IstenSzek said:

1. prince burned a lot of bridges, pissed off a lot of people and didn't care.

2. prince could have had hits regardless, if he'd been willing to play the game a certain way.

3. prince did not play anyone's game unless he felt like it.

4. prince then tried exactly what everyone was suggesting (rave), but on his terms.

5. prince realised a fusion between 'what i want and what they want' didn't work, got frustrated and said 'fuck it'

6. prince went on to make 17 years worth of amazing music, gaining more and more respect.

7. the world will catch up to prince sometime in the future, it will just take some more time.

8. singles and recordsales are dead for almost everyone over 40, give or take a few people, who play the game, so, see # '3.'

Vannormal said:

luv4u said:

The name change allowed him to do what he wanted and be free to create. Genius move.

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and then he started to fuck it up

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midlife crisis (maybe, i'm not an expert)

religious influences

the pop and rock lanscape changed

he was no longer in the game

after stardom, the fall

hoping for a 'come back' like on the charts and in his wallet

stubbornness

religious influences

trying to fit in with some trends

bad business decisions

fanbase troubles

unfullfilled promisses (releases, npg club memberships etc)

live shows play lists wer the same with every new tour, barely new album tracks played

religious influences

mising the boat on starting remasterig his older albums in an early stage

banning parts of his lyrics

attacking bootleggers (it's how his management did it, they didn't won anything with that move)

the youtube mistake

treating Wendy & Lisa wrong (gay thing)

religious influences

etc

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all this is my own humble opinion

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I noticed you listed "religious influences" twice

Lost everything, hilarious. Every single person in this thread would consider their career a success if they had the career P had during his "lost everything" phase. The only truly ugly move he made during his career, imo, was the desperation of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. But, even covering Sheryl Crow didn't cause him to lose everything. Amazing that he turned around after that bland, calculated pos album to make The Rainbow Children.

callimnate said:

luv4u said:

The name change allowed him to do what he wanted and be free to create. Genius move.

But it didnt help him one bit with record sales AND polpularity. Even lost most of his devoted fans. Myself included.

And what he "created" afterwards was below par and othing Genious like. Unlike his material before the name change.

not important to him....especially certain fans

Prince's(r.i.p.) last RADIO/HIT song "1000 X's & O's" was merely months before he transitioned with little to no promotion at all.From Hit n Run Phase 1.

[Edited 1/20/20 15:06pm]

ChocolateBox3121 said:

Prince's(r.i.p.) last hit song "1000 X's & O's" was merely months before he transitioned with little to no promotion at all.From Hit n Run Phase 1.

You are such a Loyal Darling....

He lost pay for play.

(allegedly) WB threatened to sue him if he used the Prince name to release music. He took that threat away from them by changing his name.

The only way to gain freedom and radio airplay was to either buy radio stations or buy into established Music companies to gain power. Prince chose to do the indepenednt route that limits your airplay which in turn reduces sales. Although, Prince made more money from Musicology album sales than he did off of Purple Rain album sales.

Lovejunky said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

Prince's(r.i.p.) last hit song was "1000 X's & O's" merely months before he transitioned with little to no promotion at all.From Hit n Run Phase 1.

You are such a Loyal Darling....

The name change to the symbol, I have mixed feelings.

In hindsight what a genius move, from a marketing point of view. How much merchandise did he cash in on as a result of the symbol, and how many other artists can you identify from just a symbol? None. It also kept him in the headlines, though admittedly much of it wasn't very flattering. I didn't enjoy defending him to friends of mine at the time though who thought he'd lost the plot.

As for the music that accompanied it, would the music have been any different if he'd have kept the Prince moniker? Maybe ... how much energy did he put in to all the side issues like the name change that would have been better focused in the studio ... we'll never know. Personally, I don't think the Symbol era was as strong as what went before, but it was still great.

lastdecember said:

I just recently was scanning through all his SINGLE chart positions because I was telling someone that in reality PRINCE had not had a radio hit single in two decades, prior to his death his last Radio Airplay Hit ironically was under the symbol, TMBGITW from 1994. After that U can argue that I HATE U was a hit and it was peaking at Number 12 but almost all of its points were gathered from sales of the single, almost none from airplay and that would be it, minor chart blips after that, an occasional song on RB airplay chart, Future Baby Mama, and Somebody Somebody. But in reality PRINCE was going through what artists now like Bruce and Bon Jovi go through, debuting high with an album in most cases Number 1 without the benefit of a song even KNOWN or on radio at all, and then falling off the charts. But in time period where it started with Prince, artists like Bruce and Jovi still were getting played on the radio, so why did PRINCE suffer? To me it was the name change, no one media wise got over it, radio and people in media were tired of his ego and him saying call me a "symbol" or hold this up dont call me Prince, when a lot of these stations could argue WE MADE U and they wouldnt be wrong to an extent. So I know people dont like to hear that PRINCE didnt have a hit in 22 years when he died but that is pretty much reality.

I think his path would have been easier had he returned to "Prince and The Revolution". He didn't want the easy path though.