Just curious what other thought. If Purple Rain, with it's same soundtrack, were released today?

NO!!!

NO!!!

NO!!!

no more PR or Thrillers

206Michelle said:

oceancrayon said:

206Michelle said:

It is hard to know. Part of the appeal was Prince being in the movie, because he was a popular musician at that time. I think that the aggression/violence toward women would be less acceptable, particularly the guys putting the woman in the dumpster. The fighting between the parents is disturbing, but it is an important part of the storyline of PR the film. I wonder if the scene where Prince hits Apollonian would still occur if the film were released in 2017.

Appollonian!? Haha, but that's a thought too, if it came out today, if Prince's love interest in the film was another guy. Sure would be interesting lol. Would definitely be ... dun dun dun... Controversy... [Edited 7/19/17 10:12am]

My bad, I misspelled, thanks to the auto-correct on my phone. I definitely meant to write Appollonia.

[Edited 7/19/17 10:41am]

Yes- because a young Prince would have been on the cutting edge of what was going on and created a masterpiece. In other words you can't move 30 years in the future and say would that album work today. Makes no sense.

The film went pretty well about ten years ago when it was released as 8 Mile.

MD431Madcat said:

NO!!!

NO!!!

NO!!!

no more PR or Thrillers

I wasn't meaning a remake, I mean the exact version that we love, being release for the FIRST time in 2017, how it would be received with the public/movie goers/music lovers?

206Michelle said:

It is hard to know. Part of the appeal was Prince being in the movie, because he was a popular musician at that time. I think that the aggression/violence toward women would be less acceptable, particularly the guys putting the woman in the dumpster. The fighting between the parents is disturbing, but it is an important part of the storyline of PR the film. I wonder if the scene where Prince hits Apollonia [edited] would still occur if the film were released in 2017. [Edited 7/19/17 10:40am]

You do make great points about the aggression/violence toward women, I feel like nowadays would have way more backlash/protests. I find it hard to envision how the 84 hit film/soundtrack would be received, AS an 80s movie in 2017. Same with Grease for example. But part of me thinks they would be as popular because we really don't have many of those kinds of films out, and the music alone would make them hits. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking

robertgeorge said:

The film went pretty well about ten years ago when it was released as 8 Mile.

Great point. This is my perspective, that it PR would still be successful due to there NOT being many movies like it out there. Even despite backlash. Which I imagine would just fall into the 'bad publicity is still publicity' box.

coldasice said:

No, it would still get good reviews probably, but people were more open to different musical styles then

I agree there were more diverse music styles back in the day.

oceancrayon said:

206Michelle said:

It is hard to know. Part of the appeal was Prince being in the movie, because he was a popular musician at that time. I think that the aggression/violence toward women would be less acceptable, particularly the guys putting the woman in the dumpster. The fighting between the parents is disturbing, but it is an important part of the storyline of PR the film. I wonder if the scene where Prince hits Apollonian would still occur if the film were released in 2017.

Appollonian!? Haha, but that's a thought too, if it came out today, if Prince's love interest in the film was another guy. Sure would be interesting lol. Would definitely be ... dun dun dun... Controversy... [Edited 7/19/17 10:12am]

That's an interesting thought.

Purple Rain was daring back in the day, right? Would it be that way now in it's current version (despite the awesome music ?

No, the sound would not work with pop music today. It could have been an acclaimed indie album though.

Of course, because Purple Rain has real musicians in it.

An indie album. Tsk.

ChanGirl said:

It is very unique futuristic music. I think it would. Today it would still stand out in a big way.

Yes. Good albums transcend time. PR will still be listened to by the masses in 2000 years time

sfinky1 said:

No. Why? The landscape of popular music has changed, the music industry has changed, and society as a whole has changed drastically since then. Every occurrence in life is fixed in time and that's part of what makes it what it is - it can't be moved backward or forward in time otherwise it wouldn't be the same thing - this is why time travel is technically impossible IMO.

This. It's hard to even comprehend, because if the album was hypothetically released today, then what filled its space in the 80's? How did the evolution of music differ from 1984 to now? Would Prince be a 26 year old releasing it in 2017, or in his 50's as he would be in our current timeline? Would the production of the album differ to reflect the sounds and production styles of today, or sound exactly the same as the version we know?

There are far too many variables to come up with a satisfying answer, but let's just say that Purple Rain as we know it was released for the very first time in 2017 and Prince wasn't already an established star: the album might blow up online and become a favorite on music sites & blogs. Indie/underground music lovers will hype it up and it will get a bit of crossover success from online promotion, but would never cross over into dominating the charts or becoming a cultural phenomeon like it did in the 80's. I'm thinking it would see the kind of success that recent albums by the likes of St. Vincent, Thundercat, maybe even Frank Ocean have seen.

mbdtyler said:

sfinky1 said:

No. Why? The landscape of popular music has changed, the music industry has changed, and society as a whole has changed drastically since then. Every occurrence in life is fixed in time and that's part of what makes it what it is - it can't be moved backward or forward in time otherwise it wouldn't be the same thing - this is why time travel is technically impossible IMO.

This. It's hard to even comprehend, because if the album was hypothetically released today, then what filled its space in the 80's? How did the evolution of music differ from 1984 to now? Would Prince be a 26 year old releasing it in 2017, or in his 50's as he would be in our current timeline? Would the production of the album differ to reflect the sounds and production styles of today, or sound exactly the same as the version we know?

There are far too many variables to come up with a satisfying answer, but let's just say that Purple Rain as we know it was released for the very first time in 2017 and Prince wasn't already an established star: the album might blow up online and become a favorite on music sites & blogs. Indie/underground music lovers will hype it up and it will get a bit of crossover success from online promotion, but would never cross over into dominating the charts or becoming a cultural phenomeon like it did in the 80's. I'm thinking it would see the kind of success that recent albums by the likes of St. Vincent, Thundercat, maybe even Frank Ocean have seen.

smoothcriminal12 said:

ChanGirl said:

Of course, because Purple Rain has real musicians in it.

An indie album. Tsk.

Do you even know what music sounds like today? Purple Rain would NOT fit in and would not be successful.

So condescending, child. Good thing Prince isn't here to read your opinion, but then again he'd ignore it. I wonder if you can tell the difference between autotune and real music.

ForeverPaisley said:

coldasice said:

No, it would still get good reviews probably, but people were more open to different musical styles then

I agree there were more diverse music styles back in the day.

If there was more diversity in what was offered, it was my experience that people were not even close to being more open to different musical styles in the early to mid 80s. Music listening was very segregated back then. I knew of no classic rockers who were spinning wgci (premiere black radio from Chicago). These days, I hear more people than ever saying that they "listen to everything."

To answer the question asked by op, no, unless we could also fantasize the pre-boil of Prince's popularity that had been brewing the years leading up to PR's release. Musically, hell yea the soundtrack would have been accepted just as it was back then because good music doesn't give a fuck about what's popular at the time. Fuck, I remember when the Black Crowes came on the scene doing an old school rock sound. They blew up because they were the antithesis of what was popular at the time, making their old take sound funky fresh. Same with Nirvana.

The film as presented to the public, I agree, would have been a different edit. From the degradation to Morris saying "ya long haired faggot!" We would have seen cuts.

ChanGirl said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

ChanGirl said: Do you even know what music sounds like today? Purple Rain would NOT fit in and would not be successful.

So condescending, child. Good thing Prince isn't here to read your opinion, but then again he'd ignore it. I wonder if you can tell the difference between autotune and real music.

*calls me condescending, then attempts to disparage me by calling me a child*

Ignoring the hypocrisy of your very first sentence (), I will assume that Prince, who was one of the most famous and critically acclaimed artists of his time, would not be upset by the assertion that his mega-successful critical magnum opus would not be timely over 25 years later, when the sound of popular music has changed so completely that it would sound almost alien to someone plucked out of 1984. The fact that you've taken such a defensive and passionate stance indicates that you are much too invested in a very trivial (and purely hypothetical) matter. Take a chill pill, and maybe a breather sometime.

[Edited 7/21/17 15:24pm]

robertgeorge said:

hell yes!!