The Minneapolis sound is a Sub-Genre of music that flourished in the 1980s. It's tied to Minneapolis because it was pioneered by Prince, but it wound up encompassing a whole lot of other people. The sound combined traditional funk and R&B grooves with the synthesizers and drum machines that were popular in New Wave Music at the time, and could also feature virtuosic guitar solos. The synths used in the Minneapolis sound often replaced the horns and saxophones sections typically used in funk, though it's not unheard of for some songs to combine the two, as shown by Prince's collaborations with Miles Davis; and the rhythms were typically faster and less syncopated, often going upwards toward 200 BPM.
Another distinguishing feature of the sound was the heavy processing on various instruments; especially the guitars and drums. The drums in particular would be mixed and processed to a point where there would be virtually no low end frequencies; with the rest of the instruments picking up the slack for the low end. More often than not, Prince would use drum machines instead of an actual drummer on his recordings; typically a Linn LM-1, though he was also known to use its successor, the LinnDrum, and other machines like the Akai MPC 3000. And as early as The Time's What Time Is It?, he would start sampling and interpolating other songs in many of his Minneapolis sound tracks; which would be greatly influential on Hip-Hop and New Jack Swing.
Prince more or less created his own scene by fostering other artists, some of whom were essentially puppets (like Apollonia 6 and The Time, at least at first), but others who brought their own input and musical ideas, such as Sheila E. Many of them released music through Prince's record label Paisley Park. Prince also brought his sound to musician friends with pre-existing careers, like Sheena Easton and Martika, through writing and production. And soon enough, other artists who weren't directly connected to Prince but sounded similar, like Ready for the World and The Jets, were climbing the charts.
Even more influentially, former Time members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, after getting kicked out of The Time in 1983, became sought-after record producers in the mid-1980s, and soon the fingerprints of the Minneapolis Sound were all over some big records. Janet Jackson's 1986 album Control was one of the most conspicuous examples, combining many of the Minneapolis Sound's elements with some new flavors. To a lesser degree, they also brought the sound to other clients like George Michael, Herb Alpert, and The Human League.
The Minneapolis sound was a direct predecessor to New Jack Swing, making it difficult to say exactly where one ended and the other began. The main changes were that New Jack Swing absorbed the influence of hip-hop, and also brought in some sweet R&B and gospel vocal harmonizing, and funky rhythms and chords that hadn't been a big part of the Minneapolis Sound. Also, while the blueprint of new jack was started in Minneapolis by Jam & Lewis with Janet Jackson's Control, it really took off thanks to the New York-based Teddy Riley, who also helped further popularize sampling and interpolation in R&B music. By the 1990s, even Prince himself, despite his low opinion on hip-hop at the time, was adopting some New Jack Swing elements into his music.
Unfortunately, many of the albums recorded on the Paisley Park label went out of print after it was shut down in 1994 due to mismanagement. However, some of the surviving bands continue to tour, and the Minneapolis Sound's musical legacy lives on.
Artists Associated with the Minneapolis Sound:
- Herb Alpert (specifically his 1987 album Keep Your Eye on Me)
- Apollonia 6 / Vanity 6 (debatable whether one band or two)
- Tevin Campbell
- Ingrid Chavez
- Sheila E.
- Sheena Easton
- Carmen Electra
- The Family / fDeluxe
- Mayte Garcia
- The Human League (briefly dabbled in a mix between this and New Jack Swing on Crash, recorded in Minnesota and produced by Jam & Lewis)
- Janet Jackson
- 1986 - Control
- 1989 - Rhythm Nation 1814
- The Jets
- Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
- Madhouse
- Mazarati
- George Michael (particularly the FAITH album)
- Janelle Monáe (crossed with Neo Soul)
- 2018 - Dirty Computer
- New Edition
- Alexander O'Neal
- The New Power Generation
- Prince (widely cited as the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier of the genre)
- 1980 - Dirty Mind
- 1982 - 1999 (Album)
- 1984 - Purple Rain (album)
- 1985 - Around the World in a Day
- 1986 - Parade (Album)
- 1987 - Sign o' the Times
- 1989 - Batman (1989)
- Ready For The World
- Talking Heads (weren't directly affiliated with Prince, but briefly dabbled in the sound during the tail end of their collaborations with Parliament Funkadelic, incorporating elements of their prior Post-Punk sound and earning their biggest hit in the process)
- 1983 - Speaking in Tongues
- 1984 - Stop Making Sense
- The Time
- Morris Day
- Vanity
- Wendy & Lisa
