It has been over a decade since Prince had a top 10 single on the American pop chart. Will he ever again score a major top 10 hit?

Does Prince have the same sex appeal to the younger generation as Usher or Justin?

He might. Right now he has 'everything he wants' so there's not much reason for passion or desire.

WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH ALL THE CAP-LOCKING!??!














BOBBAAAAAYY!!

I certainly hope not. Today's music is not going to change any time soon and I would hate to see Prince sell out to their trends to get a top 10 hit.

If he does a song great enough it will get noticed, just waiting 4 the right moment!!!!!

OLDHATJ said:

To be honest: Who cares? As long as the music is good.
He tried to chase commercialism with this whole damn "Musicology" thing and look what happened.

glamslamkid said:

OLDHATJ said:

Oh hun, i'm just messing with you. By the way, where's Zeleria's crazy ass?

Prince, I believe, will never have a Top 10 hit again. But I also don't think Michael Jackson, Madonna, or anybody older than 40 will either. The Pop charts have become very narrow and I believe that Soundscan pretty much destroyed the significance of singles chart. I listen to a lot of different types of music and a lot of different radio stations and yet there will be songs that I hardly ever hear, or have never heard, that will chart in the Top 10 and songs that I hear a lot that peak in the 20's or 30's. I just don't get it..

The other reason Prince will never have a Top 10 hit...his record companies have pigeonholed him as an R and B artist only and do not make attempts at the pop market. But with the way radio is nad charting is these days, it's hard to blame them.

Will he? NO.
Does he care? NO.

Yes, he can still have a song in the Top 10 again, but is can only happen via the R&B crossover song. Urban and Urban AC stations still play his music, and aren't as afraid of him as the Hot AC stations are. Therefore, it's possible for one of his R&B type of songs to get enough momentum to crossover into the mainstream pop genre.

There are even a few songs on Musicology that have this potential. Instead of Cinnamon Girl, if the next single had been more R&B, we might already be seeing him in the Top 40 (even though I liked CG). Call My Name made a good splash on Urban and Urban AC stations, and he should take advantage of his following there. This means that he should focus his future single releases for those stations. He should still incorporate all types of music into his albums, just make the R&B ones singles (for now). Simple business strategy 101: go where there's the most demand for your product.

If he does this, then bare minimum, he has an Urban and Urban AC hit to fall back on. Best case, a Top 10 crossover song!

OLDHATJ said:

the way the charts are made up these days i think its almost impossible for Prince to ever have a top 10 hit ever again...the only way would be if Billboard makes single sales (mainly downloads) account for more of the chart position and then Prince would need a really hot song that would collect big airplay numbers on Urban & Urban a/c then he may have a shot..but until the charts are changed there really is no way

btw: Call My Name was a massive #1 hit this summer in the Urban a/c format but didnt really pick up on the mainstream Urban stations (i have no idea why) but if it would have gotten over the hump at the Urban stations i think it would have had a snowball affect and crossed over to pop and maybe would have charted pretty high

Mazerati said:

I agree about not understanding why CMN didn't fully pickup on Urban radio. However, it did fairly well there, placing in the mid 30's of the Urban Top 50. This was an improvement from the Musicology single, and I felt that the next R&B type song would make even greater gains on the Urban chart. Urban listeners are\were getting used to hearing Prince more as a result of CMN, but unfortunately he didn't capitalize on that when he chose to release Cinnamon Girl to Hot AC stations.

Given his lock on Urban AC radio, all he needs to do is get into the top 10 on the Urban charts to get into range of the Top 40. From there, things have the possibility of snowballing towards megahit status. However, only by sticking with R&B singles will this happen, since those are the only stations that still play his music. Man in Ur Life or On the Couch are two good possibilities for this. But this must be done while (young) Urban listeners are still hearing NEW Prince on the radio. Even releasing Dear Mr Man could set the stage for the next R&B single to crossover into the Top 40, and maybe even higher.

Occasionally, good music does get into the Top 40, even the Top 10 sometimes. Usually, it sneaks in the back door without the Pop bubblegum stations and listeners realizing it. One of Princes' R&B songs could do this.

I totally agree but isn't it a shame that today's music has gotten to the point that an artist that rocks and jams as "hard" as Prince, would even be mentioned in the same breath as the words "Adult Contemporary"? When I think of Adult Contemporary, I think of weak music like Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, or Celine Dion. And the Urban Contemporary stations that are not polluted by hip hop are nothing more than "R&B adult contemporary" stations, there's nothing "hard" on there. You're exactly right about the strategy he would need to take, but it's a damn shame that he would have to go that route.

Prince doesn't need to catch up to mainstream radio, mainstream radio needs to catch up with Prince.
[Edited 12/20/04 21:54pm]
[Edited 12/20/04 21:56pm]

Kinda sad.

It is sad. However, the more singles that Prince injects into the commercial airwaves, the more radio listeners may come to understand that making music is an art. As long he uses a singles release formula that goes from Urban AC to Urban to Pop he can not only have more hits, but add some greatly needed purity to Pop music.