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Book

Prince's Minneapolis : a biography of sound & place

Call Number

  • 921 P954S (CEN, EAS, OSH, POW, WSQ)

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Publication Information

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2026]

Physical Description

xiii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Summary

"When nineteen-year-old Prince took the stage to perform 'I wanna be your lover' on American Bandstand, those who watched couldn't reconcile how Prince's funky disco-pop sounds had hailed from a place like Minneapolis. But the Minneapolis Sound, Prince's signature pop-musical fusion of funk, R & B, rock, punk, and new wave, did not emerge from a vacuum. The place and space of Minneapolis shaped the musical ecosystem that made Prince famous. And in turn, a complex array of social forces shaped the city's soundscape. An expert on place, race, and culture, geographer Rashad Shabazz reveals the hidden history of the Minneapolis Sound, Prince, and his beloved city. More than a biography of Prince, this is a biography of the city and the world of sound from which Prince emerged. Shabazz traces the history of the Minneapolis Sound alongside the city's history, from colonial contact and through periods of Indigenous removal, white settlement, mass migration, industrialization, music education, suburbanization, and systemic racism. This complex history, combined with the exceptional talent cultivated in Minneapolis's small Black communities, gave rise to a groundbreaking genre, the otherworldly legend that was Prince, and music that captivated the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

  • Preface: 'Cause I was your boyfriend
  • Introduction: This is not the kind of music that comes from Minneapolis
  • Part 1. The birth, 1850-1900. White settlement and the birth of the Minneapolis Sound ; The waterfall that built a city
  • Part 2. The growth, 1900-1950. Musical city ; Segregating Minneapolis ; Musical apartheid
  • Part 3. The evolution, 1950-1976. That distinctively dirty Minneapolis funk ; School days ; The rooms where it happened ; Planning, punk, and indie rock downtown
  • Part 4. The rise, 1977-1987. Making a different sound, part I ; Making a different sound, part II ; 1984 ; Another very experimental kind of record ; Masterpiece of Minneapolis ; Moving the Minneapolis Sound.

Subjects