Of course, we will never know the answer to this. However, if the "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" video were appealing enough, his trajectory would have gone the same way. That is just my opinion, of course.

I think he could have had success without the movie. "When Doves Cry" was such an explosion when it came out in May or June of 1984. The movie certain propelled him upwards, as he was already headed with the success of 1999. I think MIInsane is probably correct in that his trajectory would have pretty much remained the same. But I don't know if Purple Rain would be that all-time comparison and remembrance for him. Would it still have been his Thriller? Would we even have Around The World In A Day as we know it, had Purple Rain just been a more Top 40 album in general with a successful tour? I don't think we'd have Parade at all.

It's always odd to me how Prince kind of just stayed mediocre on the charts until 1982. I think there might have been a few missteps along the way, and he missed his broader audience earlier. Singles like "Bambi" (which wasn't even released in the U.S. as a single), "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" (which only charted on R&B charts), "I'm Yours", "I Feel For You", "When You Were Mine" could have put him on a few different charts well before "Little Red Corvette" came out. "When You Were Mine" was so spot on for the new wave sensibilities of 1980 - a great opportunity was missed there.

All that said, he might have had the PR momentum coming a tad earlier than 1984, had those things been in place first. But yeah, if PR was the album we know it as today, he'd have had great success with it.

bigbrother said:

jazzvirtuoso said:

Nope absolutely not. Intresting in that I started to make a post about P never having made purple rain and the effect it would have on his career (as in he wouldn't have had the one that we saw) And although he had already created the racial ambiguity pretext needed to propel him tword mainstream success "PR" the movie gave everything context VISUALLY in a way that wouldn't have been possible othetwise. By creating the mixed kid character mythos and showing his white italin mother onscreen, Prince was doing something that had never been done before and (very risky I might add) it paid off big time furthering his acceptance and cross over appeal to white audience's completely. No movie no 14 million album sales, I wager it would have still sold alot but nowhere near that amount. Yep, purple rain was the glue that sealed the deal for him, his THRILLER. (Though neither thriller or purple rain were my favorite albums by those two) Not to mention that at some point he had already started getting hate mail from racists regarding his penchant for white women... [Edited 6/6/16 19:45pm]

Wow really? At the time I didn't know he had a visible white woman he date. I know in that time frame he was dating Susannah. But up till that point he was only dating other 'mutts' Susan Moonsie Jill Jones Vanity Sheila E etc

OldFriends4Sale said:

jazzvirtuoso said:

Nope absolutely not. Intresting in that I started to make a post about P never having made purple rain and the effect it would have on his career (as in he wouldn't have had the one that we saw) And although he had already created the racial ambiguity pretext needed to propel him tword mainstream success "PR" the movie gave everything context VISUALLY in a way that wouldn't have been possible othetwise. By creating the mixed kid character mythos and showing his white italin mother onscreen, Prince was doing something that had never been done before and (very risky I might add) it paid off big time furthering his acceptance and cross over appeal to white audience's completely. No movie no 14 million album sales, I wager it would have still sold alot but nowhere near that amount. Yep, purple rain was the glue that sealed the deal for him, his THRILLER. (Though neither thriller or purple rain were my favorite albums by those two) Not to mention that at some point he had already started getting hate mail from racists regarding his penchant for white women... [Edited 6/6/16 19:45pm]

Wow really? At the time I didn't know he had a visible white woman he date. I know in that time frame he was dating Susannah. But up till that point he was only dating other 'mutts' Susan Moonsie Jill Jones Vanity Sheila E etc

come on.... mutts is a really tacky term

MoBettaBliss said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Wow really? At the time I didn't know he had a visible white woman he date. I know in that time frame he was dating Susannah. But up till that point he was only dating other 'mutts' Susan Moonsie Jill Jones Vanity Sheila E etc

come on.... mutts is a really tacky term

Not meant to be.
my friend calls herself a Euro-mutt

Obama called himself a mutt. Nothing meant to be offensive.

Revolution said:

Did u just refer to these ladies as mutts? Well damn! I think he would have still been as big without the movie. Remember, his videos were awesome during that time. The costumes would still be in the videos and live. [Edited 6/6/16 20:57pm]

Nothing nasty from my end. President Obama called himself a Mutt in 2008. Lisa Bonet and Cree Summers call themselves mutts.
It's a bit of a slang for people of mixture of any kind.

I agree. He would have been huge in 1984. Before the movie hit this singles and bsides were everwhere, and the When Doves Cry video was awesome.
I wonder what the PR tour would have been like.. would he have had more smaller shows like the 1983 and 6.7.1984 First Avenue show

Would he have fired Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, would Vanity have staye on for the 2nd album...