Prince vs. Michael Jackson:who will history find the better musician?
 

About twenty years ago, or even ten, I would have thought history would find in favor of Jackson. However, recent events have some people thinking MJ is down for the count.
What's interesting is that while his albums may not sell like they used to, Prince has really made himself more of a public figure and been more open to interviews and such. On top of that, his music doesn't seem as dated as MJ's IMO. In all honesty, I never thought Prince would last that long past the late 80s and Batman, glad I'm wrong actually.

As a musician Prince is better. Doesn't he play like 7 different instruments?

Better musician is Prince, by far. Does Jackson even play any instruments? (I know, I know, the skin flute and the bagpipes, yuck, yuck.)

Michael Jackson!

As singers: a Tie.
As musicians (instruments): Prince.
As dancers: Wacko Jacko.

After i saw Prince on an episode of the Muppets where the whole little skit was mocking him for changing his name to a symbol I gained a huge amount of respect for the man. Well that and watching Kevin Smith rip on him on his Ane Evening With... dvd. :)

Guess I should have changed the title to overall artist.

Prince is a better musician, songwriter, and overall artist. Jackson is a better dancer. I would say they're equal singers. But even in the 80's when Jackson was unquestionably the biggest figure in music, Prince was still a better artist.

I think history would remember Michael more, Prince is the better musician but Michael will always be remembered as having bigger hits and being much more popular.

I agree. Did MJ even write his own songs?

Prince is infinitely better in every aspect (does Prince really dance?) Jackson will be remembered more though, as an artist and as a figure.

What Suprmallet said.

Well, except for the dancing part...neither are really that good.

Well, I mean, the Moonwalk. That was huge.

And Jackson would write or co-write some of his songs. However, Prince writes all his own material, and his output is about 50x larger than Jackson's (including unreleased material).

Prince would win strictly by sheer volume. Plus, even his total failures are at least interesting. How many genres has he tried? Pop, r&b, funk, soul, rock, hip hop, disco, jazz. blues, reggae, techno... he plays 20+ instruments, and has 3 or 4 distinct singing voices. His song topics range from XXX to God. In addition to over 25 albums he has 1000s of songs sitting in his vault (grrr!).

MJ has his hits, and they can't be ignored. They are huge and will be remembered forever. He knocked down many barriers and pretty much established the "music video as an event". He's existed in several incarnations, Jackson 5 to now. But he just doesn't have the volume... He will always be important, but in the end his life work is a bit less varied. Has he released anything fresh (as in not just a retread of stuff he's already done) since HISTory (or Dangerous, or Bad, depending on your p.o.v.)?

I would say Dangerous was an interesting step forward in his career, but he never followed it up with anything interesting.

Prince. Hands down.

As Chris Rock said in his recent HBO special discussing this very topic..."Prince won" ;) I saw Prince last night from the 6th row and it was mind blowing! He is such an amazing performer. I wasn't alive during Beatlemania, but I can't imagine that there will ever be anything like Michael mania circa 83-84. He truly was a groundbreaking artist but sadly his sideshow of a life is always the first thing people think about when they hear his name. Prince has eccentricities of his own to say the least, but among all genres of music he is the more respected artist.

i'm going to vote prince, because i respect him more, i feel he's got more overall talent, and people will still appreciate him as an artist/musician in years to come. and hell, i'm totally unfamiliar with any of his music with exception to purple rain.

they are both looney tunes.

Prince

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DRG
[B]Prince would win strictly by sheer volume. Plus, even his total failures are at least interesting. How many genres has he tried? Pop, r&b, funk, soul, rock, hip hop, disco, jazz. blues, reggae, techno... he plays 20+ instruments, and has 3 or 4 distinct singing voices. His song topics range from XXX to God. In addition to over 25 albums he has 1000s of songs sitting in his vault (grrr!).



Exactly!!!!!

Michael Jackson is a singer/dancer
Prince is a singer/dancer/multi-instrumentalist


Prince is a real musician as in he plays musical instruments.

I always felt Prince had more overall talent, but during the awards show this year in which he performed (Grammies? I can't remember) with Beyonce or somesuch, he had a guitar solo and was really just wailing, and I gained 10 pounds of respect for him that night.

Prince owns the guitar. He's up there with Frank Zappa for me, in terms of musicians who you don't normally associate as guitar virtuosos, but actually are.

Prince