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Thread started 04/07/18 8:17am

SoftSkarlettLo
visa

The majority of P fans were teenagers when they started fandom?

I noticed one thing: that a lot of P fans started into the P scene when they were teenagers - mainly, in their late teens (16-17). I haven't encountered any P fans under age 16.

What does this mean? I'm guessing that Prince's music is more mature-themed and "serious", not to mention the complexitiy of his songs and how weird he was - something that could of scared off some kids.

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Reply #1 posted 04/07/18 8:35am

HerecomethePur
pleYoda

D

[Edited 4/15/18 11:43am]

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Reply #2 posted 04/07/18 8:44am

siriusfunk

I've been a fan since I was 9 when Purple Rain came out. Looked forward and backward for every release and unrelease since. Have kids now and they have been fans since they were babies. They rarely want to listen to current hits. Mainly ask for Prince, Funk, Bruce Springsteen. I've carefully selected kid friendly Prince selections for them to be exposed to.
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Reply #3 posted 04/07/18 8:51am

pinkcashmere23

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I noticed one thing: that a lot of P fans started into the P scene when they were teenagers - mainly, in their late teens (16-17). I haven't encountered any P fans under age 16.

What does this mean? I'm guessing that Prince's music is more mature-themed and "serious", not to mention the complexitiy of his songs and how weird he was - something that could of scared off some kids.

I know of some younger fans.There were also a few that used to post here several years back who were in their teens.My dad told me that he asked some guys at work who were in their late teens if they liked him and they said that they didn't because he was weird.I was not allowed to listen to his music when I was a child or teen and I ended up getting into him in my twenties. I couldn't believe what I had missed out on.

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Reply #4 posted 04/07/18 9:00am

TrivialPursuit

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I was ten when For You came out, but it was "I Wanna Be Your Lover" that caught my attention. I think I'd heard it on the radio but it was a K-Tel record that made me pay attention to the song. So that makes me around twelve. I was sixteen when Purple Rain came out. So - mid-teens. But my fandom started pre-teen.

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
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Reply #5 posted 04/07/18 9:26am

SoftSkarlettLo
visa

I became a fan at 16 in 2004, when there was an odd time of Prince videos being played on TV ("Cream" and "U Got The Look (Extended)"), and also when the Musicology album was released. Prior to 2004, I simply didn't know much about Prince and thought he was scary (lol!!!). Then I grew up and realised the guy is cool and funky and in touch with God, and, in a funny way, a dead ringer for Michael Jackson.

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Reply #6 posted 04/07/18 9:52am

FunkOnTheOne

I was 14 and I know someone else who discovered Prince at the same time. 14 is apparently scientifically when you make your strongest connection to music.
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Reply #7 posted 04/07/18 10:21am

sonshine

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wave Me! I was on the cusp of adulthood (late teens) when 1999 came out - namely Little Red Corvette and of course 1999...we played the heck out of that record!! music bananadance Thank you for all the good times Prince ❤
It's a hurtful place, the world, in and of itself. We don't need to add to it. We all need one another. ~ PRN
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Reply #8 posted 04/07/18 10:27am

laytonian

Then there are those of us who listened to real music àt an even younger age.
I was 35 when 1999 came out.
That's when P got imprinted in me but MJ supposedly was the "nice one". So that's what I bought for my young daughter.
I don't think she even knew I had Prince tapes in the van. LOL
Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #9 posted 04/07/18 11:19am

jimmybgoode

I was 14 in 1982 when I bought 1999 7". Hooked.

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Reply #10 posted 04/07/18 12:23pm

NorthC

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I noticed one thing: that a lot of P fans started into the P scene when they were teenagers - mainly, in their late teens (16-17). I haven't encountered any P fans under age 16.



What does this mean? I'm guessing that Prince's music is more mature-themed and "serious", not to mention the complexitiy of his songs and how weird he was - something that could of scared off some kids.


What it means is quite simply that the music you hear in your teens is the music that makes the biggest impression on you because that's the age when you develop your personality and music is part of that. The music you hear and like in your teenage years becomes part of who you are. Even if you lose interest in later years. Not everyone who was a Prince fan (or a fan of any other act) stays a fan all their life, but the music and the memories will always stay.
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Reply #11 posted 04/07/18 2:06pm

donnyenglish

I loved music from a young age and was 6 when I liked him. I was 9 when I became a fanatic when I saw him in concert for the first time in 1981.

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Reply #12 posted 04/07/18 2:35pm

PennyPurple

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I was a teen, and he was a teen, when I started to following him.

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Reply #13 posted 04/07/18 3:34pm

Hamad

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For me it is. Around year 2000, I was 17 when I bought both of "Rave" and Chaka's "Come 2 My House" from the used section. My very first two musical items from him and the rest was history.

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/QLH82
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Reply #14 posted 04/07/18 3:55pm

Guitarhero

I was 8 in 1979 when i first heard I Wanna Be Your Lover. I became a fan in 1980 when Dirty Mind came out, and of course at first headbang i did not understand most of the lyrics of this record but it was jamming lol headbang

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Reply #15 posted 04/07/18 4:18pm

epronk

FunkOnTheOne said:

I was 14 and I know someone else who discovered Prince at the same time. 14 is apparently scientifically when you make your strongest connection to music.

I was 13 when I saw the March 30, 1985 concert in Syracuse broadcasted live on German TV at 4:00am and was blown away with the whole thing. I was aware of extended versions of I Would Die 4 U and The Glamorous Life, and the b-side 17 Days at the time. First noticed Prince with the release of the 1999 single and I remember my 4 year older cousin buying it and playing it on my turn-table (Jan 1983 - I was 11 years old). I remember that day and it made a big impression.

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Reply #16 posted 04/07/18 4:20pm

Adorecream

Close but no banana, I was 15 years 6 months and 15 days when I committed to Prince (April 30th 1976 - November 15th 1991). Feel's good to know I was maturefor my age, although then I kind of dug it because I thought then, the song Cream was obviously about semen and the video was very sexually provocative, finding sex funny is more a young teen and even preteen thing (11/16). Appreciating Prince's musicology only came for me around 1993.

.

Someone said 14 was the peak of connection, glad it was a year later for me, had it been 14 it would have been MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and Color Me Badd, or 13 - Milli Vanilli ( lol)

.

The first artist I was truly serious about was Michael Jackson, and I was fully into him when I was 11 (Bad came out and I bought it). I probably got seriously into Madonna when I was 12.

I also picked up the Chilis and George Michael when I was 15, so it was a good year.

.

The last year I really got into musical acts was when I was 20/21 (1997) When I really dicovered Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.

.

I am pushing the case quite a few people got into Prince aged 15. I know at least 5 people, 3 are internet celebrities who discovered Prince aged 15. Most of them were born 1973/74 and got into Prince with the Batman Album (1989).

[Edited 4/7/18 16:27pm]

Got some kind of love for you, and I don't even know your name
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Reply #17 posted 04/07/18 4:40pm

BalladofPeterP
arker

I gotta disagree with the op. When Prince first came out many of the "cooler" kids immediantly jumped on board. I was about 12.

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Reply #18 posted 04/07/18 6:43pm

milesb

FunkOnTheOne said:

I was 14 and I know someone else who discovered Prince at the same time. 14 is apparently scientifically when you make your strongest connection to music.

14 for me too. Batman.

My password is what
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Reply #19 posted 04/07/18 6:54pm

morningsong

Well I was 13, when I heard him and started this journey. That was at his 1st album. I'm 53, there have been many many many who are much older than me, my aunt is 81 ahe adored him I even took her to a concert. Many older fans have made their presence known on the org even if they don't hang out like some of us do.
With that how many pop stars get high on the charts without a high percentage of teen fans?
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Reply #20 posted 04/07/18 8:37pm

EddieC

I was really interested at 12 with the 1999 album--but I didn't actually start buying music myself until the next year, so it wasn't until 1984 that I can say I became a "fan"--at which point I had everything there was (including associated acts) by the end of the year. So... 14 for me, let's say.

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Reply #21 posted 04/08/18 2:30am

jaawwnn

I wasn't into him as a teenager shrug

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Reply #22 posted 04/08/18 8:16am

HatrinaHaterwi
tz

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I was 9 and hooked at the first listen of It's Gonna Be Lonely. I wouldn't actually see what Prince looked like until I was 12 and the rest is history. shrug

I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart.
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Reply #23 posted 04/08/18 8:35am

LovePaisley

I was 17 and I Wanna Be Your Lover was the first song that hooked me in.

I remember how everyone was analyzing the cover art for 1999, looking for clues and talking about was the Revolution was. I remember: sitting by the radio at midnight with a tape recorder and a mic to record When Doves Cry, seeing America and the mic drop on SNL (my friends and I were already protesting a proposed draft), being mesmerized by MTV videos, sitting around a record player on the floor of a dorm room listening to Dirty Mind. KMart! With the cover of LoveSexy covered over with brown paper.

The buzz about him was often underground, but it was constant among both high school and college students. By college we could buy and listen to whatever we wanted.
And the MUSIC continues...forever...
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Reply #24 posted 04/08/18 9:33am

uPtoWnNY

I was 18 when 'Prince' came out in 1979 (I had no idea he released a previous album). Didn't really get into him until the Controversy/1999 years. He was still regarded as underground until "Little Red Corvette" started getting played on MTV.

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Reply #25 posted 04/08/18 12:25pm

SpinsterSister

I got into Prince in January 1979...I was 13 that year.

Need me some fuzzy love....and yes, I wear clear heels
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Reply #26 posted 04/08/18 1:18pm

CandyCool

I was 13. 1986. It was Kiss, Mountains and Girls & Boys that got me.
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Reply #27 posted 04/09/18 4:55am

databank

avatar

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I noticed one thing: that a lot of P fans started into the P scene when they were teenagers - mainly, in their late teens (16-17). I haven't encountered any P fans under age 16.

What does this mean? I'm guessing that Prince's music is more mature-themed and "serious", not to mention the complexitiy of his songs and how weird he was - something that could of scared off some kids.

falloff

.

It's just that most people don't get interested into any music before they reach secondary school, i.e. 11/12 y.o., unless it's a song/artist specifically targeted at children (i.e. by a kids TV show's host or related to a Disney cartoon and so on).

.

Primary school kids don't care for music. They trip on cartoons and toys. Then you become a teen and you're the target audience and the music you listen to becomes a way to explore, define and express your identity.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #28 posted 04/09/18 4:58am

databank

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^ So if one starts paying attention to music at 11 to 13, by the time they define their musical tastes a little more and discover Prince and really get into him, it may take a coupla years. I bought my first Prince I was 12, then everything else between 13-14, then side projects and such between 15-16. You could say that I became a hardcore fan when I was about 14, but that was only the beginning of my journey.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #29 posted 04/09/18 3:27pm

Adorecream

If it helps I nearly got into Prince aged 12, when Alphabet Street came out, I loved that song and had it on one of those Solid Gold type albums (Albums assembled by record companies with songs that are ending their chart run, usually shove 15 or more songs on a single album and fade them out early and then also add 2 or 3 clunker or filler tracks - that spent like 1 week at #89)

.

I remember I had $20 birthday cash for my 12th birthday and saw the Lovesexy album and wanted to buy it, but my mother saw the cover and said "Oh hell naw". As I never really liked Batdance or Thieves when they came out, so that meant Prince had to wait until 1991 for me, by 15 my mother was still concerned about me getting into a song called Cream and given Prince's reputation as being sexually provocative she was cautious, but let me get into it anyway and the last act of censorship she imposed with me was the Sexy MF single and then she let that slide.

.

My mother wa sstrict with me, because my older brother went off the rails, nearly getting a sex conviction at 16 after having sex with a 13 year old girl (She wanted it, and the age of consent here is 16), he was also into drugs and fucking up at school, so I was made sure not to fall into the trap (Her family was white and my brother and I were the only mixed race kids in the family and the family saw us as Typical criminiferous Maoris, and Mum wanted to prove them wrong).

Got some kind of love for you, and I don't even know your name
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