Why?

It's pretty spot on, actually.

"Is Prince irrelevant?" -article

sheesh, the man is nearly 60 years old give him a break. Is anyone really expecting him to be cranking out hits? He was a huge commercial music force for nearly 15 years, essentially sticking around in the pop charts longer than anyone from his decade with the exception of the 2 Jacksons, Madonna, and Whitney. He had 30+ top 40 hits, more than MOST singers. Let's not get into the discussion of his eighties+nineties fame/influence

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Now that the guy is almost 60, I would say he's doing a great job. 3121, Planet Earth, Mpl Sound, Lotus, and Musicology were Top 5 albums and sold decently for such an "irrelevant" artist. His concerts sell out easily. Everyone, at least here in America, know who he is and a lot of people know about his multi-instrumentalist abilities. He's a highly respected singer. Looking at the 2013 BB Awards (which I hated, lol), he was getting massive applause and huge videos detailing his influence. Super irrelvant! Many people famous in the 80s/90s would never get selected for an icon award until maybe years and YEARS after it formed. Prince was one of the first to get it. Why? Because he's still a VERY REMEMBERED singer.

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When you have stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears as your fans who look up to you..... you know you did well enough, even if they suck. It means you were popular/influential enough.

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Of course his albums won't sell like Ariana Grande's and he's not gonna have teen girls screaming for him at this age, but he's doing fantastic as an entertainer regardless of whether I hate the sludge he's releasing or not. And for that, I'm happy for him!

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If this article was written in 2003, when he was far from the 'icon' 'legend' phase, I would have a different stance.

PS: besides Michael, Madonna, and Whitney, I can't think of anyone else who's more associated with the 80s than P. And although he's far behind Madge in sales today, he's far ahead of some of his other eighties contemporaries

I just don't get why Princarino gets held on a different scale than others. 'irrelevant!' 'when was the last time he even had a hit' blah blah

Never hear that pretentious crap about Bruce Springsteen (who hasn't hit the top ten since 1994)

[Edited 9/10/14 16:27pm]

well, i disagree. prince still sells out shows in a matter of minutes, he has celebrities gossiping about him, and has recently managed to evolve his persona into new venues, such as acting guest spots on shows. moreover, part of prince's 'mystique' has always been how he phases in and out of time and styles. he's eternal, he's classic and his songs have become a part of our cultural psyche, our societal memes. so by very definition, prince could never be considered 'irrelevant'.

the article makes me wonder how much research the author actually did. to me the piece comes across as written by someone who didn't like what s/he heard on a few songs and kinda kept the article solely on that one aspect of prince's ongoing career. no mention whatsoever of the various cool new projects, like PPAD, the livestream shows and podcasts, etc.

[Edited 9/10/14 16:32pm]

XxAxX said:

well, i disagree. prince still sells out shows in a matter of minutes, he has celebrities gossiping about him, and has recently managed to evolve his persona into new venues, such as acting guest spots on shows. moreover, part of prince's 'mystique' has always been how he phases in and out of time and styles. he's eternal, he's classic and his songs have become a part of our cultural psyche, our societal memes. so by very definition, prince never be considered 'irrelevant'.

I'm sayin!

Im sure the Rihannas of today would LOVE to be as irrelevant as Prince when they're 56

CharismaDove said:

XxAxX said:

well, i disagree. prince still sells out shows in a matter of minutes, he has celebrities gossiping about him, and has recently managed to evolve his persona into new venues, such as acting guest spots on shows. moreover, part of prince's 'mystique' has always been how he phases in and out of time and styles. he's eternal, he's classic and his songs have become a part of our cultural psyche, our societal memes. so by very definition, prince never be considered 'irrelevant'.

I'm sayin!

Im sure the Rihannas of today would LOVE to be as irrelevant as Prince when they're 56

yep.

XxAxX said:

I can't beleive there's someone that reads Houston Press blogs and that has an ID that's "20TEN" and that isn't me.

To some he is not relevant, but then a lot of other musicians and fans believe he is. It's all who you ask. He's not rolling in the latest trend so of course they won't view him as relevant. Madonna, U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica and Neil Diamond to name a few. They are all legendary acts whom sell out arenas but don't get the radio airplay. But truth be told they are all relevant.

Askani said:

Why?

It's pretty spot on, actually.

I agree. The article spoke the truth. Frankly, I don't know what's going on with music today. Everything moves very fast in today's world, and it seems that people attention spans are very short. Nothing lasts for very long anymore, not news, music, etc. People move on very quickly now from one thing to the next.

Good Gawd

everybody is a critic

so many want to bash

but what really matters in life?

he is only human

he is an artist

just trying to find his way

through this life

just like the rest of us

and it's not an easy ride

just look around?

let him be

you either appreciate his art

or you don't

bashing is so relevant

that it is irrelevant

chriss said:

Good Gawd

everybody is a critic

so many want to bash

but what really matters in life?

he is only human

he is an artist

just trying to find his way

through this life

just like the rest of us

and it's not an easy ride

just look around?

let him be

you either appreciate his art

or you don't

bashing is so relevant

that it is irrelevant

and who here would not go to

his show if he were playing in

your town?

the master showman that he is

he never needs another hit

he already has too many to keep

up with.

Frederick96 said:

To some he is not relevant, but then a lot of other musicians and fans believe he is. It's all who you ask. He's not rolling in the latest trend so of course they won't view him as relevant. Madonna, U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica and Neil Diamond to name a few. They are all legendary acts whom sell out arenas but don't get the radio airplay. But truth be told they are all relevant.

out of curiosity... in what way are U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica, and ...Neil Diamond? more relevant than Princey?

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The only way I can think so is that people automatically hype those groups as rock legends whereas they look at Prince as more of a pop star (which translates to a degrading look)

CharismaDove said:

Frederick96 said:

To some he is not relevant, but then a lot of other musicians and fans believe he is. It's all who you ask. He's not rolling in the latest trend so of course they won't view him as relevant. Madonna, U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica and Neil Diamond to name a few. They are all legendary acts whom sell out arenas but don't get the radio airplay. But truth be told they are all relevant.

out of curiosity... in what way are U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica, and ...Neil Diamond? more relevant than Princey?

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The only way I can think so is that people automatically hype those groups as rock legends whereas they look at Prince as more of a pop star (which translates to a degrading look)

Bruce is still fairly relevant. Madonna, only because she at least tries (often fails -but god bless her, she tries). I think U2 tried really hard yesterday to come up with a way to be relevant, but I think it's going to backfire immensely. They made themselves a footnote to another announcement that has enormously overshadowed them and their new album, as ubiquitous as it may be, will be forgotten by the time it goes on to the 5 people in the world who haven't at some point or another created an iTunes account for whatever reason.

The others... not relevant at all. Still great maybe (Neil Diamond, though?), but not relevant.

Askani said:

CharismaDove said:

out of curiosity... in what way are U2, Bruce, Aerosmith, Stones, Metallica, and ...Neil Diamond? more relevant than Princey?

.

The only way I can think so is that people automatically hype those groups as rock legends whereas they look at Prince as more of a pop star (which translates to a degrading look)

Bruce is still fairly relevant. Madonna, only because she at least tries (often fails -but god bless her, she tries). I think U2 tried really hard yesterday to come up with a way to be relevant, but I think it's going to backfire immensely. They made themselves a footnote to another announcement that has enormously overshadowed them and their new album, as ubiquitous as it may be, will be forgotten by the time it goes on to the 5 people in the world who haven't at some point or another created an iTunes account for whatever reason.

The others... not relevant at all. Still great maybe (Neil Diamond, though?), but not relevant.

Whatever! I'll have you know that I saw Aerosmith in concert last night. They had a sold out show - on a Tuesday night - here in Metro Detroit at the DTE Energy Music Theatre but I watched for free, from the comfort of my living room because it was streamed on Yahoo Live.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Askani said:

Bruce is still fairly relevant. Madonna, only because she at least tries (often fails -but god bless her, she tries). I think U2 tried really hard yesterday to come up with a way to be relevant, but I think it's going to backfire immensely. They made themselves a footnote to another announcement that has enormously overshadowed them and their new album, as ubiquitous as it may be, will be forgotten by the time it goes on to the 5 people in the world who haven't at some point or another created an iTunes account for whatever reason.

The others... not relevant at all. Still great maybe (Neil Diamond, though?), but not relevant.

Whatever! I'll have you know that I saw Aerosmith in concert last night. They had a sold out show - on a Tuesday night - here in Metro Detroit at the DTE Energy Music Theatre but I watched for free, from the comfort of my living room because it was streamed on Yahoo Live.

when the guy wrote that the breakdown was a rehash of adore, you knew he hadnt a clue what he was talking about

It's hard not to get the impression that a disgruntled orger wrote that one.

Just another person suffering from the "look, I'm telling you he's not as good as he was and you should all agree with me" syndrome.

And, yeah, "The Breakdown" has no similarities with Adore, other than that both songs have a slow tempo and use falsetto vocals.

novabrkr said:

It's hard not to get the impression that a disgruntled orger wrote that one.

Just another person suffering from the "look, I'm telling you he's not as good as he was and you should all agree with me" syndrome.

And, yeah, "The Breakdown" has no similarities with Adore, other than that both songs have a slow tempo and use falsetto vocals.

And there's more in this amateur attempt :

"relentless attempts to keep his face in the spotlight": hilarious! He has not released an album in years -- he dropped singles without much fanfare, appeared on New Girl, the BillBoard Music Awards and Arsenio... He sent the girls to GMA for his big announcement and there's a thread here asking where the hell he is -- and dozens of threads in the archive complaining he's taking too long to issue PLEL.

"many singles dropped from PlectrumElectrum": Fixurlifeup was released many moons ago and is included here just like Breakfast Can Wait is included on AOA because he thought these belongs on one of his albums, and then there's Pretzelbodylogic. Two is not "many".

I stopped reading because it's too ridiculous and I can read this kind of comments any old day right here on the Org.

"The Breakdown" is essentially just "Adore" all over again.

Even if this true (which it isn't, I see no similarity other than they are both ballads) why would this be a bad thing?

I actually prefer "The Breakdown" to "Adore".

Sometimes I feel bad for journalists. The pressure to come up with article ideas must be unrelenting. "Is ____ Relevant?"is the epitome of lazy. I saw another one about U2, just yesterday...

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What does it even mean? Relevant...to kids? Relevant to...nuns??? Nope, just "relevant". One size fits all, "relevant". Why doesn't the author just tell us the page view count, and be done with it?

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"Legacy Artist"? Of course he is!!! Who cares? Compare Prince to everyone else who released albums in the late 70's. These are his peers. Or, going back, compare Prince to Ray Charles in ... like the late 80s? "You got the right one baby!" I loved those commercials!! How relevant he was!!!

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7th grade ends, and adults with brains should stop worrying about popularity.

These pop culture pundits kill me thinking that they decide who's "relevant". That word needs to be buried alongside "hater" because it's a BS term that doesn't mean anything anymore.

There's a whole bunch of people out there doing quite well for themselves even if they don't happen to appeal to mainstream youth culture as the article implies.

If that's the measure of relevance then the author is incredibly short sighted and ignorant.

I think the last relevant song prince released was Black Sweat, and even then more relevant for the gifs from the video than the song itself. That last truly relevant song was probably some time in the late 80's. However, that doesn't mean I don't think he's released any good music since. Far, far from it.

This guy sounds like P stole his woman...

but is the blog itself relevant?