This was originally posted at housequake.com and is posted with permission from the author ,Cateto, (who is also a member here at the org). I thought that it was interesting:

Well, now that it seems pretty clear that the whole 3121 story is definitely over, I think it could be a good time for a few reflections on the current situation of Prince and his career.

Prince is a widely acclaimed musician, not only among his loyal fans, but in the world of music business in general. Regardless of his recent commercial success (or rather, lack of), you can ask anybody from that world and, liking or not Prince's music, he will acknowledge that Prince stands from the crowd, no doubt. The recent infos suggesting that he has been offered many times to play at the Superbowl is just another evidence. He has nothing to demonstrate at this time point, concerning his musical abilities and his obvious superstardom when performing: nobody in the world will top that.

Yet, at 48 years and with such amazing experience on his back, he is arriving a point where decisions have to be taken in order to clarify where is he going from now on, from a professional standpoint. Most musicians from his generation are out of the main trends (and no, Madonna is no musician, sorry, so that sentence is true generally speaking), and while some of them simply fucked up his career (MJ being the most obvious example), other have managed to outline an effective way of continuing their work in the music world, although not selling millions of albums.

You have the dinosaur-always-playing-live-old-songs trick, which works perfectly in some cases. Look at the Stones or Pink Floyd: their recent records barely achieve any significant selling number, but their tours are usually sold out with fairly high prices. And I'm tempted to include others, even more recent, as U2, in the same category, but won't do it to avoid controversies... [Laughing].

You have the old-80s-star-reinvented-by-trendy-producers-and-performing-at-a-circus each album/tour. This is the very definition of Madonna, and although she is no musician, this model works stunningly well for her, in economic terms. I'm also tempted to include Bowie... but I doub whether he is playing any music game by now, other than selling his shares on his back catalogue (and that's another fucking amazing business, it seems).

You have the I-will-release-yet-another-different-compilation-next-Christmas model, in the case of acts that have no too many followers of their live performances. The name of Elton John (and maybe, I'm sorry, the name of Queen) is the perfect example in this case, and this again seems to provide big bucks.

And finally, you have the I-am-still-able-to-release-good-albums-but-you'd-rather-come-to-my-show-to-hear-my-old-classics...and The Boss or The Ugly Bear (aka Bruce Springsteen or uncle Van Morrison) are both a non-stop demonstration on the feasability of this last business model from old glories.

What about Prince? Well, to date he tried a mixture of everything. Let's see what happened after he was "emancipated" from Warner Brothers Records:

First he attempted (self-convinced that he would repeat the TMBGITW success with Emancipation) the "independent" artist model, but in that particular case, personal issues (and the catastrophe at EMI) justified somehow the demise of the album.

Then, after sometime underground again, he was persuaded that he could try a comeback a la Santana, by releasing a commercial album (Rave) with loads of celebrities guessing. This time again, it didn't work, and as usual for Prince, all blame was on the boogie: the label was the only responsible (in his view) for this failing.

Once more, a few years on the underground, an album very well received by most fans (TRC) and an excellent (yet low key) tour afterwards (ONA live).

And, when approaching 2004, a big plan was developed to capitalize on the 20th anniversary of Purple Rain. I don't know if this was planned by him, or convinced by other people. But the fact is that a huge US tour was planned, helped by the release of a (minor) album entitled "Musicology". And (to the surprise of quite a few people, probably) it turned out to be the biggest grossing tour of the year, reinstalling him as a superstar in commercial terms at the USA. Further, if looking at the overall numbers, apparently he regained his crown as major seller, since this album (in theory) was very well sold. But as we know, if you look closer, a more than significant part of the "sold" albums were considered for the sold numbers, but not actually sold: they were given as a part of the ticket price at live shows. Given the huge amount of people going to this tour, it meant loads of "sold" albums. Although it is also true that many albums were actually sold as well.

But apparently, the huge success of the Musicology tour convinced Prince and his environment that he was enabled to become a top seller again, by himself and on the grounds of new music alone (I mean, without accompanying tour). So, after a 2005 hiatus, he showcased grand plans just another time, by a large marketing campaign that started with the worldwide release of TAC with an expensive video, followed by several other videos, singles, TV appearances, etc etc, to be followed by the release of her new protegee, Tamar.

And what happened? Well, the market (i.e., his hardcore fans) said initially a big YES!, thus making his first number 1 album straight away after release, in many, many years. This was an initial buble that ignited some burning emails from NPGMC proudly announcing the good news, in the middle of rave reviews from all over the world. But the bubble was soon disappeared, as the selling numbers started to sink almost immediately, to never recover.

Then, when everybody was expecting a summer worldwide tour, and for whatever reasons, Prince was nowhere to be found, the starting of the messing around the Tamar album, and finally the current situation: supposedly, Tamar and Prince parted ways, both Prince and Universal forgot about the promotion of 3121, and news about a forthcoming US and European tour in 2007 were recently released.

What is the message of all this? Well, in my opinion:

1. Contrary to the initial expectations generated by Musicology, Prince was unable to get a big hit on the grounds of a new album alone (although I still am convinced of its huge potential; but I am not the average music buyer, of course).
2. I don't want to go into personal stuff, but this time again, it has been demonstrated the lack of a good management team in the environment of Prince. Someone with the capacity to shake him when required and ask for a bigger promotional commitment, when so big plans were outlined with the full backing of a big records company.
3. The lack of a tour supporting 3121 is most probably very related to the failing of the album in the charts.


And what is the conclusion?
The clear message from the market (i.e., the actual people buying music, out there; not the loyal fans compulsively checking hq, the org or NPGMC every five minutes...) is something like that: "Hey Prince, we love your music, but we mostly love your old 80s music; you can release fucking great albums, but at this moment, if you don't allow me to enjoy your old hits, I just don't give a shit about any new album, even if it's very commercial as 3121".

So in my opinion, the people is loudly asking Prince to follow the Springsteen/Van Morrison etc model: forget about coolness, forget about being the last hype, forget about celebrities parties, forget about becoming the King of Business again (do you remember... "...cause I've been in the top / and it's just a dream". These words remain true today, Prince.)

Focus on what you do best: release personal, sincere, good albums (and forget about writing music on purpose to sell millions of trendy albums). Focus on live tours with first level musicians. It has always worked along your career. And most of all, when you are in difficult times, focus on your large, loyals fans community. Change your mind framework on them: they are sharing live, unofficial recordings from you, but they are not your enemies: they are buying pretty much everything you release officially, they are going to countless shows from you. So support them in a fair manner, not by using a self-massaging web site where all negative opinions (even the most logical, coherent, and positively intentioned ones) are deleted. You should support them because, in the end, they are supporting you, even in times when almost nobody else is doing so, do you remember the WB fighting times...?
[Edited 9/4/06 14:25pm]

Amen! Prince needs to be Prince. Create the art you were intended to create. And stop treating the fans like your enemy. We love you buddy....

brothaluv said:

i concur.

Some very good points here.

I agree that Prince just needs to do Prince. Those of us who get him, get him those who don't - don't. It's always been that way. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me Purple Rain was their favorite Prince album I'd probably be able to buy Prince's catalogue myself. There is no need for P to pander to those who don't get him. There is nothing for him to prove anymore. He's the greatest and anyone who hasn't figured that out by now isn't going to figure it out.

This hip hop and crack generation should certainly NOT be his target demo. I have yet to see any real musician have significant success with it. As long as he keeps releasing sincere, good music there will be people who buy it. It won't calcify at the top of the charts, but that should not be the motivation for creating great art anyway.

It's funny that the author mentioned Rave, because it is probably my least favorite Prince album. I remember being very disappointed when it was initially released. Yet, I am listening to it now and some of the Prince sans special guests songs are pretty good. I actually like Manowar, The Greatest Romance, I Love You but I Don't Trust You, Silly Game and The Sun Moon and Stars. So I guess the album wasn't as bad as I first thought. It's just that I can't stand these damn collaborations. That said, I am sooooo happy that he didn't go the Santana route and release collab after collab. Carlos lost me with those.

bellanoche said:

I Love U But I Dont Trust U was actually a collaboration as well, with Ani Defranco playing some guitar on it. I do agree that it's a great song though

I think for the last 6 years he has been testing several ideas regarding distribution. But not only HOW and with WHO, but also WHAT is being consumed.

I think he has proven that no matter how good or how sentimental the music is , that its become a very small piece of the cycle.

Enabling his last 2 "major release" CDs
to become "successfull" proves more. They didn't do well based on their musical merit (nor would they have). Clever marketing did.

So there is no "crossroad" for him, I think. Depending on what else he wants to
discover as far as the business, I hope his focus will in fact be towards the actual music itself.

bellanoche said:

I agree with you and Cateto from HQ's post. Thanks for sharing that with us skywalker.

origmnd said:

And that's it right there. That's why I laugh when people say his music doesn't sell because it sucks. Today that statement is pretty much a lie because there is music 50 times worse than anything Prince has put out in 5 years and it's at the top of the charts. Prince just needs to do Prince. All the success that he still wants to have will follow, even if it doesn't involve the charts.

I'm not disagreeing with this post, because it does make some valid points... However, I always find it funny how at any given time in Prince's career, people label him as being in some sort of "transitional period" or "at the crossroads" etc. You could say that about almost every Prince era (with the exception of maybe the Purple Rain era). He's always in a "transitional period" of some kind

Prince will always go back and forth between commercial albums and experimental/personal albums. No doubt once this whole Musicology/3121 era is over, he'll be back doing something different. And people will be saying "he's in a transitional period at the moment... he needs to get back to releasing commercial albums like Musicology and 3121!!"

What's funny to me is that people refer to Musicology and 3121 as commercial albums. Maybe it's me, but besides the mainstream distribution/promotion, I don't think these albums are all that commercial. Where do most of the tracks on them fit in the current musical landscape? Even at his most "commerical" I think that Prince is still Prince. Purple Rain was framed for commerical success, but the songs on that album were still unique compared to what was on the radio/charts at the time. I just think that the larger listening public was open to more musical diversity during that time.

With Musicology and 3121 many people on here dogged Prince's single choices. However, I think that his choices were in line with his past single choices, which are typically outside of the commerical mainstream. Just look at some of P's "official" single releases over the years and the time when they were released.

All that said, commercial success or not, transistion or crossroads, I am just happy when P shares new music with us. I am grateful that he is not content to live off of his legend. I appreciate that he still challenges himself to create compelling music for my listening pleasure.

I hope Prince will go the way that some other older artists did, who after a sort of musical 'midlife-crisis' bumped back creatively.

I mean look at:

Van Morrison: after some shallow, synthesized albums in the early eighties, he came back with an inspired masterpiece 'No Guru, No method no teacher', he did a great collaboration with the Chieftains on Irish heartbeat (some of the best singing ever put onto record), and alltough not all his 90' albums were great, there was some very good material to be found on several cd's.

Lou Reed: after a good start as a a solo artist (Berlin, transformer), he brought us very mediocre records in the eighties, till he came back in 1989 with his masterpiece New York, and afther that Songs for drella was another splendid record.

Tom Waits has been making music since the seventies, but he became a 'critical darling' when he was in his 40'ies allready with records like Swordfishtrombones and Bone Machine.

Bob Dylan: has had had lesser periods during the seventies and eighties, but put out some inspired records in the nineties again.

And look at other 'older' artists like Solomon Burke, Bonnie Rait and Lucinda Williams who enjoyed creative (and commercial) comebacks after being out of the spotlight for some time.

I mean, i think its quite 'normal' that musicians who have been busy for such a long time (30 years at least) do have 'lesser periods' and somehow seem to be able to find their 'muse' again, after some time. I think (i hope at least) that Prince does fit into this category.

Riverpoet31 said:

But who's to say that Prince is going through a "lesser" period. I prefer 3121 over NEWS. Hell, I prefer it over The Rainbow Children. Whatever new thing Prince is doing draws it's share of detractors. It's been that way since at least Around the World in a Day.
[Edited 9/4/06 20:27pm]

bellanoche said:

Well, by "radio" standards they're not commercial, but you can't deny that they are more "commercially accessible" than some of his recent concept albums, eg. The Rainbow Children, Xpectation, NEWS etc...

yes but what people forget is Musicology sold 1 million store bought copies and 3121 was offically certified gold in todays album sales market thats pretty good because sales are way down a good example is the lastest Bon Jovi album has been on the top 100 chart for almost a year now and its only sold just over 1 million so that shows you just how small sales are these days... and if you add to the fact nobody will play a new Prince single except for small market adult r&b stations how is a new Prince album supposed to maintain any momentum at all with nobody getting to hear a new song from the album...and lets not forget while these albums are pretty good they are NOTHING compared to Prince in his heyday 3121 and Musicology sound like they are from a Prince cover band if u put them side by side with his great work in the 80's ...

i dont believe the succes of an album is guaged by how many copies it sold.

i believe a successful album is one that contributes to shaping cultures in a positive way.

in simple terms : an 'evil' record with a dark menacing threatening violent message and sound that sells millions upon millions of copies...is not a successful album

but a 'good' record that speaks of love and peace and wisdom and sonically reflects the same vibe that sells only a few copies....IS a successful album.


successful music is not about sales. its about the function it serves. the softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest, no matter how strong the hardest thing is, or how big it is, or how small the softest thing is, so if only 3 people heard 3121, it has far greater effect on the psychological and spiritual shaping of society and culture than a gazillion copies of of some i-wanna-fuck-ur-mother-and-knife-out-her-eyeballs type record.


in my opinion, both Musicology and 3121 are raging successes based on musical philosophical spiritual political fact regarding how our universe, and world, really works.


i wouldnt recommend he keep his face in the public eye for too much longer though, in fact he could 'about-face' right now if he wants to be smart about things, because his public image, the make-up etc, and his somewhat sexually promiscuous aging facade, is cause for the kind of talk that makes an otherwise positive message and musical sound, go sour.


he might need to ask himself, "do i want to shape vain cultures. do i want to promote the idea that its OK for people to hide behind make-up and that fancy clothes matter? as a religious man, do i wish to continue 'upstaging-God' which might have been OK til now, but with everything that's happening in the world, would i b better off, and would the world b better off, if i just released faceless music on the internet, an album in the shops for those who want it, no videos with me in them, and no more live concerts? after-all, these r major points on the path to spiritual maturity, and if i want to shape a spiritually mature culture, then wouldnt it be better for me to give them a shining example of what that really means right down to the very last detail??"

IF he's not interested in shaping anything, or influencing anyone, or using his ability to affect which direction this world is heading in , in a positive healthy way, and he just wants to record music cuz he loves it, then thats OK too. But he'd need to be aware, that if he keeps doing it the way he's doing it ( which has been OK til now ) that he will get washed away with the cosmic tide rolling in that says " r. u. in. or. r. u. out " and he can go live his life in his excessive materialistic luxury, women and self-gratifying music til the day he dies and no one in the New World will even bat an eye, cuz as long as he keeps it to himself, he wont be doing anyone but himself any real harm.

IF he wants to work 'behind-the-scenes' as a writer/producer etc... for other artists, then i'd question why? and make that question be at the front of his mind before deciding to work with certain people. " why do i want to work with so-n-so? do they know themselves? is the fact they have a good heart enough? what r their intentions? do they understand what music is all about? is all they want, to get famous and sell lots of records and make lots of money regardless of anything else? what sort of things do they write about in their songs? more deluded mushy love songs we've heard over and over in some form or another? or do they have a particular way of putting it, that is new? r they spiritually conscious? do they have their own mind?"... because working with anyone who doesnt know themselves or what music is really all about and what its power truly iz, can pretty much guarantee an eventual waste of time and energy, except in the energy spent learning that very lesson AGAIN by repeating the same mistake...on other people's time.


whatever Prince does 'next', i hope for his sake and for all concerned, that it follows more closely, the spiritual, ethical, musical values that are sorely needed to contribute to shaping global culture in a healthy positive way, that does not support any form of Illusion, the types of illusions that hurt people on a psychological level they don't even know about. idol worship occurs when he presents himself as an idol. and even for the non-religious folk, at some point, it becomes a hazard to our collective mental health.



so its a headsup from me for both Musicology and 3121. but mayb time for him to about-face and get real serious about the work, stop serving two masters, humbly admit that music's power existed long before he did, and will continue to, and commit the rest of his life to serving Music alone in the highest way possible, instead of wanting others to serve him in every way possible as part of the deal.

We have to face facts. Prince will never be the commercial powerhouse he was in the mid 80s. NEVER!

The are various reasons for this,including (but not limited to):

1. He is 48 and no longer in touch with the majority of younger music buying population.

2. Every generation discards the popular culture of the previous generation in order to make something their own (hence our kids will hate what we loved and we hated what our parents loved).

3. All artists have a creative zenith (that sometimes also correlates to their commercial zenith, though not always). Prince had an amazing run of BOTH that covered approximately 10 albums in 11 years - 1982-1992*. If you look at the musical yardstick all artists tend to be measured by, The Beatles, then they had a comparitive 11 albums in 9 years - 1962-1970. If you look at the success (in terms of both commerical and creative) of the solo members of the Beatles, then their success actually fairly well mirrors that of Prince post-92. In other words EVERYONE eventually falls from the top because of points 1 & 2 above!

4. We should also not under-estimate the dramatically different world we live in today in comparison to the mid-80s. I was 14 when Purple Rain was released. My pocket money was usually spent on maybe two things = records and clothes. Kids today spend far more money on video games, mobile phones etc. In addition for many of the current young (supposed music buying) generation they also have a differnt method of music consumption - they download one song (singles) rather than absorbing whole albums. Basically the relationship with music has changed. Prince is not an easy/catchy singles artist and he is also some old bloke (to a 14 year old).

*I have not included the albums from 78-81 or 93-present as I am talking about combined commercial and creative success. The albums "Prince" "Dirty Mind" and "Controversy" actually sold less copies than "Musicology" so how do we argue which was more "successful"?

I for one simply enjoy the "Prince ride". I never know where he is going to take me next and I just hope he continues to surprise me. Even at his best there are still faults with his albums (dare I say that there are two tracks on SOTT that I always skip) so having a few gems on an overall average album these days is fine with me (although I would of course love all gems).

Personally I was disappointed Prince didn't tour behind 3121 as I think it had a chance, even today. I would have loved it if Prince could destroy my theory expressed above (although arugably using people like Santana as an example, all artists can have a one-off come back but it might possibly be down to nostalgia?)

Anyway, that's my two cents!
[Edited 9/5/06 7:00am]
[Edited 9/5/06 7:02am]

jaypotton said:

I agree. Although, I love my parent's music - Jazz, Motown, 70s Salsa and Soul...



I loved the album sans Tony M. Is that inlcuded in your 1992 cut off?



I agree with you. Although I was 9 when I saw Purple Rain. But yeah, my students think anyone over 25 is a grandparent. Considering that many of their grandparents are in their late 30s, maybe they are not that far off base.



Whenever he decides to tour I am happy, because I know I will be seeing my favorite artist tear the roof off of wherever I see him. All these years later, I still get sooooo excited when I have a Prince concert ticket in my hand

Good points, all. My two cents:

1. It's a ride. We're passengers. Our job is to either sit back and enjoy it, or get off.

2. Shufle the songs from Musicology and 3121 together sometime. That's 90+ minutes of great pop.

3. Right now, my 12-year-old son and his buddies are all into classic rcok (and have been for two years). I think it's because rock today sucks. Pop pretty much does too, and rap - ugh, not even music to this old man. Today's rock musicians cannot hold a candle to the rock stars of the 70's, mainly because they do NOT know how to write a hook, melody or solo. They just crunch chords and sing about how much life sucks. Rock is supposed to be about having fun, not figuring out the best way to kill yourself; therefore, Aerosmith is more popular than Nickelback, and Journey's tour sells more tickets than Coldplay's. Which leads me to:

4. If quality gets recycled, Prince and his music will be around for a very, very long time.

\

Face facts? How about the fact that Prince wasn't really a commercial powerhouse in the 80's. Except for Purple Rain, Batman, and 1999 Prince was never a huge seller. Look at the 1st year sales for albums like Dirty Mind, Parade, Sign O' The Times, and Lovesexy.

I'm extremely curious to see where he goes next... with 3121, I kinda figured it would be a poppier, tighter, and more radio-friendly cousin to Musicology - But after abandoning the 3121 project (and, for the record, I'm glad he did), I'm clueless as to what's coming next.

Ideally we'd get Roadhouse Garden or some experimental craziness, but who knows - Especially with a performance as high-profile as the superbowl next year.

skywalker said:

Skywalker I beg to differ. Even though we could all argue what constitutes being a "commercial powerhouse" I think if you discount the likes of "mega-sellers" like Michael Jackson or Mariah or Whitney (for example) then I would argue that Prince was without doubt a commercial powerhouse (when compared to perhaps the other 95% of artists at the time).

Using the figures found at http://www.prince.org/msg/7/189511 (which I admit may be a little generous but not actually far-fetched) then the 10 albums I refer to (1999 to ) had combined worldwide sales of 55,740,000. That gives each title average sales of 5,574,000. I would definitely call that pretty impressive commercially (the vast majority of artists never achieve that with even their best sellers).

If we are literally only talking about the "mid 80s" then assuming this period is 83-86 (80, 81, 82 being early 80s and 87, 88, 89 being late 80s) and assuming that the majority of the sales for 1999 came from 83 onwards (a bit of a cheat perhaps but the album was released on 27 October 1982) then the average sales for 4 albums = 8,673,750! Now THAT'S impressive don't you agree?

I would argue that it is a FACT that Prince was indeed a commercial powerhouse in the mid 80s. During that period every record label would have loved to have him on the books. In the mid 80s Prince (along with MJ and Madonna) was considered one of the biggest artists in the world. In the late 80s Mariah and Whitney were selling 20 million copies of albums etc but they are without doubt exceptional (in commerical terms).

All that said I do not long for Prince to regain that level of commercial success (nor will he ever do so). I would prefer Prince to concentrate on what makes him an "artist" as opposed to an "entertainer". As long as the albums keep coming then I will be happy with the odd gem and the frequent surprise!
[Edited 9/6/06 7:13am]

Now this is a good thread. Loved reading it....

brothaluv said:

yeah Skywalker u did ur thing with this one. this should be in Rolling Stone magazine. so evenly written you hit the nail on the head without sounding over critical or negative.

brothaluv said:

-----
What in the hell are all of you talking about. On 3121 he is being Prince.
The whole industry is suffering right now with low CD sales.

P is doing pretty good for a guy who can't get his music on the radio due to his age and managed to piss on most of the music industry a decade ago.