Every time I come to the org I just laugh at how many has changed. because I remember how it wasn't to long ago how so many people said it was clearly impossible for Prince to have commericial success again and nobody wanted to hear from the purple anyone more. When N.E.W.S was released it was like so much dis on prince it wasn't even funny. See I never lost faith in Prince, I always knew Prince had it in him 2 do whatever he wanted to do. That's exactly how Prince is. He does what he wants not what his fans wants and that's the formula he's been working with for years and I love it. Not only did Prince make a susseccful comeback, but he was the paid performer in the year 2004, he even won a couple of grammy's and finally won the race of the whole MJ thing. Anyways see how important it is never to loose your faith in something u truly believe. Who the Hell said Kanye West was the savoir of music ? I believe that Prince still is the savior of music just as much he was back in the days when nobody understood his music.

NO

I don't know if he's the savior of music these days, but I do believe that Musicology had some decent songs on it and for the most part, it's better than most of the shit out there now. I'm happy for Prince because it bugs my ass when people say older musicians are "has beens". I've heard it a million times on this site and others and it irks me to hear it. Some of these old geezers still know how to bring the house down when they play/sing and IMHO it makes no difference how old someone is as long as they're their making decent music. As a Prince fan, I hope he's still turning it out 20 years from now!!

fartman said:

that's because you're new here...n00b.

anyway--no matter whatcha say lisa, there's a certain contingent around here who thinks the exact opposite. folks think he gotta jump through flamin hoops with nitroglycerin drawerz on trl while singin "head" unedited or some such mess before he can be qualified as having "commercial success".

DigitalLisa3000 said:

i'm really glad that he's back in the charts, though, if commercial success had anything to do with talent or any "artistic level", we'd know about it, so i never understood why so many people here (or elsewhere) thought that Prince was "out" just cuz he wasn't selling anymore...
Damn nonsense !

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

NO...AGAIN

Musicology was not a "hit"....

Prince gamed the system and had a tremendouly sucessful "greatest hits" tour....nothing wrong with it..i loved the show but no one went to shows to hear "Life of the Party".....

the last real hit Prince had was TMBGITW and he didnt even have a album out to benefit from it...(GOLD came out too late)

emesem said:

"..Musicology was not a "hit"....Prince gamed the system.."

How do you think most albums get to be "hits" nowadays? Record companies pour a ton of $$$$ into promotions/giveaways and playtime at radio stations owned by the same folks who own the labels. There are very few legitimate "hit" records these days....


"....had a tremendouly sucessful "greatest hits" tour....nothing wrong with it..i loved the show but no one went to shows to hear "Life of the Party"..."

1st of all- what artist, who has been around as long as Prince, tours without playing any of their hits?? Bowie? Van Halen? U2? Elton John????

2ndly- How do you know people didn't go to see him perform new material?? Did you take a poll? Not that I disagree with you, but the same could be said about any performer/band. I'm not going to U2 in hopes that they'll only play stuff off of their new album. I damn well better hear some Joshua Tree material. Does that make u2's tour a "greatest hits tour"? No they'll play new stuff. Does that make "Musicology" a greatest hits tour? No-he played new stuff.
[Edited 2/28/05 15:59pm]

emesem said:

do you ever get tired of feeling like you have to make a point about the sales of musicology anytime someone mentions it? perhaps this is the first time you've brought it up (though i doubt it) but many other have said a similar thign, it's nothing new really
the point is, that no-one thought prince could have a successful year, and he's had the 8th most successful tour of all time. barely a single person on this site thought that, christ, i'm a massive fucking optimist and i remember reading a review of a UK ONA show and the reviewer said "a comeback? if he could be bothered" and i honestly thought to myself, god, i can't see it happening no matter what he wants.

a year later i'm discussing prince selling nearly a million copies RETAIL of his new album, that had a song in the charts for 18 weeks, and broke his own record for rnb airplay, and he won two grammies.

yeah, i agree with you digitallisa, i too remember when NEWs came out, even i was worried. thinking, shit, NEWS didn't even do 100k worldwide (previously known as the number of fans prince had left properly), what the fuck is it going to be like in 2010? etc etc ad infinitum, so many people acted like it was the end of his career, and to be honest, these are probably the same people now bitching about how he chose the wrong choice of songs for singles from this album, or how it wasn't really a "hit" so on and so forth.

times have definately changed, and sometimes it seems only the people who actively remember what it was like a year, two years ago seem to remember what people thought "realistically" prince could do. it certainly wasn't this!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Exactly Right!!! He will never be a commercial success until I see him jump through flamin' hoops while singing "head" unedited AND while playing guitar!!!

Until I see this he is an Underground Nobody!

Much Love,
LoLinex

lolinex said:

Is that how u really feel or are u just kidding?

skywalker said:

Sure he played new stuff... But the tour was still advertised as a tour in which Prince would "retire"/"play his hits for the last time"...
Most people probably believed that and just went to see it for those hits he was retiring.
If he would tour only on "Musicology" it would be 1995 all over again...

Neversin.

Well, he still hasn't had commercial success in years with record sales. Although it depends on what you mean by "commercial success", I suppose. The tour was sure much more successful than I thought it would be...I was totally wrong about it beforehand and his ability to fill arenas.

But he can only do these Greatest Hits tours so often. Actually, I think he won't do another tour like that for 5 or 10 years or maybe never. I don't think we'll see him back on the road for at least a couple of years and then back to theaters most likely. Unless he really promotes the tour heavily, and then maybe he could sell out arenas again, but probably just with the hits.
[Edited 2/28/05 15:46pm]

Neversin said:

Bullshit-- most people went because: they saw him tear up the Grammy's, they saw him on Leno jive talking Mel Gibson, they saw him at the Rock and Roll hall of fame. No casual fan that I encountered even knew that this tour was a "last time for the hits tour". No one believes that crap anyways-blame Cher.

lolinex said:

skywalker said:

Did you take a poll?


Most people I heard talking before showtime were talking about how they wanted to see hits, not shit from "Musicology"...
And it's no "bullshit" that the tour was advertised as a greatest hits tour, so you get your fucking facts straight before YOU spray any more bullshit...

Neversin.

actually y'know, even though i'm feeling a bit down on exactly how he boosted the sale of 'musicology', i'm truly glad our hero has had such a cool ride 2004-2005. it's nice to see him cheered by an adoring public.

Neversin said:

So angry. Please don't spiderwalk down the stairs All I am saying is this:

you said

" But the tour was still advertised as a tour in which Prince would "retire"/"play his hits for the last time"... Most people probably believed that and just went to see it for those hits he was retiring."

I wasn't debating that casual fans showed up for the hits. I was debating that they showed up in fear of it being "the last time for the hits before those songs are retired." That was pure speculation on your part-and I thought my speculation of "people saw him on TV kickin' ass is why they showed up for the tour" was more likely. And yes I took a poll-you got pea soup on me when you vomited.

I totally remember what it was like being on this site in the early days, especially from late 2002 till the beginning of 2004. It was rough and I'll even admit that I wondered if Prince would ever be big again. I stuck with him and sure enough, look at where we are today. I hoped that this would happen and I glad that I never gave up on him. This is truly a trip and I'm definetly sticking around for the rest of the ride.

Well, I just think Prince finally accepted a successful marketing strategy built around his hits and key public appearances. He did nothing (minus, I guess, the RRHOF appearance, and Prince himself admitted that they ask him to perform at the Grammys nearly every year) that he wasn't capable of doing back in the days when, supposedly, we were all saying his days of commercial success were over, like with NEWS, ONA, etc.... The strength of his hits has never changed. He just finally gave in to some commercialism, said yes to making some key high-profile appearances, made himself more readily available for interviews and such, and strapped himself to the "I Love The 80s" nostalgia, retro rocket. The rest fell into place. Making a very "safe & easy" album like Musicology and giving it away on a hit-driven tour didn't hurt either. The more easy sounding the music, the more it'll be accepted by the public.

And, signing to Sony Records and having AEG sponsor the tour made things even more easy, as well. All I'm saying is is that he's done nothing that I think most of us didn't think was possible. The only questions in most of our minds back in the really obscure days was IF he would "play the game". The formula was always there to amount some sort of mild success, what with all the love for his hits in general. It was just a matter of him deciding, "Yeah, I'll play that game, do things I haven't normally done, and try to maximize my money-making potential" (which he CLEARLY wasn't doing with releasing the esoteric-type music of TRC and NEWS, no matter how much the die-hards may love either two). I'm not necessarily trying to downplay his recent success, just trying to shed some light on the mindset and attitudes of those fans here who were saying he'd never have commercial success again. They were saying that, more, based on the fact that he "could" play the game somewhat but he just wasn't and showed not too many signs of wanting to.

Prince's hits led to this new commercial success, not Musicology.

I might be strange, but I like it when Prince isn't BIG...

When he is "ALL-OURS"..so to speak...

Prince's tour was successful this year because he threatened, as he has before, to "retire" his old hits. He went on "The Tonight Show" and said this. He performed old hits on The Grammys, even if he did it with tired ass Beyonce. He performed old hits on "The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame". Everyone also knew this was the 20th Anniversary of his biggest peak ever, "Purple Rain" and he promoted it to the fullest.

Even if he had not threatened to retire the old hits, people were expecting to hear them anyway. That's the way it is with any old artist whether they have something new or not. People expect to hear the old hits and are pissed if they don't.

He also toured in areas that he doesn't normally tour, especially in The South. This time around, I had several choices of where I could see him....Biloxi, Bossier City, New Orleans, or Memphis. I chose Bossier City. Normally, Prince doesn't even look this way except for New Orleans or if we're lucky, Memphis. He toured areas where people had not had a chance to see him in years and it was about damn time.

When Prince sells millions of albums and only plays new material, and succeeds, then I'll change my tune.

EvilWhiteMale said:

No artist sells out stadiums with new material only. Noone

EvilWhiteMale said:

That's pretty much what I was saying. All of this current "success" is based on stuff he completed years ago, the hits. So, he basically finally decided to ride the momentum of his back catalog back into the spotlight, and he peppered it with an album that was very run-of-the-mill and musically accepted by the pop audience (to some degree). I would love to see this type of success based mainly from new music. I mean, let's face it; all of the buzz he's garnered over the past 12 months was derived from his performing his "classics", on TV and on tour. Basically, nostalgia and reminiscing. I'm not cutting him for it (cuz he does deserve it), just saying it is what it is. I'd like to see less coasting & resting on his laurels from now on and more "musical head-busting", if you will. I hope that now that he's got the attention of more people than he's ever had since the 80s, he'll come back with something truly worthy of the name and legacy of "Prince".

No I don't remember this at all. Anyone who has followed P for a while knows that he his commercial star has fallen and risen more often than his bedsprings. You are not alone (however much you might like to think you are).

alexnvrmnd said:

I agree with everything you said.The timing was right for a Prince comeback and he seized the opportunity by making some smart career decisions for a change (aligning himself with Sony....making numerous TV appearances,etc).His success in 2004 proves that,sometimes,you gotta "play the game" a little.



...
[Edited 3/1/05 3:07am]

Does it matter about commercial success? If you want that go listen to the pop muppets in the top 40.

All I want is a good album (which is subjective I know).

alexnvrmnd said:

I agree.

Unfortunately, I think Prince may be done. He doesn't have that spark anymore to make real hard hitting tracks. Everything now is tame and family friendly. Without a dark place for him to go to, this may be as good as it gets from now on.