databank said:

Harps said:

Admittedly this was quite a challenging period to be a Prince fan but there sure was some funky music made in this era....

Why would you say that?

Oppositely, I found 1994-1995 to be among the most exciting era, if not THE most exciting era of my now 27 years being a fan.

Yes I was referring to the general perception of him at that time. As a life longer I found it difficult to hear and read of the ridicule he was getting at the time. It didn't help when he started to do things like sue UPTOWN magazine.

Musically I really enjoyed this period. I remember going to see The Gold Experience tour and him playing completely new music from almost start to finish - although my casula Prince fan friend wasn't overly impressed.

Harps said:

databank said:

Why would you say that?

Oppositely, I found 1994-1995 to be among the most exciting era, if not THE most exciting era of my now 27 years being a fan.

Yes I was referring to the general perception of him at that time. As a life longer I found it difficult to hear and read of the ridicule he was getting at the time. It didn't help when he started to do things like sue UPTOWN magazine.

Musically I really enjoyed this period. I remember going to see The Gold Experience tour and him playing completely new music from almost start to finish - although my casula Prince fan friend wasn't overly impressed.

It's a pity public reaction to the London 95 shows was so negative simply based on the fact that people weren't familiar with the material. It's likely this contributed a lot to Prince doing only greatest hits and covers setlists after that point (save ONA Tour, the occasional show like Montreux and, to a certain extent, his 3EG tours). This made me (and from what I've read here, a lot of hardcore fans) relatively lose interest in his live shows. While it's always nice to hear a familiar song that you like at a show, I find it sad that so many people won't be able to enjoy good music on the mere base that it's unfamiliar to them. Just imagine how awesome it'd have been if most Prince tour since 1996 had focused on his latest material.

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Regarding public reaction in 93-95 I remember there was still some sort of admiration and amazement from at least the media, critics and hipsters at the time, because Prince was again doing some crazy shit and going against everything that would have been expected from him, and I remember, at least in France, that media people and artists were finding it supercool even if the masses were somewhat confused (but then again, from the We Are The World thing to If I Was Ur Girlfriend to My Name Is Prince, Prince had made a habit of losing the masses and geting them back with his next hit, and losing them again and getting them back again and so on...).

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I found the late 95 to early 01 more challenging in regards to public reaction because Prince was totally out of the radar and perceived as some sort of a has-been. Not that it prevented me from enjoying the new music, in a way there was even a sort of delight in it being more of a private garden, but I was really pissed at some really mean, really unfair and undeserved album reviews some critics had obviously a ball writing just because all of a sudden it was "cool" to treat Prince as a has-been (reviews are often as much about their writer than about their object). Then he released TRC and all of a sudden he was the coolest guy in the universe again according to those same critics

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However I don't think I've heard anyone I've met personally make fun of Prince (let alone of me because I liked Prince) ever since I finished high school in 1995. Not everyone liked his music of course, but people seemed to be aware of his talent. What I'd get sometimes from the late 90's till he passed would be genuine surprise reactions at me mentioning a new album: "A new Prince album? Really? I had no idea he was still releasing albums!". And I'd be like "It's OK, he's an indie now"