In the quiet time while waiting to see what His Highness does next, I have been thinking about all of the momentum killers that have sidetracked Prince over the years. Because he has always been in a hurry to get the next project out there, Prince has seldom maintained positive buzz for more than a year at a time. Consider:

1984: Purple Rain (momentum)

1985: Around the World (momentum killer), an album that still sold 4 million copies but disappointed many of the new fans from the year before. Killed by lack of hit singles and general esotericness.

1986: Parade and UTCM (momentum killer): massive underperformers (Kiss notwithstanding) that cut the four million down to about two.

1987: Sign O The Times (momentum): Critically loved, 3 Top 10 singles, almost killed by a bad choice in second sigle with Girlfriend.

1988: Lovesexy (momentum killer): Good first single; rest of he album too artistic/weird for the masses; naked cover kept it out of retail.

1989: Batman(momentum): Number one single, exposure on TV, exposure in gossip columns with KIm Basinger; sold because it had Batman logo on cover but it still sold.

1990: Grafitti Bridge (momentum killer): Great first single; terrible follow-up singles (except for Round and Round, which was a hit for TC); godawful movie.

1991: Diamonds and Pearls (momentum): Great singles and videos; heavy radio play; double platinum.

1992: Love Symbol (momentum killer): Good album sabotauged with terrible first single choice (My Name is Prince); symbol crap starting to get in the way; album concept made no sense to anybody (what the hell is Kirstie Alley doing on the %@#$&*& album!)

1993: General name-changing symbol crap (huge moomentum killer)

1994-2004: Come, Gold, Emanicipation, Chaos, New Power Sould, Rave, TRC, NEWS (all momentum killers): Some of these were good, some bad, some career nadirs; all botched by either artist apathy, bad marketing, bad single choices, general public ill will, or all of the above.

2004: Musicology( momentum regained): Double platinum, best selling tour,massive press, 2 Grammies.

So what of 2005? I'm really nervous because I just don't feel like Prince is capable of a 2 year run of positive buzz. He will either release a great classic Prince album and lead it off with a damn ballad; or he will release an acoustic album but won't promote it; or he will reunite the Revolution and the world will respond with a collective shrug.

Can Prince handle (and build on) success or are we doomed to another year of dashed expectations? How many do-overs does the general public give him? How much abuse can we as diehards take?

Time will tell...

WHY AREN'T YOU GETTING PAID , everyones a critic

maybe he'll finally release that country album he's been threatening to put out!

Just cause the masses (and by masses I mean teenage girls) may not
dig an album doesn't mean its bad or dissappointing.

some of those "momentum killers" were great albums in my opinion.

Prince has a plenty of money, so I hope the next album is more about
great funky music rather the "pop appeal" .

This is not to say I don't enjoy when P is having a good year, he just doesn't
need to water down his music and fill it with silly cameos to appease the
Linsay Lohan audience

Dammit he will follow up with something amazing....something that is his best...the intimate-like tours and concerts *like ONA* YES YES YES YES!!! Another celly would be incredibly fantastic...

LoveSexy momentum killer?????
It's without a doubt one of his best albums your theory is a complete waste
of time and i suggest you take up something my construcyive like knitting.

Whatever he does...I'll be slap happy to see him perform live again...YEEE HAH!!!

By the way The Symbol Album is far supirior to Diamonds And Pearls which to me was a messy album

I don't disagree; not saying that any of the "momentum killer" albums are bad, they just weren't what the public was ready or willing to digest. I think Prince just isn't a really mainstream artist, despite what success he's had on the pop charts. Some of what he releases can be eaten up by the masses, and some of his stuff is put out only for the die-hards.

I really won't be bothered if the follow-up to Musicology isn't a huge hit; he's already proven himself capable of a comeback. As long as I like it, it's a winner .

effs said:

Effs, nobody said LoveSexy and were bad albums. Gottaletitgo said they were commercial/mass-appeal "momentum-killers," and they were. LoveSexy was Prince's first album since Controversy to miss the Top Ten, and his first album since For You not to go platinum. tanked commercially after a string of poorly chosen singles. Then the name-change killed him commercially for more than a decade. No one is arguing the artistic merit of any of his albums. We're discussing mass-appeal. If you have no interest in Prince being popular, then this probably isn't the thread for you.

effs said:

It's totally true; Lovesexy really was a momentum killer.

It sold like a measely 500,000 copies in the US.

PurpleKnight said:

Does not mean its a bad album. Sign o the Times is tremendous but to say LoveSexy is a momentum killer is wrong. It sold really well here in UK. Getting back to the thread Prince follows good with bad is fucking ridiculous and whoever started it is just nit picking!

effs said:

He's talking from a commercial standpoint and the way ppl generally received the album at the time.

In those regards, Lovesexy was a momentum killer.

I see the point being made - Lovesexy, ATWIAD, Parade, all commercial 'momentum killers'.

Killer being the operative word

If you forcast the next album to be a momentum killer, all I can say is: Bring it on!

It does seem like many of the momentum killers are my favorite cds.
So yeah - bring on the next momentum killer.

Applying your logic, it seems to me that the momentum killers (few of the 90's stuff notwithstanding!) are the albums I prefered as a listener. Musicology may have put his name back on the proverbial map in the states, but I have never really liked it.

So I guess I am hoping for a momentum killer then... A brand new, no compromise album. However, I fear a commercial move is coming next.

Haven't looked at the thread for awhile because I have been busy knitting (thanks for the suggestion effs )

It looks like a lot of you got where I was going with this even if you don't agree. For those that are unclear, I love a lot of the momentum killers I listed and consider them among my favorites. But I am from the school of fans who likes to see the man have commercial success. I appreciate art for art's sake and like when the man goes out on a limb but it seems too often that Prince backed away from the audience when it go too big and went insular. The he missed the audience a few years later and went commercial again and then followed it up with something non-commercial. I don't know if it's by design or if he is truly that bad at marketing basics. For those of you that could care less if he sold one copy or 5 million, then the whole damn thread is probably ridculous. Much props to you but I just wanted, and have wanted, for the man to big as big and as successful as possible.

I think he Prince the most talented musician in our generation and I can't stand when he releases something that barely goes gold. Yeah, the marketplace is fickle, yeah, there are too many damned teenage girls (and boys) dictating what is "successful" but we are talking the fricking modern-day Mozart here and he shouldn't have to fight to get on the radio and every album he releases should go platinum. Part of it is because radio is run by moronic jackasses but a part (whether small or large) is because Prince has sabotauged himself time and time again. Strong albums with strong potential single choices killed in their tracks because Prince decided to release the sappy ballad or the mid-tempo number instead of the sure hit. Year after year, album after album. A legion of fans, as diehard as us, could have been created in those years but wasn't because the albums lost commercial momentum and the unconverted never gave it a try.

This is an issue I am passionate about. I am coming out of the closet so to speak; I like the commercial side of Prince. I like seeing the videos in heavy rotation, I like the magazine covers, I like the sell-out shows. I used to read Billboard every week just to see where the man charted; now I never read it. Does that mean that I wasn't one of the six that saw Grafitti Bridge in my hometown? No. Does that mean that I don't love Lovesexy? Hell no! Does that mean that I wouldn't be one of those people who would dance half-naked to Elephants and Flowers while the masses walked right past TC Ellis to go to Morris' club? Sign my ass up for the dance floor orgy! But I will not apologize for wanting the man to be commercially successful and I will not cease criticizing when I felt like the man could have done more with the products and didn't. I want the 3 million strong...not just us.

Oh well...in case y'all are wondering...I seem to have A LOT of free time at work on my hands today.

Like the industry he's paying his experiments with the successes

Note to self: Also should have titled this thread more carefully..."Usually Follows the Commercial with Non-Commercial" would have been closer to the spirit of what I was trying to say.

Deep down I also crave for Prince to have big commercial success again. But I dont think its really for music's sake or indeed for my own personal desire. I think it stems more from me being able to say to the miriad of people in my life that have ridiculed me (mostly in jest, occasionally with spite), and I can say "I told you so", or to see other people see what I see in Prince and for his genius to be more widely accepted...

But I would still prefer the music over the success. If they could come hand in hand then great, problem solved. I just dont think that will happen...

So I still take the momentum killer over the commercial success... Im used to the ridicule and Prince doesnt need the money, I havent had a true gem to listen to for a long long time it seems...

(prays for a momentum killer if it means funky new good music)

effs said:

Ok, so I'm not hot on the general momentum killer theory but Lovesexy was definitely a momentum killer.

- Initial refusal to make any videos.
- 1-track CD
- Naked album cover

"Without doubt" one of his best albums? In your opinion. To me, Alphabet St. and Anna Stesia are mesmerising. Eye No is overproduced. When 2 R In Love isn't a bad ballad but a bit safe by his standards. Positivity, Dance On, Glam Slam - there's a reason he hasn't performed these live for years. To me, a very average Prince album with a couple of killer moments.

if he can blow my mind again like he did with parade,
then i dont care about momentum or no momentum.

GottaLetitgo said:

You are not alone with your views beacuse I share them as well. I've always felt like Prince should have been bigger than he is but I've also gotten used to seeing him go underground for awhile. 2004 was a dream come true for me. I would like to see him stay where he is if not get bigger this year but whatever happens, happens. As long as the CD is hot, I'll be there.

You're not making a point, 1999 followed by Purple Rain. Dirty Mind Followed by Controversy. If anything "killed" the momentum after SOTT it was scrapping the Black album, lovesexy is pretty good. I don't see how you classify Parade as a momentum killer but cite Batman as having momentum. Both albums spawned a number 1 single and sold pretty well. It annoys me when people try to twist facts to prove a point they're trying to make (even though I am guilty of that sometimes too)

kdj997 said:

Because he's not wrong. After Dirty Mind, Controversy was looked at as half-assed. 1999 into Purple Rain was a successful period, but Around the World in a Day was designed to throw off the public. Kiss was not a representative single to lead the Parade album with, and the public wasn't exactly pleased with the bait-and-switch thing he pulled there (despite how great we all know the Parade album was).

Sign 'o' the Times brought Prince back into massive critical praise; it sold pretty well for a double-album and spawned 3 top ten hits. Obviously, Lovesexy got neither the lavish praise nor the sales that its predecessor received.

Batman may have sold as well as Parade did, but you've got to remember that when Parade was released people still thought that Around the World... might have been a one-off; they expected him to go back to Purple Rain. By Batman, people were decidedly more wary of a Prince album.

It got rid of a lot of the old fans in droves too. Actually, they were more pissed than the new fans.

Other than that, most of your post is pretty accurate.

Exactly. "Kiss" was a very misleading first single. "Parade" may be considered a "masterpiece" by the majority of the people on this web site, but the general public and the most of Prince's original fans cannot stand it.



Right again. Everyone I knew thought Prince had a case of temporary insanity with "Around The World In A Day" and thought he would come back hard and strong on the next album. With "Kiss" everyone thought he was back and then "Parade" came out and totally pissed them off. I know two or three bold people that actually went to the record store and asked if they could have a refund.

Many people thought Prince was back to normal when they heard "Batdance" but were skeptical about buying the album because they had been burned with every album that came after "Purple Rain".