JenniferJoy said:

My first Prince album was 1999 on vinyl, still one of my faves. Maybe I was 11 years old (6th grade)? Probably too young, luckily my parents didn't listen to the lyrics.

i know what you mean i was 11 when i bought the lovesexy album. i mean, that already
got me some weird looks from my dad. an album with a naked man on the front?

but they were cool, i saved up my own money for it so, you know, the 11 year old me was
pretty sassy i wasn't going to not buy it because prince was semi naked on the cover.
i'd heard/seen "i wish u heaven" and "alphabet st" on tv so there was just no way i wasn't
buying this record.

after that i bought the other albums as soon as i could save up for them. some on cassette
as they were a bit cheaper at that time (i remember wearing the ATWIAD cassette OUT!).

then i got myself a copy of the purple rain movie and watched it on my parents' vhs player.
only to have them come home right bang in the middle of "Darling Nikki"

i can still remember the look on my dad's face and the look on my mom's face when
she walked into the living room behind him.

my mom's face was like "well hello who's this nice young man?" my dad was like "well,
let me go into the garage and pretend i never saw this"

The local Wrecka Stow was a rural Ben Franklin's drug store, in which they kept a few rows of cassettes behind a locked glass window, so one had to ask a staffer to buy a record. I remember being very embrarrased at asking her for Dirty Mind and seeing her handle it the cash register. I was like 12 or 13, after wanting to explore his back-catalog after 1999, PP and ATWIAD.

1985, bought the Around the World in a Day cassette. Took it into 6th grade to show it off, cool clear cassette, and I hadn't even unfolded the insert yet. One of the other kids in the class took it when I wasn't looking and folded the insert backwards and shoved it back into the case, with the psychadelic trees and lyrics on the outside. I didn't even realize it was the same cassette and though someone had swapped them.

SLP said:

The local Wrecka Stow was a rural Ben Franklin's drug store, in which they kept a few rows of cassettes behind a locked glass window, so one had to ask a staffer to buy a record. I remember being very embrarrased at asking her for Dirty Mind and seeing her handle it the cash register. I was like 12 or 13, after wanting to explore his back-catalog after 1999, PP and ATWIAD.

Ha ha, I bought the vinyl of Dirty Mind which is ten times bigger than the cassette. I remember the cashier looking at me with the "are you old enough to buy this" stare.

1979

Y'all are probably gonna laugh at me cause I'm so young but I got my first Prince CD at 13 years old in 2011 and it was the "Ultimate" CD which is better than "The Very Best" cause it has 2 discs and the 2nd one has extended versions

Then I ended up getting Controversy and Parade later on in CD form.

I took a break from P for a few years so I didn't buy any more of his music till today. My dad bought me 1999 in CD form at Barnes and Noble and it was $4.99. I was surprised because I've heard that people are selling his music online at outrageous prices. I expected the CD to be like $300 or something

[Edited 4/30/16 20:09pm]

My first was his sophmore abum, Prince, after hearing "Soft and Wet" on the radio. I purchased both Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999 rom the same store. I remember my first 12" was "Little Red Corvette" which i had to have special ordered from England (or so the record shop owner said). It was George's Song Shop in Johnstown, PA. I remember playing it and thinking "damn, who is this dude?" The special moment for me when I knew Prince was going to be huge was when our really, really white radio station played it one morning. I got on the bus to go to school, and it came on...all the white people were grooving and I was like, yeah he's figured this out. No one asked the only black guy "who is this" which meant that they didn't hear color, just the music.

Early '83, I was 9 years old. Saved my $5 allowance for two weeks to buy the '1999' album. Got to the wrecka stow and it was $11.99 (damned double-album). My father (who hated Prince back then) refused to give me a couple of bucks, and we left. I actually cried! My mother went back to the wrecka stow and bought it, let me keep my $10 too. That album changed/started my life. Been waving the purple flag ever since...

I was very young and the first album I bought was Batman. Largely due to being swept up in the marketing, I remember 1989 well when all kids were buying everything Batman, the hype invaded every pore of our being. It was an interesting album, at once both dark and upbeat, bizarre and mysterious, just like the film itself. After that was Diamonds and Pearls and I sort of just left it for a bit, when I began receiving my own income I began to go through the back catalogue and the likes of Purple Rain, Parade, etc.

Had to be around 2008 or so, when I started collecting records. Around the World in a Day was the first Prince record I got, followed by I believe Purple Rain on cassette. I think I had a 45 of (at least) 1999 by then, as well.

It was back when I was 5 or 6, my mom got the Purple Rain record. Then I think I she got me the ATWIAD tape, and just kept adding to my collection everytime I got new music.

1980 Dirty Mind, my older sister bought me it for my birthday. And told me only play it when my parents were out I was 8.

I remember hearing 'Soft and Wet' on the radio in 1978. I was nine years old. I liked the song but hadn't made the correlation yet that you could actually buy a song you heard on the radio. I thought you just had to wait for them to play it again.

The first 45 I bought with my own money was 'Uptown'. I was eleven years old. My copy said the b-side was 'Crazy You' but it was in fact 'When You Were Mine'.

The jukebox at the local pizza parlor had 'Dirty Mind' on it. You got three plays for 25 cents. My friends thought I was nuts playing the song three times in a row every time we went by.

1998: New Power Soul.

Had gotten into Prince maybe a month or two before its release by borrowing Sign o the Times from my local library. Went into a record store later and there was a ton of promo swag everywhere for NPS. Funny thing was, I was going to the record store to buy my first Prince cd. NPS has a special place in my heart. Mainly because it was the first Prince cd I bought.

I suppose I count as a "newbie fan," seeing that I was born in '95 and didn't discover Prince's music until I was in the 7th grade. My parents were both musical but very, very conservative, so my mom never listened to Prince because, as she would say, "Prince was scary."

We had just sort of gotten cheapo wifi in our house, and me and my two older brothers shared a laptop. I'd often try my best to sneak it into my room at night and just get lost in music. At that time I was listening to a lot of contemporary R&B from that decade and the 90s, so I was obsessed with Mariah. I still am, but her thing has always been a polished sound.

Somehow, in the "related videos" section on Youtube, I saw a video with the title "Prince - Under the Cherry Moon." I noticed the crop top and eyeliner he was wearing in the photo used, which of course was intriguing to me. I clicked, and was sucked in DEEP. It was an almost French-style waltz, but with soulful, rich, jazzy piano licks on top of it. I was hooked on Prince, and I never kicked the habit.

I became obsessed. Soaking in every album I could find, every single, every b-side, and eventually every bootleg I could find throughout high school. As a genderqueer kid, Prince meant the world to me. He was so unafraid to express himself and to be deemed however people would deem him. It was so exciting to me. Somehow, it still is today.

Anyway, I was terrified to actually BUY his music just yet. I kept my obsession with him seriously hidden from my mom for two years straight, and then just started slowly, slowly, slowly easing her into the idea that I listened to Prince. Eventually, once she actually listened to him, she concluded that he was a genius in almost every way. She's still grossed out by all the sex, but even a pearl-clutching Baptist lady can't deny Prince's brilliance. She'll even pick fights with other super-prudes on Facebook who don't know how great he was.

Shortly afterwards, I started digging up pocket money accumulated over years and years as a kid and using it to buy whatever CDs were available in stores, which weren't that many. I dislike iTunes, but sometimes it was the only option.

By then I was in a wheelchair due to a head injury from a car accident. I spent most of my time playing and listening to whatever music was out there. I got so hooked that I'd demand outings to used music stores just to get my greasy little teenage hands on anything Prince.

Around this time I was coming forward about a lot in my life: my non-binary identity, the abuse I experienced repeatedly as a small child, and so on. Prince's music was there for me late at night, easing the severe headaches and crying with his art. "Sweet Baby" always felt like it was made for me, though I know it wasn't.

Every chance I'd get up to today I'd scavenge and order whatever album I could just to get my Prince fix. But addictions are never satisfied.

I know that original video got deleted almost immediately. I'd search for it and couldn't find it. We all know why. But I'd never forget exactly how it sounded, the name, and The Beautiful One whose spooky voice and beautiful smile took over my life from that moment on.

Sept. 1978. They played Soft & Wet on the radio and I jumped on my bike and went to the record store on Livernois Ave and bought it immediately. I was living in Palmer Woods 48203

I was around 17 and Controversy was the first album I bought back in 1981 or 1982 after hearing and liking a few songs

1999 I bought after seeing the video to the title track and hearing Little Red Corvette on the radio, and that album blew me away. then I rushed to also get Dirty Mind, and the first two albums

from Purple Rain onwards I still bought basically every physical album on the day of release

I never cared for downloads or streaming, so I have not yet heard Hitnrun Phase II.
it got its official European release just last week and the Amazon delivery will arrive today...

and this will be tough... really tough! the last album he released himself during his lifetime... unpacking... loading into the CD player... hitting play... holding and reading the booklet while listening... and knowing this is the last one... forever.... knowing that an era ends that started with Controversy 35 years ago... not sure when and how I'll be able to handle this

[Edited 5/2/16 2:30am]

Even though I had been listening to his singles perhaps since 1999, I was too young of a teenager to have money to buy music. In 1989 was my first ever music product by Prince. It was the 12" of Batdance. Then was the cassette for Batman. I started buying this whole discography and never stopped after that.

Probably late 1983. Back in the day when going to the record store was a blast filled with excitement and anticipation!

I purchased every Prince vinyl/tape/cd when they first came out up until Chaos & Disorder. I then filled my collection at my leisure. Lotusflower was the only other CD I purchsed when first released.

Probably 1989, Purple Rain on cassette. I think I wore it out in about 6 months. After that SOTT and the Batman soundtrack were next. Eventually, I had all the albums on cassette up to D&P in 1991, next year I switched to CD's and had to start all over!

I bought the Batman soundtrack around 2002, I'd first heard it as a child in the film and my brother had the soundtrack in the early 90s, I remember loving Batdance and the bells on Scandalous, but didn't get heavily into Prince until the Super Bowl in 2007, which is when I started buying up anything and everything that I could find. Planet Earth came out very shortly afterwards and I was very happy to get a new Prince album for the price of a newspaper!

1985 Around the World in a Day - I was 11. I still remember the day, begging my mom to get it.

Prior to that I only had recorded tapes. My Purple Rain was on a purple memorex. I honestly do not remember who I got it from.

Christmas 1983, I was in 5th grade, and we had a school Christmas party where everybody brought a little gift to exchange. I brought MJ's "Thriller" (giftwrapped of course) to exchange with someone. I exchanged with my friend Chad, opened my present from him, and there was the cassette tape of "1999".

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Thanks, Chad.

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After that I was buying each new release on cassette. Those clear ones always smelled best! I know you know what I'm talking about!

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