OperatingThetan said:

It's the year I became a fan at 15 having heard little else at that time, so the answer would be yes.

But that was with 10 yrs of Purple wonder cushing that..

Now that's a tuff question . I gotta really think about this one tho. Look, I'm not saying that PR is his best album, definitely not! But it started his big success and it was the first thing I've heard from him. I don't know if I would've ever heard somethin' from D+P, because my family isn't into Prince. I probably would've never heard of him tho. But I can't be so damn sure about that either. There's still the possibility that I'd get to hear D+P, and I like it tho. So MAYBE I'd be here now?

Damn I said it's a tuff question, look at me, I'm mumbling like a fool

It's been his track record that has made me a fan today. I became a fan as any person would of a new pop culture artist, so my fandom then in the beginning is nowhere near what it is today. So I may have become interested in the new pop culture artist the same as any other time, then it would depend on what he did afterwards, which wouldn't be the same because what came before influenced what came after. He would have been driven by different things as a new artist.

Sure

Well, considering it was his last smash era i can confirm that 99% of his fans wouldn't be here today. With albums ike Purple Rain, Dirty Mind, Parade and 1999, most people didn't care for his post D&P's albums. Imagine with D&P being his debut he would probably be considered a one hit wonder.

paraded said:

If Prince showed up with his first tracks being Willing and Able, Cream, and Money Don’t Matter Tonight, he’d have been a jaw droppingly mature debut artist. So much after, especially the astonishing run of Symbol Album, Come, Gold Experience - would have been enough to start an obsession. I’d argue those albums would be easier to appreciate had they not followed perhaps the most explosively creative decade any popular musician has undertaken. It’d have been a different conversation, but still one of endless depths. And I’d still be hungering for as many great insights as I could get. [Edited 1/11/18 22:53pm]

^^^ Pretty much this.

If songs like Billy Jack Bitch, Damn U, Money Don't Matter 2nite, Shhhh, 7, Dolphin and Dark ain't enough to make a Prince fan outta you, then you got no business calling yourself a Prince fan!!!

I was listening to a lot of Hip Hop during the early 90s. Public Enemy, Ice Cube, EPMD. NWA, 2pac, etc.So probably not. I bought the D&P CD and a few others because of the earlier work.

I'm going to have to be honest with myself and say no. D and P was a great album for what it was, when it came to be but I don't think it would have been strong enough to be his debut album and the foundation of what was to come afterwards. Sure the Love Symbol album may have still came to be and I still likely would have loved it but I sadly think his career would have been done before Emancipation without the muscle and endurance of all his pre-91 works.

If Prince had started out in the 90s, the whole trajectory of his career would've been different. For starters, his live shows would've been drastically different. Songs like Gett Off, Cream, 7, Sexy MF, TMBGITW and Gold would've been his concert staples, instead of Kiss, Purple Rain etc.

And he likely never would've fought with Warners in the mid-nineties... only a fool would wage war against their own record label only a few years into their recording career. So that would mean that albums like Emancipation and songs like Slave, I Rock Therefore I Am, Face Down, Undisputed etc would never have existed (some may argue that'd be no great loss lol).

There's too many variables at play to seriously consider Prince's post-91 output all coming from a new artist, without drastic content changes. I do think, quality wise, there was enough great material being produced to have made me a fan. Infact, I became a fan in the mid-nineties, and that was based on what I knew of his 90s work (mainly Gold and TMBGITW, which inspired my purchase of TGE in '95). I never actually heard Purple Rain, Doves Cry or any of his 80s classics until I bought the albums. I was only 12/13 when I became a fan in the mid-90s, so his 80s stuff was being made when I was a little kid. I remember hearing Doves Cry for the first time when I got Purple Rain and being disappointed it didn't sound like Ginuwine's version (yeah, I know... the shame... but I was 13 at the time, although that's no excuse lol). I listened to Ginuwine's version a little while back, having not really heard it since the 90s and was shocked at myself and my poor taste back then.

[Edited 1/12/18 2:15am]

MattyJam said:

I think 'yes' because the House Mix of Gett Off was being played like mad on late night radio!

At the time is was so unique and was simply on fire!

OperatingThetan said:

It's the year I became a fan at 15 having heard little else at that time, so the answer would be yes.

Same for me. When I was 15 the Gett Off video caught my attention (for a number of reasons), which led me to getting a copy cassette tape of D&P from a girl in school. After getting the D&P and Gett Off video collections I was hooked.

Interesting question, I'd say no. I remember being 'tired' of Prince after Grafitti Bridge but in true Prince fashion he brought me back with the symbol album. If it all started with D&P, I doubt I would have stuck around this long

Yes because his genius is undeniable...

If D&P didnt catch your attention then it would only be becasue in his own woirds

You all werent ready...

I find a lot of his later music, was so against the mainstream that

its like an acquired taste..

Like olives...you mightnt have liked them at first

but once you go used to the Unusual Flavour..

well Pizza just aint the same without them...

What if he'd been a new, underground artist named who, after releasing successful independent singles with TMBGITW and Love Sign, had shot a weird music film for TV (TBE), had cancelled a planned rock album with guitar magazine but released the video by mail order a few months later(TU), had produced a various artists compilation (1-800) and a raw funk album titled Exodus with his band, toured clubs and some bigger venues with his 94-95 set of unreleased material and finally released TGE on WB as his first full-lenght album, then followed-up with 2 triple albums (Emancipation and CB), a coupla more records (Kamasutra, NPS, The War) and productions (CK, GCS) and finally gone into retirement after Rave in 99?

Would have become a cult artist?

MattyJam said:

paraded said:

If Prince showed up with his first tracks being Willing and Able, Cream, and Money Don’t Matter Tonight, he’d have been a jaw droppingly mature debut artist. So much after, especially the astonishing run of Symbol Album, Come, Gold Experience - would have been enough to start an obsession. I’d argue those albums would be easier to appreciate had they not followed perhaps the most explosively creative decade any popular musician has undertaken. It’d have been a different conversation, but still one of endless depths. And I’d still be hungering for as many great insights as I could get. [Edited 1/11/18 22:53pm]

^^^ Pretty much this.

If songs like Billy Jack Bitch, Damn U, Money Don't Matter 2nite, Shhhh, 7, Dolphin and Dark ain't enough to make a Prince fan outta you, then you got no business calling yourself a Prince fan!!!

ahhh nooo

I like Money Don't Matter 2Night, Dark etc but most of those songs didn't make me want to know more of Prince. Griffiti Bridge disappointed me. And D&P was too 'clean' for me.

databank said:

MattyJam said:

databank said:

What if he'd been a new, underground artist named who, after releasing successful independent singles with TMBGITW and Love Sign, had shot a weird music film for TV (TBE), had cancelled a planned rock album with guitar magazine but released the video by mail order a few months later(TU), had produced a various artists compilation (1-800) and a raw funk album titled Exodus with his band, toured clubs and some bigger venues with his 94-95 set of unreleased material and finally released TGE on WB as his first full-lenght album, then followed-up with 2 triple albums (Emancipation and CB), a coupla more records (Kamasutra, NPS, The War) and productions (CK, GCS) and finally gone into retirement after Rave in 99?

Would have become a cult artist?

I think was a cult artist anyway. He certainly was in the 90s after he left Warners and changed his name.

IDK. I read here a lot of people sayin' people were making fun of him at the time but I recall that those making fun of him were the same fools who already despised him before the name change. On the other hand, in hip circles, the arty-farty world and the media, at least in France, was like the coolest man on earth (that would change after TGE, because he'd quit the 94-95 "bad ass underground artist and his weird band" attitude and trade it for a more family-friendly image from Emancipation-on)

MattyJam said:

If Prince had started out in the 90s, the whole trajectory of his career would've been different. For starters, his live shows would've been drastically different. Songs like Gett Off, Cream, 7, Sexy MF, TMBGITW and Gold would've been his concert staples, instead of Kiss, Purple Rain etc.

And he likely never would've fought with Warners in the mid-nineties... only a fool would wage war against their own record label only a few years into their recording career. So that would mean that albums like Emancipation and songs like Slave, I Rock Therefore I Am, Face Down, Undisputed etc would never have existed (some may argue that'd be no great loss lol).

There's too many variables at play to seriously consider Prince's post-91 output all coming from a new artist, without drastic content changes. I do think, quality wise, there was enough great material being produced to have made me a fan.

Quoted for posterity. It's rather mind-boggling to imagine a '90s Prince that wasn't at war with WB. So, so much would have been different.

No.

Just thinking about what my own life was like in '91 (working a full- and a part-time job, while going to college part-time), it would have taken a lot more than that album to get my attention. Especially followed (as it was) by the Love Symbol album, which is in my absolute bottom tier of all Prince albums.

Yup. Could you imagine someone's debut single being "Gett Off"!? That would be incredible.