Fans at Prince.org all say it- we don't care if Prince ever has a "comeback". In our eyes, he's never left and is just as amazing as ever. This is a valid point- Prince has had enough laurels to rest on since 1988 and sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. However, isn't there at least a little sliver in all of us that would like to see Prince all over the radio(as dismal as it is) and TV once again?
Think about it. All he needs is one song to be a "hit" and think of the possibilities. With a hit song, there would be a Prince resurgance. There would be new interest in his older albums/videos which could lead to them being re-released, re-mastered, etc. The npgmusic club (if it still exists) would mean more because it would cater to the hardcore fans (like ourselves) who have always been supportive of Prince while the average fan is trying to hop on our purple wagon.
So how does Prince have one "hit" song? Well, 1st of all he is gonna need someone to promote it better than he could himself. Whether it is Clive Davis or someone else-Prince needs so touch base with someone who knows how to correctly promote his song/album.However, I am not suggesting that Prince does what he did with "Rave".
For PRince to have a legitmate hit it seems as if it cannot be a contrived song that blatantly tries to tap into what is cool now. Prince should follow his instincts-that's how we got songs like When Doves Cry-commerical yet daring. Secondly, I know Prince is deep into God (when hasn't he been) but I don't think the public is gonna eat up a deeply religious song about Jesus-whether Prince wants them too or not.
As I said before, I know that we Prince "fams" don't care about a comeback. We are satisfied being the only ones who dig , arguably, the greatest musician of of our time. However, what is old is new and with an 80's revival on the horizon , I can't help but think that our litlle Prince is going to get swept away by it-whether we want him to or not. The question is-what does Prince want? The more people that hear him the more that his message is spread like concord jam.

skywalker said:

New masters? Efficient npgmc? Sounds good to me!
In fact, I agree with almost everything you said, particularly the fact that the basis of a comeback goes through real promotion. One can always dream...

LOL. The 80's 'revival' has already passed the horizon and is about six months away from being over.

While I would love to see him be popular once more (as I missed it the first time round - too young), I just can't see Prince doing the whole TV promo / "revival" concert shit that would be needed to kick start it.

What I find funny is all those cheap Best of 80s CDs that are out there now that includes no Prince! That's the kind of prostitution the Prince/Warner need to do in order to get him back in the glitz.

It should be clarified-when I say 80's "revival" I do not mean a retread of sad generic one hit wonders of the 80's coming back. I mean how a new generation embraces the fashion, sound and feeling of the 80's. Look at Pink, look at No Doubt and look at Timberlake. They dress straight outta 1983.

skywalker said:

Oh I know exactly what you're saying and it has about a 6 month expiration date or that's when it will cease to be 'in'. Witness the recent failure of FOX's "That 80's Show".

They can't sell it for much longer. It isn't working.




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[This message was edited Thu Mar 20 12:21:16 PST 2003 by Jestyr]

Jestyr said:

party poop!

Jestyr- I am not saying this to be nasty but I am almost positive that you do not know what I mean. "That 80's Show" is a poor example and is exactly not what I am talking about.

The best chance of prince having a hit these days - is to put a killer track, probably a ballad, on a big budget hollywood movie and have it released as the 2nd single. Otherwise, based on what he's tried over the last 5, 6, 7 years it ain't gonna happen however good the music, unless perhaps he did an MTV Unplugged thing.

skywalker said:

Why does everyone seem to place 'PRINCE' in the 80's category?

Do you we forget that he did have a handful of hits in the 1990's...

Even Thou critics didn't rave much over him except when 'Diamonds and Pearls' and 'Beautiful Girl' was released...his albums did debut high up on the charts and he did alot of great tours and performances on TV through out the 1990's...So lets not write PRINCE off as a need to be revived through some 80's storm.

Prince is beyond all of that!
He's lasted a long time after the 80's and here we are in 2003, still talking about the man.

Prince will return to mainstream when he feels its time...but for now, there doesn't have to be a period for his return...if he wanted to release a commercial single tommorow, he could with the right ppl behind him to promote and market it...but Prince will also have to give up a certain amount of control, and is he ready for it, now that he's been doing it his way for such a long time now???

Prince is not some 80's rocker...he is Prince The Artist who had us dancing to Gett Off and Cream in the club, he had us rushing out to get 'Emancipation' and staying up late to see Arsenio for the Love symbol album...and doing everything possible to get tix to the act 1 and 2 concerts.
Plus we can't forget the Jam of the year tours and the name change fiasco all over the media...Prince did have moderate success in the 90's.

Prince is not gone from Mainstream yet...it will happen, but who are we to say that he needs this and that!?
Because Prince knows best for what he wants out of his own career for now!

ONA is what got ppl interested again,
with all the good reviews of the cd and show...its just around the corner!

He'll be back, no doubt about it. He'll re-evaluate his past, and the music buisness and realise it's okay to be on MTV and go to awards ceromonies.
People are always talking about how he is failing commercially, but when you think about it, when has he really tried to have a hit?? If he thought Rave would be a commercial success, he would have been very naive. New power soul was a NPG album and The Rainbow children was released on the internet and was obviously not a commerical album.
Prince is just about the only artist of the 20th century, that proved he could write hits for whoever he wanted, whenver he wanted. If he was desperate for a hit, don't you think he would have put aside Nothing compares 2 u or the most beautiful girl etc.. They would still be hits now and it wouldn't have mattered 2 much 2 to his career if he didn't release them at the time.

skywalker said:

No - me too skywalker, I don't want to be nasty at all. Whenever a decade is 'revived' for a current generation that never experienced the climate and culture at the time it is always a poor imitation. The same thing happened to my generation in the 80's when there was a brief 60's revival. Nothing about our times were like the 60's, so it failed to capture the spirit of that decade. The clothes were an expensive rip-off of 60' clothes, the music was nothing like the inclusive folky music of that time. Even the LSD was a pale imitation. In the 70's it was the 50's revival and "American Grafitti", Sha Na Na and the Happy Days television show and the clothes and attitude were nothing like the real 50's.

I guess the bottom line of what I'm trying to say is you just can't go back. It's never the same, and you SHOULDN'T go back. It's always best to move ahead and not try to recycle the past. That's why we have such an absence of good entertainment in the world right now, because everything is a regurgitation.

Though Prince has influenced many artists like Alicia Keys, Maxwell, Jill Scott,etc., I don't think he is interested in making a "comeback." The songs "Everywhere" and "The Everlasting Now"(The Rainbow Children ) say a lot about he views today's music industry as well as the press.

skywalker said:

Prince is too old to make a comeback. At best he may be able to pull a short lived hype like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac or Springsteen but thats about it. TTD never made a "comeback" but his music has been better than ever. I think what is holding Prince back is that he's never wholeheartedly let go of his stardom.

He doesn't want it.