What if he done just that, 'put it another key'? How would Prince's career have evolved if he had pandered to the masses? All the decisions Prince makes with regard his career, as with most artists, are fascinating. Re-reading the period in 1987 when we had SOTT, could have had Camille and Black, and then end up with Lovesexy in 1988, the choices he made affected his career tremendously... arguably detrimentally, as he's been playing to falling audiences ever since; and, due to rap, has become less significant (arguably!).

How would we, as fans, view him if he'd continued down the PR path and had a string of REM/U2 style 'hit' albums that were vacuous musically, but stupendously successful?

I wonder...

i have no idea. i've noticed his intro's aren't always the best part of the song.. usually, wait until the last third of the song for the best bits.

The implication being, according to what Prince said on the release of ATWIAD and the cool response to it from the public and, to some degree, the press, that if he had opened the follow up to Purple Rain with a song that sounded similar to 'Let's Go Crazy', 'The Beautiful Ones' or, heaven forbid, 'Purple Rain' itself, he would have been heralded as a musical and popular genius and the success he was enjoying at the time would have continued.

BoySimon said:

I doubt it. Popular taste is VERY fickle. His massive Purple Rain audience would have moved on, albeit later, eventually. Look at Michael Jackson- Bad was pandering to the masses and MJ was unable to match Thriller in terms of commercial success/mass appeal. Purple Rain was the right album at the right time for Prince. Lightning never strikes twice. Prince's big commercial successes have always been diferent from one another.

Again, pop audiences are VERY fickle. No one stays the flavor of the moment forever. Not Elvis, Not The Beatles, Not Madonna, Not anyone. It would have been the same with Prince.

I am glad that he chose to do what he pleased and not pander entirely to the masses. For being a pop artist, Prince is quite challenging for mainstream taste. Look at his choice of singles. Prince is always challenging his audience with seemingly little care if the pop masses follow. Besides he was still heralded as a pop music genius anyways....
[Edited 9/16/06 22:07pm]

I'm glad he chose to do what he did too, don't get me wrong. What I'm suggesting is; how would we, who have following Prince throughout his career, view him if he HAD stayed on the bandwagon and wrote album after album that enjoyed the success of, say 'Bad', 'Dangerous' etc. Oh, Madonna not managed to stay flavour of the month? Really? She's whored herslef out specfically with that purpose in mind, and has been, by and large, successful. That's the sort of career I'm thinking about here... What would a world be like that had Prince pandering the way Madonna does and remainihg such a high-profile, high-success artist.

Oh my God! Come on, join in... at least make it appear interesting what Prince could have done with his life... YES, alright, I know he made it interesting anyway, but let's suppose he actually did try to recapture the success of PR with the follow up album.

Be honest:

Do you not understand OR do you not care?

Since we don't have the hypothetical album to judge, it's hard to say. Had he chosen to do more in the vein of PR his legacy may or may not have been helped by it.

You're question really presupposes that by releasing something similar to PR he would have released something musically vacuous. There's nothing to say that had he released something that was basically PR part 2 that it wouldn't have been musically brilliant.

So, if he had released something pandering and musically vacuous after PR, we might think less of him. If he'd released something pandering and musically brilliant we might think more.


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[Edited 9/17/06 9:37am]

Maybe he did... maybe the scream that starts ATWIAD is an artistic interpretation of the guitar solo at the end of Let's Go Crazy... well anyway if I recall correctly in the Rolling Stone interview of 1985 he mentioned something like that.

skywalker said:

I agree with you.