In the US, sure, but he was crazy popular in the UK. He's the only solo male to have 8 singles consecutively in the UK Top 10. According to Wikipedia he actually had 13 various songs in the top 30 worldwide. No MJ, but that's not bad for someone people consider a one-hit wonder nowadays. Reading over his bio it looks to me like he worked pretty hard up until he retired (at 27 years old, so he must have done pretty well) for 10 years.
[Music] Most prolific artist after MJ?
- Thread starter Necronic
- Start date
- Status
Still, I wouldn't say prolific. 5 albums is quite a small amount for someone who's been producing music since the 80s. COULD he have been more prolific if he hadn't retired? It's entirely possible.
That's one of the reasons you can't really call Nirvana prolific. They only put out 3 albums before Curt Cobain offed himself.
Also, as for the UK, they regard Lulu as a national treasure, so grain of salt
Now if we're talking influential, important, or relevent, that's something entirely different.
That's one of the reasons you can't really call Nirvana prolific. They only put out 3 albums before Curt Cobain offed himself.
Also, as for the UK, they regard Lulu as a national treasure, so grain of salt
Now if we're talking influential, important, or relevent, that's something entirely different.
Well, if we're talking just prolific, then enjoy: http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/12-extremely-disappointing-facts-about-popular-mus
8. Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album
That is probably a good thing in comparison.
for the list in general... you always hear the music pundints wringing their hands about the death of rock an pop. But the people on top now are just selling far more records than ever. It is just in the past more bands sold more records, it was a diverse field. Just look back as recently as the 80's, where Punk, New Wave, Post Punk, Soul, R&B, Pop, Country, Disco (still holding on,) Heavy Metal, Hair Bands, Rap, Heavy Metal/Rap Fusion, on and on... were all viable and thriving music genres.
Necronic
Staff member
If you're implying that the music scene has less diversity I am going to call complete and total BS on that. There is so much diversity in the music industry these days that I am honestly a little overwhelmed by it for the first time in my life. I would argue that it's gotten to the point that even trying to boil things down into genres is impossible as it's all one giant pulsating amorphous blob of art.
Part of this has to do with access. Musicians and their fans have completely unprecedented access these days. They don't HAVE to put themselves into a genre to get air time, because air time doesn't matter anymore.
Anyways, things are more diverse than ever, and there are currently more professional musicians out there than ever before.
Genres have split in to multitudes of niches to the point it's astounding. For example, this piece of art: http://mapofmetal.com/#/home
It's so beautiful I could cry.
It's so beautiful I could cry.
Damn straight. Going by Wikipedia, he personally has 25 studio albums plus five soundtrack albums and at least one boxed set of original material along with four more internet only albums (before the internet ended, apparently). On top of that, he created the groups The Time (4 albums with his input, 3 of them where he did most of the recording himself), Madhouse (2 albums), The Family, Vanity 6, and Apollonia 6 (1 album a piece). He also produced whole albums for Sheila E. (3 albums), Mavis Staples (2 albums), Eric Leeds, Ingrid Chavez, Carmen Electra, Jill Jones, Mayte Garcia, Martika, and Chaka Khan. He has also contributed songs here and there for Sheena Easton, Mazarati, Tevin Campbell, and Patti LaBelle. He can also be credited with discovering folks like Sheila E. (arguably one of the finest drummers around), Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis ( founding members of The Time and fairly prolific record producers in their own right, with 16 #1 singles to their credit, with Jimmy Jam additionally being Chairman Emeritus of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences), Wendy & Lisa (founding members of The Revolution with a respectable solo career of their own, now spending most of their time as composers for television shows - they won an Emmy for the Nurse Jackie theme song), and a slew of artists who have been fairly successful outside the Prince camp.
Love him or hate him, Prince is one of the more influential and prolific musicians of the last thirty-two years.
It's more than that. The man has been off in his own little world since at least 1987, if not even earlier (good candidate would be 1985 or so, when he go the director of Under The Cherry Moon fired in order to direct it himself) and is therefore criminally out of touch (the internet is so over, theocracy is kinda cool, chem trails are real). He's ruthless when it comes to the business side of music (won't let but a few people record covers of his music, won't let The Time - consisting of dudes he's known for for than thirty years including his high school pal Morris Day - use their name anymore, takes videos of his music off of YouTube as fast as he can, etc, etc). He's just kind of a dick...but Morris and Wendy and various others all seem think of him as a good person who's a weird dude and hard to work with sometimes, so who am I judge him harshly?
Yeah, I watched Purple Rain last summer and fell down a Prince Hole that I have yet to climb out of.
It's a parody, obviously, but I think SNL's Prince Show with Fred Armisen pretty much sums up how people perceive Prince.
I like Usher enough that I have forgiven him for this.
But as far as the most prolific? Prince for sure. I don't love all of his new stuff, but he is still recording and touring. I've seen him twice now, once recently, and he puts on a phenomenal show!! He has so much material that he didn't have time to finish many songs - it was a big medley. And he played for a really long time!
There's several other factors that go into why Katy Perry has as many #1 hits as Michael:
For one, there are more consumers out there than there were in 1982. There's also more means of getting Katy's content than there were in '82 (Basically, you could get Thriller on LP, cassette or on that new-ish technology known as "CD's" - though I think the CD version didn't come out until much later). Katy also did a MUCH better way of promoting her music - anyone remember her in the days of MySpace, when "I Kissed A Girl" took off? There's also more ways for people to hear Katy's stuff than there were in '82 for Michael. What Art Alexakis sang in "AM Radio" was still true in '82: "Had to listen to it all night long/just to hear my favorite song."
Does that mean Katy's stuff is better than Michael's? Probably not. It's different, that's for sure, but pop music is called that for a reason - it's popular at the time it's released. "California Here I Come" was popular when it was first released in 1924 - but then again, so was that little ditty, "Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?"
For one, there are more consumers out there than there were in 1982. There's also more means of getting Katy's content than there were in '82 (Basically, you could get Thriller on LP, cassette or on that new-ish technology known as "CD's" - though I think the CD version didn't come out until much later). Katy also did a MUCH better way of promoting her music - anyone remember her in the days of MySpace, when "I Kissed A Girl" took off? There's also more ways for people to hear Katy's stuff than there were in '82 for Michael. What Art Alexakis sang in "AM Radio" was still true in '82: "Had to listen to it all night long/just to hear my favorite song."
Does that mean Katy's stuff is better than Michael's? Probably not. It's different, that's for sure, but pop music is called that for a reason - it's popular at the time it's released. "California Here I Come" was popular when it was first released in 1924 - but then again, so was that little ditty, "Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?"
More importantly, she wears a lot of latex dresses.
Also, I love you for referencing Everclear. One of my all-time favorite bands.
Yeah, but then again you could say the same for most rock bands of the 90's and beyond. Dude had plenty of reason, though, and it made for some great, heartfelt music. If you listen to his re-recordings with the "new" Everclear, it's obvious he's moved on and isn't angry anymore, which sadly for the listener (but good for him!) takes away from the emotion in the songs.
Oh that younger generation. They just don't have as good taste as the older one.
For nine years in the '90s "prince" didn't exist during which time he released over 5 albums. So you have to at least throw away the albums produced by the guy with the unpronounceable "the love symbol" name.
Yeah, because him being legally barred from using his legal, given name by Warner Bros. changes who made the music.
If he'd completely changed genres, hooked up with a new band (he's been calling his backing group the New Power Generation or NPG continuously since about 1987), or disowned that material upon expiration of his Warner Bros. contract, you'd maybe have a point. But he didn't. The eminently reasonable conspiracy theory about that period is that he chose the unpronounceable symbol specifically so people would be forced to keep calling him "Prince" even if he couldn't.Meh. I was just making a joke about the situation. He shouldn't have signed away the rights to his given name if he didn't want the legal entanglements they caused. He also released those several albums really quickly just to get out of the contract with Warner Bros, so an argument could be made that he didn't put his best work into them.Yeah, because him being legally barred from using his legal, given name by Warner Bros. changes who made the music.
But it really doesn't matter, I was joking. You can still call him one of the most prolific artists.
GasBandit
Staff member
Girl All the Bad Guys Want.
"She's into Godsmack and I like Agent Orange, her CD changer's full of singers that are mad at their dads..."
I think that was actually meant to be a dig against Korn, specifically the track "Daddy" on their debut album.
And boy does this thread suck.
GasBandit
Staff member
And it was aaaaaaaaallll downhill from thereHey, you posted in it.
Since prolific is pretty much a numbers game, I'll give that one a pass.
Influential/important?
Madonna
Nirvana
Notorious BIG (I'd say he's had more *influence* than Usher, but I admit my knowledge of the field is too limited to say)
Though he's had a lot of his better-known works before Thriller, I'd still say Bob Dylan - he's still making new songs and they're still damn influential. How many artists can you think of that don't list him as an influence?
Influential/important?
Madonna
Nirvana
Notorious BIG (I'd say he's had more *influence* than Usher, but I admit my knowledge of the field is too limited to say)
Though he's had a lot of his better-known works before Thriller, I'd still say Bob Dylan - he's still making new songs and they're still damn influential. How many artists can you think of that don't list him as an influence?
- Status