André, Wendy & Lisa, Mark, Bobby, Paul, Morris, Jesse, Vanity, Apollonia, Sheila, Taja, etc.

All those artists had records released on major labels after their tenure with Prince and/or Paisley Park, some like Morris, Jesse, André and Mark even got their own side projects!

But in Europe I think none of it was ever promoted at all except maybe W&L a little bit. Of course I was small and didn't really start to listen to music before 1987-88 but I don't recall ever seeing their videos or hearing their songs on the radio in France, and I think maybe except for the UK (?), promotion of those releases was close to zero in Europe. To the point that you'd wonder why labels would spend money on those artists if they weren't planning to do anything with the records!

But I know the US is a very different market: some acts who are major stars, particularly in the country and R&B scenes, are totally unknown in France. Similarly The Time, Vanity 6 and Sheila, who sold well in the US in 81-85 (and again 90 for The Time), hardly sold at all in France back then.

Was there any solid promo, MTV or radio airplay for those acts in the US? I've seen some TV shows footages by Morris and Vanity at least, and most now have music videos floating around on YT, but how was it then? Did they ever have a chance? Was the general audience, or at least the R&B audience aware of those records' existence at all?

Some great albums were lost IMHO, particularly Sheila's Sex Cymbal: no one in Europe ever knew it was out, a great pity.

Very few of them got any radio airplay in my area. The tv channel BET played most of the associates videos and did interviews with some of them. There were a few other video shows on different channels that would play some of them.

by the 1987 especially 1988 the music scene was starting to change drastically, even Prince had a serious problem in these areas

I remember them being promoted here in The Netherlands, artists like Jesse Johnson, Andre Cymone, Morris Day, Wendy & Lisa, Sheila E .... I bought all thier albums, 7" and 12" the day they were released

Some of them were in black teen magazines regularly like Right On!, Soul Teen, Rock n Soul, and Black Beat. I used to hear Morris & Jesse a lot on the radio, and Video Soul played their videos. Screams Of Passions by The Family, Mechanical Emotion by Vanity & Morris, Love Is Contagious, and G Spot were played on the radio too. All of them were mostly on the local R&B radio stations and BET, not on Top 40 and MTV so much. Fishnet & Crazay did get Top 40 airplay though. Jesse Johnson's group Ta Mara & The Seen had a couple of songs played on the R&B station and Everybody Dance was on the pop station. Video Soul & Video Vibrations showed Sheila E and Wendy & Lisa videos and a few songs by Shiela had some radio play, particularly Glamorous Life. There was a lot of Flyte Tyme produced stuff on R&B and pop radio, like Monkey by George Michael and Human by Human League + Janet Jackson, Alexander O'Neal, New Edition, & Cherrelle. Jesse toured with New Edition in the mid 1980s and he had several songs on movie soundtracks. Morris had a bit part in a Richard Pryor movie and appeared in a few sitcoms. I don't really remember anybody else, unless you count Jody Watley (Andre Cymone).

OldFriends4Sale said:

by 1987 especially 1988 the music scene was starting to change drastically, even Prince had a serious problem in these areas

Yeah,it was around 1987 when I noticed that US radio was turning its back on Prince's proteges.I remember walking into a record store and seeing Jill Jones' album,not even knowing that it had been released! The first single "Mia Bocca" was completely ignored.

Albums by Brownmark,Jesse Johnson,Sheila E. and Taja Sevelle also bombed during this period (87/88).

I blame Hip Hop...even though I loved it (back then).

I'm not sure if I remember well, but in the Cosby Show, the LP sleeve of Jill Jones' album was hanging in Theo's room... Maybe this was a kind of "hidden promotion"?

SoulAlive said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

by 1987 especially 1988 the music scene was starting to change drastically, even Prince had a serious problem in these areas

Yeah,it was around 1987 when I noticed that US radio was turning its back on Prince's proteges.I remember walking into a record store and seeing Jill Jones' album,not even knowing that it had been released! The first single "Mia Bocca" was completely ignored.

Albums by Brownmark,Jesse Johnson,Sheila E. and Taja Sevelle also bombed during this period (87/88).

What Jesse Johnson album in the 80s bombed?

FUNKYNESS said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah,it was around 1987 when I noticed that US radio was turning its back on Prince's proteges.I remember walking into a record store and seeing Jill Jones' album,not even knowing that it had been released! The first single "Mia Bocca" was completely ignored.

Albums by Brownmark,Jesse Johnson,Sheila E. and Taja Sevelle also bombed during this period (87/88).

What Jesse Johnson album in the 80s bombed?

Obviously Every Shade Of Love bombed enough (by 1988's standards) that A&M wouldn't renew Jesse's deal.

.

BTW thanks y'all for your insights and feedbacks. More is welcome

UncleJam said:

I blame Hip Hop...even though I loved it (back then).

Maybe more new jack swing, that was more the direct offsring of the mplsound but with a different vibe. I don't know that but I would assume the "street" audience that was into hip-hop in the 80's wasn't so much into the very european, gayish, neo-romantic looks of the mpls sound scene. I may be wrong, I wasn't there, but the new jack swing that flourished after Janet's Control seems more likely to have attracted the Mpslssound crowd to me. Morris and Sheila finally made attempts at new jack swing in the early 90's but I guess it was too little too late (regardless of the quality of the music, which I think was pretty great).

databank said:

Maybe more new jack swing, that was more the direct offsring of the mplsound but with a different vibe.

New Jacks Swing was partly a merging of R&B with hip hop elements. So some people who liked rap, could get into that more than Luther Vandross or Morris Day. Teddy Riley is often credited with starting NJS. Teddy popularized it, but I think Full Force's Alice from 1985 is one of the earlier NJS songs. Alice was recorded in 1984. Teddy (& Timothy Gatling, an early Guy member) was in a New Edition type group called Kids At Work at the time.