I have been listening to Prince since 1981~Controversey. Back in those days there was a lot of music to choose from. If you recently became a Prince fan...let's say within the past 10 years...what drew you to Prince?

The music choices now are much more broader than 1981 so I'm curious how come Prince?

omg... where do I begin?

I have class in 5 minutes, so I gotta make this brief.

I was exposed 2 him thru the movie, already half over at the time on VH1. I saw someone who dedicated his life to making music. I've never seen that kind of resilience (however u spell that) in anyone else before.

But I think what's grown me to him again and again is how he rips up the stage when he performs. This aura just surrounds him and I'm mesmerized. Just by his voice and the way he plays guitar. I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics of any particular song (except 4 "I Would Die 4 U/Baby I'm a Star" which I already knew). Then I saw him rip up the SuperBowl (I'm a football fan first and foremost).

And that's when I decided to really see what his music was like and what he writes about, etc, etc. Stage presence and his dedicaton/determination drew me to him...
and now that I know his music, I haven't found anyone who does it better.

More on this later... I gotta go 2 class, heh.

Prince and 4 him every night

my boyfriend rob opened up my eyes to prince two years ago and now i really really love his music and him im slowy building up my albums by prince it will take me a while to catch up to my boyfriends collection he has nearly all albums. i love everthing about prince he is a legand he can play nearly every musical instrument , he writes music he produces music and he sings just great he is the best and i will be a fan forever now. THANK YOU TO MY BOYFRIEND ROB FOR OPENING UP MY EYES HE IS PRINCE'S BIGGEST FAN XXXXX

SexualSuicide said:

Eh... No.
Back in the day, they actually made real music. Nowadays they only make crap.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

What I meant by "Broader" was there is much more different types of music. I.E. Rap~Hip Hop was just in its early stages in 1981 now it's everywhere.

SexualSuicide said:

Except that the rap/hip hop we have nowadays is complete and utter bullshit.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

agree...
"Musicology" is the ultimate escape from the mainstream garbage I hear all the time. It certainly got me thru a day or two when people were blasting their radios all over the place.

To answer the question again, his stage presence & determination/dedication threw me to him. His songs and learning about him thru them kept me around all this time.

I was born in '81 so I had some exposure to prince, but I didn't start really getting into him until college. My interest in him started when I was going through a phase of listening to 'ol skool r&b such as the temptations, isleys, al green, marvin gaye, among others. I also had a rock 'n roll influence and 80's influence for my parents. Because I enjoy all these genres, Prince offers me the best of all worlds. In my opinion, Prince is the most versatile artist and has had the most success (artiscally) showcasing his range.

Hey, Sex...

Great thread!!!!

I was born in '82 but my family were MJ fans, so didn't really listen to much Prince growing up but my boyfriend was well into him and i listened to sign o' the times and i was hooked!!!!

well to tell you the truth i always didnt like prince i used 2 think he was gay when i was little but my dad is an huge prince fan so is my aunt on my dad side of the family there real music lovers he was always teaching me about whats real music not like alot of these young cats 2day & where they get their music from ne wayz i grew up listening to prince (thats all he ever played) frankey beverley maze .... old skool which is what i listen 2 today ( im only 21) but it wasnt till i saw prain till i feel completely in love with the man my first thought was wow he's fine loved the movie used to watch it everyday! LOVED the music especially the beautiful ones i used 2 rewind that part over and over (till i finally bought the album) then i just start doing my research on him... i really got interrested in2 his music which changed my point of view of music today but now ive been trying to collect "prince stuff" ya know cd's dvd's articles pics ..... etc. and this year i became an orger im crazy about prince he's ive even got some of my friends listening to his music now he's such a musical genius theres nobody like him and there never will be i just really admire him so much i look up to him and his music inspires me
[Edited 9/13/07 14:35pm]
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[Edited 9/13/07 14:38pm]

p4life said:

Wow, interesting history u have there. It's amazing how u eventually came around and enjoyed us all here.
I think I vaguely remember that I didn't care too much about him when he showed up wherever. I might have thought he was a little "weird"... I can't say for sure. It just took me seeing the movie 2 see him 4 who he really was.
And he happened to be headlining the SuperBowl (football fan first) and after seeing what he could do, again, I wanted to see what he was all about.

My first views of him cuz of the movie remain, but now I know a lot more and admire him more for more reasons.

I'm not considered a "Newer" Prince fan, but it seemed like such a good question for most anyone, and some of the replies here really sparked my memories.

But for me it was simple; it was the way the music sounded. Maybe it was the arrangement, or the way it was produced, or whatever it was - it came down to just the way the record sounded when I first heard it. I believe it was "Soft And Wet", and it was being played in the Wrecka Stow were I copped my music.

I didn't even have any idea of who the song was by, but it sounded so clean and fresh, and the rhythm popped straight through; my head bobbin', toe-tappin'. When I asked the clerk who this was we were listening to, he said "Prince For You". I thought that was the name of the band - "Prince For You". And when he showed me the album cover, it just showed a brown face sort of smeared across the front.

Needless to say, I bought it on the spot. When I got home I couldn't believe that ALL the songs sounded clean and fresh like that. And that vocal arrangement introduction at the beginning of "For You" sounded like an entire choir, with voices so tightly interwoven and climbing into each other, I couldn't belive how incredibly TIGHT that was. And then I learned that all those voices were HIM and that he played all the instruments on the album - WHAT?!?!? My first thought was "How did George Clinton miss this?".

Several weeks later, Rick James was to appear in concert and one of the opening acts mentioned was this new "Prince For You" band that I had just learned of. Well Children, let me tell you: I found out who Prince was when I attended THAT show. The rest is History.
[Edited 9/13/07 15:55pm]

I took my Mom's Musicology CD because she never listened to it (she never listens to music much). And then a few days after I listened to it, I saw part of Purple Rain on TV.

I slowly became obsessed...

My dad. The man so much about black music artists, its crazy. So i always knew that there was some cool pop icon out there named Prince. I respected him, but was not really a fan.
Then 2004 came along, I was 12 at the time and I saw the Grammies. My looong road to fandom started there. For the next three years, his butt was on tv ALL the time, and I was always so excited to see him. I think I was a fan, for those years, but didn't realize. Now that I think about it, I was pretty in love with him, then.
Then, in late May, I saw the verizon advert, and I thought why the hell dont I have any of this cat's music?? I got 3121, and I actually dug it. Alot. Then i downloaded some random songs, okay, it was cool. I got purple rain after that and heard when doves cry. I fell in love with it, it was a flawless peice of work. I was blown away by the lyrics. Lyrics are a big deal to me, and his are awesome. So yeah, there's my little story.
It was his absolutely kickass live performances that got me into this and I ever so slowly grew into the fan i am now. I am 16 now, and after 4 years, I am a hardcore fan, I wish it would have hit me back in that february 4 years ago, but hey, whatreyagonnado? I'm here now.

hmmm...I guess in comparison to people who've been there since the 80s I am definitely a newbie. I [believe it or not] was aroused to the genius that is Prince around the time that TGE and Emancipation was dropped which was in 95/96 so I was...[doing some math]...twelve or thirteen.

The Most Beautiful Girl... was a pretty big hit which made hard to miss at the time. I've also always had dubious taste in effeminate men so I had a few posters of him up on my wall - next to MJ, J.Depp etc...[Don't take offence - I still think he is lovely - not so much MJ these days!!!] For some reason I just slowly started gathering his albums [bit of a manic cd collector anyway]. I guess once Prince albums start taking up a whole shelf by themselves it's kind of hard not to listen them more than others.

I actually saw the Purple Rain film for the first time a year ago and just went a bit gaga really. The songs on Purple Rain just knock me for six [almost cried when he played The Beautiful Ones on the 28th - and can die a happy person after seeing him do Baby I'm a Star and I Would Die 4 U yesterday - if he ever played Darling Nikki...let's not even go there] So that's me really. He's just genius, completely on a whole nother level to most contemporary artists around at the moment.

I have often wondered that myself, if you weren't born when Prince was at his greatest what was it. If you were born in 81 you were only 10 by 91! , oh my goodness you missed his best years!

fr1ncesca said:

Man, that's pretty amazing that you came into this world during 's time. Sounds 2 me that time was make or break 4 those who've been with him since the 80's. I commend you for getting into him then and sticking with him thru all of this, not to mention u got into the 80's and the movie itself.
I've seen the movie 16x, the first time I saw it was about 6 months ago and I'm still gaga over it as well. Every single song he does and each scene he's in, my eyes are glued 2 the screen.

And of course the whole "I Would die 4 u/Baby I'm a Star" show had me hooked, but had me on a loose "leash" until the SuperBowl. That's when he hooked me and reeled me in and I haven't stopped being crazy about him since.

wlcm2thdwn said:

Yeah but it always happens - not to single myself out as a watcher of bad television but look at all those young boys who go on those Pop Idol, X-Factor TV shows singing Rat Pack classics. All that happened in the 50's, some of their parents were probably only about 10 when that was all going on.

Music never goes away. [even though sometimes you wish it would...]

ndigo said:

Thank you!

SexualSuicide said:

Yeah, it's a brilliant idea.
Especially cuz people always seem so curious about my story (going from being a casual to full-blown admirer of Prince)... and so on.

And I love hearing about everyone else's stories, especially those who're still pretty new 2 him, as I am.

p4life said:

That's great!! That's the great thing with Prince there is SO MUCH music to listen too!!

You guys have such great stories...Thanks for sharing. It's so good to see people into REAL music.

SexualSuicide said:

I knew that music had gone downhill since the boybands "went out of business", haha... I left for a short time to focus on a small, little known group. They broke up. I returned to the mainstream and there was barely anything left.

Then I decided to give Prince a chance... and I've picked him to be "The One" I came 2 for all of my musical needs... he is the ultimate and he's been more to me than any other artist I've followed. I still like other artists...
but there's so much to discover about Prince. And yet, I feel like I've gotten to know myself a little better... cuz some of his songs make me come face 2 face with myself and the kind of person I want 2b.

I've heard his music on the radio over the years, but to be honest, never really dug "him." I thought he was too weird and there was so much other music around.

Then, when I heard 3121 on the radio I bought the CD. Immediately I fell in love with the latin-influenced cuts (I'm 1/2 latin nationality). That's when I began to fall. When I SAW perform during the 1/2-time celebration at the SuperBowl, well let's just say that I tried to get to Vegas, but couldn't make it; and, I tried to get to L.A. but tickets were sold out at my price point.

I couldn't wait to buy Planet Earth.

As I began researching his songs, recently, I found out there were several over the years that I've liked, but it never registered that the music was Prince's at the time they were released. (I wasn't a big purchaser of music, so I never made the connection.)

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Word. . . so umm, uh, Dreamy? When is your analytical Prince book coming out? I'd line two copies, one for home and one to keep in my locker at school. Seriously, girl, you say what others want to say, but r too lazy to type.

I was born in 82 so i was too young to remember his heyday. The song that caught my attention was Rasberry Beret, although i did not realize it was him who sang this song until i was older. Then i bought his greatest hits and became more familiar with his music and it started to build after that. Over the last two or three years i have become a huge fan. I like many other musicians but nobody even comes close to Prince. It doesn't really matter what music he comes out with i seem to like it. I am just disappointed about all the things i have missed out on by becoming a fan so late.

ToraToraDreams said:

seriously? For real?

actually, over the summer when I didn't have this place 2 go to, I wrote 33 pages of daily journal entries so I could recall what I was doing, what albums I listened 2 and what my first impression of many of them would be. But on blog entries alone, I think I would have enough for a book.

It sounds really ridiculous... but do u really think anyone would read an "analytic book" about Prince's music? I mean, c'mon, what a way to say "I'm super-obsessed with Prince & his work and I don't care who knows it"

More 2 the point, what would Prince himself think if I did? I mean, sounds a little ridiculous, cuz I've analyzed so many of his songs 2 death and have come up with many interpretations. The thing I'd fear most than sales is whether he thinks its good or bad.

Hypothetically, though, how many people here would approve of such an idea? [send me a message if u actually think this is a GOOD idea... im very skeptical]

[btw, thanx 4 the compliment. That's why I come here, to express myself and how I feel about Prince's wonderful music and the man behind it... and with him, once I start, its hard 2 stop. That's why my entries are so long]

It really feels good 2b back here among people who'll listen 2 my banter.
[Edited 9/13/07 22:04pm]

This is the same question 'older' fans have been asking themselves 4 years...

WHY!?