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}} ''1999'' is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on October 27, 1982 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was his first top ten album on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart in the United States (peaking at number 9) and became the fifth best-selling album of 1983 and was certified Multi-Platinum by RIAA. ''1999'' was Prince's breakthrough album, but his next album, ''Purple Rain'', would become his most successful. The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit in countries outside the United States. It was also the first album to feature The Revolution. The band's moniker is written in reverse on the front cover. According to the ''Rolling Stone Album Guide'', "''1999'' may be Prince's most influential album: Its synth-and-drum machine-heavy arrangements codified the Minneapolis sound that loomed over mid-'80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades' worth of electro, house, and techno." In 2003, the TV network VH1 placed ''1999'' 49th in its list of the greatest albums of all time. The album was also part of Slant Magazine's list "The 50 Most Essential Pop Albums" and the magazine listed the album at #8 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s". The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2003, the album was ranked number 163 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. ==Composition== The album's opening title track, "1999", was also its first single, initially peaking at 44 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was later re-released, hitting number 12 on the Billboard charts once interest in the album had caught fire with the release of ''1999s second single, "Little Red Corvette", which peaked at number 6 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and heralded Prince's rise to superstardom. The music video for the song was significant in itself as one of the first videos by a black artist to receive "heavy rotation" airplay on the newly launched music video channel, MTV. The two tracks were later combined as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 2. A third single, "Delirious", still managed top ten status in the United States, but a fourth, the double-sided single "Let's Pretend We're Married"/"Irresistible Bitch", got no further than number 52. While "Little Red Corvette" helped Prince cross over to the wider rock audience, the rest of the album retains the elements of previous albums and is dominated by funk and synthesizer dance tracks. The album is, however, notable amongst Prince's catalogue for its wide variety of imagery and themes besides the sexual themes that had already become something of a trademark on previous albums. "Automatic", extending to almost ten minutes, starts side three of the album with a cocktail of synthesizers and bawdy bondage-inspired lyrical imagery which, transplanted to the music video for the track (with a scene that depicted Prince being tied up and whipped by band-members Lisa Coleman and Jill Jones), was, in 1983, considered too hot for MTV. "Free" is a delicate piano ballad expressing patriotism, and how fellow Americans should appreciate their freedom, while "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)", an ode to a harsh lover, is the centerpiece of a preoccupation with Computer Age themes that would continue into future albums. This "computer" theme is also reflected in the album's instrumentation, with Prince fully embracing the gadgetry and sounds of emergent electro-funk and '80s sequencing technology on tracks like "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "All the Critics Love U in New York", songs that widen his use of synthesizers and effects and prominently feature his noted uses of the Linn LM-1 drum machine. Prince himself admitted at the time the movie ''Blade Runner'' was an influence on the album's synth sound and look in the music videos for the album. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1999 (Prince album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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