From 1999 thru Parade: I really, really liked him.

Then came Sign "☮" The Times. At first I thought that album was awful. Then came The Awakening and I truly realized his genius. This made me go back and buy all of his earlier albums and absorb every sound and lyric. Over and over.

So basically, 1987. lol

was a fan since 1978, but really caught the wave after i first heard the 1999 single, and bought that LP

International Lover hooked me....

Sometime in the early 70s... Er, 80s... Memory's slipping already.

babynoz said:

International Lover hooked me....

Same here.

Oh guys you and your old asses ahahaha. It all dates back to 2008 when i saw a video of him playin Somewhere here om earth as far i can remember. then i saw Call My Name video and loved it, still love that video. So back when i was 20 it started to like Prince.

along time....

July 1989. First album: Batman.

August 1990. Second album: Purple Rain.

June 1991. I had all the albums

March 30th 1985 – Syracuse, NY live satellite broadcast. That show, especially its finale, made most other acts I had ever seen up until that point look pale in comparison. He came to my country for the first time the year after (Parade tour) and I have seen him on most European tours ever since.

less than a decade ago

in my defence when I was coming of age I just knew him as the guy who released loads of ballads...

1980 Dirty Mind , i was like WTF WOWWWWWWWWWW

.

"Lovesexy"

.

Before that I didn't like it at all. "Lovesexy" was the key to P world, before then and after.

.

Was always a fan, but the Symbol album got me hooked.

since the late 70s i guess. aside from prince's unique appeal, i always liked that someone from minneapolis actually made it!

My mother talked about him a bit when I was younger, but never really played his music (this is around the time of the Youtube copyright accusations, so you really couldn't find much of anything of his online). Last year I just decided to one day look at some of his albums, and just started with the recent AOA. I really didn't "love" the album but realized 'Purple Rain' was in the list. I checked out a few of the songs, watched the movie... and now I have most of his albums on vinyl!

[Edited 9/25/15 10:19am]

[Edited 9/25/15 10:20am]

214 said:

Oh guys you and your old asses ahahaha. It all dates back to 2008 when i saw a video of him playin Somewhere here om earth as far i can remember. then i saw Call My Name video and loved it, still love that video. So back when i was 20 it started to like Prince.

Oh you young un.....2008, u don't have a clue!

The moment I heard Detroit's ONE and ONLY ELECTRIFYING MOJO play "It's Gonna Be Lonely" on the radio in 1980. I was either 9 or 10 years old but even at such a young age, I simply KNEW the guy that was singing that was about to take the world on a fantastic musical voyage and I just had to go along for the ride.

And for damn near the next 10 solid years after that - it truly was one hell of a fantastic musical voyage that I will ALWAYS and FOREVER be extremely grateful to him for - NO MATTER WHAT!

BoraBora said:

.

"Lovesexy"

.

Before that I didn't like it at all. "Lovesexy" was the key to P world, before then and after.

.

Dito.

Lovesexy 1988 blew me away. I've never heard music like this before. The first time I felt the funk was when I listened to Alphabet Street. I couldn't get enough of it. Within the next 6 months I bought all of prince's previous albums.

EmmaMcG said:

About two weeks ago when I heard Dirty Mind for the first time . I had been a casual fan since I was 14 and my boyfriend was bombarding me with Prince music left, right and centre. So I had heard a lot of songs but wouldn't even know the names or anything. Anyway, fast forward a few years and I had split with my bf but I held on to the 3121 album cause it reminded me of him and I missed him, lol. I started listening to the album more and more and decided to check out more Prince albums starting from Art Official Age and working my way back. A few weeks ago I got Dirty Mind and it totally blew me away. I recognized some of the songs I had heard from years ago but this was the first time I had properly listened to the album, start to finish. I thought it was amazing. It's such a brilliant album.

Cool. Welcome aboard.

Little Red Corvette/1999 videos were it for me plus an article in L'Actuel about how Prince mixed races and genres.

At the time I bought 1999, I had only three or four pop/rock/whatever albums and the rest of my records were classical music, so it's safe to say Prince was a good place to start if you wanted to know more about pop music. I got interested in his influences and his influences' influences. If you were looking for a 360 degree view on American music, he was the closest thing to an encyclopedia.

Prince81

I loved The Time and through them I found Prince. Controversy.

It was probably half way through Condition Of The Heart that phasing thing kicked in and I suddenly realised I'd heard this back in the 70s before I was born but not before then.

It is impossible to describe but considering I'd borrowed the CD off my older brother it was probably just a 6 year imprint mind larceny of hearing the music next door.

"...It's just a phase...", yana yada yeah. I can see why people ask how to tune a piano now.

Obviously I'd love to qualify this with something other than being a massive bore, so feck off love.

Cx