Recently, on a trip down under, I was introduced to a girl who to all intents and purposes appeared an attractive person to speak to; intelligent, eloquent, funny, etc... As the evening progresses and various topics of conversation were entered into, discussed and used up, so music crossed our verbal paths. She was into the RHCPs and bands of such ilk. I told her of my unreasonable obsession with Prince and she flipped.

She could not understand how a fan of music could appreciate him, could not understand how a person seemingly sound-of-mind could still hold affection for someone who had changed their name in such preposterous fashion, could not comprehend how a man like Prince enjoys the success he does. To be fair, she did concede he had written a "couple of good tunes", but beyond that she was, it could be said, fairly negative on the small purple one.

What shocked me wasn't the dislike, it was the vitriol that accompanied it. For once, I thought, I understood what Prince fans look like to others. The incredulity I usually feel when someone says they don't like Prince was matched and returned with interest. I was really thrown. A cautionary tale, maybe, for all those missionaries out there pushing the purple vibe... Don't push too hard, you don't know how scary you look when you go evangelical on someone's ass.

eekk...guess its dumb to ask if you shagged her anyways

BoySimon said:

This girl does not know the musician he is. She is just an ignorant moron. Tell her he is in the same camp as Miles Davis, Zappa, Sly Stone and Wonder to make her shut the fuck up.

Princefanphobia

Didn't shag her... She got all weird and would not let up on the Prince-thing for ages. In the end I left feeling relieved to be out of the bar safe and sound and also a little less enthusiastic about talking to people about music.

BeautifulFrance:
We argued... conversed... for some time about his musicianship and the fact he is not the selfish, loathesome character she has painted of him. She would not be moved. It was like meeting the perfect anti-Prince fan. She was awesome in her ability to not listen to reason... in much the same way many of us react when we hear him being dissed by others.

What if she had told you before she was a Julio Iglesias fan?
Would you have bitten your tongue?

BoySimon said:

You know, a long timeago when I was at university, some guy told me that Prince was shit on guitar and knew only 3-4 chords !!! LOL

BoySimon said:

Shame you did not shag her. That would have relieved all the tension. You could have fucked her on Lady Cab Driver to piss her off !

Hey, there's nothing wrong with a bit of Julio. What a crooner!

The whole incident was a little awkward, especially as we had to spend the next week or so in each other's company. Once we agreed not to talk about music, we got on famously. No shagging though... I'm too ugly, and I like Prince.

It was the simple ferocity of the rejection of Prince as a musician and this disbelief that people still actually enjoyed his music that freaked me out. A cautionary tale for all you fans out there.

If you say you are a U2 fan, you don`t get into trouble. The same is with the Beatles, Stones, REM and similar good but boring groups. If you say you are a Prince fan; troubletime. I am so fucking tired of that, so I just keep it to my self beeing a Princefan.

Norwayman said:

Being a Bowie fan is not a piece of cake as well. God how many times have I heard "what a queer !", "what a has been" or " Do you know he stole everything from Iggy Pop". There are so many retards out there.

i've never really gotten any hardcore negative reactions from people who ask if i'm a prince fan...the worst of it is the usual "eww, he's gay"-type comments.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

That's cuz yer Dansa. Nobody dares talk down to you.

.

BoySimon said:

That's precisely where you went wrong. Too much "arguing" and "conversing" and "not listening to reason" type of conversation - and zilch education along the way.
This strategy will lead you absolutely nowhere.

In all probability the girl isn't the anti-Prince fan you make her out to be. She was probably hoping you would show her the error of her ways. Instead you failed to take the hint.

You should have played her some of the music that made you such a fan. That's what iPods were invented for.

Trust me, hearing some of that music together would definitely have yielded some very positive results.

.

Its amazing...
When someone asks me what kind of music i like i can rattle of a huge list and just get nods off of them.As soon as i say Prince its, "Prince? Prince? he is crap blah blah blah blah"
Try it sometime its amazing.

I've never gotten a negative reaction for liking Prince. The only time my friends gave me flack was over the Lovesexy album cover. Other than that, I find that people get really interested.

What giotto said made me think of a good story. I was working in retail when The Symbol album came out and I had been giving this girl I worked with a ride home because her car was in the shop. One day I had the Symbol album playing on the ride home and she was really really interested in who I was listening to. The track was "And God Created Woman," and she loved it. I parked in front of her place, where typically I would have just dropped her off. But instead we sat and talked for a good 15 minutes about...Prince. Next thing I know, she asked me up to her place. We spent a couple of hours talking about life, music, our futures. She ended up becoming a really good friend.

No drawers, unfortunately . But she was a good friend.

But, to think that just hearing the music piqued her interest. Prince is awesome.
[Edited 9/26/05 10:32am]

muirdo said:

It really is amazing. The same thing happens to me all the time,especially living in the UK. A load of us from South Wales went to the States on a road trip last year. I brought all the music, a bit of the Chilis, Metallica, NERD, etc, etc (something for everyone, you know). As soon as I mentioned the 'P' word the reaction was extreme to say the least. There was a near riot when 1999 came on the radio!
You know what? I put my ipod on and thought "f**k 'em" ! At least I got out of driving duties by chilling in the back!

Norwayman said:

He's a musical GENIUS ..... u know that as do i , who gives a fuck what others think

I must admit i dont get 2 much slack coz whenever any of my mates have taken the piss i've reminded them of the Prince tunes they like .....

Cream
Gett Off
When doves Cry
Thunder
Kiss
Purple Rain
The Most beautiful .....

are some of the favourites

I've gotten the usual, Prince!? type reaction or "he's gay" or "is he still the artist" responses but the one time where it was bad was when I had a roommate who moved in with me and he couldn't believe I liked Prince saying he was gay and from the tone of his voice, he really didn't like gay people. I was going to bed and Grafitti Bridge was on VH1 and I wanted to see it for a few minutes. This fucker starts telling me to turn it off. I told him hell no, he doesn't pay the cable bill. It was heated for a couple of minutes. I was ready to throw him through the window but I won. The next day, I got that sorry smelly bitch out my room. So if anyone wants to give you shit for liking Prince, drop those sorry motherfuckers. They are no good to you and if they can't take that, Lord know what else they won't be able to handle with you.

The worst I've gotta has been typical

"eww, Prince!? he's so _____"

Pick one: gay, short, girly, weird, crazy, small, creepy, etc...

at this point when someone spits one of these I'm like

"C'mon is that the best you got? Prince would zip up his boots and dance circles 'round yo ass with weak crap like that"

what a cunt.
I get a lot of flack from people for liking Prince. Most of the time they only know about him from Purple Rain, the name change, and those damn assless pants... Not everyone can be as smart as us Prince fans who recognize musical superiority when we hear it.

I have always been persecuted 4 liking Prince. But the first time was the Cream video in 1991, My mother though I had an unhealthy obsession with sex, and that only gay guys like Prince. Ever since that I feel alone in my Prince like. Here in New Zealand hes hardly known, his only no 1 here was Alphabet street. Usually I cant talk about it at all, People think him and I r weird.
2 years later when i was 17 I did Kiss in a school karaoke contest, and my mother had kittens when I wanted to wear her Purple tights and put a lace ruff on my school shirt! Everyone at school thougfht I was weird, but I got there sang it and even humped the guitar on stage and peeled off the Purple Jacket and then I won $50 and the kids went apeshit and I was very popular after for about two weeks. Its the most memorable thing in my school report!. It says he got a Scholarship and did a great Prince imitation on stage.
Needless 2 say I am gay, but I dont fancy Prince. Still I know the purple boat will come and make only one pickup in New Zealand!

Not a surprising reaction. Prince is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, no matter how good he is, because he often emphasizes feminity in a way many men and quite a few female find off putting. To top it all, he can be just as sexist as the next guy. The two together with the sometimes piercing high voice amount to the worst nightmare of a pop star for many a person who like their roles clearly defined.

When you think of "gender benders", there's always some concession to make it less threatening. Bowie's voice is definitely male and his flirtration with feminity was very artsy. MJ sings high but he did not flirt with sexuality and cultivated a childlike, child-friendly image (give or take a trial here and there). Bob George had a rather short stint as a full-fledged pop star and did not emphasize sex. Prince does it without a safety net : high voice, sexually agressive, sexist yet girly, etc.

I've never really cared about Prince's sexual image. It's always been about the music for me. I was too distracted by the great music to really be affected (positively or negatively) by the sexual lyrics.

It seems to me like the ones that are immediately turned off by Prince's sexuality... to the point of not paying attention to the music... are the ones that have the unhealthy obsessions with sex.

muirdo said:

I very rarely meet people who are fans of Prince, and I've surely had to defend him (and myself, for liking him) through the years. So he's not for everyone - I accept that. What irritates me though, are the oh so usual outbursts of "eww, he's so creepy/gay/weird..." Many of these people haven't even bothered listening to any of his music.
I like loads of different music, and yeah - Prince is the one who spurs the most incredulous reactions. I'm so used to this now though, that instead of getting into a heated debate, I just smile mysteriously and try to radiate an aura of deeper understanding and insight.

BoySimon said:

Did you at any moment tell her that your devotion for Prince is an "unreasonable obssession"? She could be reacting to that. Sometimes when people are rich in some aspects of personality, they've got no emotional depth. At least, she wasn't sarcastic, was she?
Elaborating at length about how much you love Prince doesn't help with someone who lets you know that they don't like him. I used to do this. Since I am hardcore about Prince, I would go on and on telling my sister everything I had read about Prince and his music. Whenever I asked her if it bothered her, she would say it didn't. However, she made endless hurtful comments.

BoySimon said:

On a similar vein, when i uttered one night amongst work colleagues if they had any prince to put on the player during a booze session, i was showered with abuse beyond comprehension, There was a distinct venom in one girls eyes who uttered "what a fag". Whether she was reffering to prince or myself i dont know. What amuses me is the fact that prince has bedded more women than that particular collective group have had hot dinners. To be honest it doesn't really bother me that much, but i have managed to turn a few of my closer friends in to fans.

I've gotten similar reactions as well but I've also received very positive reactions from some people that I never would have thought would appreciate Prince. As an example, there is this dude who lives across the hall from me who is always singing and playing guitar...he's kind of on a country tip. The other day I passed him in the hall and starting asking him about his music and his musical influences. I, in turn, mentioned that I liked Prince. He commented back about how awesome the Hall of Fame Performance was on "When my Guitar Gently Weeped" and that he didn't know Prince could play guitar like that. I've always thought that anybody into rock n roll who saw that performance by Prince would probably change their opinion on him and I guess I was right!