Will anyone in Prince's camp have the courage to tell him the message his fans are sending?

Will his camp hide the computer from him and all of this internet hostility?

Dig if you will the picture, of Prince huffing and puffing about his fans and believing its "them" not him.

LOL

what?

Anxiety said:

sorry, i will clarify.

Fans are saying about TAC

T. H. E.

S. O. N. G.

I. S.

M. E. D. I. O. C. R. E.

A. T.

B. E. S. T.



Personally, i think its relative. If the album was great, this song would be an ok filler, but as the 1st single it sends a huge bad vibe that the album could be worse than this.

Rockability said:

mediocre

adj 1: moderate to inferior in quality; "they improved the quality from mediocre to above average"; "he would make a poor spy" [syn: poor, second-rate] 2: of no exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling at best" [syn: average, fair, middling] 3: poor to middling in quality; "there have been good and mediocre and bad artists"

I don't think anyone in Prince's camp would dare tell him bad news. Instant sackable offence!

I also don't think Prince has ever taken that much notice of fans opinions, or anyone else's for that matter. If I had fansite's devoted to me, would I browse them to see what people were saying about me.... hmmmmm.....actually, I probably would, but I can't see Prince doing that.

If Prince spent any time reading message boards to see what fans thought about particular songs that would be very disturbing and fairly useless.

Because the consesus is always the same. Some love it, some hate it, some think it's ok.

Dude, as much as I love the org, it doesn't speak for everybody.

Universaluv said:

I think Prince would assume that his "fans" always squeek like rusted old wheels after a reliese. He might even assume there are sever thousands liking the music for ever little bitch.

Universaluv said:

Hmm, if you released a single and hoped people would dig it and therefore spark a world tour, you might check your fansite message board.

Do people who write plays read reviews?

Also, the consensus isn't always the same, and in this case obviously its not.

Rockability said:

Well then the Musicology tour should have never happened cause Musicology failed as a single and wasn't all that well received by the fans ("just another James Brown rehash").

And if he checks the NPGMC the consensus is definitely mixed.
[Edited 12/13/05 13:47pm]

Universaluv said:

Well, Prince has stated numerously he isn't doing a favorite hits tour again.

Call it musicology tour if you want, but we all know it was a "remember Prince" show.

metalorange said:

If I were a famous artist I'd check out websites dedicated to me maybe once a year at most. Wouldn't you get depressed reading all that negativity about yourself and your work? I know I would, hehe!

funkaholic1972 said:

most people w/ official fan sites actually CONTRIBUTE to their sites and contribute a sense of presence to their fans. heck, even madonna writes a little letter for her official fan site every now and then.

What is definitely the case here and on other fan sites is that some people are unable to get out of the "glorius 80s" (as if prince stopped to sound Prince which he didn't) and systematically despise new things the artist might release. I like the new single it is fairly well produced and it is a very smooth, sensual song. Stop thinking each new song by Prince must be a killer song....

The "Official" website is like a long straw for worm-like fans. They give them very little wiggle room and they want the fans to end up at a conclusion they have directed them toward.

klaatu said:

I don't know bout that Klaatu.

When the most die hard fans shy away from a song and fans from the likes of Celine Dion come around I think current Prince listeners are in trouble.

I mean, I know Prince has alienated his fans before, but not in the sense of being a wimp.

Rockability said:

I am a die hard fan and I don't shy away.... So it's not a generality or even a consensus. Anyway, to each his own.

klaatu said:

poll it, i'll bet 90% think its mediocre at best!!

Klaatu, nobody would give a damn, but its the 1st single off a long awaited album. Its kinda a big deal even though we are just guessing at this point what the album will be like.

An artist shouldn't read their criticism.

yeah....
you think it's new to prince that his biggest fans are his worst critics?

this ain't nuttin' new man

Hmm, the obvious consensus from prince.org seems to be that this thread is mediocre at best. Looks to be at around 90%!

Universaluv said:

Touche

Rockability said:

Maybe he's looking for new fans. Older fans. Fans that live for the present and don't want him to wear assless pants and hump his piano.

At the age of 47, I'm not really sure what all you so-called diehards are expecting from Prince. Seriously, you get older and sometimes your angst just goes away. And the need to "rip shit up" just isn't there anymore.

Personally, I'm in a different place than I was 10 years ago, and I'm happy to hear mellow music from Prince. On occasion, I long for old Prince music and I satisfy that longing by...um...playing old Prince music.

TheBigBang said:

Prince is Prince. That doesn't mean assless pants or cussing. It means quality music. Not mediocrety.

Prince is electrifying. The Rolling Stones are like 200 years old and they have more electricity in one vile of Keith Richards blood than the whole 3 minutes of TAC.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

That's the same thing I was wondering. Now that the video is out there'll be another 25 started in 5... 4... 3... 2...

TheBigBang said:

If he wants fans who live for the present, why create an obvious retro sound?

SquirrelMeat said:

oh gawd, precisely. that's quotable.

klaatu said:

I hate it when, simply because someone dislikes a new tune from Prince, they are accused of 'living in the 80s'. It is entirely possible to critique a Prince song based on a comparison with his previous work and even with other artists and music currently around and come up with an informed opinion about it that is not based on some knee-jerk desire for Purple Rain II. It's called comparitive analysis.

Prince once said, "The only competition is, well, me in the past" and recently I would say the Prince of the past is beating the Prince of the present hands down! Doesn't mean I don't appreciate or enjoy his newer music for what it is, just means he has a lot of great songs in his catalogue that make his weaker songs seem even weaker than they actually are.

Personally, I believe every artist should endeavour to produce a killer song everytime, not just Prince. After all, they usually spend a year putting just 10 songs together, there's no reason every one shouldn't be as good as they could possibly produce, worked with every ounce of heart and emotion they can possibly muster, and not just a product of wafting along on a sea of complacency, "Well, it's an album track - it doesn't really matter if it's very good..."

metalorange said:

Though I understand your point, again an artists idea of what a killer song is maybe different from yours or they just might not care to that point anymore. I love Stevie Wonder as much as I love Prince but I'm fairly certain he doesn't have the desire to put together another SITKOL or Innervisions. And I'm cool with that. Besides its not fair for me to expect him to give me another Songs when he's past that point. He was younger, hungrier and wanting to prove himself, but now he's achieved legend status, has aged and has other interests outside of music so his desire maybe different. Whether or not I dig where he's currently coming from is a matter of taste. I feel the same for Prince. There is no consensus on Prince's albums because his catalog is too eclectic to appease everyone. Some people love Dirty Mind and loathe Parade, and vice versa...doesn't take the merit away from either album its just that tastes are different. So if he retried both sounds some people would still gripe because you cannot possibly please everyone. Art is subjective, some will love it some will hate it. But my opinion of something is no more valid than anyone elses. It has more to do with individual expectations than it does with an artist. I'm just curious to hear these great albums everyone has in their minds because I'm just not getting it.