IstenSzek said:

feeluupp said:

agree.

the sad thing there was so much great music from the late 93-94 period that was really ignored by the masses... i mean if u had up his sales with THE GOLD EXPERIENCE, CHAOS & DISORDER and EMANCIPATION, it doesn't even pass the 2 million mark... His output was commercially ignored...

His last album to go multi platinum was MUSICOLOGY which sold over 2 million in the U.S. alone...

Sadly after his passing, his biggest selling album is THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE, which sold a million copies in the U.S. alone since his death.

seriously, it's that little? man, people slept on a lot of great music!

sadly so...

even the EMANCIPATION was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, it was because they counted it as a triple disk... it actually sold no more than 700,000 copies. Gold was certified Gold in the U.S. selling just barely over 500k... Chaos & Disorder was his lowest selling album of the time selling under 400k copies in the U.S.

IamBryan said:

feeluupp said:

IstenSzek said:

seriously, it's that little? man, people slept on a lot of great music!

sadly so...

even the EMANCIPATION was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, it was because they counted it as a triple disk... it actually sold no more than 700,000 copies. Gold was certified Gold in the U.S. selling just barely over 500k... Chaos & Disorder was his lowest selling album of the time selling under 400k copies in the U.S.

makes me wonder why people were no longer buying his records. did the music scene change
that much? i mean, his 93/94 music was great (personally i also like emancipation though) so
after the succes of "diamonds and pearls", the somewhat moderate succes of "love symbol",
a greatest hits release which also sold quite well, the public just all of a sudden stopped being
interested?

they did buy TMBGITW and that was sold as a song, so it's not like people didn't know
that this was prince, and they obviously liked the song a lot.

when you look at it from that perspective i guess the backlash from the falling out with WB,
and the whole name change must have put many fans off? but why? none of the mattered 1
single bit to me because his new music was GREAT.

or were people THAT aware of what was on each album when they bought it, did it matter so
much to them that TMBGITW wasn't on "Come"?

oh i don't know. it's all in the pas i guess. i just can't understand how such good music went
without at least selling 1 mil a pop back in the early to mid 90s.

IstenSzek said:

feeluupp said:

sadly so...

even the EMANCIPATION was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, it was because they counted it as a triple disk... it actually sold no more than 700,000 copies. Gold was certified Gold in the U.S. selling just barely over 500k... Chaos & Disorder was his lowest selling album of the time selling under 400k copies in the U.S.

makes me wonder why people were no longer buying his records. did the music scene change
that much? i mean, his 93/94 music was great (personally i also like emancipation though) so
after the succes of "diamonds and pearls", the somewhat moderate succes of "love symbol",
a greatest hits release which also sold quite well, the public just all of a sudden stopped being
interested?

they did buy TMBGITW and that was sold as a song, so it's not like people didn't know
that this was prince, and they obviously liked the song a lot.

when you look at it from that perspective i guess the backlash from the falling out with WB,
and the whole name change must have put many fans off? but why? none of the mattered 1
single bit to me because his new music was GREAT.

or were people THAT aware of what was on each album when they bought it, did it matter so
much to them that TMBGITW wasn't on "Come"?

oh i don't know. it's all in the pas i guess. i just can't understand how such good music went
without at least selling 1 mil a pop back in the early to mid 90s.

in my opinion it was a multitude of things... the name change really made him a "laughing stock" and a "weirdo" at the time... his lowest commercial peak was deff from 1994 - 2003... those 9 years he had literally no commercial visibility to the general public.

with the exception of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD EP which that single literally sold more than every PRINCE album released until 2004's MUSICOLOGY... his sales were so low domestically, and even his tours in Europe finanially suffered, if u read Alex Hans book, TGE tour was commercially very bad, as they had to rid most of the stage props set of the "endorphinemachine"...

he wasn't selling out arena's anymore, in the states he was playing ampi theaters and small venues under 10,000 people till ofc the MUSICOLOGY comeback.

but as far as commercially, after the LOVE SYMBOL album, he had commercial success with THE HITS, THE HITS THE B-SIDES, which all went multi platinum in the states, as WB paid him $1 million to stay out of that project... after that with the name change, the media coverage mocking his name, the lack of radio airplay, COME, TGE, CHAOS & DISORDER, EMANCIPATION, NEWPOWERSOUL, ONE NITE ALONE LIVE! THE RAINBOW CHILDREN, N.E.W.S. all sold terrible in terms of numbers and commercial status.

IamBryan said:

U.S. SALES:

Last platinum album in the 90's:

THE HITS, THE HITS/THE B-SIDES - 2x Million Each

** THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE - OVER 2 Million in the U.S. Alone

COME - 500.000

THE GOLD EXPERIENCE - 500.000

CHAOS & DISORDER - 350.000

EMANCIPATION - 750.000

CRYSTALL BALL - 80.000

NEWPOWER SOUL - 250.000

RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC - 500.000

THE RAINBOW CHILDREN - 158.000

N.E.W.S. - 30.000

------------------------------

MUSICOLOGY - Over 3 Million World Wide

RodeoSchro said:

IamBryan said:

'i believe EMANCIPATION killed Prince's career commerically!'

Fixed, for accuracy.

I just posted this on another thread, and I will say the same thing here: except for TMBGITW (which he was allowed to release only with WBR's blessing), Prince was blackballed from radio after 1993.

Without reading all the other posts, I will say its a good point, those songs were commercial suicide.

.

Sexy MF was a flop in the US, but had novelty hit success in the UK peaking at #4 but dropping real quick (The song was ligged in at #4) but had fell out of the Top 75 in 7 weeks. Strollin was added as a B side. I think it the novelty of a song with the f word in its title that sold it initially. A good song, but a bit bizarre for non fans and as a single choice.

.

In the US it was a flop given the more conservative chart buyers there, most of the 1992 chart rap was censored versions or more get down than hardcore gangsta shit. The Chronic dropped several months after Sexy MF came out, so G funk had not softened the charts for the obscene shit that passes as rap today. Plus really Prince's singing, the horns and the f word held together a song nearly wrecked by Tony M's rap.

.

Tony M also killed my name is Prince, really slip shod filler and it climbed into the 30s becuase of Prince's chart record with D and P. Other reasons being that Prince was the last to know Tony M was a shitty rapper and no one really cared about his direction.

.

Also if we look at Diamonds and Pearls, it had 5 singles and 4 were Top 30 (Insatiable was nearly really expected to be a huge hit outside the dance charts), but two of those were only 20s, and relaistically a song that peaks in the 20s is not a big hit, a decent hit, but not a big one, that leaves Cream and Diamonds and Pearls as the big hits, the latter a competent but very soppy ballad, sold to the sentimental crowd, and Cream was a blinder from start to finish, but still nothing really new, it did its job and yet was only #1 for 2 weeks and dropped quite quickly (I think Color Me Badd or someone like that took over). The album sold well and attracted many new fans including me, but we all know, we were blinded by its star power back then and today it has some good songs and some dreadful filler like Jughead.

.

With Symbol, Prince just repeated much of the lesser bits of D and P and added more self indulgence and bad rapping by Tony M. Big mistake, despiet some excellent songs, the rock opera concept was silly and the Tony M raps ruined many a great song. Notice Damn U the best track has NO tony M or any other rappery in it. The choice of singles was ridiculous. It should have gone.

.

Single 1 - 7/Damn U - The most commercial song and best pop song on the album with a supreme ballad. The fact 7 got to the Top 10 as the 3rd single shows how well received it would be, many agree it was his last proper hit (Excepting TMBGITW of course) as Prince. Had the song come out first single, it may have been Top 3 or #1, having a D and P type sound and some great vocals.

.

Single 2 - The Morning Papers/The Max - A great ballad and a powerful dance song. I would edit the Max a bit to take out the Tony M Yogi Bear raps (Yo Babeee!!!). It would have gone Top 20.

.

Single 3 - The Sacrifice of Victor/ Sexy MF - A powerful song that would also chart well (20s?) and Sexy MF would be a cool B side, all the true fans would have it now, and Sexy MF could even be the Sexy Mutha edit.

.

Just my purple penny.

renfield said:

It was for sure the end of an era, commercially. After the name change he was never perceived the same way again by the general public, even when he had a huge hit with TMBGITW. And while it seems obvious in hindsight that the singles were chosen poorly ("The Continental" just screamed pop smash!) you have to look at the choices in context. Prince was becoming irrelevant after the disaster of Graffiti Bridge, and his image was updated for the hip-hop generation thanks to "Gett Off". That single got people talking about him again, and was successfully followed up for pop radio by "Cream" and "Diamonds & Pearls". I think Prince thought he could up the ante with "Sexy MF" but he went too far. Since that song had been forgotten long before the album was released, he thought he would try for another "Gett Off" styled 'hard' hit with "My Name Is Prince", with "7" taking the place of "Cream" for pop radio.

.

I can see why Prince thought this would work, but it just didn't. As innovative has he was, once something worked for him commercially he tended to repeat it again and again. Like "When Doves Cry", "Kiss" had no bass line. With he tried duplicating the release strategy of "Diamonds & Pearls". After TMBGITW was a hit, he led album after album with a ballad as lead single. I think the 70s-sounding soul success of TMBGITW is why he chose "Betcha By Golly Wow" as a lead for "Emancipation", which was a terrible choice. After he unsuccessfully tried that again with "The One" and "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" radio was permanently done with him.

completely disagree about him repeating things that worked. this is the man that followed up pr with artwiad. he intentionally went against his biggest success instead of trying to capitalize on it. using tecniques such as no baseline or releasinging more slow songs is totally different from repeating an entire sound and prince rarely did this.

I loved the Symbol album. Very creative, very diverse. Sorry you didn't hear that way.

I disagree if anything it was one of his most commercial and successful albums in the 90s, and its one of my favs (I play it at least once a week).....I think when he left Warners etc and suddenly got hardly any radio, tv (eg. MTV stopped playing his videos etc) support his career post Emancipation hit a bit of a plateau, despite him doing interviews with Chris Rock, Oprah etc. It shows u how the record labels can help or hurt an artist's career if they question things or don't stick with the program. Look what happened to George Michael, Miarah Carey and MJ and all the drama with SONY.

[Edited 7/17/16 19:36pm]

IstenSzek said:

I really love the symbol album too, its easily in the B+ category of Prince albums with me, but without Tony M and a few silly tracks like Arrogance and the Flow, it would be an A. Plus my comments were more about singles. I was speaking about chart people, not the Prince hardcore.

.

We all know the symbol album and love it, but the general public did not, I feel you need to be a Prince fan to truly dig Symbol. If I had never heard anything by Prince before and Symbol was the first thing I heard, I would probably not be a Prince fan afterwards (Maybe listening afterwards to Purple Rain, Sign or even Diamonds and Pearls I would ). The concepts of the rock opera, Mayte, the self indulgent moments and Tony M rapping along with the Byzantine arrangements would scare me off.

.

Seriously, how many people became fans with Diamonds and Pearls - A lot, mainly due to the big hit, Cream and even the song Gett Off would have pulled a few. But with Symbol - probably very few, many who did had probably heard D and P first or a single of it. I can hardly Sexy MF or My name is Prince being the Prince new fan pullers like Cream, 1999 or When Doves Cry would. If anything the album Symbol is an excellent example of how Prince is an acquired taste. Seriously most people either love his music like us, or they think he is absolute shit, a weirdo and possibly gay. Unlike the Beatles or some other group, very few people kind of like Prince, most it is all or nothing!

[Edited 7/17/16 20:33pm]

feeluupp said:

Lets talk about COMMERCIAL for a second...

Since 1979 everyone of Prince's albums went Platinum counting world wide sales, until 1993.

All of Prince's albums were over a million sellers.

It

Actually Dirty Mind did not go platinum until 1984 after Purple Rain, the album only sold 300k copies initially and failed to go gold. The only Gold album for Prince of 1981 was the Time.

.

Lovesexy also stalled at Gold in the USA and only went Platinum in the mid 1990s.

Adorecream said:

feeluupp said:

Lets talk about COMMERCIAL for a second...

Since 1979 everyone of Prince's albums went Platinum counting world wide sales, until 1993.

All of Prince's albums were over a million sellers.

It

Actually Dirty Mind did not go platinum until 1984 after Purple Rain, the album only sold 300k copies initially and failed to go gold. The only Gold album for Prince of 1981 was the Time.

.

Lovesexy also stalled at Gold in the USA and only went Platinum in the mid 1990s.

thank u for the post... yes i'm aware. in my post i stated all his albums went platinum counting world wide sales.

u are correct that Dirty Mind did not go Platinum till after Purple Rain, Controversy as well.

Yes Lovesexy was certified GOLD in U.S.A. selling over 750,000 copies of the time, however world wide LOVESEXY sold over 2 million.

So since PRINCE (album) like i stated in my post... All of his albums have been MILLION SELLER + from PRINCE - THE HITS/THE HITS THE B-SIDES.

Pretty good run, for an artist that has released an album every single year from 1979 - 1993

The only album that did not get certified from the early years was FOR YOU.

No certifications:

THE BLACK ALBUM

EXODUS

CHAOS & DISORDER

CRYSTAL BALL

NEWPOWER SOUL

THE VAULT: OLD FRIENDS FOR SALE

THE RAINBOW CHILDREN

ONE NIGHT ALONE... LIVE!

N.E.W.S.

PLANET EARTH

20TEN

ART OFFICIAL AGE

PLECTRUMELECTRUM

HITnRUN PHASE ONE

HITnRUN PHASE TWO

Doozer said:

was a glorious mess of an album. I like it all, despite the overblown ideas and overreaching perplexing storyline. Whatever - it rocks in awesome ways.

Watching the live shows supporting this album make me think that it was all just one big love letter to Mayte. She practically sits on the piano the entire time while he sings to her. I loved the Ryde Divine though, but not the album so much.

I think a lot of the songs were good except the rap parts.

For example, I LOVE 2 the 9's. BUT for me, he could had cut out that whole "interview/rap" part, and then I think the song would had be perfect.

Same with The Continental. The first part of the song is just way too much for me BUT once he turns it into a groove in the 2nd part, that's when the song becomes a hit. Plenty of people said even back then, he could do a remix with just the second part, it would had been a bonified hit on Top 40 Pop/Dance and R&B charts.

The Max, for me was a great song too. I was in college when this album came out so us as college kids, we played the you know what out of the Symbol album and The Max was used in a LOT of fashion shows as a runway song.

Sexy MF was a good fun song, he could had left out all the rap parts and it would had been really good. Because the horns on that song is

Goddess4Real said:

I disagree if anything it was one of his most commercial and successful albums in the 90s, and its one of my favs (I play it at least once a week).....I think when he left Warners etc and suddenly got hardly any radio, tv (eg. MTV stopped playing his videos etc) support his career post Emancipation hit a bit of a plateau, despite him doing interviews with Chris Rock, Oprah etc. It shows u how the record labels can help or hurt an artist's career if they question things or don't stick with the program. Look what happened to George Michael, Miarah Carey and MJ and all the drama with SONY.

[Edited 7/17/16 19:36pm]

Excellent point using those examples.

I think a couple of things played into Prince's waining in the mid-late 90's. Lots of big artists started too.

Lots of "big" 80's/90's artists started to have their comebacks around 2000-2005; Billy Joel, Bruce, Elton came back, U2, Prince and of course, Mariah "Mimi" Carey.

This even happened in Rap Music. Some artists were huge then tapered off like Public Enemy and then some maintained some level of success like LL Cool J.

Madonna even has even tapered off.

Really loving this thread, solme intelligent and juicy Prince conversation here about a very important and controversial album. Like I said before, I think it has aged well and has a much better view now than it did in 1992 or 1993. Of course my favourite song is Damn U, words can not describe it, very rarely do a song fill me with exhilaration and pleasure at the same time, his vocals and message and the lyrics are even kind of funny (Like animals just born 2 breed, I've got 2 have u baby, ure my only need, I'm on fire until u come and put me out).

.

And et Damn U ends with "That was for the lovers, and this is for the whores" Pimp rag, tootsie pop and the album goes from 10 to 0 just like that. Lack of consistency as the 2 shitty tracks Arrogance and the Flow start, with bombastic and shitty rapping by Prince and Tony M, then it all clears to make way for 7, a near perfect pop song. There is too much emotion and too many contrasts.

GhostChick said:

Goddess4Real said:

I disagree if anything it was one of his most commercial and successful albums in the 90s, and its one of my favs (I play it at least once a week).....I think when he left Warners etc and suddenly got hardly any radio, tv (eg. MTV stopped playing his videos etc) support his career post Emancipation hit a bit of a plateau, despite him doing interviews with Chris Rock, Oprah etc. It shows u how the record labels can help or hurt an artist's career if they question things or don't stick with the program. Look what happened to George Michael, Miarah Carey and MJ and all the drama with SONY.

[Edited 7/17/16 19:36pm]

Excellent point using those examples.

I think a couple of things played into Prince's waining in the mid-late 90's. Lots of big artists started too.

Lots of "big" 80's/90's artists started to have their comebacks around 2000-2005; Billy Joel, Bruce, Elton came back, U2, Prince and of course, Mariah "Mimi" Carey.

This even happened in Rap Music. Some artists were huge then tapered off like Public Enemy and then some maintained some level of success like LL Cool J.

Madonna even has even tapered off.

That's right no one stays on top forever, even Presley, Sinatra and Streisand have had peaks and valleys. Hence alot of them and their estates for those who have passed on have had adjust to the changes in the biz, especially with the increase changes in technology etc.

[Edited 7/17/16 22:11pm]

Adorecream said:

I really love the symbol album too, its easily in the B+ category of Prince albums with me, but without Tony M and a few silly tracks like Arrogance and the Flow, it would be an A. Plus my comments were more about singles. I was speaking about chart people, not the Prince hardcore.

.

We all know the symbol album and love it, but the general public did not, I feel you need to be a Prince fan to truly dig Symbol. If I had never heard anything by Prince before and Symbol was the first thing I heard, I would probably not be a Prince fan afterwards (Maybe listening afterwards to Purple Rain, Sign or even Diamonds and Pearls I would ). The concepts of the rock opera, Mayte, the self indulgent moments and Tony M rapping along with the Byzantine arrangements would scare me off.

.

Seriously, how many people became fans with Diamonds and Pearls - A lot, mainly due to the big hit, Cream and even the song Gett Off would have pulled a few. But with Symbol - probably very few, many who did had probably heard D and P first or a single of it. I can hardly Sexy MF or My name is Prince being the Prince new fan pullers like Cream, 1999 or When Doves Cry would. If anything the album Symbol is an excellent example of how Prince is an acquired taste. Seriously most people either love his music like us, or they think he is absolute shit, a weirdo and possibly gay. Unlike the Beatles or some other group, very few people kind of like Prince, most it is all or nothing!

[Edited 7/17/16 20:33pm]

funny..becuz of this album I became a fam. It was the song '7' that made me buy it, though. So the singles run would def be better if 7 was the first single. It took me a while to grt into that album...I love it since then

Adorecream said:

Without reading all the other posts, I will say its a good point, those songs were commercial suicide.

.

Sexy MF was a flop in the US, but had novelty hit success in the UK peaking at #4 but dropping real quick (The song was ligged in at #4) but had fell out of the Top 75 in 7 weeks. Strollin was added as a B side. I think it the novelty of a song with the f word in its title that sold it initially. A good song, but a bit bizarre for non fans and as a single choice.

.

In the US it was a flop given the more conservative chart buyers there, most of the 1992 chart rap was censored versions or more get down than hardcore gangsta shit. The Chronic dropped several months after Sexy MF came out, so G funk had not softened the charts for the obscene shit that passes as rap today. Plus really Prince's singing, the horns and the f word held together a song nearly wrecked by Tony M's rap.

.

Tony M also killed my name is Prince, really slip shod filler and it climbed into the 30s becuase of Prince's chart record with D and P. Other reasons being that Prince was the last to know Tony M was a shitty rapper and no one really cared about his direction.

.

Also if we look at Diamonds and Pearls, it had 5 singles and 4 were Top 30 (Insatiable was nearly really expected to be a huge hit outside the dance charts), but two of those were only 20s, and relaistically a song that peaks in the 20s is not a big hit, a decent hit, but not a big one, that leaves Cream and Diamonds and Pearls as the big hits, the latter a competent but very soppy ballad, sold to the sentimental crowd, and Cream was a blinder from start to finish, but still nothing really new, it did its job and yet was only #1 for 2 weeks and dropped quite quickly (I think Color Me Badd or someone like that took over). The album sold well and attracted many new fans including me, but we all know, we were blinded by its star power back then and today it has some good songs and some dreadful filler like Jughead.

.

With Symbol, Prince just repeated much of the lesser bits of D and P and added more self indulgence and bad rapping by Tony M. Big mistake, despiet some excellent songs, the rock opera concept was silly and the Tony M raps ruined many a great song. Notice Damn U the best track has NO tony M or any other rappery in it. The choice of singles was ridiculous. It should have gone.

.

Single 1 - 7/Damn U - The most commercial song and best pop song on the album with a supreme ballad. The fact 7 got to the Top 10 as the 3rd single shows how well received it would be, many agree it was his last proper hit (Excepting TMBGITW of course) as Prince. Had the song come out first single, it may have been Top 3 or #1, having a D and P type sound and some great vocals.

.

Single 2 - The Morning Papers/The Max - A great ballad and a powerful dance song. I would edit the Max a bit to take out the Tony M Yogi Bear raps (Yo Babeee!!!). It would have gone Top 20.

.

Single 3 - The Sacrifice of Victor/ Sexy MF - A powerful song that would also chart well (20s?) and Sexy MF would be a cool B side, all the true fans would have it now, and Sexy MF could even be the Sexy Mutha edit.

.

Just my purple penny.

You guy are silly...

How to begin with...DAMN U was the worst possible choice for LOVESYMBOL, even as a 5th single. Hell, it's one of the worst prince song ever.

SACRIFICE is a solid track, but too personnal to Prince to be a top 40...

GETT OFF was a huge hit, scanning 551.000 ex in the USA without being played hugely on airplay (and airplay = payola). SOUNDSCAN was in its 1st year, that means the real number are most likely around 600/650.000 ex...It outsold CREAM, 7 and DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. Top 10 everywhere.

Tony M was not more of a shitty rapper than the others rappers. This hate has no logic at all. He had a good flow, and his word hit hard.

SEXY MF flopped in the US mainly because it was censored on the radio, had no B FACE, and because the album DIAMONDS AND PEARLS was still charting at the time. It was a top 10 almost everywhere, even #19 in France, which was a great accomplishment for Prince.

IIRC there was only two months between singles...

MY NAME IS PRINCE is an excellent lead single, a very strong song. I can't explain why it flopped in the USA, but it was not so bad outside and was top 10 on many markets. Maybe because in the music video and in the tv performances, you don't see his face.

Personnaly, I would have released CONTINENTAL as a 4th or 5th single. Maybe GOD CREATED WOMEN, (and that is to be submit to debate, because too religious) had more potential than MORNING PAPERS, but that's about all.

LOVESYMBOL was not hurt by his single choices, but because people began to be bored by Prince. Even DIAMONDS AND PEARLS sold only 3 millions in the US, with all the promotion involved, that's not a great accomplishment at all.

[Edited 7/18/16 5:29am]

RODSERLING said:

Adorecream said:

Without reading all the other posts, I will say its a good point, those songs were commercial suicide.

.

Sexy MF was a flop in the US, but had novelty hit success in the UK peaking at #4 but dropping real quick (The song was ligged in at #4) but had fell out of the Top 75 in 7 weeks. Strollin was added as a B side. I think it the novelty of a song with the f word in its title that sold it initially. A good song, but a bit bizarre for non fans and as a single choice.

.

In the US it was a flop given the more conservative chart buyers there, most of the 1992 chart rap was censored versions or more get down than hardcore gangsta shit. The Chronic dropped several months after Sexy MF came out, so G funk had not softened the charts for the obscene shit that passes as rap today. Plus really Prince's singing, the horns and the f word held together a song nearly wrecked by Tony M's rap.

.

Tony M also killed my name is Prince, really slip shod filler and it climbed into the 30s becuase of Prince's chart record with D and P. Other reasons being that Prince was the last to know Tony M was a shitty rapper and no one really cared about his direction.

.

Also if we look at Diamonds and Pearls, it had 5 singles and 4 were Top 30 (Insatiable was nearly really expected to be a huge hit outside the dance charts), but two of those were only 20s, and relaistically a song that peaks in the 20s is not a big hit, a decent hit, but not a big one, that leaves Cream and Diamonds and Pearls as the big hits, the latter a competent but very soppy ballad, sold to the sentimental crowd, and Cream was a blinder from start to finish, but still nothing really new, it did its job and yet was only #1 for 2 weeks and dropped quite quickly (I think Color Me Badd or someone like that took over). The album sold well and attracted many new fans including me, but we all know, we were blinded by its star power back then and today it has some good songs and some dreadful filler like Jughead.

.

With Symbol, Prince just repeated much of the lesser bits of D and P and added more self indulgence and bad rapping by Tony M. Big mistake, despiet some excellent songs, the rock opera concept was silly and the Tony M raps ruined many a great song. Notice Damn U the best track has NO tony M or any other rappery in it. The choice of singles was ridiculous. It should have gone.

.

Single 1 - 7/Damn U - The most commercial song and best pop song on the album with a supreme ballad. The fact 7 got to the Top 10 as the 3rd single shows how well received it would be, many agree it was his last proper hit (Excepting TMBGITW of course) as Prince. Had the song come out first single, it may have been Top 3 or #1, having a D and P type sound and some great vocals.

.

Single 2 - The Morning Papers/The Max - A great ballad and a powerful dance song. I would edit the Max a bit to take out the Tony M Yogi Bear raps (Yo Babeee!!!). It would have gone Top 20.

.

Single 3 - The Sacrifice of Victor/ Sexy MF - A powerful song that would also chart well (20s?) and Sexy MF would be a cool B side, all the true fans would have it now, and Sexy MF could even be the Sexy Mutha edit.

.

Just my purple penny.

You guy are silly...

How to begin with...DAMN U was the worst possible choice for LOVESYMBOL, even as a 5th single. Hell, it's one of the worst prince song ever.

SACRIFICE is a solid track, but too personnal to Prince to be a top 40...

GETT OFF was a huge hit, scanning 551.000 ex in the USA without being played hugely on airplay (and airplay = payola). SOUNDSCAN was in its 1st year, that means the real number are most likely around 600/650.000 ex...It outsold CREAM, 7 and DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. Top 10 everywhere.

Tony M was not more of a shitty rapper than the others rappers. This hate has no logic at all. He had a good flow, and his word hit hard.

SEXY MF flopped in the US mainly because it was censored on the radio, had no B FACE, and because the album DIAMONDS AND PEARLS was still charting at the time. It was a top 10 almost everywhere, even #19 in France, which was a great accomplishment for Prince.

IIRC there was only two months between singles...

MY NAME IS PRINCE is an excellent lead single, a very strong song. I can't explain why it flopped in the USA, but it was not so bad outside and was top 10 on many markets. Maybe because in the music video and in the tv performances, you don't see his face.

Personnaly, I would have released CONTINENTAL as a 4th or 5th single. Maybe GOD CREATED WOMEN, (and that is to be submit to debate, because too religious) had more potential than MORNING PAPERS, but that's about all.

LOVESYMBOL was not hurt by his single choices, but because people began to be bored by Prince. Even DIAMONDS AND PEARLS sold only 3 millions in the US, with all the promotion involved, that's not a great accomplishment at all.

One man's opinion, I think I need a mongol to English dictionary to read the rest of your glob of text. Ever heard of lines between paragraphs and eshouting (Caps).

What groups were popular in the 90s into the 2000s? The most popular, I would assume, would have been U2, with the rappers/hip-hop artists following them along. IMO, he was - like a legacy act - adored by his hardcore fans and he could easily have toured every year singing only "catalogue" but he didn't want to do that. If he had - while fighting Warner Brothers - he would have made a lot of money while keeping his name and brand out there. He chose not to market himself in that way. IMO that is part of the reason we now, nearly three months after his passing, aren't hearing much about him. Life has gone on for the majority of people who mourned his loss.

Adorecream said:

RODSERLING said:

You guy are silly...

How to begin with...DAMN U was the worst possible choice for LOVESYMBOL, even as a 5th single. Hell, it's one of the worst prince song ever.

SACRIFICE is a solid track, but too personnal to Prince to be a top 40...

GETT OFF was a huge hit, scanning 551.000 ex in the USA without being played hugely on airplay (and airplay = payola). SOUNDSCAN was in its 1st year, that means the real number are most likely around 600/650.000 ex...It outsold CREAM, 7 and DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. Top 10 everywhere.

Tony M was not more of a shitty rapper than the others rappers. This hate has no logic at all. He had a good flow, and his word hit hard.

SEXY MF flopped in the US mainly because it was censored on the radio, had no B FACE, and because the album DIAMONDS AND PEARLS was still charting at the time. It was a top 10 almost everywhere, even #19 in France, which was a great accomplishment for Prince.

IIRC there was only two months between singles...

MY NAME IS PRINCE is an excellent lead single, a very strong song. I can't explain why it flopped in the USA, but it was not so bad outside and was top 10 on many markets. Maybe because in the music video and in the tv performances, you don't see his face.

Personnaly, I would have released CONTINENTAL as a 4th or 5th single. Maybe GOD CREATED WOMEN, (and that is to be submit to debate, because too religious) had more potential than MORNING PAPERS, but that's about all.

LOVESYMBOL was not hurt by his single choices, but because people began to be bored by Prince. Even DIAMONDS AND PEARLS sold only 3 millions in the US, with all the promotion involved, that's not a great accomplishment at all.

One man's opinion, I think I need a mongol to English dictionary to read the rest of your glob of text. Ever heard of lines between paragraphs and eshouting (Caps).

For some reason, when you quote my texts, jump of lines appear. But I don't know why the hell paragraphs doesn't appear on my posts otherwise...