The top of the Prince music 1980-1988 ….a constant evolution… a max taking risk….a revolution in the sound ..... a permanent questioning ..... out-standard quality ..... 8 years of PURE HAPPINESS ..... the antithesis of the years 2003-2007 !


This is my point of view...what's yours?

love2thenines2003 said:

That one man's "call the law" is another man's "Lady Cab Driver". So what are you trying to say? That you have been let down for 4 years???
[Edited 8/23/07 7:58am]

love2thenines2003 said:

4get the vader, i agree with u!
63-70 the Beatles owned the music world, popular then creative to the max! -80-88 Prince owned the music world - creative beyond belief- they are quite simple the only 2 artists in the history of rock and roll who have completely OWNED a decade - nobody, i repeat NOBODY, owned their respective decades like those two acts did - they FUCKING RULED!
UN-FUCKING-TOUCHABLE!!!!
Those were two periods of creativity like nothing else - year after year after year for those 2 periods of time, those 2 acts were at their untouchable creative peak, completely changing the course of their respective decades musical landscape - the other acts around them simply bowed down and FUCKING APPRECIATED genius at it most volitile, creative best!!
(and i am in no way being negitive about what Prince is doing now, but....)
80's Prince musical landscape, truely a fucking stunning time to be alive and discovering music at its mind-blowing best

Not a bad act to be compared to really
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[Edited 8/23/07 9:30am]

Totally agree. I love the Prince album from 79 as well, but it was in 1980 that he first stuck two fingers up to small minded people everywhere. From then on it was just genius exploding before our eyes. I actually was too young to catch it at the time, but it's the albums and concert videos from those years I keep finding myself coming back to.
[Edited 8/23/07 10:12am]
[Edited 9/9/07 10:32am]

FlamingRaindrop said:

That's your opinion as a biased Prince fan. The didfference is there can be no reasonable argument saying that the Beatles didn't "own" the 60's. But there can be quite a few against Prince owning the 80's. I love Prince but his music doesn't make me feel the same way as the Beatles, they were true visionaries to me who let whatever came out come out. They released nearly everything they worked on that was worth anything. Prince was too calculating in my opinion to ever be compared to the Beatles. You can't plan out genius, and he tried to and that's why he should never be compared to the Beatles.

kdj997 said:

Completely, TOTALLY disagree: seriously, name me anyone else who OWNED the 80's (& don't embarrass yourself by saying Jacko or Madonna or any punk shit like that- they were simple POP stars: nothing else) he FUCKING OWNED a decade (and like Woodstock, if u weren't there, u have no fuckin' idea!)
I don't believe he sat around for ages and planned ATWIAD (legendary!) or Parade - that was just a pumped-up muthafucka at the peak of his musical Zenith who DRIPPED pure inspiration - and released what was coming forth - the result was equal to ANYTHING the fab 4 had to offer at their peak (4 of them!) and just like they did, musically he broke ALL boundaries (that's why some "purist funksters" don't understand this ground-breaking period)
MUTHAFUCKA was in a class of his own! DIG!!!

Beatles owned the '60's - Prince OWNED the '80's - NO (repeat NO) question!

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[Edited 8/23/07 12:02pm]

FlamingRaindrop said:

Dude.....you're a fucking genius.

dseann said:

Ahhhh, thank u very much...
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[Edited 8/23/07 12:01pm]

FlamingRaindrop said:

Prince is a pop star. I digress though, you can't compare Around the World in a Day or Parade to Abbey Road on any level. I don't think Prince "got music": and what it was to break creative boundaries the same way the beatles did. Just my opinion. There was always a forced (edit) wall (forgot to type wall) he put up stopping the creativity from being as pure as the Beatles. It's all a matter of opinion but the Beatles music to me is just on a higher level. Back to the point of Prince owning the decade, Sign O' the Times didn't sell all that well, it was critically acclaimed and I think it's pretty good but it didn't sell that well. As far as being the creative leader of the decade, in that sense I guess he did "own" the decade because I can't think of anyone in the 80's to make music consistently on the level Prince did. But you have to put that in perspective there was a lot more creativity going around in the 60's and the Beatles had more "competition" as sorts and they never fell off musically. I'm not saying Prince fell off but you can argue that his music became less accessible as he pushed his creativity further. At the same time the Beatles were the only act to figure out how to do both, they furthered their musical horizon while at the same time staying relevant and accessible to the masses. Absolutely amazing and the reason why you can compare no one to them. They just "got it" (understood it) more than any other artist in pop music history.
[Edited 8/23/07 12:07pm]

kdj997 said:

More like 1978-1984. As for the "contant evolution" and "risk taking", I'll take the big change and risk taking he did from 1979 to 1980 over the big change and risk taking he did from 1984 to 1985 any day.

In the Prince world, like skywalker said "One man's Call The Law is another man's Lady Cab Driver"
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[Edited 8/23/07 12:13pm]

To a lesser degree what musician did what Prince did from 79 to 89? No one. Prince was a juggernaut that just kept coming during that time getting better each and every album.

vainandy said:

I agree here, Prince to Dirty Mind is arguably the biggest or definitely one of the biggest changes in his sound.

My point of view is that the 80-88 era is the antithesis of the 93-00 era (with the exception of TGE, of course)

skywalker said:

You know I was gonna start a thread in the non-prince forum(cuz i'd get the biased fam opinion in here) asking how big Prince was in the 80's in terms of popularity. Everyone always says the big 3 him Mj and madonna, but outside of Purple Rain, since i wasn't born until 89, I've been wondering exactly just how was it Prince ruled the 80's with those low sales.....(again in terms of popularity/media/etc)

The only group nowadays that can even come close to being as funky as Prince is, is Jamiroquai. Since the 2000s, they have been making full albums of "Chelsea Rodgers" type stuff. A lot of their old fans from the 1990s don't like their 2000s stuff and call it "that disco shit". It wasn't till the 2000s that I started buying their music because I love "that disco shit". The org's own David Eye (presently Soul Alive) hipped me to them or I would have never known. I would have thought they were still doing that jazzy type stuff they did in the 1990s.

They haven't had near the success Prince has had lately. Of course, they don't have near as large a loyal following that Prince has though.

Prince started in 1978 with "Soft and Wet" on R&B radio. I don't how successful it is because I had never heard of Prince until 1979. I don't think it was very successful though because most of my friends (who had previously listened to R&B radio) had never heard of "Soft and Wet" until around the time I heard in 1981 during the "Controversy" era, when a local DJ did a Prince double play....Controversy/Soft and Wet. When I heard it, I started asking around and every one of them were clueless.

Prince had a moderate hit with "I Wanna Be Your Lover" during the disco era. Both pop and R&B fans were aware of this song because disco crossed all color lines. This is during the era when I first discovered Prince. After the death of disco, I switched over to R&B radio (the closest sounding thing to disco) and continued hearing Prince, and the pop crowd completely forgot about him and didn't play another one of his songs until 1982's "Little Red Corvette".

All throughout the "Dirty Mind", "Controversy", and the beginning of the "1999" eras, Prince was well known and loved exclusively on R&B radio only. After pop fans discovered "Little Red Corvette", mainly because of MTV, Prince had to go and re-release the first single "1999" which had been out for months, had already been a favorite of R&B fans, and the song had gone out of style on R&B radio which had moved on to "Lady Cab Driver"...a song that everyone had hoped would have been the second single, instead of "Little Red Corvette"....well, either "Lady Cab Driver" or "D.M.S.R.".....we used to have fights about which one we wanted to be the second single.

Throughout "Little Red Corvette" through the "Purple Rain" album and movie eras, Prince was well known in both the pop and R&B worlds. During the "Purple Rain" era he was huge.

After "Purple Rain", Prince changed his style and started exploring other types of music other than just his trademark funk/rock cold sound with a slow jam here and there. He got all psychodelic, started using orchestras, did a folk sounding song, started getting into jazz, started added horns and things to his funk....in other words, got all artsy/fartsy. A lot of the late 1980s consisted of fans buying a new Prince album, hoping Prince had returned to his old self like he was either during "Purple Rain" or the years before it, getting the album home, and finding out that artsy/fartsy Prince was still here. Prince picked up a lot of European fans during these years but lost a lot of American fans.

As for the big three being Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince, that would be in 1983 and 1984 only. After that, the big three was Michael Jackson, Madonna, and that motherfucking Shitney fuckin' ass Houston who came along to kill the funk.
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[Edited 8/23/07 15:12pm]

Prince ruled the 80's, he was by far the most influential. Other Pop & R&B artist wanted to sound like P. If he wasn't on the radio than 1 of proteges were or some1 else remaking or singing 1 of his compositions or just even sounding like him. Even now radio/the music industry feels his influence. And U all R comparing 1 man 2 the Fab 4 (and he's still holding his own).

[/quote]You know I was gonna start a thread in the non-prince forum(cuz i'd get the biased fam opinion in here) asking how big Prince was in the 80's in terms of popularity. Everyone always says the big 3 him Mj and madonna, but outside of Purple Rain, since i wasn't born until 89, I've been wondering exactly just how was it Prince ruled the 80's with those low sales.....(again in terms of popularity/media/etc)[/quote]


Prince ruled with what they now call "Street Cred" nowmatter who you asked then, whether they liked Prince or hated him, eveybody knew he was badass.

There wasnt any "Pop" act that could come close to his talent and most "pop" acts payed their respect and bowed down to him with respect.

As Most old school prince fans know, back then as kids we had to search out talent like prince, no internet and local radio stations didnt play him, at least where i grew up. There were no alternative music stations either.

People take take him and his 80's work for granted now like he has been as visible as he was after purple rain.
Same goes for early 80's U2 which i also love, which didnt get much airplay either

Believe me all the music I collected as a kid including Prince was not played on popular radio and TV comericaials as it is now.
[Edited 8/23/07 18:03pm]
[Edited 8/23/07 18:06pm]

love2thenines2003 said:

prince was at his peak in the 80's. I only like his work from the late 70's through the early 90's, and don't care much for the rest aside from a few songs here and there.

dseann said:

"Sign "O" The Times" went platinum in '87. What do you mean it didn't sell all that well?

love2thenines2003 said:

In the U.S. Van Halen reigned supreme from 1978 through 1984. From 1984 onward, all bow down before Prince! 1984 was that pivotal transition year where the two did serious battle, but only one could prevail. Van Halen crumbled. Prince, however, shot up to the stratosphere, relentlessly and mercilessly crushing all potential competition underfoot!!!

Creatively, Prince was at his peak in the 80s. That was an amazing time to be a fan. I'm glad I got to experience it when it happened. He was unstoppable, and these albums will be his defining achievements.

• Dirty Mind (1980)
• Controversy (1981)
• 1999 (1982)
• Purple Rain (1984)
• ATWIAD (1985)
• Parade (1986)
• SOTT (1987)
• Lovesexy (1988)

HOWEVER, the claim of "owning" a decade . . . sadly, I think that would be the one with the most sales.

edit
[Edited 9/9/07 10:31am]

Se7en said:

The 80's were an amazing decade, I can't deny that. But 4 Prince, he's done nothing like his 80's work since. But there's just a certain charm about the 80's that it's hard to stay away from them sometimes.

I own 6/8 of these and I've heard the first 5. He just kept getting better and better. Although one might argue that he degraded a little with ATWIAD. It's not a WOW record, but it still continued to go onto new territory and it proved that he isn't typecast to one type of music, he branched out here.

1999 & PR are among my favorite albums and there's just something amazing about them that he hasn't been to top, I don't think since... not that Come & TGE aren't amazing in their own way, though.

love2thenines2003 said:

Yeah...have to agree...Not to mention all the other material he was doing for other artists, more like a few albums a year... He's accomplished a lot since then as well. Even listening to the unreleased studio outtakes there was a drop in quality in the early 90's imo as far as creativity, incorporating the new drum loop syndrome of hip hop. Understand he was trying to adapt to the new sound as well.

people miss out batman too much.

I would say 1993-2001 was the lean period. Things picked up after The Rainbow Children (except for NEWS)

FlamingRaindrop said: