10 Bands That Mixed Different Music Genres

It's hard to really pinpoint what genre Prince even fit in to begin with when he was starting out. Before Minneapolis was put on the scene as one of the biggest hubs of soul and funk music, Prince was still just a teenager making his first steps into mainstream music. No one can really say for sure what his music should be called, but it's better to just call it 'Prince music' and leave it at that.

While his roots in R&B led to some great ballads off of albums like For You and his self titled record, hearing him embrace funk and pop on albums like 1999 and Controversy turned him into a blockbuster star, taking bits and pieces from acts like Funkadelic and turning them into irresistible songs like Little Red Corvette. When it was time for the real blockbusters though, Prince got back his rock chops, unpacking his guitar for Purple Rain and dominating the rest of the rock scene with everything from hair metal solos on Let's Go Crazy to going back to funk on Kiss.

Just listening to an album like Sign o the Times would be enough for his versatility, going from soul to pop to rock to funk without ever sounding too messy. Even when he took his foot off the gas in the '90s by going into jazz, Prince was still a student of music and was willing to expand his taste whenever he could. So for everyone trying to put artists in a box as a specific type of genre, you're pretty safe with Prince if you're a fan of any good music.