Prince's self-titled second album, released on October 19, 1979, was a pivotal moment in his career and a significant record in the cultural landscape of the late 1970s.
Album and Artist Information
Complete Artistic Control: After his 1978 debut, *For You*, failed to make a commercial impact, Prince took complete creative control. For the *Prince* album, he wrote, arranged, produced, composed, and played all 27 instruments himself. This was a rare feat that established him as a prodigious, self-contained musical force.
Commercial Breakthrough: The album was his first major commercial success. It went platinum and featured his first hit single, "I Wanna Be Your Lover," which topped the R&B charts and broke into the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. This success gave him the artistic freedom and leverage to experiment more boldly on subsequent albums like *Dirty Mind* and *1999*.
Sound: The album is a masterful blend of funk, disco, rock, and pop. While tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Lover" have a clear disco-funk appeal, others like "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "Bambi" feature prominent rock guitar, showcasing the genre-blending that would become his signature.
Cultural Relevance at the Time
The End of Disco: Released as the "Disco Sucks" movement was gaining momentum, the album was perfectly timed. It captured the danceable energy of disco and funk but infused it with a harder rock edge and pop sensibilities, pointing the way forward for black artists in a post-disco world.
Breaking Down Barriers: In an era where the music industry was still heavily segregated by genre and radio format, Prince defied categorization. He was a Black artist playing rock guitar, a funk musician writing pop hits, and an R&B singer with a new wave sensibility. This album was a crucial step in breaking down those racial and genre barriers, proving that an artist could be all of those things at once.
Artistic Individuality: The late 70s were a time of social and economic uncertainty, often called the "malaise" era in the US. Prince's response was not overt political commentary, but a radical assertion of individuality, artistic vision, and sexual confidence. His androgynous image and sexually forward lyrics challenged traditional notions of masculinity, particularly for a mainstream male artist.
In essence, the *Prince* album was far more than just a collection of songs; it was a statement. It announced the arrival of a singular talent who refused to be boxed in, and it laid the commercial and artistic groundwork for his ascent to global superstardom in the 1980s.