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Prince, and the Art of Career Suicide
By Jason Hartley Friday, June 03, 2011
This week in Advancement, Jason Hartley discusses a Prince, and the rarified art of career suicide.
If you know about the Advanced Genius Theory you are probably aware of what it takes to be Advanced, and Prince meets the requirements pretty much across the board:
• He has been great for more than 15 years, embraced religion, turned his back on his early music, became irrelevant, had a comeback, embraced rock’n'roll, worn black leather, sported dark sunglasses, and had long hair in the back in an unironic mullet
Okay, we all know the brilliant/kooky things he’s done. But the question I kept asking myself while reading a new book about Prince is whether his odd decisions, especially the ones that seemed “bad” for his career, are the reason we still care about him. Is it possible that committing career suicide in a spectacular way has a similar effect to actually dying, which makes you seem more important in retrospect? I think so.
Let’s look at Elvis Presley. He committed career suicide more often than Bud Cort in Harold and Maude, yet his legend only grew stronger with each new attempt. (I guess his fans were like Sunshine Doré.) This is perhaps by design. Advanced Geniuses like Elvis (or was it Colonel Tom Parker?), Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Madonna, and Prince seem to have an innate understanding of when to appear and re-appear, when to change looks and sounds, when to antagonize their fans, and when to show them love, plus they know how to manipulate the media to maximize the duration of their relevance and the size of their myth.
Coming back to the Prince biography, the author states that he is not interested in delving into the mind of Prince, favoring the approach of merely telling us what happened. Yet he cannot refrain from characterizing records as disappointments or successes. However, what constitutes a success shifts throughout the book. The author is either appreciative or dismissive of Prince’s willingness to experiment in different styles of music.
Sometimes the “return to form” albums are bad because they are like the old Prince, while sometimes they are good for the same reason. An artist as successful and innovative as Prince will always be doubted by his fans and critics no matter what he does. Given this, he might as well do whatever he wants. I’m beginning to think that there is some calculation to the actions that seem to be purely self-indulgent.
Perhaps the Advanced Genius understands what fans want better than they do themselves, so while their initial reaction to, say, being sued by the artist they have devoted their lives to following may be negative, the bond they have with that artist is actually being strengthened. It’s kind of like when you love someone who is mean or indifferent to you: there’s just something about someone not caring about you that makes them attractive. And, of course, if they aren’t available, that’s even more attractive.
So by doing crazy stuff, the Advanced get the benefits of being dead and attractively indifferent, but there is another (related) benefit: we are all convinced that they could have achieved so much more had they only made “better” decisions. Just as we think of all the great music Buddy Holly would have made had he lived or how fantastic it would have been to make love to that beautiful girl in comp lit who only talked to you when she needed your notes, we imagine that an Advanced Artist would have made music even more brilliant that their best work, if only they had focused. Then that imagined accomplishment becomes our true measure of the artist’s greatness, and because the accomplishment exists only in our minds, it is perfect. In a perverse way, the Advanced Artist seems greater by not meeting fans’ expectations. And at the rate that Prince has disappointed us in the last 20 years or so, he could end up being seen as maybe the greatest musician who ever lived.
I hope to interview Jason Draper, the author of the Prince book, so look for that in the coming weeks.
For more on Advancement, check out Jason’s book The Advanced Genius Theory. Change it one more time.. | |
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I think sometimes Prince makes artistic decisions over business decisions. I think people can't see past themselves to see that is what Prince does a lot of the time. Perhaps money isn't always the driving factor, not to say that it isn't at times. 99.9% of everything I say is strictly for my own entertainment | |
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Interesting theory about Prince and his fans...we like him because he dismisses us!
Hmmm.... | |
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Would u prefer trying 2 please every one.........ala Michael Jackson? | |
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'Jason Draper, and the Art of Career Suicide'
He wrote a book in 2011 that now in 2011 I use to balance the legs on my dining room table.
When  go 2 a Prince concert or related event it's all  up in the house but when log onto this site and the miasma of bitchiness is completely overwhelming! | |
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Part of the wonderful thing about Prince is the "mad scientist" aspect of him. The part that doesn't follow the formula, the part that does things his own way, the part that takes risks regardless of the potential rewards.
"New Power slide...." |
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kewlschool said: I think sometimes Prince makes artistic decisions over business decisions. I think people can't see past themselves to see that is what Prince does a lot of the time. Perhaps money isn't always the driving factor, not to say that it isn't at times. I think it's actually the cocoon he puts himself in and a belief that he can put anything out and it'll be greatly recieved like beggars after crumbs...for a proportion of Prince FAMS this is true but for those who are perhaps not wearing the Rose coloured glasses they can distinguish between the 'genius' years where Prince was ahead if the game, had clever lyrics, different messages and a multilayered feel to his songs and the period, in my opinion, that has lasted pretty much since NPS where it's feels like he's just saying "that'll do...ship it" with a few exceptions. Think about it - back in the 90s we had Cream telling us how great he thought he was as an artist....now virtually everyother song is him saying how indespensible he is (Old Skool Company, Feel Better,Laydown) or how hes somehow hard done by or his beliefs are correct. It's not to everyone's taste but to me Money Don't Matter Vs Act of God illustrates what I mean - genuine political commentary Vs misguided band-wagon jumping littered with errors and comparisons with poor folks | |
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I wish I could kill my career as well as Prince! My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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Me 2. | |
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Graycap23 said:
Me 2. It's easy - whatever you do,just spent 20 years getting it right then go in the opposite direction whilst making yourself a laughing stock to people outside your fanbase by claiming you are treated like a slave. Then disappear for a few years but come back in an arrogant blaze of glory claiming " I've got too many hits" and wonder why you aren't taken as seriously as you'd like. Career dented | |
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Peace ... & Stay Funky ...
~* The only love there is, is the love "we" make *~ www.facebook.com/purplefunklover |
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moderator
... I always trip on what these so called writers writing this and that. I skimmed over this article becuz I was not feelin' the name of the article. Bottom, we like what we like and I have never felt 'dismissed' by Prince. He makes a product, I buy so said product. It works !!!Todd Rundgren did a lot of that stuff first.
[Edited 6/5/11 16:03pm] "The first time I saw the cover of Dirty Mind in the early 80s I thought, 'Is this some drag queen ripping on Freddie Prinze?'" - Some guy on The Gear Page | |
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If you really want to kill your career, better to follow Sinead O'Connor or TTD's examples My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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And did it on purpose too. Every album he put out after Something/Anything? was a "kiss my ass" to his label at the time (Bearsville). | |
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Ahhhhhhh follow the madness! | |
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No. Been there done that. The 90's | |
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How can anyone who started there journey in music as a child in the early 70's and who in 2011 is still a well paid artist doing tours be classified as committing career suicide?
If you want to talk about career suicide then look up D'Angelo! Prince is doing fine. When go 2 a Prince concert or related event it's all up in the house but when log onto this site and the miasma of bitchiness is completely overwhelming! | |
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Perhaps...it depends what your defenition of career suicide is.
I always consider soemthing tragic and end-of-the-line about those stars who dont cut the mustard on CD and just setup shop in vegas playing thier hits for the purse.
Its seems thats what Prince is doing except not sticking to Vegas | |
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Remember the guy who wanted to have a tour that stated "the last time he will play the hits"?
Well, now look at what he is doing to survive.............playing the hits.
He throws in covers just so he doesn't get bored.
His new music..... nobody even knows how to get.
Yeah, he is free............but is he really "free"?
Prince - not black, not white........just COOL | |
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I wonder if the author thinks that the Grateful Dead commited career suicide. My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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The word suicide implies that something died. What exactly is dead about Prince? He still releases new music, still tours, does the occasional television appearance and make money hand over fist and dates beautiful women. That's exactly what he was doing back in 1984. Not liking his current output hardly qualifies him for the 'suicide' label being mentioned. For example, I haven't liked anything from U2 since Joshua Tree but their status is still intact without me liking their current stuff. When go 2 a Prince concert or related event it's all up in the house but when log onto this site and the miasma of bitchiness is completely overwhelming! | |
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Probably not. | |
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"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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How could someone commit "career suicide" and be in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame? Anyone who follows that same,tired,ass Alex Hahn theme will be laughed at because there are a handful of people that did what Prince has done in his career. Dumb ass tabloid journalism. |
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I think what this is about is because of the lows we appreciate the highs so much more. If something was generically mundane and formulaic and perfect all the time we would get bored. Shut up already, damn. | |
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No. I would prefer the "trying 2 please" someone.
In another note: Jesus Christ, these weirdos who write in Princebonics should be flamed to death. And given to sharks. | |
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Thing is Prince never committed career suicide, like Neil Young, like Todd Rundgren, etc., he just did what he wanted to do, yeah it was risky because he was in a major label but at the same time, it didn't hurt his reputation. | |
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So basically, the author is saying......
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^ No in the words of James Brown, he's talking loud and saying nothing. | |
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