Prince Rogers Nelson was an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and actor. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, blues, and hip hop. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound.
Alan Smithee is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined in 1968 and used until it was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) when directors, dissatisfied with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project's director.
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either as video albums or video singles. The format has been described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip", "film clip", "video clip", or simply "video".
Purple Rain is a 1984 American romantic rock musical drama film scored by and starring Prince in his acting debut. Developed to showcase his talents, it contains several concert sequences, featuring Prince and his band The Revolution. The film is directed by Albert Magnoli, who later became Prince's manager, from a screenplay by Magnoli and William Blinn. The cast also features Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, Olga Karlatos and Clarence Williams III.
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their self-titled 1975 debut album included the single "White Punks on Dope", while their 1983 single "She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early days of MTV. The band also performed in the 1980 film Xanadu, singing the rock portion of the cross-genre song "Dancin'" opposite a big band.
Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, musician and film director. McCulloch is best known for his work as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, including starring in the TV series of the same name. He was also a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has appeared on other series including Twitch City and Gilmore Girls. He directed the films Dog Park, Stealing Harvard and Superstar.
Gower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.
Bruce Gowers was a British television director and producer, best known for his work on large-scale live music and event productions.
The Smashing Pumpkins – Greatest Hits Video Collection (1991–2000) is a DVD containing nearly all of The Smashing Pumpkins music videos released prior to the band's breakup in late 2000. Extras include an exclusive short film Try, a previously unreleased "I Am One" music video, behind-the-scenes and outtakes footage, two live videos, and commentary by Jimmy Chamberlin, Billy Corgan, James Iha, and the video directors.
The Revolution is an American band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1979 by Prince, serving as his live band and later as his studio band. The band's sound incorporated rock, pop, R&B, funk, new wave and psychedelic elements. Along with Prince's other projects, the Revolution helped create the Minneapolis sound. By the time of their 1986 breakup, the Revolution had backed Prince on two studio albums, two soundtracks and two videos.
"U Got the Look" is a song by American musician Prince. It opens the second disc of Prince's double album Sign o' the Times (1987), and became the album's runner-up chart single. Musically, the song is a standard 12-bar rock song with emphasis on the contrast between heavy drum beats by a Linn LM-1 drum machine and Sheila E.'s live percussion, and a vastly distorted almost completely saturated guitar sound. Although not credited on the single release, the song also features Scottish recording artist Sheena Easton. Prince sings in his sped-up "Camille" voice, although the song was not intended for the Camille album. The lyrics recite the familiar "boy versus girl in the World Series of love" line.
Prince was well known in the entertainment industry for having a vast body of work that remains unreleased. It has been said that his vault contains multiple unreleased albums and over 50 fully produced music videos that have never been released, along with albums and other media. The following is a list, in rough chronological order, of the most prominent of these unreleased works. Many were later released and circulated among collectors as bootlegs.
Sign o' the Times is a 1987 American concert film directed, scored and starring Prince.
Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 30, 1987, as a double album by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to Parade and is Prince's first solo album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The album's songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for releases Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball. Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.
The Complete Truth About De-Evolution was the third home video release by new wave band Devo. It is a collection of Devo's music videos from 1976 to 1990. It was released on LaserDisc in 1993 by Voyager and on DVD by Rhino Records in 2003. MVD released a new version of the disc in 2014.
Diamonds and Pearls Video Collection is a collection of music videos compiled to accompany and further promote Prince's hit album Diamonds and Pearls. The collection was originally released in VHS format on October 6, 1992, and finally saw a DVD release on August 22, 2006. The collection contains videos for most of the songs on the album, with the exception of "Daddy Pop", "Walk, Don't Walk" and "Push". Two tracks included that were not on the album were "Call the Law", which was a B-side to the single release of "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" and "Dr. Feelgood", a cover version. Four of the clips were live concert performances: "Thunder", "Dr. Feelgood", "Jughead" and "Live 4 Love". The DVD release did not contain any extras from the VHS version.
Video Greatest Hits – HIStory is a collection of Michael Jackson's music videos relative at the first disc of the double album HIStory released initially on VHS, Video CD and LaserDisc in 1995 by Sony Music Video Enterprises, and then on DVD in 2001. The DVD version contains extended versions of some videos in place of edited transmitted versions previously included on the VHS and LaserDisc versions, a Dolby 5.1 Surround mix and a discography.
The Video Show is a DVD by British band Genesis. Released on 29 November 2004 in the UK and 13 September 2005 in North America, it compiles music videos from their earliest, three videos filmed for the A Trick of the Tail album in 1976, to their latest, the video for "The Carpet Crawlers 1999", filmed in 1999. Similar to the Platinum Collection compilation album, which was released on the same day, the track listing begins at the We Can't Dance album and goes backwards in time before jumping to post-We Can't Dance material, which appears at the end of the track listing going forwards in time.
Camille is the upcoming second posthumous studio album by American musician Prince. The album was originally recorded in 1986 under the pseudonym Camille, a feminine alter ego portrayed by Prince via pitch-shifting his vocals up to an androgynous register. Prince planned to release the album without any acknowledgement of his identity. The project was initially scrapped several weeks before its planned release, with rare early LP pressings eventually surfacing for auction in 2016; several tracks recorded for Camille were instead included on various other projects, most prominently Prince's 1987 double LP Sign o' the Times.
