recording with The Revolution, it became the title track and first song for his next album. (The finished track also arguably qualifies as a SiblingTeam moment, since David Coleman [cello, oud, finger cymbals, darbuka, and sings backing vocals] and Jonathan Melvoin [tambourine and backing vocals] share contributions with their sisters.)
202* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Zigzagged. He's very well known for his stance against digital media, piracy, and concert taping, and is just as easily mocked for the various {{Frivolous Lawsuit}}s that stem from said beliefs.
203* DigitalPiracyIsOkay: He was however excited over Napster and the possibilities it gave to music aficionados to consume their music. He was also excited that a challenge to the record label model was emerging, having been in conflict with Warner Bros. for years and lacking ownership over the masters to his recordings, taking digs at then Time Warner president Richard Parsons to full effect over the latter's hypocrisy regarding protecting intellectual property.
204* DistinctDoubleAlbum: More like Distinct '''Triple''' Album. ''Emancipation'' was spread into three discs at exactly 12 tracks and 60 minutes each. Disc one is focused more on modern, funk-influenced R&B. Disc two is more spiritual and is devoted to his then-new marriage to former backup dancer Mayte. Disc three is a bit of a grab-bag of different styles including electronic dance music, plus a couple of covers ("La-La (Means I Love You)" by The Delfonics, "One Of Us" by Joan Osborne). Needless to say, ''Emancipation'' is quite an undertaking, with the sheer length of the album commonly garnering accusations of AlbumFiller from fans.
205* DualMeaningChorus: "Little Red Corvette", which uses car metaphors to explain a bad relationship.
206* EarlyBirdCameo: Prince, an 11-year-old elementary school student at the time, [[https://deadline.com/2022/04/prince-musician-11-years-old-local-tv-interview-1234994320/ was interviewed by a Minneapolis TV station]] in 1970 for a story about a teachers' strike.
207* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Prince's first two albums. Prepare for generic disco-funk and a very high falsetto voice. This is most noticeable with "I Wanna Be Your Lover", which usually winds up as the only representation of this era on his greatest hits albums. What people think when they hear the name "Prince" started in 1980, but he still kept a lot of the old-school funk sensibilities until 1982.
208* EndOfAnAge: Music analyst Michaelangelo Matos considered ''Sign 'โ˜ฎ' the Times'' to be one for popular music in two senses. The first is that it marked the end of the phonograph record's status as the dominant medium for music distribution, being the last double-LP to achieve blockbuster-level sales; additionally, its fourth single, "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" was the last of Prince's to not immediately receive a CD release. The second sense is that ''Sign 'โ˜ฎ' the Times'' was the last commercially successful album from a black artist to predate HipHop's emergence as the dominant genre in black music.
209* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "1999" is a [[LyricalDissonance strangely happy]] song about this.
210* EpicRocking: "1999", "Let's Pretend We're Married", "D.M.S.R.", "Automatic", "All the Critics Love U in New York", "Purple Rain", "Temptation", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", the original version of "Computer Blue" (see What Could Have Been on the Trivia page), etc., etc.
211** The 12[=''=] single version of "America" runs 21 minutes long because Prince and the Revolution jammed away until they had no more room left on tape. This was covered by a quick fade-out. Many of Prince's other 12"s of the 80s, like "America", feature the original version of the song, while the album and 7" feature edited versions. One notable exception is the 12" version of "Kiss" and "I Wish U Heaven", which consist of separate sections.
212** The first CD issue of ''Lovesexy'' was indexed as one 45:07 track without any separation between songs, to force listeners to listen to it in its entirety.
213** Then there's his guitar work, from the blistering coda of "Let's Go Crazy" to his show-stealing solo from when he joined Music/TomPetty in performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
214** In live performance, he'd tease the endings of "Purple Rain" and "Kiss" with about seven fake endings until each was 20 minutes long.
215* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Most of the second side of ''Dirty Mind'' does this, although "Uptown" was released as a single with a proper ending.
216* FakeOutFadeOut: The end of ''The Black Album'' fades back in long enough for Prince to exclaim, "What kinda fuck ending was that?" before quickly fading out again.
217* {{Fanservice}}: Prince has probably appeared more often nude or half nude than any other male singer of his generation.
218* FashionableAsymmetry: His Gemini character from "Batdance" wears half of a Joker outfit and half of a made-up Franchise/{{Batman}} costume.
219* FriendlyRivalry:
220** Enforced early on by Prince, between himself, his bandmates, and even ''the other bands he toured with.'' Tales of Prince's shenanigans are so legendary that not many are sure how much of the film ''Film/PurpleRain'' required acting. Prince also notably created Morris Day's character with a rivalry between that character and his own Prince persona in mind. Several of these rivalries started to become antagonistic and ultimately caused The Revolution and his relations with members of The Time to fall apart. Prince calmed down since, for the most part. To add to this, Prince created rivalries with himself in 1982: The Time were credited with providing the backing music for Vanity 6's album (in reality performed by Prince), so on The Time's second album, they scream "We don't like New Wave!" after a song that makes fun of it. Prince also called out Jamie Starr, the producer persona he himself used for both Vanity 6 and The Time, as a thief on his song "D.M.S.R." Considering how bad things went with both versions of The Revolution, he stopped antagonizing everyone around him starting in the nineties.
221** Inverted with fellow FunkRock musician Music/RickJames. From the time Prince opened for Rick's 1979 ''Fire It Up'' tour until James' death in 2004, they were in a fierce rivalry with each other. Rick James' career fell apart in 1984 due to Prince's success with Purple Rain and James' increasingly crazy cocaine-fueled lifestyle.
222* FreezeFrameBonus: The video for "Alphabet St." features two instances of this. After Prince is shown driving the Thunderbird mentioned in the lyrics, the message [[DrugsAreBad "H is 4 punks"]] appears very rapidly onscreen. At the end of the first verse, another split-second message appears, saying "Don't buy The Black Album. I'm sorry."
223[[/folder]]
224[[folder:G-L]]
225* GenreMashup: Prince's "Minneapolis Sound" involves a huge smashing-together of {{Funk}}, [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]], rock, pop, soul/R&B, and psychedelic rock.
226* GenreRoulette: A grandmaster. Can also just as easily fall under GenreBusting.
227** Whether he was doing them individually or all at the same time, Prince was well-versed in countless styles of popular music such as rock, {{funk}}, [=R&B=], {{synth pop}}, Latin pop, and even {{jazz}}. The double album ''[=Lotusflow3r=]''/''[=MPLSoUND=]'' makes this explicit by having the first album be all "band" music (rock, funk, and soul) while the second is all SynthPop.
228** Prince's body of work during the 80s blended sounds together to the point that it became known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_sound Minneapolis Sound,]] which was practiced by The Time, Vanity 6/Apollonia 6, and basically all Prince's associates and side projects. Just think, Prince was so prolific that he basically created an ''entire scene'' by himself. That said, it didn't last past the 1980s.
229* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Music/PurpleRainAlbum'', specifically the track "Darling Nikki", directly led to a US Senate committee forcing the RIAA and several major labels to put "[[https://www.riaa.com/resources-learning/pal-standards/ Parental Advisory: Explicit Content]]" stickers on American albums to warn for explicit lyrics in 1985. Despite this, ''Purple Rain'' has never received the sticker.
230* GratuitousSpanish: If somebody wanders into Prince's orbit and happens to speak Spanish, he ''will not hesitate'' to use that. This is most noticeable on some of his associates' albums, chiefly from Apollonia Kotero and Mayte Garcia, but he also indulged in it with "Te Amo Corazรณn" from ''3121''.
231* HalfwayPlotSwitch: In "Raspberry Beret", the first verse starts off by talking about the narrator's job at the store and his problems with his manager. Then the girl with the raspberry beret walks in and there goes that whole plotline.
232* HasAType: Both Prince's videos and his personal life were heavily populated with olive-skinned beauties with long, dark hair. (See: both his wives, Vanity, Apollonia, Sheila E....) Prince lampshaded this in "Future Baby Mama":
233-->''๐Ÿ‘'ve heard it said my lovers look alike''
234-->''Could it be ๐Ÿ‘ was searching for you?''
235* HeartbeatSoundtrack: The backing track of "Sex in the Summer" samples the heartbeat of Prince and Mayte's then-unborn son. Yes, the one that died at six days old.
236* HiddenDepths:
237** [[Series/ChappellesShow If Charlie Murphy is to be believed]], Prince is an incredibly talented basketball player. While he did confirm that there was a game of hoops with Murphy's crew, but it wasn't that Prince himself played that great, it was that Murphy wasn't that good...
238** He was also an avid ping-pong player, having actually challenged [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/04/21/prince_s_rivalry_with_michael_jackson_excerpt_from_steven_hyden_s_your_favorite.html Michael Jackson]] and Creator/JimmyFallon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9iVXxFt1Wg to matches]] and beat them. Although he did lose to [[Series/NewGirl Cece.]]
239* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Even today, there are those for whom it was never clear before: Prince is, in fact, the man's given name.
240* HollywoodAutism: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with "Starfish and Coffee". The song's about an actual autistic girl that Prince's girlfriend at the time knew, but the song at no point invokes stereotypes of the condition and presents an overall sympathetic view towards the girl, if a bit whimsical.
241* HypocriticalHumour:
242** He derided rappers as tone-deaf on "Dead on It", then started incorporating it into his music on ''Lovesexy''[='=]s "Alphabet St." and even more so in TheNineties (cf. "Gett Off" and "My Name Is Prince").
243** He dedicates a verse of "We March" from ''The Gold Experience'' to lecturing his audience not to call women "bitches" (not to mention trashing GangstaRap for the same reason on "Days of Wild"), but only six songs later he blindsides them with a song called "Billy Jack Bitch" (which loops you-know-which exclamation from Music/{{Fishbone}}'s "Lyin' Ass Bitch").
244* IAmTheBand: "Produced, Arranged, Composed, and Performed by Prince." Considering how many instruments he not only played but played ''incredibly well'', yeah, he kind of is, although he obviously had to form backing bands for live performances. Lampshaded and parodied on a season 10 ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' cold opening where Prince (played by Creator/BillyCrystal) sings a "We Are the World" parody called "I Am Also the World" with his back-up dancers (played by Mary Gross and Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus) and any time another musician (in this case, Music/WillieNelson [played by Creator/JamesBelushi], Music/BruceSpringsteen [played by Gary Kroeger], and Music/CyndiLauper [played by Pamela Stephenson]) tries to duet with Prince, his bodyguards [played by episode hosts Creator/{{Mr T}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan] would beat the snot out of them.
245* ICallHimMisterHappy: Even with a song called "Mr. Happy", reportedly Prince named his penis Valentino, and wrote "Manic Monday" for the Music/TheBangles to woo their lead singer, Susanna Hoffs. Have fun never hearing "Manic Monday" the same way again!
246* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: There's something oddly poignant about Prince's last tour before his passing; it was a series of shows with nothing but Prince and a grand piano.
247* IncompatibleOrientation: "Bambi," in which the narrator falls hard for a lesbian and gets a little indignant about it.
248* {{Instrumentals}}: Very very few early on - "Venus de Milo" and "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" were the only ones to make it onto albums in TheEighties. "Alexa De Paris," the b-side to "Mountains," was another. There's more on ''Kamasutra'', ''Xpectation'', ''C-Note'' and ''N.E.W.S.''
249* InsufferableGenius: Stories abound of Prince's {{Jerkass}} behavior, which was also the source of The Revolution's breakup. He didn't exactly try to hide it in his films either. Dude was like the Creator/JamesCameron of music or something.
250** For some inexplicable reason, most of his jerkassery seemed to be aimed at Wendy & Lisa. Instead of scrounging up the old Revolution stories, here's a more recent one: in 1998 he announced a Prince & the Revolution comeback album called ''Roadhouse Garden'' and tried to get the duo involved. They reasonably asked for some compensation and said no when he didn't offer any. Then he went and blamed them for the album being shelved.
251** Music/EltonJohn said of a meeting with Prince, "I went up to Prince and said, 'I'm a big fan of your stuff,' and he looked at me and just walked off... left me standing there like a twat. He's a prat, but he's a clever prat."
252** During the Nude Tour, Prince constantly picked on guitar Miko Weaver, something biographer Alex Hahn and other bandmates suggest was due to him feeling jealous that Weaver had a bigger GroupieBrigade and was generally more popular with the ladies. In a pre-tour rehearsal, Prince even challenged Weaver to "take this shit outside", to which Weaver snarked "Yeah like I'm gonna come outside [[JustYouAndMeAndMyGUARDS with you and your bodyguards]]" and walked out, but was eventually convinced to return for the tour.
253** During the same Nude Tour, Rosie Gaines complained that she was being mistreated by dancers Tony M., Kirky J., and Damon Dickson, but Prince simply moved her to Mavis Staples' tour bus instead of reprimanding them.
254** Creator/KevinSmith has a diatribe on Prince's eccentric behavior after Prince asked Smith to direct a short film for him.
255** When The Time regrouped to make a new album in 2011, Prince wouldn't let them use that name, to which he owned the rights. They are now known as The Original 7even.
256** Music/WeirdAlYankovic famously ribbed Prince for years for not allowing him to parody any of his songs (Al always asks for artist permission first; the closest he ever got was the "Let's Go Crazy" sound-alike "Traffic Jam"). At an award show, he receives a telegram saying that he ''wasn't allowed to make eye contact'' with Prince. Al's response? "Well, then he's not allowed to look at me."
257* TheImmodestOrgasm: The end of "International Lover", complete with one of Prince's famous screams.
258** [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Orgasm", unsurprisingly.]]
259* IntercourseWithYou: Prince, in his heyday, was the pure essence of sexual naughtiness. About half of his songs are about this. ''Dirty Mind'' practically makes a ConceptAlbum out of this trope.
260* {{Jazz}}: Yes, Prince made some jazz music here and there. You can hear him toy with this sound on ''The Rainbow Children,'' but he mostly saved it for fan-only releases, such as ''Xpectation, N.E.W.S.'' and ''C-Note.''
261* LargeHam: Prince really invoked this trope on songs where he lets out that legendary '''scream.''' He could be subtle if the song called for it, but he was not ''at all'' afraid to be theatrical. For just one example, the coda to "Temptation" from ''Around The World In A Day'' is Prince perving on some young lady, then being reprimanded by ''God,'' and shrieking in horror at what his sinful behavior has wrought. It's very, very over-the-top, as you can probably imagine.
262* TheLastDJ: He was committed to his artistic freedom, even if it meant changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol.
263* LastNoteNightmare: "Do Me, Baby" is pretty soothing for the most part, but the very end is pretty creepy and ominous sounding. "Gotta Broken Heart Again" is a simple ballad that ends with a massively amplified guitar thunk that sounds like a gunshot.
264* LeadSingerPlaysLeadGuitar: He was famous not just for his voice, but for his skilled guitar playing as well.
265* Letters2Numbers: Prince was one of the earliest musicians to employ this trope, and it became a mainstay in his song titles. "Nothing Compares 2 U," "I Would Die 4 U," "Money Don't Matter 2 Night," and so on.
266* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: Woe to the poor fan with sensitive tastes who is introduced to Prince's decidedly less-sexual later material and works their way back to "Darling Nikki." Or "Lady Cab Driver." Or practically the entirety of ''Dirty Mind.''
267* LighterAndSofter: In an intentional case of this trope, every aspect of "Lovesexy" was bubblegum and sunshine. And Jesus. He saw the untitled black album as something inherently evil and sought to distance himself from it with ''Lovesexy''.
268* LuckyCharmsTitle: ''Sign [='โ˜ฎ'=] the Times'' and "โค or $" are good examples. Prince also started using "๐Ÿ‘" in 1988 to replace the word "I"; since it appeared beside another song called "I Wish U Heaven", some fans romanize the symbol as "Eye" (as in "Eye Love U, but Eye Don't Trust U Anymore".) Prince took this even further [[TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX with the symbol later used for his name]], which was first used as the title for his fourteenth album.
269* LoopholeAbuse: The reason he switched to using an unpronounceable symbol in TheNineties. Stuck in a bad deal with his record label, he found that they didn't own anything he released under another name.
270* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Implied in the chorus of "Electric Chair":
271-->If a man is considered guilty 4 what goes on in his mind
272-->Then give me the electric chair 4 all my future crimes
273* LoveIsLikeReligion: "7" plays heavily into religious imagery, including comparing the singer's lover to an angel and saying their love will defeat the SevenDeadlySins.
274* LyricalColdOpen:
275** The big group vocal from "7." "OHHHH SEVEN AND WE'LL WATCH THEM FALL..."
276** "RAVE!!! [=UN 2=] THE JOY FANTASTIC, RAVE!!!"
277** "Life Of The Party" from ''Musicology'' has one from a backup singer.
278[[/folder]]
279[[folder:M-R]]
280* MinimalisticCoverArt:
281** ''For You'' featured a blur of Prince's face.
282** ''Parade'' featured Prince's upper body in a pose.
283** The ''Batman'' soundtrack featured a close-up of the logo.
284** ''The Hits / The [=B-Sides=]'' featured Prince's face in profile.
285** The untitled black album was a black sleeve, with only the tracklisting and production code number written in peach.
286** ''One Nite Aloneโ€ฆ Live!'' and ''3121'' featured portraits, with the latter being from behind.
287* TheMinneapolisSound: Not even his biggest rivals could say they [[TropeMaker created their own genre]]. A fusion of new wave, funk, R&B, and rock, Prince would develop several artists on both Warner and his Paisley Park label to expand on the sound (Music/TheTime, Creator/{{Vanity}}, etc), and others outside his circle would draw from it, like Music/JanetJackson.
288* MisogynySong: Some of his unreleased material goes here, like "It Takes 3" (ladies, Sonny T. doesn't want to know you unless you have friends for threesomes!) and "Extra Loveable" (where after a bunch of normal lyrics expressing attraction to an unnamed woman, Prince suddenly starts singing about how he's going to [[{{Squick}} rape her]] and drag her into the tub for a bath if she resists.)
289* MultipleDemographicAppeal: Given that he insisted on having bands that were racially mixed and with musicians of both genders, it's not surprising that this applied to his audience as well. In the 2002 Characters/WWEDivas Magazine, both Sharmell and Wrestling/{{Lita}} said that he was their first crush. Sharmell Sullivan-[[Wrestling/BookerT Huffman]] was born in Gary, Indiana and is a college-educated former [[BeautyContest Miss Black America]]. Amy "Lita" Dumas is a Caucasian college dropout from an impoverished background in Sanford, Florida and experience as a PunkRock singer. Thus, Prince's appeal extended beyond race and gender to people of different classes as well.
290* NewJackSwing: Prince is the [[UrExample proto-example]], as his "Minneapolis Sound" was part of the basis for it, alongside hip-hop, but the man himself wouldn't fully embrace the genre until 1991's ''Diamonds and Pearls''. Afterwards, he began crafting new jack hits for other artists like Markita, Music/TevinCampbell, and Mavis Staples.
291* NewSoundAlbum: ''Dirty Mind'' (showing off the Minneapolis Sound) ''1999'' (leaning into dystopian cyber-funk); ''Purple Rain'' (adding psychedelic bits, pushing the rock and pop parts forward, showing off The Revolution); ''Around the World in a Day'' (dialing up the psychedelia); ''Sign ''โ˜ฎ'' the Times'' (first post-Revolution solo album, more stripped-down arrangements and production); ''The Black Album'' (pure funk with bits of FunkMetal); ''Lovesexy'' (poppy); ''Graffiti Bridge'' (better technology); ''Diamonds and Pearls'' (dropping the '80s inklings for more soul, R&B and new jack swing.)
292* NewTechnologyIsEvil: '''OH GOD YES'''. Prince was pretty much against the Internet and the usage of [=MP3s=] and such. He even went out of his way to have ''any'' songs of his removed from Website/YouTube, most notably a live video of his cover of the Music/{{Radiohead}} song "Creep," only letting it back up when the band and their fans began to complain. There is also the fact that if you had his music online, he [[DisproportionateRetribution would not hesitate to sue you or ruin you]]. However, Prince would use an electronic platform [[{{Hypocrite}} only if it benefitted him financially]]. He famously set up the NPG Music Club to distribute music and videos, and in 2015, swapped from Apple Music and Spotify to Tidal, since it seemed to give him the best cut. The kicker to all this is that in TheNineties, Prince won awards and was seen as a big trailblazer for his use of the Internet to promote his music - of course, this is before the Internet exploded by the end of the decade. Only after his death would his music (but not all of it) eventually be released on Apple Music and Spotify, and only in the summer of 2017 would a new official Prince channel be created on [=YouTube=] to upload his music videos.
293* NobodyLovesTheBassist: "When Doves Cry" is probably the most famous example of a song that doesn't even have a bass line. If that doesn't work, there's his other #1 single, "Kiss".
294* NoEnding:
295** "Batdance" cuts to a sudden halt with a sample of Creator/MichaelKeaton saying "Stop."
296** Prince ran out of tape while recording the extended version of "America", so they added a fade out to hide it. Ditto for "I Would Die 4 U", only they trimmed [[EpicRocking 20 minutes off]] as well.
297* NoTitle: The album commonly referred to as ''The Black Album'' was intended to be released in an entirely black sleeve with the catalog number being the only thing printed on it. The only credit to Prince is a hidden message at the start of the opening song: "So, U found me. Good, I'm glad. This is Prince, the cool of coolsโ€ฆ" Another hidden message identified the album as ''The Funk Bible'', and indeed this was the name given to it on early press releases in 1987. When it was officially released in 1994, the packaging remained unchanged, albeit with a sticker on the shrinkwrap identifying it as Prince's work and describing it as "The legendary Black Album." Its supposedly intended name of ''The Funk Bible'' has since been reduced to a footnote, with ''The Black Album'' being its de-facto name; even Website/{{Wikipedia}} refers to it as such!
298* NonActorVehicle: ''Film/PurpleRain'', ''Film/UnderTheCherryMoon'' and ''Film/GraffitiBridge''. Purple Rain easily being considered the best. Over the years UTCM has attained minor cult status among fans.
299** Unsurprisingly, his most acclaimed movies are the concert films ''Prince and the Revolution: Live'' (filmed on March 30, 1985, in Syracuse, New York) and ''Sign "โ˜ฎ" the Times'' (supposed to have used concert footage from Rotterdam and Antwerp, but those shots turned out grainy and unusable so most of the film, including the segues, was reshot at Paisley Park).
300* NoodleIncident: Why did Prince withdraw the ''Black Album''? Er, hard to say. Stories circulate about how he became convinced it was evil, and some former associates claim that he came up with this idea after having a bad trip on ecstasy. Even when it was issued in 1994 to help complete his contract, his publicist stated he was still "spiritually against" it.
301* OlderThanTheyLook: Looking at Prince, it's hard to believe that he lived to be 57 and he still looked the same as he did in the 1980s.
302* OnTheRebound: "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" from ''Sign "โ˜ฎ" the Times'' is all about defying this trope - the narrator has to turn down advances from a girl who's clearly trying to fill the void her recent ex-boyfriend left. The capper is that said girl is now pregnant with her ''second'' child from that relationship.
303* OneLetterName: The symbol, used when he was referred to as "[[TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX The Artist Formerly Known as Prince]]" Said symbol, while not an alphabetical letter, still had to be printed during this time and Warner Brothers had to send out floppy disks of a special font that included the symbol so that print media could print it.
304* OneNameOnly: Prince.
305* OneWomanSong: "Zannalee," "Cindy C," "Bambi," "Annie Christian," "Anna Stesia," "Chelsea Rodgers."
306* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: See TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX.
307* OutOfGenreExperience: Prince has dabbled in ''a lot'' of genres, usually several within the course of a single album, so it's not often this trope happens, but it has.
308** As part of the ''Crystal Ball'' triple album of rarities, among the bonus material included is ''Kamasutra,'' an album of ClassicalMusic, composed by Prince and credited to the "NPG Orchestra." It was designed to be played at his wedding to Mayte Garcia, and even by classical standards it's a bit out there, with a lot of synthesized strings, odd detours, and one sudden shift into 90s-era porno music in the back half of the album.
309** Prince dabbled in some jazz in the early 2000s. ''The Rainbow Children'' hinted in this direction, and ''N.E.W.S.'' was a mostly-improvised experiment in jazz fusion. Otherwise, his jazz material was kept to fan-only releases, like ''Xpectation.''
310* PictorialLetterSubstitution: Prince's official writings (including song titles, lyrics, and press releases) were in "Princebonics," an idiosyncratic style that includes replacing words with appropriate letters, numbers, and symbols. The most prominent element of this is replacing the first-person pronoun "I" with a stylized eye symbol, introduced with the ''Music/{{Lovesexy}}'' track "๐Ÿ‘ No" before becoming standard in the mid-90s. Most fans Romanize the eye symbol as "Eye," which Prince himself nodded to with the ''Music/{{Musicology}}'' track "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life".
311* PingPongNaivete: In "Uptown", Prince is approached by a seemingly loose woman and mentions that he's taken aback by the request to "[[UnusualEuphemism party in Uptown]]". His internal monologue even calls her "a crazy little mixed up dame / she's a victim of society and all its games." Considering most of the rest of the ''Dirty Mind'' album consists of Prince sticking his dick in things, this is kinda jarring.
312* PintSizedPowerhouse: Stood at only 5'2", but was a talented instrumentalist, first-rate songwriter, and explosive performer.
313* PissTakeRap: "Dead on It". "Now the rapper's problem usually stems from being tone deaf..."
314* PopStarComposer: Did the '89 ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'' soundtrack.
315* PowerBallad: Best match for this criteria: "Purple Rain".
316* ProtestSong: Not what he's primarily known for, but "Partyup", "Ronnie Talk to Russia" (although he liked UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan), "America", "Sign "โ˜ฎ" the Times", "Dance On", "We March" and "Dear Mr. Man" count. These tend to be a bit {{Anvilicious}} though.
317* PurpleIsPowerful: Purple is the color he often performs in, inspiring "Purple Rain" too. After his death, a particular hue was even named "Love Symbol #2" and deemed the official color for his merchandise.
318* TheQuietOne: Prince and The Revolution ended up interviewed on Creator/{{MTV}} when the "America" single was released, an interview during which Prince refused to speak and instead let his bandmates answer all the questions.
319* RapIsCrap: This is the primary subject of "Dead On It", which includes a verse where Prince claims that rappers are just tone-deaf musicians cheating their way to success (ironic considering his later embrace of HipHop elements in the '90s).
320* RearrangeTheSong: Some of Prince's songs got stuck in Development Hell and by the time they came out they'd been drastically revised:
321** "Tick, Tick, Bang" was originally recorded in the ''Controversy'' sessions as a PunkRock song with frenzied drumming, monotone synth, and Prince's multitracked vocals. The ''Graffiti Bridge'' version somehow grew to include a slower tempo, a beat sampled from Music/JimiHendrix, a different synth melody, and more samples.
322** "You" was originally recorded by Prince in 1979 as a rock-oriented side-project called "The Rebels", and it was (appropriately) a riff-driven PowerPop song with a droning synth sequence, not too far removed from what Music/{{Devo}} ended up doing the next year with ''Music/FreedomOfChoice''. By the time Prince pawned it off to Music/PaulaAbdul in 1991 with the Princebonics-ized title of "U", the rock part was absent, and it was now more of a dance song.
323** The other surviving Rebels song, "If I Love You Tonight", wasn't radically changed since it started as a ballad, but Mayte's version has a more obvious R&B influence, with drum machines replacing Bobby Z.'s drums, and Princebonics replacing the normal title.
324** "Alphabet St." and "Kiss" both started out as acoustic blues songs in 1987 and 1985, respectively, and their original demos can be found on bootlegs, the former in drastically shortened form.
325** "Strange Relationship" had originally been recorded in 1982, and reworked with Wendy and Lisa in 1985, gaining a noticeable Indian influence through their playing sitar and wood flute. By the time it came out on ''Sign ''โ˜ฎ'' the Times'', The Revolution had disbanded, and Prince altered the mix to bury their contributions. (They weren't removed, but picking out the sitar and wood flute now requires some more careful listening.)
326** In fact, one of the chief complaints of fans against the ''Crystal Ball'' boxset, besides the predominance of material from TheNineties, is that the 1980s songs were presented in revised form.
327* RealLifeWritesThePlot: For someone so heavily guarded and reclusive, it's astounding that Prince let a lot of personal details slide in "The Sacrifice of Victor", including being epileptic as a child due to a complication at birth (the liner notes include the word "TRUE" in reverse beside this lyric) and domestic abuse of himself and his mother at the hands of his father.
328* RealMenWearPink: Could very well be a RealLife TropeCodifier of this.
329* RecordProducer: "Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince" ("& the Revolution" for ''Purple Rain'', ''Around the World in a Day'' and ''Parade'').
330* RefugeInAudacity: There's been all manner of vulgarity and explicit content on display in HipHop and R&B since 1980, so it can be pretty hard to appreciate just how '''filthy''' ''Dirty Mind'' was at the time. Songs about threesomes, oral sex, and BrotherSisterIncest weren't something you came across every day, let alone on an ostensibly mainstream pop record. Interestingly, critics often point to this as the album where Prince Grew The Beard.
331* {{Retraux}}: ''[=MPLSound=]'', if the name wasn't enough of a clue, is basically an entire album of Prince ransacking his 1980s Minneapolis sound. Ironically, he showcased it better on ''ART OFFICIAL AGE'', when he wasn't trying to sound retraux.
332* RockstarSong: "Baby I'm a Star"; "My Name Is Prince".
333* RummageSaleReject: This is what he and the Revolution dressed like back in TheEighties, with heavy doses of AwesomeAnachronisticApparel when the famed ruffled shirts appeared in 1984. They pulled it off.
334[[/folder]]
335[[folder:S-Z]]
336* SameFaceDifferentName: Might as well be the TropeNamer.
337* {{Sampling}}: Many people have sampled his stuff (example: Music/PublicEnemy's "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" uses the squealy guitar solo from "Let's Go Crazy"), not really surprising there. Prince himself first dipped into this with the ''Batman'' soundtrack, which featured samples taken from a workprint of the movie, with no ADR or foley, and outright made a VoiceClipSong with "Batdance". Starting in TheNineties he would use the occasional sample more frequently: "7" is based on the 1960s R&B song "Tramp" by Music/OtisRedding and Carla Thomas, "Tick Tick Bang" yanks the drumbeat from Music/JimiHendrix's "Little Miss Lover", one version of the bootlegged "Dis Beat Disrupts" samples the famous [[Music/LedZeppelin "When the Levee Breaks" beat]].
338* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: "1999" is probably the most famous example in modern music.
339* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: During an appearance on ''Series/TheView'', Sherri Sheppard blurted out "You don't understand, Prince; I've wanted to make love to you my whole life!" Prince promptly walked off stage.
340* SelfDeprecation: "Prince? That skinny motherfucker with the high voice?"
341** From "Now", a song released during his symbol phase: "Don't worry about my name, it's 2 long 2 remember / I could tell U now but we'd B here 'till next September."
342** The extended version of "Hello" ends with Prince suggesting his critics walk in his shoes, only to note that his shoes are all massive platform shoes because of his short height and that they would fall and die because of it.
343** The unreleased "Blues in C (If I Had a Harem)" pokes fun at his TheCasanova reputation.
344** His appearances on ''Series/NewGirl'' and ''Series/MuppetsTonight'' are full of this towards his more {{Cloudcuckoolander}} side.
345--->'''Prince''': "I'm guest-starrin' on the show tonight?\
346'''Bobo''': "Uhuh, and your name, sir?"\
347'''Prince''': ([[BreakingTheFourthWall Looks at camera.]]) "Ahh, ''this'' is gonna be fun."
348* SelfTitledAlbum: His second album ''[[Music/PrinceAlbum Prince]]'' was this. The symbol that was the name of his fourteenth album was later used as his legal name.
349* {{Sexophone}}: Surprisingly this is rarely employed, but finally saw use on 1989's three-part "The Scandalous Sex Suite", a 19-minute re-imagining of the song "Scandalous" from the ''Music/{{Batman|1989}}'' soundtrack. The woman in question being Creator/KimBasinger, who [[SpokenWordInMusic converses with Prince]] throughout the song. This may have also been used in the infamous Underwear scene from the cinematic classic ''Graffiti Bridge.''
350* SpokenWordInMusic: Numerous examples exist throughout his career. The most famous examples would include the start of "Let's Go Crazy".[[note]]Dearly beloved, we R gathered here today 2 get through this thing called life. Electric word life, it mean 4ever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here 2 tell U, there's something else: the afterworld. A world of never-ending happiness, U can always see the sun, day or night. So when U call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, U know the one - Dr Everything'll Be Alright. Instead of asking him how much of your time is left, ask him how much of your mind, baby. 'Cuz in this life, things are much harder than in the afterworld. In this life, you're on your own. And if de-elevator tries 2 bring U down, go crazy - punch a higher floor![[/note]] The most infamous example would probably be the intro to "Computer Blue":
351-->*guitar feedback*
352-->'''Lisa:''' Wendy?
353-->'''Wendy:''' Yes, Lisa?
354-->'''Lisa:''' Is the water warm enough?
355-->'''Wendy:''' Yes, Lisa.
356-->'''Lisa:''' Shall we begin?
357-->'''Wendy:''' Yes, Lisa. *EpicRiff*
358** Additional examples include the talk with God at the end of "Temptation", the entirety of "Bob George", the monologue/sermon that comprises the first half of "One Song" and the aforementioned "Scandalous Sex Suite". Smaller examples include the intro to "๐Ÿ‘ No", the last few lines of "200 Balloons", and the skits in between a couple of the songs on the ''Love Symbol'' album (Prince eventually cut several minutes of skits out of that album to fit one more song in.) The cake-taker is "The War", a 25-minute live jam with FauxlosophicNarration making up the lyrics.
359* SubduedSection: Too many to count.
360* SubliminalSeduction: {{Inverted|Trope}} entirely with "Darling Nikki". The song itself is about a "sex fiend" who has her full way with Prince, leaving him a wreck that begs for more. The backward message that concludes the song? "Hello, how R U? I'm fine, 'cause I know that the Lord is coming soon." During live performances on tour, that section would be played forwards because there was no way to properly reproduce it live.
361* TakeThat: He's recorded quite a few songs bashing on Warner Bros. Records, like "Dolphin", "Face Down" and "White Mansion".
362** The unreleased song "Extra Loveable" zings departed Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson with "Hey Dez, don't U like my band?".
363** "My Name Is Prince" was written after Music/MichaelJackson was proclaimed 'The King of Pop' and contains several jabs:
364-->I ain't sayin' I'm better, no better than you\
365But if you want 2 play with me, you better learn the rules\
366''[...]''\
367'You must become a Prince before you're King anyway'
368** ''Dream Factory'' was described by Prince as about a 'turncoat' and is usually assumed to be about former 'The Family' member St. Paul Peterson.
369* TakeThatCritics:
370** "All the Critics Love U in New York". The title says it all. Additionally, "Bob George" is rumoured to be a reference to Nelson George, a ''Billboard'' and ''The Village Voice'' music critic who gave some of his albums bad reviews.[[note]]The "Bob" is supposedly from Robert Cavallo, who managed him in his early days along with Joseph Ruffalo and Stephen Fargnoli, a/k/a "The Spaghetti Brothers". This was the team responsible for mismanaging Paisley Park Records to the point that Warner Bros. forced Prince to lend his Paisley Park studios to other acts just trying to recoup some of their investments, and eventually shut it down entirely.[[/note]]
371** The b-side "Hello" is a big take that to all of his critics, specifically those who criticized his absence in "We Are the World".
372** "Face Down" is a few minutes of smack talk aimed at both critics and Warner Brothers. It originates from a bad review of ''The Gold Experience,'' and Prince getting a kick out of something his keyboard player, Morris Hayes, said in response: "When we die, they can bury us face down and they can kiss our ass on the way out.โ€ Prince turned Hayes' comments into a song within two days.
373* TalkyBookends: The video for "My Name Is Prince" begins with a faux newsbreak featuring Creator/KirstieAlley as an onsite reporter.
374* TamerAndChaster: His albums from ''Musicology'' on were [[{{Understatement}} noticeably]] lighter on the explicit sexual content he made himself famous for. Part of this was his becoming a Jehovah's Witness, but also because he felt that he'd taken it as far as it could go and was simply bored with it.
375--> "The envelope can't be pushed any more! It's been pushed off the table!"
376* TextlessAlbumCover: ''The Black Album'' (''<[[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Spinal Tap]] reference goes here>''), ''Sign ''โ˜ฎ'' the Times'' and ''Batman''.
377* ThatManIsDead: ''Come'' was intended to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this; the somber, black and white photographs of Prince in a graveyard, coupled with the "1958-1993" subtitle beside his name, is meant to invoke the imagery of a deceased Prince, who had just adopted the Love Symbol as a stage name. ''The Gold Experience'', the album recorded concurrently with ''Come'', would be the first of Prince's albums to be released under his new moniker.
378* TheirFirstTime: From "Adore": "You made love 2 me like U were afraidโ€ฆ Was U afraid of me? Was I the first? Was I your every fantasy?"
379* ThoughtCrime: From "Electric Chair":
380-->''If a man is considered guilty\
381For what goes on in his mind\
382Then give me the electric chair\
383For all my future crimes-Oh!''
384* TokenWhite: As part of Prince's goal to have a multi-ethnic, multi-gender band of musicians at all times, he did include at least one white member from time to time:
385** Matt Fink spent 1978-1980 as one until Lisa Coleman joined the band. Fink's tenure with Prince lasted in 1990, and in that final year, he was the single white member of the band as well.
386** Tommy Barbarella was part of The New Power Generation from 1992-1996.
387** Candy Dulfer also spent time in The NPG from 2002-2004.
388** Other stages of the band either featured no white performers, or several (Wendy & Lisa, and later, Eric Leeds, alongside Fink; 3RDEYEGIRL's tenure.)
389* UnpluggedVersion: ''The Truth,'' shipped with the ''Crystal Ball'' set. It's not as stripped down as you'd think - Prince overdubbed some of his own vocals, sound effects, and other weird stuff. But the meat of the album is simply Prince and an acoustic guitar. Prince was known to go acoustic once in a while during live shows, most notably his mini-set during the ''Art Of Musicology'' special.
390* UnusualEuphemism: Plenty.
391** "Dirty Mind": "In my daddy's car, it's U I really wanna drive."
392** "Le Grind": "We're gonna do the grind y'all, gotcha where I wantcha. Girl, it's gonna feel so good. Up and down, up and down, on the beat y'all, like a pony would, pony would."
393** "Cindy C": "I'm sure you're quite intelligent, a whiz at math and all that shit but I'm, I'm a tad more interested in flyin' your kite 2 night..."
394** "Cream": "Cream, get on top; Cream, U will cop; Cream, don't U stop; Cream, sha-boogey-bop."
395** "Come": "Like a strawberry, chocolate, fender jazz, mashed potato fuzztone all over your thighs, oh baby!"
396** "Hot With U": "๐Ÿ‘ wanna get U underneath the cream and do the marshmallow."
397* UpdatedReRelease: Original CD issues of ''1999'' excluded the EpicRocking track "D.M.S.R." to allow the double-LP album to fit on one 74-minute Compact Disc. Once the CD format was revised to expand the maximum audio storage capacity to 80 minutes, ''1999'' was reissued on CD in 1990 with "D.M.S.R." added back in.[[note]]More specifically, the CD runs 70:29 with "D.S.M.R." included, but manufacturers often kept CD runtimes around the 64-minute mark, as outer edge playback was spotty on early model CD players if you went over that time. The injection moulding process for CD was not as well developed as it would be by 1990, and there could be disc reading problems with the outer edge, so shorter runtimes were effectively damage control (better to lose a song than have people returning "defective" [=CDs=]). Hence why the song was still cut.[[/note]]
398* VillainSong: "Dance with the Devil", where [[Film/Batman1989 The Joker]] is explicitly compared to ''{{Satan}}''.
399* VoiceClipSong: "Batdance" is Frankenstein'd together out of dialogue samples from ''Batman''; vocal quotes from Prince songs from that film's soundtrack; the "Batmaaaan!" of the 1966 Batman theme; a backing track from a song ''rejected'' for the film; an entirely unrelated funk riff; and a typically Princetastic guitar solo. It sounds as ridiculous as that description makes it out to be. And it became a #1 single in the US.
400* WholesomeCrossdresser: Many of Prince's outfits pushed the envelope of defined "unisex", and several openly incorporated elements of women's fashion.
401* WordSaladLyrics: No surprise given what a CloudCuckoolander he was.
402** Invoked in "Let's Go Crazy": "Let's look for the purple banana till they put us in the truck."
403** "Starfish and Coffee," the lyrics of which are derived from stories Prince's then-girlfriend recounted about a real-life autistic girl named Cynthia Rose.
404** Downplayed in "When Doves Cry". The meaning of the title is never explained, though considering doves are a symbol for peace, it likely means something along the lines of "When there's a lot of discord going on".
405* XtremeKoolLetterz: Prince was one of the first to use this trope to write his song titles and lyrics, to the point that the system was nicknamed "Princebonics" (and reading it is the easiest way to send your inner GrammarNazi into fits of fury). Starting in 1981, "to" = "2", "for" = "4", "you" = "U", "are" = "R", and so on. 1988's ''Lovesexy'' saw the pronoun "I" being replaced by a stylized "๐Ÿ‘"; Prince fans usually Romanize the "๐Ÿ‘" as "Eye" instead of "I", as ''Lovesexy'' featured two songs named "๐Ÿ‘ No" and "I Wish U Heaven".[[note]]The lyrics sheet for the album used both the proper "I" as well as the stylized "๐Ÿ‘" only when the phrase "I know" came up (because it was rendered as "๐Ÿ‘ No"...geddit?) Prince would go on to adopt "๐Ÿ‘" to replace "I" in nearly all contexts by 1990. The sole exception is with "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life" from ''Musicology'', which by extension made the colloquial Romanization of "๐Ÿ‘" as "Eye" AscendedFanon.[[/note]] A 1986 b-side is called "โค or $", pronounced "Love or Money". Prince's use of his own system became jarring to read when he set up the NPG Music Club, as every press release and article on the site never broke usage, even on the legal documents. See also LuckyCharmsTitle above.
406[[/folder]]
407----
408->U R now an official member of the New Power Generation. Welcome 2 the dawn.

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