well she likes him now!

I know someone online, who I met on this site, who wasnt even born when Purple Rain came out, in fact he is just 21 and hes a HUGE Prince freak, has everything Prince has ever done commercially and is a huge bootleg collector and has posters, books, magazine and newspaper articles, fanzines, u name it, and he is considered a bit eccentric by his freinds, as he totally detests the music of today!! And yet, I know people of my age group(50s), where its completely vise versa!! They prefer Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, etc. and just cannot stand Prince!!!

As they say, its whatever floats your boat!!

In my case, I live in the UK and whenever I say to people that I am a huge Prince fan, they always ask me "Is he that one who released that CD through The Daily Mirror??". Then I have to explain to them why Prince did that and then they say to me, "Well, his music cant be any good anymore if it doesnt sell in the shops"!!

Prince seems to enjoy an International presence with only the 30+ crowd in Europe and the Americas.

Nobody in Asian that I've spoken to has a clue who he is.

With the increasing globalization of musical influences, it's strange to see

his reach diminishing.

y'all into prince????..........................weirdos!!!!

A friend of mine refuses to even like Prince 'cause he thinks Prince copies Bowie.

That drives me nuts...

MissRuby said:

Oh this drives me insane. I'm 26 and I have a 23 year old friend who is beyond clueless. Over the years she has said flat out she hasn't heard of the following artists; Prince, Queen, Led Zepplin, Rollingstones, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, The Doors, U2, Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Monkees (maybe ill give her that) and the list goes on and on and on. Oh yeah and until he died, even MJ. I think people should learn to appreciate the "classics". All music now days is heavily influenced by music from previous generations and most of the time it's poor imitations of amazing music that alot of Gen Y have never had the pleasure to hear.

In the early 80s, when I was in my early 20s I had a couple of freinds(who were actually sisters) like that who were the same age as me, who were so not of this world that they hadnt even heard of The Beatles, The Stones, Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks(who was huge at the time as a solo artist and with the band), Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queen, Michael Jackson, u name it!! I cant list Prince as he was hardly well known in the UK at the time, but you get my drift!! In fact, I remember when I looked through their album collection once, back then, it was full of classical music and opera!!! They even dressed in very femine, beautiful, pre-Raphealite pristine clothes, with gorgeous Bohemian hair!! They both looked as though they had come straight out of paintings!!

Thank God we all went our seperate ways!!!

[Edited 1/30/12 3:42am]

Mathiwn3 said:

MissRuby said:

Mathiwn3 said:

A friend of mine refuses to even like Prince 'cause he thinks Prince copies Bowie.

That drives me nuts...

Bowie?? Really? I'm think I'm going have to dig old Ziggy out of my collection and try to figure that one out.

prince and bowie are my 2 favourite artists, thats bamboozled me too!!

controversy99 said:

fusk said:

haha, it's funny that this stuff is shocking/offensive to some of you because I've routinely had to explain who Prince is. I don't expect anyone under 30 to know Prince at all. If I'm lucky I'll get a response like, 'Oh, doesn't he have the song about the kiss? Is it called Kisses?'

It's really hard to say why this is, though.

Someone like Madonna shows up in James Bond films and kisses Britney Spears. George Michael gets covered by Limp Bizkit. Elton John shows up on The Simpsons, lets William Shatner do a spoken word Rocketman, etc etc. These are things that introduce old acts to younger people. "But Prince does that stuff too!" you might say. Sure, but for some reason it doesn't work!

-Prince played at the superbowl, on Leno, Lopez Tonight, Ellen, Oprah (I think, anyway)...

-There are tons of 'secret' prince jokes floating around in pop culture (the simpsons, family guy, mortal kombat, those brad neeley cartoons)

-Tons of musicians talk him up like crazy (dave grohl, for example).

-And Limp Bizkit covered 1999 (it's really shitty, even for limp bizkit. Don't go looking for it unless you want to get angry)

i'm sure there are more examples. You'd think that with all these shout-outs in pop culture, people would at least know the name.

But no. Typical conversation:
'Oh so I'm going to see Prince soon'
'Who's Prince?'
'He did 1999'
'what's 1999?'
'It's the song with the line, "tonight we're gonna party like its 1999."'

'I don't recognize it.'
'People make jokes about it... y'know Weird Al's Amish Paradise?'
'Nope.'
'... y'know that joke on family guy with the caveman version of peter saying, "tonight we're gonna party like it's 9?"'
'Nope.'
'...'

who are these people that you're talking to? i gotta figure if you're over 21 you should know who prince is. i mean the superbowl, the grammys with beyonce, musicology, etc. all happened after today's 21 year old turned 13.

i've been shocked recently by people who don't know who morris day is. after hearing this, i realize that my expectations are way too high.

Haha, dude, there's NO chance of anyone knowing Morris Day. At least here in Toronto. Maybe it's different in the States.

Anyway. admittedly the people I talk to maybe aren't the people who are expected to know Prince. The one who I had the conversation about 1999 with was a math geek who literally spent her spare time as a kid teaching herself matrix multiplication for fun. She's not the kind of geek that has the fetish for music knowledge.

Not many people I know watch the superbowl (I bet less people care about the superbowl in Canada - I only know one person who saw and remembers that halftime show. I didn't even see it.)

I don't know any Beyonce fans. I never watch the grammys and I don't know anyone who does.

I DID see Prince play Cinnamon Girl on one of those late shows, so that must have been around 2004, so I was... 16 or so at the time. It was a total fluke and nobody else I knew saw it. And it generated very little interest from me (but a minute amount of interest nonetheless!) so I didn't do any word of mouth promotion at school.

I dunno, that's just my experience.

[Edited 1/30/12 9:44am]

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

I'm 24, so of course I know the people I talk to don't represent ALL young people, because I'm a counter-example. I'm just talking about the typical experience I have when I mention Prince. The response is more along the lines of, 'who is that guy again? Is he the Purple Haze-no, Rain guy?' rather than immediate recognition.

And I am used to it. I think it's funny that people aren't used to it.

and in terms of being aware of certain musicians, age DOES matter a lot - certainly if you're one of the maaaaaany people who doesn't actively search for new music. The stuff you hear as a teenager sticks with you for a looooong time. And a teenager has a few sources of music - the largest being the radio/tv/whatever the current pop is. Sure anyone can get into Prince at any time, but if I'm the type of person who its going to dig through music's past, what are the odds I'm going to get into Prince and not any one of the other gods of the music history pantheon? The point is that teenagers in the 80s have a much higher chance of knowing Prince than teenagers today (obviously).

Of course Prince's music can be appreciated by anyone, though.

lust said:

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

Touché. Nicely put. Many of my peers in their late 30s are very ignorant to prince. It's wether you appreciate real musical talent or not and sadly most people don't give a shit. Age is not an issue. But having said that, younger peole like yourself who recognize and enjoy princes talents deserve recognition and respect as you have found him despite your own eras pop culture having moved on. It was easier for us as prince was relevant to the masses when we got hooked.

Where's that skywalker guy to call out this blatant snobbery!?

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

I was going to say. I've noticed alot of young fans here and at the Welcome 2 America concerts I attended.

jonylawson said:

so she asks what music im into

"Prince amongst others"

"who?"

you are fucking kidding..i think"Prince"

"Oh did he do that purple...erm that song years ago"

Sometimes you just come crashing down to earth!

Another one of my pet hates is "What he is still around??? I havent heard anything since the 80's"

I would be like still around and still Jammin for anybody that really know!

lust said:

jonylawson said:

so she asks what music im into

"Prince amongst others"

"who?"

you are fucking kidding..i think"Prince"

"Oh did he do that purple...erm that song years ago"

Sometimes you just come crashing down to earth!

Another one of my pet hates is "What he is still around??? I havent heard anything since the 80's"

A similar thing happened to me last night at a party but with a 30 year old. She said "prince? And you admit that?". So I poured my drink over her. Well I wanted to.

I'd be like bytch what do u play and how much money u got!

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

If people in their twenties don't know Prince's music, it is partly his own fault:

* He has no website

* He pulls fan videos of his performances off YouTube

* His live shows are generally expensive (with the LA 21 nights being an exception). Many people their twenties can't afford to go.

These three things reduce Prince's appeal to younger fans. Of course, young musicians still know who Prince is, but a lot of other young people don't. If Prince wants to stay relevant, he should: put together a good website (see David Bowie's as an example), stop pulling fan videos off YouTube - especially when it is something he couldn't sell anyway (ex: a baby singing to one of his songs), and lower the ticket prices to his live shows.

Hey, I'm 23. We're not all stupid.

CarolineC said:

If people in their twenties don't know Prince's music, it is partly his own fault:

* He has no website

* He pulls fan videos of his performances off YouTube

* His live shows are generally expensive (with the LA 21 nights being an exception). Many people their twenties can't afford to go.

These three things reduce Prince's appeal to younger fans. Of course, young musicians still know who Prince is, but a lot of other young people don't. If Prince wants to stay relevant, he should: put together a good website (see David Bowie's as an example), stop pulling fan videos off YouTube - especially when it is something he couldn't sell anyway (ex: a baby singing to one of his songs), and lower the ticket prices to his live shows.

Not necessarily. The younger generation are super computer savvy and can find any music on the Internet. Doesn't always have to be on youtube.

man! y'all took this thread way tooooooooooo seriously!!

Me and my girlfriend always discuss things like this. Haha

She always tells me "No one knows who Prince is". Which is partially true, the average person may only know him from 'Purple Rain/ 1999/ and possibly KISS or Nothing Compares 2 U'. Anything after that, people seem to have no knowledge of. The average person anyways.

What I can't stand is the argument she uses against MJ. While MJ is another favorite of mine, he produced popular and universally accepted music not so different. Sure he challenged his audience a bit in HIStory, and BAD but he never really went FULL scope as Prince has been doing since the beginning of time. Also, the average person only connects very few things to MJ (Musically, because we very much know they connect a lot personal things to him). Thriller/Billie Jean/ Beat It/ Moonwalk/...They don't even know all of his material after the 'Thriller' Era. Same with Prince as it

pertains to 'Purple Rain'

BUT back to the topic! Haha

It's true not a lot people seem to know who he is, but once they take the initiative to search his stuff. It will be OUT of this world for them. It was for me anyways...It's a trip and you never know what to expect with him. It's always awesome when you meet someone who shares the same interests and tastes for him. As rare as it is...lol

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

This is true. Hell, I'm only 24 myself and I would venture I know more about Prince than most people who were adults and music fans during the 80's. And a lot of my friends my age are big fans too. But I mostly hang with other musicians so maybe that's to be expected.

robertgeorgeakabob said:

MissRuby said:

Mathiwn3 said: Bowie?? Really? I'm think I'm going have to dig old Ziggy out of my collection and try to figure that one out.

prince and bowie are my 2 favourite artists, thats bamboozled me too!!

the only things they have in common is that they were fashion chameleons and both fell victim to the urban myth of having a rib removed so they could suck their own winkies. i remember being a kid and hearing the rumour that bowie had to have a gallon of spunk pumped from his stomach. what a load of nonsense, there was barely 2 litres.

fusk said:

controversy99 said:

who are these people that you're talking to? i gotta figure if you're over 21 you should know who prince is. i mean the superbowl, the grammys with beyonce, musicology, etc. all happened after today's 21 year old turned 13.

i've been shocked recently by people who don't know who morris day is. after hearing this, i realize that my expectations are way too high.

Haha, dude, there's NO chance of anyone knowing Morris Day. At least here in Toronto. Maybe it's different in the States.

Anyway. admittedly the people I talk to maybe aren't the people who are expected to know Prince. The one who I had the conversation about 1999 with was a math geek who literally spent her spare time as a kid teaching herself matrix multiplication for fun. She's not the kind of geek that has the fetish for music knowledge.

Not many people I know watch the superbowl (I bet less people care about the superbowl in Canada - I only know one person who saw and remembers that halftime show. I didn't even see it.)

I don't know any Beyonce fans. I never watch the grammys and I don't know anyone who does.

I DID see Prince play Cinnamon Girl on one of those late shows, so that must have been around 2004, so I was... 16 or so at the time. It was a total fluke and nobody else I knew saw it. And it generated very little interest from me (but a minute amount of interest nonetheless!) so I didn't do any word of mouth promotion at school.

I dunno, that's just my experience.

[Edited 1/30/12 9:44am]

thanks for that. i understand what you mean.

looks like the best way to hear about prince is the old fashioned way ... from older cousins, parents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, etc. that's how i found out about john coltrane, bob dylan, ohio players, herbie hancock, the beatles & so on when i was a young kid, back in the late 70s & 80s.

Yeah, I agree. Word of mouth is still the best.

What I think is a glowing recommendation is this: When I mention being a Prince fan and someone gives me anything along the lines of, 'who?' 'he's still making music?' 'isn't he... y'know, gay, or something?' 'isn't prince shitty pop music?' etc, I respond with an enthusiastic, 'Prince is awesome.'

I don't even need to rant or anything. A confident recommendation in the face of their doubts is enough to make them feel like I know something they don't, and they're missing out.

this sort of ignorance used to really annoy me but i have come to hte conclusion that most people just arent into music the way i am ...most people will follow the crowd and listen and buy whatever is hip at any given time.....they dont really understand what makes really great music and what is real musical talent (and if that sounds elitist then thats what it is)...

.

for someone to say that they are into music and not know or have very little knowledge of who prince is ...is unforgivable...i mean...when i was a teen...i knew who all the greats were from the pop and rock era...beatles...rolling stones...led zeppelin...and so on....i remember not liking bob dylans voice and struggeling to understand why he was regarded so highly but at least i knew who he was and..over time...my view of him has changed into understanding why he is one of the greats...

.

prince is one of the greats from many musicial veiwpoints...the most obvious being one of the major stars of the 80s....so anyone who says they are into music and not know their musicial history to some degree isnt worth talking to anymore in my opinion...even if they dont like prince ..they should at least know a bit about him...

NEWSFLASH!!!!!!

People are stupid. Ever watch The Tonight Show? Jay walking? That is frighteningly more real than any reality TV. A person can be smart, as a mass collective, people are dumb.

So, people not knowing about Prince is just a reflection of their own ignorance. Let them watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Who cares?

The masses have only ever gravitated towards Prince in certain instances. Look at his USA record sales post Purple Rain. That shit doesn't jump up until Batman... a massive push in pop culture. What a shock.

Sure, Prince could do more about this everything from a website to a clothing line at hot topic would help, but Prince panders only when he wants to.

Bottom Line: Prince is one of the most famous musicians/person(s) that has ever lived. The career/accolades/awards/sales speaks for itself. If someone doesn't know who he is, they probably have a limited knowledge base about a lot of things. Not much depth, you know? I am a high school teacher and all of my students know who Prince is to some extent. And it's not because I had to school them on it.

[Edited 1/30/12 19:05pm]

MissRuby said:

Oh this drives me insane. I'm 26 and I have a 23 year old friend who is beyond clueless. Over the years she has said flat out she hasn't heard of the following artists; Prince, Queen, Led Zepplin, Rollingstones, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, The Doors, U2, Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Monkees (maybe ill give her that) and the list goes on and on and on. Oh yeah and until he died, even MJ. I think people should learn to appreciate the "classics". All music now days is heavily influenced by music from previous generations and most of the time it's poor imitations of amazing music that alot of Gen Y have never had the pleasure to hear.

What a tragedy!!!!!!!! and these are the future leaders of the world? Forget global warming - we need to do something about the younger generation now for the sake of our future!!!!

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.

I second that - i'm 20 years old and I absolutely love Prince. I may not own all of his albums (i've tried looking and they are crazy hard to find unless I go pawn shop hunting) but I probably know more Prince songs than my mother who remembers the day she snuck her 13 year old self into see Purple Rain when it first came out.

Princes music is timeless.

CerpinTaxt said:

I'm 23 and feel a ridiculous need to say that whoever you talked to doesn't represent all young(er) people.

You guys are hung up on the wrong thing. With age, too old/too young doesn't matter when it comes to music.

Everybody's on their own trip.

There are 21 years old that have every Prince album.

And there are 55 year olds that have never heard a Prince song.

Get used to it.

There's a lot out of there.