Prince - 1999 (Top 500 Countdown Update)

What an odd album. This is another one of those oddities in history. That this album made Prince a huge star is all due to "1999" and "Little Red Corvette." It's easy to forget that 1999 is a double album with a pretty experimental sound. It's funk, electronica, and r&b all rolled into one album. A pretty odd mix at the time it came out. Without those two songs this album never makes it to mainstream and he never develops the kind of following he would get from this album. The key was that this album connected with older teenagers who were intrigued by the beats and vulgarities. This would become his corps audience and Prince would brilliantly flush out his themes to become more mature as this audience matured. In other words look for his music and lyrics to improve and peak soon after 1999.