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PrintableBeginning with "Around The World In A Day", each album seemed to be one disappointment after another.
His popularity grew in Europe with this album. | |
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jn2 said: Beginning with "Around The World In A Day", each album seemed to be one disappointment after another.
His popularity grew in Europe with this album.  | |
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jn2 said: Beginning with "Around The World In A Day", each album seemed to be one disappointment after another.
His popularity grew in Europe with this album. True. That's probably why he toured more and more in Europe and less and less over here in America. Andy is a four letter word. | |
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prodigalfan said: vainandy said: With all the mainstream R&B artists trying to crossover, rap was starting to get more and more airplay. It was uptempo and funky back in those days and was filling the void that these mainstream R&B artists had left. [Edited 4/24/05 12:35pm] This reminds me of the dark days of RB. Lionel Ritchie - Ballerina Girl, Kool & the Gang - Cherish, Aretha Franklin - Pink Cadillac, Stevie Wonder - The Lady in Red soundtrack,     . | |
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jn2 said: prodigalfan said: This reminds me of the dark days of RB. Lionel Ritchie - Ballerina Girl, Kool & the Gang - Cherish, Aretha Franklin - Pink Cadillac, Stevie Wonder - The Lady in Red soundtrack, .ok I will give you that. I think when a new music format comes out, you have artists that are "experts" at that sound, and will push that format to great popularity. For instance, Run DMC, one of the founders of rap, really gave that sound a boost, however, Prince who really started with funk/pop tried to get on the bandwagon, failed at rap. Thomas Dolby really push new wave, however some of the funk bands tried to get on the band wagon and failed. Not only will they fail, they wind up alienating their fan base. Billy Ocean was one of the experts of that sound that Cherish, Pink Cadillac, Fresh ( by Kool and Gang) were going after. That said, Billy Ocean had some fierce hits in the day, and I am a PROUD owner of his greatest hits CD. The long play version (which unfortunately I don't have) of Carribean Queen was the JAM! "Remember, one man's filler is another man's killer" -- Haystack | |
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vainandy said: I definately think so. Every, and I mean every black person I knew at the time was extremely pissed with "Around In The World In A Day" and furious with "Parade" and most of them dropped him after that. The white people I knew were not cool with it either but they could tolerate it more.
I understand that Prince has always been versitile in his music but the earlier rock style music was at least appealing to his black listeners. The work he did beginning with "Around The World In A Day", except for particular songs, was only appealing to a fraction of the long time fans that loved his music. Another thing that pissed many black people off was the timing of the whole thing. Prince waited until after the huge major crossover success of "Purple Rain" to completely change his style. He wasn't crazy. Had he released an album like "Around The World In A Day" or "Parade" when the majority of his listeners were black and he didn't have a large white pop audience to fall back on, he would have been tossed to the side and never even made it to the point of making a big success like "Purple Rain". Apparently it must have bothered him because then he comes up with "The Black Album". Even if it had been released when it was supposed to, the majority of his long time black fans weren't going to like this album. It was funk but it was not the type of funk they loved Prince for. Then he starts trying to get back some of the black audience by adding rap and hip hop to his music. This is when a lot of the white fans started feeling alienated. This wasn't working with the black fans either because they were an age group that didn't like rap, so he started picking up even more new fans. Whether Prince meant to do it or not, he alienated both sides at some time in his career. Like you said, its the black people you knew and where you grew up. Here in the Bay Area, black folks have always supported P. It boils down to musical tastes overall rather than race. Did he ever alienate a large portion of his audience at times? Certainly. But it has nothing to do with favoring any particular group. Any true musician tries to grow and try new things. Remember that Around The World In A Day was finished long before it was released. Prince was just on to something different each time out of the gate. If any group felt alienated, its because they formed their own misconceptions of what he was about in the first place. | |
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