NWF said:

Uhm... yes it is

Thank you.

Down here in Jackson, Mississippi, we had three black stations back in the day....WJMI, WOKJ, and WKXI. All three stations were absolutely jamming back then and WJMI and WKXI were rivals so that made for some great radio.

sad that there doesn't seem to be any UK input here..So I'll add my bit on behalf of the UKorgers lol

I was a club DJ in late 79 and though to mid 80s and was lucky enough to get 12" promos of most of the singles. " Wanna b lover" and "Sexy D " always filled the "disco" dance floor..but most noticably a little later on ( as said somewhere above) it was the "new romantic /electro" scene that really went for his sound Uptown / Dirty mind .
It was that crowd really that I remember being at the Lyceum Show ( london 1981) and most of the music papers of the time (NME/MM) were pushing that view too.

By the time of the Dominion Theatre (London cancelled) show he was really Big on the "New Romo" dance floor . lets pretend we're married was a (import) single , purple and white frills were worn by everyone..even when "Doves" was realeased he was still mainly an "indie/underground" act..it was only the movies release (PR) and then the media hysteria that followed that finally got him the mainstream /crossover audience here in the uk...though I will also agree as stated elsewhere above "ATWIAD" did baffle a lot of them a year later..!
the rest as they say is history..!

Gx

It's great to see how he was known overseas back then. I knew that he was heard of over there because imports were made but I always wondered how popular he was.

It's strange how two countries across an ocean can be so entirely different in some ways and exactly the same in other ways.
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[Edited 10/4/07 1:50am]

Another thing I had forgotten to mention was his early musical influence on the UK "indie/alt" scene ..even back then (1980) alternative artists were covering his songs.. Bette Bright (Deaf School) covered "when you were mine"
and there was another cover of "broken heart " but I can't quite recall who did that.

Gx

My first memory of Prince was in 1981; there was an article about Dirty Mind in a Time International magazine...

He was very notorious at the time for his themes; which may not seem like such a big deal today, given the prevalence of rap music.

I was like whoa - at the time.

The fact that Prince was only accepted by the white audience b4 83 is totally false

Im too young to remember what was happening b4 83 but my mom said Prince

came to our home town (which has a large percentage of black people) back in

1978 during the For You album and she told me everyone loved him and was amazed

at how big his fro was !!! He was and still is respected here

I lived in Australia in 1982 and Controversy was being played on the radio there! He was well known before 1999, its just that he wasnt commercial yet. Prior to Dirty Mind, he was only known in the States.

Prince had been in the game for 5 years at that point and had already become the staple of music in my household and most of the people that I knew. Chicago radio was playing Prince aound the clock. Hope that helps.

White folks came on board after the 'Little Red Corvette' started getting airplay.There were a minority at shows before that, but he was an r-n-b superstar first. His music always had some rock and folk elements from the beginning. It just came to the play a larger role in his sound later on. He definitely knew that he didn't want to be pigeonholed in one genre of music. After the release of 'Dirty Mind', he was the critics darling and they wrote of his potential to be one of the greats. Guess they were right!

laurarichardson said:

Very true. Dirty Mind and Controversy were HUGE albums in Detroit--played at all the clubs and college parties I went to.

gazzlornie said:

I'm sure the UK kinda picked up on him too since P was influenced by the New Wave/New Romantic scene at that time. Visage, Adam Ant, and Gary Numan were pretty influential on Prince himself.

sunlite said:

Oh, so I guess he wasn't just this totally underground cat that only a few people dug. Interesting.

laurarichardson said:

I agree with you.The Black community went wild over Prince from the beginning.I was there in Detroit for that concert.His music in the beginning was much more funk than rock,something the Black community,old and young,could get with.I was one of the old ones(59 now)

What amazes me is that in 1978, Prince was twenty. Prince was learning the guitar long before that....at least 5 years.....So when Prince is twenty-five, In 83' when 1999 came out....and the mtv video's were added...Communications were beginning to grow at that time...So I just look at this question, as to, Prince's growth between fifteen years old, and twenty-five....Good job Prince.

To add, I grew up with Prince on the radio, so it was with Radio stations, airplay that he got heard...He still would of been a damn good musician all alone in his basement, without recording a thing...We should be thankful that we were alive at a time there's been radio....A shout out for the early Telephone pioneers....
[Edited 10/5/07 17:02pm]