kitbradley said:

Prince didn't become a mainstream Pop artist until his "1999" album. Prior to that, Warner Brothers promoted him as an R&B/Funk singer and that's where he received the majority of his support on radio. Yes, he blew in up internationally in 1984 with "Purple Rain" and that continued in 1985. But, he was never able to match it's success.

Nippy, on the other hand, was a different story. Clive Davis introduced her to the world as a Pop singer. R&B was her secondary music. She took the music world by storm right away. From 1985 thru 1989, she was unstoppable. No other black female singing artist could touch her (even though there were far better singers than her). Despite the massive, mega success of both "Whitney" and "Whitney Houston", we all know she peaked, commerically and vocally, in 1993 with "The Body Guard". And Lord knows, from day #1, Clive took ever opportunity to drill into our heads that Nippy was alledgedly the "greatest singer in the world".

So with that being said, Prince really had one mega album, which happened to be in the 80's. Nippy had three, two of which were released in the 80's. I think Nippy had more influence also. Most of the female acts that came along after her named her as an influence. Prince influenced many artists who came after him also but it just seems like his name didn't come up as often as Nippy's when the newer acts spoke about their influences.

It's a close call but I would have to say Nippy probably was bigger in the 80's than Prince and her influence is still felt more than Prince.

There are 100's if not 1,000's of musicians laughing at this comment.

JoeTyler said:

Madonna and MJ were bigger than WH, even Janet as well

In the 1980s? How do you figure that? Janet Jackson & Dream Street didn't do that much and both of Whitney's 1980s albums sold more than Control. Rhythm Nation was released in 1989, but most of the singles came out in 1990. So it was more in competition with I'm You Baby Tonight which didn't do as well as Whitney's earlier albums. Janet had no song as popular as I'll Always Love You.

Toofunkyinhere said:

I think prince could've been bigger if he wanted to. He could of just made a purple rain 2. Whitney was all about the $ and how many #1's she could produce. Prince was more about the music, and pushing boundaries. It's fairer to compare someone like paul weller to prince

I don't know about that. Many parents would have no problem buying Whitney for their children, unlike with Prince. Remember Lionel Richie got the Grammy, not Prince. Tipper Gore didn't talk about putting stickers on Whitney's records. Some of Prince's music was too weird to reach a wide mainstream audience or to get heavy radio airplay. His image didn't really fly with heartland America either, where Bruce Sprinsteen and Bob Seger would be accepted. He wasn't likely to be invited to a Farm Aid concert like a John Mellencamp. You didn't see Prince on talk shows like Johnny Carson or featured much in mainstream magazines like People. Whitney appeared on Silver Spoons, which was a popular sitcom at the time. Declining to sing on We Are The World did not help him in the US either.

when you ask the question about who was BIGGER you cant turn it into who was more artistic or more critical acclaim, bigger means more successful and more popular period. in the late 80s whitney even eclipsed mj,she was the biggest artist in music.

lowkey said:

when you ask the question about who was BIGGER you cant turn it into who was more artistic or more critical acclaim, bigger means more successful and more popular period. in the late 80s whitney even eclipsed mj,she was the biggest artist in music.

Well they want Prince to win, not Whitney or Def Leppard. Many 1980s acts albums sold more than most of Prince's albums of the period. I used to follow the charts and sales back then.

MickyDolenz said:

Graycap23 said:

kitbradley said:

Prince didn't become a mainstream Pop artist until his "1999" album. Prior to that, Warner Brothers promoted him as an R&B/Funk singer and that's where he received the majority of his support on radio. Yes, he blew in up internationally in 1984 with "Purple Rain" and that continued in 1985. But, he was never able to match it's success.

Nippy, on the other hand, was a different story. Clive Davis introduced her to the world as a Pop singer. R&B was her secondary music. She took the music world by storm right away. From 1985 thru 1989, she was unstoppable. No other black female singing artist could touch her (even though there were far better singers than her). Despite the massive, mega success of both "Whitney" and "Whitney Houston", we all know she peaked, commerically and vocally, in 1993 with "The Body Guard". And Lord knows, from day #1, Clive took ever opportunity to drill into our heads that Nippy was alledgedly the "greatest singer in the world".

So with that being said, Prince really had one mega album, which happened to be in the 80's. Nippy had three, two of which were released in the 80's. I think Nippy had more influence also. Most of the female acts that came along after her named her as an influence. Prince influenced many artists who came after him also but it just seems like his name didn't come up as often as Nippy's when the newer acts spoke about their influences.

It's a close call but I would have to say Nippy probably was bigger in the 80's than Prince and her influence is still felt more than Prince.

There are 100's if not 1,000's of musicians laughing at this comment.

1000's? Is that how many fans Prince has?

You keep trying to sandwich in who the "musician's choice" is, but that doesn't answer who was bigger in the nineteen and eighties!

Cinny said:

Graycap23 said:

There are 100's if not 1,000's of musicians laughing at this comment.

1000's? Is that how many fans Prince has?

You keep trying to sandwich in who the "musician's choice" is, but that doesn't answer who was bigger in the nineteen and eighties!

Actually I'm not trying 2 do anything.

The comment was that Whitney was a bigger influence.

She may he have influenced women singers. Prince has influenced, singers, musicians, writers....................and everything else in the music game, and it isn't even close.

NorthC said:

So did I, but this is a Prince fan site, so what do you expect. Bob Dylan and James Brown weren't the best selling artists of the 60s and 70s, but does that mean they weren't big?

You can't make someone more popular than they are just because you like them. That's no different than the extreme Janet Jackson fans. The thread asks who is bigger and Prince is not it, if others outsold him.

MickyDolenz said:

NorthC said:

My point was, it al depends on how you define "big". I'm not even sure "popular" means the same as "selling a lot of records". In terms of impact, creating a hype, keeping people interested, Prince was huge in the late 80s, especially in Europe.

Maybe that's why he toured there, instead of releasing a concert movie that didn't do much business. Prince was not huge in the US in the late 1980s. Lovesexy didn't sell that much and Batman probably only sold because anything Batman was popular. Batdance was the only song that hit the Top 10 and Alphabet St from the previous album. New Kids On The Block was huge here at the time, not Prince. Milli Vanilli outsold Prince.

Graycap23 said:

Cinny said:

1000's? Is that how many fans Prince has?

You keep trying to sandwich in who the "musician's choice" is, but that doesn't answer who was bigger in the nineteen and eighties!

Actually I'm not trying 2 do anything.

The comment was that Whitney was a bigger influence.

She may he have influenced women singers. Prince has influenced, singers, musicians, writers....................and everything else in the music game, and it isn't even close.

Fair enough. You know, I would suggest that the "music game" especially RADIO has not been the same since Whitney's reign, which in turn influenced not only writers but musicians (probably some negatively who never fit the cool, smoothed-out Kashif or Babyface sound).

A singer can still impact a writer or musician even if they didn't write or play what they sang. Do you want me to say Dolly Parton technically influenced everyone in 1992 with "I Will Always Love You"?

What about Van Halen? grrr

MickyDolenz said:

NorthC said:

My point was, it al depends on how you define "big". I'm not even sure "popular" means the same as "selling a lot of records". In terms of impact, creating a hype, keeping people interested, Prince was huge in the late 80s, especially in Europe.

Maybe that's why he toured there, instead of releasing a concert movie that didn't do much business. Prince was not huge in the US in the late 1980s. Lovesexy didn't sell that much and Batman probably only sold because anything Batman was popular. Batdance was the only song that hit the Top 10 and Alphabet St from the previous album. New Kids On The Block was huge here at the time, not Prince. Milli Vanilli outsold Prince.

Thank you.

Cinny said:

Graycap23 said:

Actually I'm not trying 2 do anything.

The comment was that Whitney was a bigger influence.

She may he have influenced women singers. Prince has influenced, singers, musicians, writers....................and everything else in the music game, and it isn't even close.

Fair enough. You know, I would suggest that the "music game" especially RADIO has not been the same since Whitney's reign, which in turn influenced not only writers but musicians (probably some negatively who never fit the cool, smoothed-out Kashif or Babyface sound).

A singer can still impact a writer or musician even if they didn't write or play what they sang. Do you want me to say Dolly Parton technically influenced everyone in 1992 with "I Will Always Love You"?

Lol...u can say or believe that.

I know better though.

2freaky4church1 said:

Graycap23 said:

Cinny said:

Fair enough. You know, I would suggest that the "music game" especially RADIO has not been the same since Whitney's reign, which in turn influenced not only writers but musicians (probably some negatively who never fit the cool, smoothed-out Kashif or Babyface sound).

A singer can still impact a writer or musician even if they didn't write or play what they sang. Do you want me to say Dolly Parton technically influenced everyone in 1992 with "I Will Always Love You"?

Lol...u can say or believe that.

I know better though.

You also "knew" that The Beatles had no influence on musicians.

Graycap23 said:

kitbradley said:

Prince didn't become a mainstream Pop artist until his "1999" album. Prior to that, Warner Brothers promoted him as an R&B/Funk singer and that's where he received the majority of his support on radio. Yes, he blew in up internationally in 1984 with "Purple Rain" and that continued in 1985. But, he was never able to match it's success.

Nippy, on the other hand, was a different story. Clive Davis introduced her to the world as a Pop singer. R&B was her secondary music. She took the music world by storm right away. From 1985 thru 1989, she was unstoppable. No other black female singing artist could touch her (even though there were far better singers than her). Despite the massive, mega success of both "Whitney" and "Whitney Houston", we all know she peaked, commerically and vocally, in 1993 with "The Body Guard". And Lord knows, from day #1, Clive took ever opportunity to drill into our heads that Nippy was alledgedly the "greatest singer in the world".

So with that being said, Prince really had one mega album, which happened to be in the 80's. Nippy had three, two of which were released in the 80's. I think Nippy had more influence also. Most of the female acts that came along after her named her as an influence. Prince influenced many artists who came after him also but it just seems like his name didn't come up as often as Nippy's when the newer acts spoke about their influences.

It's a close call but I would have to say Nippy probably was bigger in the 80's than Prince and her influence is still felt more than Prince.

There are 100's if not 1,000's of musicians laughing at this comment.

thank you. I thought I'd be the only one to notice that comment

MickyDolenz said:

Toofunkyinhere said:

I think prince could've been bigger if he wanted to. He could of just made a purple rain 2. Whitney was all about the $ and how many #1's she could produce. Prince was more about the music, and pushing boundaries. It's fairer to compare someone like paul weller to prince

I don't know about that. Many parents would have no problem buying Whitney for their children, unlike with Prince. Remember Lionel Richie got the Grammy, not Prince. Tipper Gore didn't talk about putting stickers on Whitney's records. Some of Prince's music was too weird to reach a wide mainstream audience or to get heavy radio airplay. His image didn't really fly with heartland America either, where Bruce Sprinsteen and Bob Seger would be accepted. He wasn't likely to be invited to a Farm Aid concert like a John Mellencamp. You didn't see Prince on talk shows like Johnny Carson or featured much in mainstream magazines like People. Whitney appeared on Silver Spoons, which was a popular sitcom at the time. Declining to sing on We Are The World did not help him in the US either.

good points. I think what he meant was that if Prince properly promoted some of his stuff and made better decisions, his albums would have sold more and singles would have performed better (to give you an example -- "If I Was Your Girlfriend", which was a horrible move). There were a lot of horrible decisions he made in the '80s, starting with "We Are the World" and the far too early release of "ATWIAD" all the way to "Lovesexy" project/cover, etc..

MickyDolenz said:

NorthC said:

My point was, it al depends on how you define "big". I'm not even sure "popular" means the same as "selling a lot of records". In terms of impact, creating a hype, keeping people interested, Prince was huge in the late 80s, especially in Europe.

Maybe that's why he toured there, instead of releasing a concert movie that didn't do much business. Prince was not huge in the US in the late 1980s. Lovesexy didn't sell that much and Batman probably only sold because anything Batman was popular. Batdance was the only song that hit the Top 10 and Alphabet St from the previous album. New Kids On The Block was huge here at the time, not Prince. Milli Vanilli outsold Prince.

Unfortunately Prince had become 'old news' by 1988, maybe like Bruce Springsteen and Lionel Richie (who were also huge in the early-mid 80s but had limited singles success after 1987). But Batman was a huge project, which is good. I'd say his only slip-up in the late-80s was Lovesexy

Cinny said:

SoulAlive said:

for those who keep mentioning her album sales (without links, btw) as if she was the biggest '80s act,

here are the real cold numbers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_the_United_States

she's number 19 of all time in the US, not bad, but at least 40% of the sales come from the Bodyguard soundtrack ('90s)

according to that list, MJ, Madonna and Springsteen were bigger than her in the '80s (considering that the bulk of Bruce's sales in the US are from The River-Born in the USA-Tunnel of Love, all of them '80s albums, and Madonna Like a Virgin-True Blue-Like a Prayer)

[Edited 7/10/15 16:49pm]

SoulAlive said:

Whitney sold a lot of records in the 80s,but she didn't really have much influence and she didn't break any barriers.She was a safe,commercial pop singer.Nothing wrong with that but I just think that,in the grand scheme of things,Prince was "bigger" in every way.Remember,record sales only tell part of the story.

her influence isnt the question, it says who was bigger. there are extremely influencial artists that had very little commercial success. what determines an artist being BIG is commercial success, popularity,media attention and all the other superficial stuff that goes along with pop stardom, and whitney had way more of those things than prince.

JoeTyler said:

for those who keep mentioning her album sales (without links, btw) as if she was the biggest '80s act,

here are the real cold numbers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_the_United_States

she's number 19 of all time in the US, not bad, but at least 40% of the sales come from the Bodyguard soundtrack ('90s)

according to that list, MJ, Madonna and Springsteen were bigger than her in the '80s (considering that the bulk of Bruce's sales in the US are from The River-Born in the USA-Tunnel of Love, all of them '80s albums, and Madonna Like a Virgin-True Blue-Like a Prayer)

[Edited 7/10/15 16:49pm]

most of those preceeded whitney, madonna was not bigger than whitney in the 2nd half of the 80s.

lowkey said:

JoeTyler said:

for those who keep mentioning her album sales (without links, btw) as if she was the biggest '80s act,

here are the real cold numbers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_the_United_States

she's number 19 of all time in the US, not bad, but at least 40% of the sales come from the Bodyguard soundtrack ('90s)

according to that list, MJ, Madonna and Springsteen were bigger than her in the '80s (considering that the bulk of Bruce's sales in the US are from The River-Born in the USA-Tunnel of Love, all of them '80s albums, and Madonna Like a Virgin-True Blue-Like a Prayer)

[Edited 7/10/15 16:49pm]

most of those preceeded whitney, madonna was not bigger than whitney in the 2nd half of the 80s.

Graycap23 said: