Just a personal opinion but during the PARADE/SIGN O THE TIMES period, especially, it was extremely cool to be say you liked Prince - he was cool, progressive, weird, second to none musically. Personally, I think today is the nadir of Prince coolness. His albums are so middle of the road, it hurts.

Also, is it me or is everyone commending him over his savvy business skills and distribution of PLANET EARTH while precious few commend the music? It used to be exactly the other way around.

Maybe he should run a record label...

Yes, I remember it very well. It was anytime before 1985. There was the Prince crowd and then there was the Rick James crowd. It was almost like two street gangs because fans from each side were ready to physically fight during musical discussions. I loved both artists.

Ah, yes -- I remember that five minutes like it was yesterday. Good times.

Oh no it wasn't! People had an absolute field day making fun of the "Parade" album. By the time "Sign O The Times" came out, a lot of people had dropped him.

pald1 said:

You don't think it's cool 2 like Prince today?

[/quote]

You don't think it's cool 2 like Prince today?
[/quote]

I second that!!!

vainandy said:

Hmmm I kinda rem a 3rd gang (crowd) too..Michael Jackson. I loved all 3!! But I had to choose. Prince IS my man..4-evr and always!! I dropped Michael after he bleached and tortured his skin. Rick pissed me off after his dislike for Prince.
[Edited 7/27/07 12:08pm]

my friend how old are you-ive been a prince fan since 84-cool to like prince? probably only in the last 3 years when he s been getting INSANE love.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?

i cant even be bothered

Where I lived growing up it was NEVER cool to admit you liked Prince unless you were female. The only possible exception for a guy to admit it was if it was going to help him get laid....otherwise you would most certainly get your ass kicked.

.....

I'd say it was the "coolest" NOW to like Prince than it has been for about 20 years. Everybody's jumping on the band wagon and pretending they know more songs than just Cream and Little Red Corvette.

My favorite Prince era is during the early 80s when Rick was constantly badmouthing Prince. It just brought so much great music from both of them. Prince would piss Rick off with Vanity 6, then Rick would turn around and put out The Mary Jane Girls. All during that time Prince had The Time throwing down and Rick had The Stone City Band getting off.

Every time Rick or Prince themselves put an album out, you knew it was going to be strong, hard, and funky because they were trying to outdo each other and constantly pissing each other off.

I never saw folks feuding over Prince and Michael until the pop crowd discovered Prince for the first time in 1982 and Michael was riding high with "Thriller". On the R&B side though, there was still a lot of Rick's "Throwin' Down" album vs. Prince's "1999" album going around at the time, as well as Vanity 6 vs. The Mary Jane Girls.

The majority of Prince fans I knew growing up were males because Prince's music was so hard. Most of the females I knew mostly liked the slow jams such as "Do Me, Baby" or "Still Waiting". The guys were into the hard stuff like "Let's Work", "Lady Cab Driver", "Controversy", etc.

jonylawson said:

You quite obviously haven't heard PLANET EARTH yet..

vainandy said:

I hate to disagree with you on this but I was actually one of the females that LOVED the songs "Little Red Corvette","Lady Cab Driver" and the other hard stuff that Prince had out. The slow stuff wasnt really my thing. And I was about 14 at the time!

We're around the same age. There were always cool girls but there were also those who had whole record collections of nothing but slow stuff.

I was the only one in high school who loved Prince in the '80s (most of my classmates love the New Wave groups-- The Cure, Depeche Mode, TFF, Spandau Ballet).

I got made fun of so much for "openly" liking Prince in middle school. "Prince is gay" "Prince is wierd" "Are you gay?" In highschool, I was no longer personally attacked, but it certainly didn't garner me any "cool" points -- he was seen as a freak and a wierdo with lame music. In College, it got a little cooler to like Prince simply because NO ONE ELSE DID, and non-conformity started becoming "cool." People still thought it a bit odd though. Finally, in law school, in 2004, it suddently became hip to like Prince. Suddenly prince was universally recognized as a musical genius by my peers and others started saying, "yea he's really amazing" - the most negative comments became "I don't personally like his music, but no one can deny he is a genius." I attribute that mostly to the number of mainstream artists (alicia keyes and outkast among others) who started supporting him and wanting to play with him and openly discussing their adoration of him.

I think i was the only P. fan in my school at the time (mid to late 80s..what a great time to be a fan..) I couldnt give a toss whether other people didnt lilke him or not.. what mattered was i did..

However i remember giving a friend of mine Sig o the times on vinyl because he knew i was a fan. He was a big R.E.M fan at the time as i was , but he was an absolute nut for them!

Anyway, he absolutely loved it.. with the exception of Slow Love..i remember him saying that the Ballad of Dorothy Parker was absolutley incredible!

Fast forward a year or two and he had everything from Dirty Mind to Lovesexy...

I Remember meeting up with him for a few beers years later; when Chaos and Disorder came out...the ensuing postmortem etc..(by that time i'd fallen of the purple cadilac somewhat)...He'd really gotten the bug..you understand....

Selected qoute from a blurry booze filled haze from my indoctrinee..."Jesus, the man is so fuckin cool ..whats goin on..

Anyway he's cool to love again...and thats how it should be. Sure wasn't he always cool!

vainandy said:

Yuk at the slow stuff:lol:

You remember the radio edited version of "Little Red Corvette" right? They would totally cut out the heavy breathing part(at least in my area), which I thought was funny as hell! Sad thing is that, it was too late for those who had the tape AND knew the words by heart!

Im going to be 34 next month! So were prolly around the same age!

skywalker said:

Did u go to St.Paul Central? That is where I went..I think I was the only girl that liked Prince. LOL

well i wasn't old enough when it was cool to like prince (mid-late 80s, and i was born late 80s). ppl always think i'm weird for liking him but that only makes me more defensive.
[Edited 7/27/07 17:22pm]

>>> you will still get your assed kicked in most countries for admitting that you like Prince....ill never say i do in public ...its still to dangerous...hes just gonna have to get in line like the Gays did ...maybe we will have a law one day to protect us for liking Prince in public ...until then ...i would keep a low profile...

To me it was always cool to like PRINCE, at times i had to convince people what they were missing. People that only knew him for 1999 and Purple Rain, I was showing them Chaos and Disorder and things like that. Some say the mid 90's were rough because of the name change and all that, but i laugh at that now, because everyone and their mother is trying to own masters and get their own deal, so the guy that people thought was crazy and uncool was a pioneer so to speak. I have never really cared what other people think of the people i like.

vainandy said:

Wasn't this a fun time in music! I loved them both!!! When Rick James was in his prime, he kicked ASS in concert!!! Well, really the Stone City Band. Have you checked out Rick James Live in Long Beach? This brings back soooo many memories! I never noticed it being not cool to like Prince because in my click of friends artists like Prince, The Time, Rick James, Cameo, Gap Band, Confunkshun etc all help to create the sound track to my childhood! It was ALWYS cool for me to like Prince!

Once again I have to agree with VainAndy! The coolest time to like Prince was pre-PurpleRain! If you dug Prince back then...you were definitely "outside the box"! Which made you cool just because Prince was so good at being bad.

When the masses took notice thanks to "Purple Rain", liking Prince was the "it" thing to do. Then we had "ATWIAD" and the "it" factor was gone. It then became a matter of hard core fans versus the everybody else and the cool was gone.

2004 brought on a return of the "it" factor but we've yet to see a reemergence of the cool!

Most of the people at my school didn't really like him until Purple Rain. Plus, I'll never ever forget right after he was on American Music Awards in 1985 and performed Purple Rain...that was all everyone talked about for weeks!!
So, yeah around 84/85 it was for sure cool to like Prince. Around Parade or so, not too many cared for about him anymore.

I think liking Prince makes anyone cool by default because a person who likes Prince has an appreciation for talent and real music. A Prince fan is not someone who sits in front of the tv all day, is not someone who tries to like what others like in order to be cool. Most people are annoying and concerned too much with what others think and put too much emphasis on looks (especially brain dead females and athletic prep guys).I think people who like popular stuff are stupid, so I guess I believe most people are stupid and annoying. I also hold anyone outside the status quo in very high regard.

Nope.

xcuse me, it's always cool to like Prince. great music = timeless.