I just read this morning in the National Enquire that comes in the Sunday paper, an interview the the notorious American Idol judge Simon. He made a comment on Prince and Madonna that i don't know how to read, so i'll ask y'all's oppinion. He said that they both have a 50-year career span b/c their songs stand the test of time; the old ones. However, he said that they r both obsessed with pumping out their new music, and that when ppl go to see them in concert, no one wants to hear the new stuff. Do u agree or disagree? i am kinda caught in the middle. they both have the right to perform their new stuff. but i think that a concert should have a mix with old and new. what do u think?

His hit will stand the test of time, but he may be dead and gone b4 his other stuff is appreciated.

Yes and no. The comments Simon Cowell makes are very subjective. If you ask one person they would agree with both the statements when applied to both subjects in question but you ask another and their response would be completely different. An interesting question but not an easy one to answe objectively if you do not have the opinions of both of the subjects. And even then their answers would not be objective.

In response, my answer is brief. I think the statements Cowell makes to some extent apply more to Prince rather than Madonna in the sense he borders on the brink of having total domination over the output of his music; whereas Madonna appears more willing to collaborate with others to shape her music.

Whether people who attend Prince and Madonna concerts would rather hear old, classic material rather than new is anyone's guess. Naturally enough the subjects would opt for the latter in that they want their audiences to respond to their new ideas but is it what the audience want? I heard many people complaining that Prince didnt play anything they knew after the Gold Experience tour whilst leaving the stadium.

Therefore, I'd say to some extent Simon Cowell's comments are right but somewhat subjective and ultimately flawed.

Well it's true.

In ten years time if Prince is still touring, are people gonna be shouting "Musicology" or "Purple Rain"??

Casual concert goers go to see concerts to hear the music they know, not the stuff they don't know.

And remember Simon Cowell is in the manufactured pop music business (he of Gareth Gates and Robson & Jerome 'fame') - I'm not knocking commercial music projects and acts - but Simon and Prince are coming from two different view-points when they comment on music in the media.

I think Simon Cowell is brilliant, from being an industry mogul with no musical talent and barely any musical input (like Pete Waterman) he's made himself a house-hold name in the UK and the States, he's the real winner of Pop Idol.


» MetroArea
[Edited 2/6/05 14:18pm]

In my case, Simon is right. I do prefer to hear the old stuff from Madonna and Prince. But that has nothing to do with the quality of their new stuff. IMO. American Life and Musicology are great albums. It has more to do with me. When I pay for a ticket to see Madonna and Prince, I'm not just paying to be entertained, I'm paying to reminisce. Those oldies take me back to my youth, a simpler time. I remember coming home after school and turning on Mtv to get my daily fix of When Doves Cry or Little red corvette. Priceless memories! Sorry to sound like Methuselah. I was blessed to see Prince and Madonna in 2004. That Prince acoustic set almost made me cry. I know time moves on and we gotta make room for the new, but I hope they never stop playing the old stuff.

I haven't been to many Prince concerts (4), but I'd just as soon hear the new stuff. I don't care if I ever hear "Rasberry Beret" "Take Me With U" "How Come U Don't Call Me" or "Purple Rain" live again. I think people who come to a concert expecting to hear any specific songs are coming in the wrong frame of mind, anyway. Prince seems pretty bored when he plays those songs anyway, so I don't why he bothers. Most of them are available on video if you want to hear them live.

As for Madonna, who gives a shit. She is about the worse live performer there is. Anyone catch that Tower Records performance she did to promote "American Life?" I love most of her records, but God she sucks live.

I can't help thinking, Simon Cowell produces lots of one hit wonders, he has never had a band or artist that has lasted any length of time, so he can hardly talk, none of his artist have any good album material, they haven't any choice but to play the hits!

He's a totally obssessed with the moment and hits and popularity, of course he'd say something like that.

Welcome2daRevolution said:

sisforscandalous said:

-----
The only problem with Simon's comments is Prince does not load his show down with new stuff. He only did two or threes songs from Musicology. ONA is the only tour I can recall with new mostly material.

Sorry but Simon off base with these comments as far as Prince is concerned.

MetroArea said:

Ahhh Simon, what a legend. He is concerned pretty much only about the money. He is trying to break records to have the most number ones. He put out singles from Zig and Zag and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for goodness sakes! (and yes they went to number 1 as he knew they would). In his book Simon said Prince all but disappeared due to not living in reality (which must've gone to print minutes before Prince's comeback).
Simon also predicted Brad and Jen would stand the test of time.

em excuse me, THIS MAN IS A TIT!

AND SHOULD BE BANNED FROM EVEN THINKING ABOUT PRINCE, POSITIVE OR OTHERWISE.

good, thats that out the way.

Simon Cowell contradicts himself constantly...

i'm sure when his "old hits" first surfaced, he was sure as shit to say they wouldn't chart or anything.
He also doesn't think about the fact that in another 20 years or so... people will remember Musicology, and Call My Name and any future endeavors Prince will produce.

Simon Cowell is the music industry, but Prince is MUCH smarter than the industry itself... he knows now what is career suicide... he knows

I disagree (OFCOURSE) He's just not a BIG fan I suppose, because people who know Prince's Music don't feel this way at all...but then again they are those who do, but they are so few
[Edited 2/6/05 21:08pm]

i wouldnt consider simone an authority on prince. 'd love to hear Controversy, Alphabet street, 7, and Call my name live. I think even some of this new stuff is still great music.

Simon talks to see himself in print, so I'd take anything he says with the image of beating him with Pro Tools software.

Welcome2daRevolution said:

dayum!
you just really brought me back. I too can remember the first time I saw When Doves Cry on MTV. (we didn't even have BET in Toledo during that time). I was so happy to see it! and yes, I would come home from school and "do homework" while watching MTV. Those were the days.

charlottegelin said:

Shows what he knows.

The casual general public may want to hear Raspberry fucking Beret yet again but I sure as hell don't...

I'm gonna take a gun to the next Prince concert I go to and I'll seriously contemplate pulling the trigger if I hear the opening chords to Raspberry Beret.

Who cares what the fickle general public (who probably haven't bought a Prince record in at least ten years) wants?

Prince should be rewarding those who have actually stuck by him, by performing little-known fan favourites. We're the ones who've kept his career alive when the general public discarded him like toilet tissue the day he released Around The World In A Day.

Why reward these people who probably haven't sat down and actually listened to a Prince album since Purple Rain? There's more to Prince than one twenty year old album and The Most Beautiful Girl In The World. If the general public are ignorant to that then fuck 'em.

Ahem. Rant over.

charlottegelin said:

Right, exactly what I said - When I see people knock Simon Cowel on here, it's pointless - He's coming from an entirely different angle to the music biz than Prince is. Simon is a business man, not artistic or creative musically, and doesn't pretend to be, he's A&R, management, and works with commercially created acts which are a vehicle for making money and enjoying 'the moment' of a particular trend, or short-term commercially viable idea.

If Simon ever knocks Prince, it's because Simon see's music from his POV, as someone previously behind the scenes, someone in the commerce of the music industry.

He's gotta play some hits. There's still plenty of people going to his shows that are just seeing him for the first time. Many of these people are probabbly really looking forward to hearing some of the classics live.

However, Prince seems revitalized when he gets to include his new music in the shows. During tours like the Hit N Run tour, you could tell he was noticably bored with those sets, and all the songs suffered as a result. We got a bunch of hasty medleys. But on tours like ONA, when he did some of the classics, they sounded incredible.

I just don't understand why people care what this man says.

Prince isn't really obsessed with forcing his new music on ppl!
If he was, then he'd perform the new music on t.v.!

Prince sat down and talked more about the music in the past few years than played it on any talk show or award show!

So I wouldn't call it obsessed at all!

People, like Simon or casual listeners who are only into Prince because of his 80's and 90's music...would like to hear those songs over and over again.
A True fan or friend would like to hear something new!

Prince is a musician and he's in love with creating music 24/7, its his life, Prince doesn't have to record another song or perform another concert, because he's done it all and has nothing to prove, and I believe he's to that point!

Now being a musician at heart, I'm sure Prince continues to record and release new music, simply because he loves to create it and he's interested in sharing it with those willing to listen...not to mention, Prince isn't old and tired, nor is he a has-been!

Prince still reigns in all aspects of being a musician and the music still flows funky, beautifully and sensually!

Prince is king!
He only wants ppl to appreciate the music for what its worth and I certainly do, especially when I heard 'CALL MY NAME' in concert for the first time!

It gave me goosebumps!


www.newpowerdetroit.com

After P's brilliant ONA show in Hamburg in 2002, a guy from the radio was walking around with a mic to collect statements on the concert.

He also asked me if I missed some more of the old hits (like "Purple Rain"), and if P had played too much new material. My answer was: "This is a concert hall, not a museum." He also asked me about my opinion on P's new image. My answer: "If I want to see some past-40 person playing with eroticism and making him-/herself ridiculous with it, I'll go to a Madonna concert."

They seemed to like my statement, it was aired the next morning.

However, I just can't stand people who only go to concerts because they want to hear music which is years or decades old. If I'm not interested in the development and growth of an artist, I can stay at home and hear the old records (much cheaper...)

Simon surely is one of these guys, and if his view on music is representative for the whole music business, then pop music (as we know it) will be disappeared in 10 years...

Say what you will about Simon Cowel but he is a realist. That's not to say I always agree with him, but yes from his perspective, most people still yearn for a lot of the old stuff and I definitely think there is some truth in that. If you guys think the Musicology Tour was so successful because of Fams wanting to hear the new stuff Live, you are kidding yourselves. It was the "casual" fan wanting to hear 7, Sign O The Times, When Doves Cry, and Ballad of Dorothy Parker, that made that tour the success it was. And I have to disagree that people will be talking about Musicology in 20 years just like they talk about Purple Rain. I like the song and album but it is not classic material IMO.

I am a Fam who still yearns for a lot of the old stuff also. There is a lot of great music from those years that he is not known to play a lot. Heck, he could do a tour based upon his B-sides alone and I would be very satisfied. People still want to hear the old stuff and will pack out arenas to do so.

On Madonna, I forget the name of the tour but the one before this last one. In city after city, Madonna got the biggest response from the audience during the song "Holiday", which was the only old tune she played. That was no fluke and that is not to say her newer music wasn't good. It's just people STILL want to hear the old stuff.Certain artists are past the day when they can release new stuff and only play that during shows and have most fans leave satisfied. Prince, Madonna, Michael, Whitney, even Mariah, are artists who's fans still want to hear some of the old stuff, whether they are willing to admit it or not. Usher can still get away with it, and possibly so can Beyonce' and Alicia Keys, but a lot of the older artists cannot.At least not arena shows.

Prince can grow and do whatever he chooses (I think we all know he does whether we want him to or not) but it is foolish and unrealistic to think that people don't want to hear the old stuff as well.

Prince said this was the last time he was playing the old stuff anyway, so we will see how it pans out.

subhuman09 said:

Miguel

I hate it when people speculate on what someone else wants. It's just like what Miles would say, "When I write music, I don't think about what other people want, because they usually don't know what they want until they hear it." That's not the exact quote but it sums up his point. Remember when Prince was playing songs like Crucial, Days O Wild, Calhoun Square and countless others live with them not even being released? It lead to MAJOR bootlegging! Obviously that means someone somebody somewhere wants to hear Prince playing something other than "old hits". See? and that's the problem with speculating, anyone can do it but it doesn't mean they know what the hell they are speculating about. Take it from someone who went to the Musicology tour, Prince could have played Jingle Bells and the whole arena would have still been rockin!

He could be right in one respect. I don't think too many people are music fans. Sure they're those who'll say, "I like all kinds of music" yet know nothing about it. What is true is people like what they like, which doesn't necessarily mean that they like music. Some people are always waiting for something that'll blow them away. Some people can find something to appreciate in most styles of music. Then they're those that like metal or r&b or hip hop and won't cross genres.

So in the latter instance it's like chocolate. If you love Hersey's chocolate bars that's cool. But you might hate white, dark or all the other chocolates out there. So in essence you don't love chocolate, you love Hershey's.

thanks so much for your oppinions! i kinda disagreed and agreed at the same time with Simon. i respect his opinion, but most of ur statements have a more solid point, and i think sometimes, Simon will talk to see his name in print. too bad, cuz i would still spend lots of money to hear prince do an entire tour playing songs that NO ONE had ever heard, and stand in rapt attention.

I think everybody has made some good points. 4 me it's about seeing a performer U love live on stage and getting not just nostalgia, but a special xperience. Who do U think had a more meaningful xperience seeing prince in concert, those who were at the ONA show and heard "Raspberry Beret" live 4 the 1st time, or those at the ONA Soundcheck who heard "Power Fantastic"?

I disaggre with Simon. The new stuff is great. I love it all. And besides really cares what simon has to say?