Moonbeam said:

Well, there ya go.

loudawg said:

Even if that's the case, the song is still weak.

DavidEye said:

But Black Sweat IS crap.

maleeboo said:

most of the radios stations in this country are owned by a few big corporations.
THEY decide what's played and what isn't. sucks, doesn't it?
think about it when you hear "Your beautiful...youre beautiful..." for the hundreth time in the day, or "Shake that thing...", or the Beep song by the Pussycat dolls.

God forbid radio plays something other then a few tracks

Black Sweat is no hit because it lacks a catchy chorus. I mean, in the last weeks i have heard Kiss more often on the radio then Black Sweat. Kiss is also a minimalistic funksong, but the main difference is, its has a memorable melody and a catchy chorus.

Remember the days when a Prince single had an awesome B side that wasn’t on the album? Remember the days when the single version was different to the album version?

If he had released a maxi single or an extended version then all us die hards would have been out and bought the single alongside the album. It would have charted pretty high, maybe even no.1 judging by how many albums were sold in the first week.

But alas, why would we buy a single which contains exactly the same version as the album and nothing extra?

Radio play or not, his fan base would have done the work for him if he actually released a single that would make us want it… He really missed the boat on this one. I can only assume he has something up his sleeve…

Rebeljuice said:

That contributed to the sales success of a lot of his singles, especially in 91-94. I'll buy any Prince CD that has a track that isn't available anywhere else, but I haven't even considered buying the two 3121 singles.

because prince never pics the right songs to make hits out of

I hear they are playing Black Sweat on the radio and on MTV... and more and more people are telling me they heard it.

loudawg said:

LOL. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Clear channel has no agenda. They exist solely to make money for their shareholders, period. If Prince makes a song that people want to listen to over and over, it will be played on clear channel stations and any other stations.

Black Sweat is a weak throwaway song that is poorly written. That's the reason it's not a hit.

truefunksoldier said:

So how do you explain all the weak, throwaway songs that are poorly written and become hits by other artists? By your logic none of those would be hits either. These days it is far less about being 'well written' and far more about being pushed down our throats on the radio. And that is simply where Prince is losing out. Time and time again Orgers comment that they never or hardly ever have heard it on the radio, when plenty of other duff songs are being played every hour.

Spanky said:

--
IMHO

It has all the components of a great Prince song but like others have said above it lacks a strong melody and the hook is weak, therefore all the good work is undone. thats sums up quite a few songs on 3121,
but hearing the album live like fury/te amo ect.. would be a lot better i think

Might be the high pitched dog whistle synth which makes the song nearly unlistenable.

More evidence that Prince could use a producer once in a while.

roanmairin said:

thats the cool part, that and the synth bass boogie part that comes in on the chorus.

I hear they are playing Black Sweat on the radio and on MTV... and more and more people are telling me they heard it.

Spanky said:

Quite simple Id say - Prince fans buy Prince singles and since he's wimped out of doing anything exciting/new with his singles his top 10 hits have taken a nose dive

It started with The Morning Papers when it just had normally released tracks on it....the only exception to that since would appear to be TMBGITW & Cinamon Girl (and even United States of Division was available on NPGMC)

The king of the B-sides has got lazy in the respect

JustErin said:

I saw the video on MMM about 2 weeks ago. Only saw it once though.

this would be a really bad choice for a single. it doesn't have a universal appeal

XxAxX said:

Pardon the pun.

XxAxX said:

Black Sweat? I'm hearing all kinds of people tell me (cause they know I like Prince stuff) that they heard Prince is back and that they heard the song on the radio and saw the video...and it's "Black Sweat".

Now as to whether they are buying it, i don't know, but I know of at least two people who have not bought a prince album since Purple Rain who talk about buying this one.

And none of them even know of the existence of the first single "Te Amo Corazon".

ufoclub said:

yes, they are telling you "they heard it", but they are not saying they want to hear it again

MickG said:

no they like it! Like this one hypercritical guy who said Prince burned out after Purple Rain even liked it.

ufoclub said:

I am sure they lop liked it, least objectional programing, but you know, lop rymes with flop.

I think it would have done well in the early 90's. That too bad, though. This is my fave song on the CD.

Because the song is GARBAGE!!!!

Black Sweat is a good song. It's not a hit because the younger audience are not really into Prince as much as they are into these wannabe artist(s).The charts are not what they use to be any more. If you can't get airplay you do not sell well. Now, just one song can make you sell over 2 million as long as you have that radio support backing it.

Howard Stern laughed at this song.

He's a Prince fan by the way.

mellow1 said:

Hell yeah. Even if the song was 'garbage' is it really worse than most of the stuff out there that has been bigger hits? Hell no. The 'garbage' argument does not explain the lack of success at all. First off, Prince is never gonna create one almighty song that EVERYONE thinks is ace, even on this board! I think he did well with Black Sweat to get even half the people on here saying it is good! And even if he did release the most amazing song, without the backing of radio it still wouldn't go anywhere.

The younger audience is into these wannabe artists because they can identify with them in a way they can't identify with the older Prince. That's why they don't buy Prince records so much. How many 47 year old artists who were big a decade before I was born did I like when I was 14-16? None. It's about being cool and Prince hasn't yet climbed back fully into the 'cool' category.

metalorange said:

Instead of making generalisations, how about listing some of those songs that you think are weak and poorly written which have become hits?

And remember just because you don't like a song doesn't mean it's not well written and/or catchy.

DiamondGirl said:

It's not a hit because Prince is the one that made it. Even if Prince completely sold out and released something that completely fits in with today's music, look who the music buyers are these days and the type of artists they are buying, not just musicwise but imagewise as well.

The majority of the music buying brats these days do not want an individual, they want a tired ass person with big ass jeans and a damn sports jersey. For an artist to be successful in this day and age, he has to not only be boring musically but he has to be boring visually as well.