Somthing I have been wondering lately, I was born in 1989, didn't start listening to Prince until 2007. What was Princes demographin audience like in the 1980's. I don't know if I could make any fair comparisons to him today but I highly doubt the male population in a high school is walking around talking about how dope a Justin Beiber album is. How was this with Prince? Was it noted early on his genius musicianship and everyone liked him? Or was it more the females thing because Prince was too sexual for men? If any of you old timers could help me out with this that would be great.

Here's my guesses based on several books I have read and interviews with Dez and watching DVD's of various shows.

Until 1983, my guess is mostly African American, teens to 30s, hip and funky. There were a few non AA listeners too, but they again were into him as a cult artist and a few teeny boppers dug the early 2 records. In 1978/79 before Lover his audience was probably nearly all Black and female aged between 12 and 23 (Dez - "My sister had a copy of the album").

From 1980 on to 1982, his audience grew, there were a few whites, but his appeal branched out from mostly female to more males as his music became more funk infused and harder. Still it was mostly young, hip and black, but the Controversy period and Rolling stone review of Dirty Mind (Several months after release) turned a few more white musos and punk music fans towards him.

The Rubicon however was reached with the "Little Red Corvette" single which was his first huge hit of any stature and the one to be played on MTV which had previously played no black artists and Prince along with MJ and Lionel Ritchie crossed that bar in early 1983. As a result all of these artists gained many more white fans. Dez mentions the last part of the Triple Threat Tour you could see the crossover when LRC rose the charts. (1999 was re released in later 83 and that's when it really hit big, its original late 82 release was less successful).

1983 -1985 during Purple Rain, he became very mainstream so mostly white pre teens, teenagers and early 20s in addition to about half of the AA Hardcore group (According to many Prince books, he was scared of losing his benchmark fans in this period). During this period, he would probably have attracted a lot of "Fairweather fans" digging" him because he was a hit and looked sexy and alluring in the movie.

After 1985, this audience begins to shrink, his fan size may have peaked at 20 -25 million in early 1985 but 1990 had receded to 5 or so million, but with the reduction in quantity possibly became a rise in quality.

Starting in 1986 Prince started to tour Europe, Asia and places outside of his domestic market more. The accessible dance grooves of the albums Parade through to Symbol endeared him heavily to a slightly older and more hipper crowd in both Europe, America, the Far East and Australasia. By 1987 his albums had less domestic sales than overseas ones. Prince toured Europe no less than 5 times in 6 years (1986, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1992) and it made him a cult artist.

The liberal minded Europeans dug his sexual theatrics more than conservative old America (Such as the Lovesexy album being sold with cover shot). Places I notice like Netherlands, Northern France, Sweden and Germany in particular became very interested with Prince and Prince was surprised in these places where the fans don't even speak English that much knew all the lyrics to the songs, especially in the Netherlands and Sweden where fandom reached fever pitch by 1988.

And not to forget the British also took Prince to their hearts, feeling smarted after a cancelled show in 1983 and the 1987 SOTT tour missed out (But there were rehearsals there). Prince played only a few shows in 1986, but 1990's Nude tour he played 12 shows and then was 21 nights in London by 2007. And his outreach to Europe began with a show each in Paris, Amsterdam and London in early summer 1981, but Prince was virtually unknown then and these smoky nightclubs attracted only a few hundred people.

So by 1992 Prince had a hardcore mostly late adolescent, 20s and now even 30s audience with some of the fans who had been following him for several years.

But the ruptures of the 1990s would cause him to lose many fans and also some sloppy tours in the mid to late 90s destroyed his stock. Prince had gained a few million new fans like me from the Diamonds and Pearls period, but the ranks dissipated by the end of the 90s, so his fan base may have dropped to 2 million by 2000.

The early 2000s got worse, the lack lustre album Rave did little to help and a change back to Prince did little (The change to symbol lost many fairweather fans). Also losing the big record company distribution meant Prince got more money per album, but album sales went down (Technically there were no real million sellers between The Hits 1993 and 2004's Musicology) Emancipation sold 1.5 million copies, but actual sales were 446k sets as each album counted as 3. All through the recent period his new music has become less easy to buy.

The Rainbow children too split fans and the ONA albums which suffered from poor distribution and the barely there NEWS album had eroded his fan base to possibly as low as 250k. Prince was at least courting his remaining fans with Internet music clubs and Celebrations at Paisley Park. By 2003 he was in damage control.

After 2004 with the poppy Musicology things move up, but rather than teeny boppers who are spoilt for choice with marginal quality music like Justin Bieber, Boys groups, shit hop and hipster nonsense on the charts, most of Prince's current fans are older and more hardcore from a range of ethnicity's but mostly of the Caucasian and African American Persuasion and aged between 30 and 50.

But the the Musicology to Lotusflow3r albums have also attracted many new younger fans and its pleasing to see a lot of teen age fans and young 20s who have discovered Princes back catalogue. Because of their greater age, many Prince fans have more money and can really get into Prince more. My guess is maybe 1 million Prince fans are worldwide about 300k of these are hardcore with 100k being obsessed, going to every show, buying every bootleg and every piece of Prince ephemera they see.

Just my 59 cents

[Edited 8/7/13 19:02pm]

Women was his stronghold in the 1980's. The exception being 1999 and Purple Rain. The Lovesexy concert I was at had probably 70% female and 30% male audience. But that concert was in the USA,I would think it was more balanced in Europe as Prince was a bigger act there than in the USA (starting with Lovesexy forward.). There is no real way of knowing
Prince demographic unless you had acess to WB info.

[Edited 8/5/13 10:20am]

I was in NY state, and latino, black, white, mixed people filled his demographics

Remember 1st Avenue was his home base, that was probably more white, so I don't believe more AA followed him.

Prince especially then pulled a multiracial following.

In school many guys and girls dressed like the Prince camp. 2 friends of mine (male twinz) wore ruffled shirts

1980s was just an overall generally creative time

Outside of Minneapolis, from 1978 1983, Prince's base and overwhelming core audience was African American. Anybody who says anything else is trying to rewrite history. Prince did not obtain a substantial white following beyond Minneapolis until "Little Red Corvette" was played on MTV. As Monte Moir states in Dave Hill's Prince: A Pop Life and as has been stated by others, it isn't until MTV starts playing "Little Red Corvette" and "1999" that whites have a presence at Prince's shows. Purple Rain, of course, makes him a mega, crossover superstar, which also begins a decrease in his African American fans as complaints of Prince "selling out" or "overly catering to white listeners" begin and continue through much of the late Eighties and Nineties. By the late Nineties Prince is considered an icon and legend but no longer a chart topper. Somehow by 2004, and maybe as early as 1996, depending on when Questlove's article asserting that Prince was a major influence on hip hop, hip hop artists begin to embrace Prince, openly, and he seems to have come full circle. That is a very general and compact review of thirty-five years, but, again, from 1978 to 1983 Prince was considered a "black" act and his overwhelmingly core audience was African American until MTV's playing of "Little Red Corvette" and later cultural explosion that was Purple Rain.

controversy99 said:

A lot of people liked his hits. It didn't matter about your race, gender, class, or type of people you hung out with. But some of those same folks thought he was weird or gay and weren't into him generally. The meathead type jocks didn't like him much. His core fan base seemed to be people who were just a little bit different from the norm, not a lot different, just a little. Maybe you were an artist. Maybe you were a black or Asian kid in a mostly white school. Maybe your favorite uncle was the one other people didn't like because he was gay. There was probably a little something that meant you weren't the captain of the football team or head cheerleader. I graduated high school in 1990, to give you some context. Friends of mine who liked Prince were on the track team, artists, or budding comedians/actors, for some reason.

I was one the "Prince" guy in my high school. If anyone wanted to hear something, they'd come to me. I'm not saying there were tons of people asking, but a few dozen here and there. I did get my fair share of teasing about Prince (he's gay, etc) but I found out that those same people came to appreciate that I didn't waver.

.

By the way, I am a graphic designer/creative director. So your post rang true, at least for me.

in one forum I read recently in the thread "what you listened to in the '80s?" 2 posts of the men who were in the mid 80's in their teenage years. They wrote that, with their friends, they listened to Metallica, Rolling Stones, and so on, but at home, when no one could see, they were listening to Prince.
so I think it was not very cool to listen to the music of Prince for the guys. the main reason is, of course, the eccentric image. Women and girls tend to be more loyal to experiments in style.

Se7en said:

robertgeorgeakabob said:

He was for the freaks. There were a few of us discreetly tucked away in every town and village, and we all used to meet up at Wembley Arena.

controversy99 said:

His core fan base seemed to be people who were just a little bit different from the norm, not a lot different, just a little. Maybe you were an artist. Maybe you were a black or Asian kid in a mostly white school. Maybe your favorite uncle was the one other people didn't like because he was gay. There was probably a little something that meant you weren't the captain of the football team or head cheerleader. I graduated high school in 1990, to give you some context. Friends of mine who liked Prince were on the track team, artists, or budding comedians/actors, for some reason.

Spot on.