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Sign '☮' the Times (Music)
- 110 statements
- 20 feature instances
- 12 referencing feature instances
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | type |
TVTItem | |
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Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | |
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SignOTheTimes | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | comment |
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Sign o' the Times, stylized as Sign "☮︎" the Times, is the ninth studio album recorded by American funk/rock musician Prince. It was released through Warner Bros. Records, via the Paisley Park Records label, on March 30, 1987.It was his first album since his backing band the Revolution had disbanded, and was cobbled together from three aborted album ideas: Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball. Specifically, it was the result of Warner Bros. noticing the plan for Crystal Ball to be a triple album— a rarity and a huge financial risk— and asking that Prince distill it to just two LPs. While most people in hindsight agree that it was a request made for the better (especially in light of Emancipation, a later triple-CD album generally seen as padded-out and mediocre), in hindsight it's thought of as the starting point of Prince's infamously poor relations with Warner Bros, culminating in him adopting the unpronounceable "Love Symbol" as his stage name for much of The '90s.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })The album was a considerable commercial success, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and topping the charts in Switzerland, going on to become the 47th best-selling album of 1987 in the United States; additionally, the Title Track, "U Got the Look", and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" all charted within the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was also certified platinum in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands, double-gold in France, and gold in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Switzerland. Following Prince's death in 2016, the album made enough posthumous sales to re-enter the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 20.In hindsight, the album is also seen as a End of an Era in two regards. Firstly, it was seen as a last hurrah for black music prior to hip-hop's takeover of the landscape during The '90s, being the last major blockbuster from a black artist who didn't rap. While Prince's initial response to hip-hop was tepid at best, even he would later embrace the genre for much of the proceeding decade. Secondly, the album is regarded as the de-facto Grand Finale of the vinyl record's era as the dominant format for music releases. Not only was it the last major double-album blockbuster to be primarily oriented for vinyl, but the single "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" was also the last of Prince's singles to not be immediately available on a Compact Disc. In that sense, Prince's send-off to the vinyl era most certainly allowed it to end with a bang.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })The album was supported by the Title Track, "If I Was Your Girlfriend", "U Got the Look", and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man". He did manage to score three Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 ("U Got the Look" was the highest, at #2), and all four were also hits on the UK pop chart.Tracklist: Disc One Side One "Sign '☮' the Times" (4:57) "Play in the Sunshine" (5:05) "Housequake" (4:42) "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" (4:01) Side Two "It" (5:09) "Starfish and Coffee" (2:50) "Slow Love" (4:42) "Hot Thing" (5:39) "Forever in My Life" (3:30) Disc Two Side Three "U Got the Look" (3:47) "If I Was Your Girlfriend" (5:01) "Strange Relationship" (4:01) "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" (6:29) Side Four "The Cross" (4:48) "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (9:01) "Adore" (6:30) | |
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2021-10-11T17:39:14Z | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | parsed |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | processingComment |
Dropped link to Bowdlerize: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) | isPartOf |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_16d8476f | type |
Protest Song | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_16d8476f | comment |
Protest Song: The Title Track. | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_16d8476f | featureApplicability |
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Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_16d8476f | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_22093e9b | type |
New Sound Album | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_22093e9b | comment |
New Sound Album: Being his first post-Revolution solo album, this one features more stripped-down arrangements and production and a sound that generally leans more towards pop-rock than funk or neo-psychadelia. This becomes apparent right out the starting gates, with the opening Title Track being a brooding, minimalist Synth-Pop song composed entirely with the Fairlight CMI's presets (as opposed to using custom samples). | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_35a858b3 | type |
Cluster F-Bomb | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_35a858b3 | comment |
Cluster F-Bomb: "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night", during the "transmississippirap", features Prince and the band (and probably the audience) chanting "Can't nobody! Fuck with us!" | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_4e3dee88 | type |
Their First Time | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_4e3dee88 | comment |
Their First Time: From "Adore": "You made love 2 me like U were afraid… Was U afraid of me? Was I the first? Was I your every fantasy?" | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_5744f019 | type |
Lucky Charms Title | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_5744f019 | comment |
Lucky Charms Title: Both the album title and Title Track fulfill this. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_59d9cfbd | type |
Let's Duet | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_59d9cfbd | comment |
Let's Duet: "U Got The Look" with Sheena Easton. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_74149c93 | type |
Epic Rocking | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_74149c93 | comment |
Epic Rocking: "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night", and "Adore" all surpass six minutes. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_82518cf7 | type |
Motor Mouth | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_82518cf7 | comment |
Motor Mouth: The "transmississippirap" from "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night", where Sheila E. reads Edward Lear's "The Table And The Chair", 228 words, in less than 45 seconds. She definitely earned that "GOOD GOD!" at the end! | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_8c00118f | type |
Spoken Word in Music | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_8c00118f | comment |
Spoken Word in Music: "If I Was Your Girlfriend" ends with a lengthy monologue from Camille vividly describing a sexual encounter with the listener. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_9f2898f7 | type |
Long Title | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_9f2898f7 | comment |
Long Title: "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_afd181c7 | type |
Xtreme Kool Letterz | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_afd181c7 | comment |
Xtreme Kool Letterz: "U Got the Look". | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_b489805d | type |
Hollywood Autism | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_b489805d | comment |
Hollywood Autism: Subverted with "Starfish and Coffee". The song's about an actual autistic girl that Prince's girlfriend at the time knew, but the song at no point invokes stereotypes of the condition and presents an overall sympathetic and empathetic view towards the girl, if a bit whimsical (given that she was still a child at the time of recording). | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c59bf35a | type |
Ballad of X | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c59bf35a | comment |
Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker". | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" includes a reference to Joni Mitchell's "Help Me": | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c7853b1e | type |
On the Rebound | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_c7853b1e | comment |
On the Rebound: "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" is all about defying this trope— the narrator has to turn down advances from a girl who's clearly trying to fill the void her recent ex-boyfriend left. The capper is that said girl is now pregnant with her second child from that relationship. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_dbc664dd | type |
Album Title Drop | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_dbc664dd | comment |
Album Title Drop: In the Title Track. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_dbfe8427 | type |
Intercourse with You | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_dbfe8427 | comment |
Intercourse with You: "U Got The Look", especially with this line: The ending monologue in "If I Was Your Girlfriend", which describes a hypothetical sexual encounter between the narrator and subject in vivid detail. Unlike most examples of this trope though, the monologue isn't played for sex appeal and is more for the sake of invoking a particular set of emotions. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_e18675e6 | type |
Word Salad Lyrics | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_e18675e6 | comment |
Word Salad Lyrics: "Starfish and Coffee," the lyrics of which are derived from stories Prince's then-girlfriend recounted about a real-life autistic girl named Cynthia Rose. | |
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| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_e91cc721 | type |
In the Style of | |
| Sign '☮' the Times (Music) / int_e91cc721 | comment |
In the Style of...: "Housequake" features Prince at his most Little Richard-ish. | |
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Sign '☮' the Times (Music) |
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