Sorry if this thread seems weird but I was wondering if we could establish a sociology of P fans.

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I could have started with a survey but I wanted to test the water first.

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Long story short: I've been an orger for 19 years but you usually knows little about fellow orgers. I'm a French fan but I've only known too few fellow French fans to establish any rule. I also know our perceptions are biased (cf. one fellow orger from some years back who swore to me most people in India knows Prince when, after spending 4 years of my life in India, I can assure you P could have gone shopping in a mall in India without anyone noticing him).

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If I had to establish an average of the French (hardcore) fans I've met (excluding people who like P and own a few albums), I'd say: 90% male, white, middle class, university educated in humanities, heterosexual people with musical tastes more or less focused towards 70's funk and 80's pop. But that's based on 20 to 30 people I've met so no statistics.

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I'd be interested in coming up with somethong more statistically relevant but I'm not even sure if the Org is the right place to do so because:

1/ IDK how many orgers would participate to an anonymous survey

2/ IDK how many P fans are on the Org

3/ IDK how many fans worldwide are on the Org (i.e. P supposedly has a strong base in Japan but we hardly see any Japanese on the Org).

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Opinions?

what if i want to participate in a non-anonymous survey because i like the attention

Japanese fans seem to hang out on their own imageboards but they've mentioned the org before so they know about it.

You can use google translator to read their threads.

https://lavender.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/musice/1593514207/

@ databank, I realize that you're approaching your curiosity toward the identity of fans' "sociology" from a passionate fan perspective, but if there ever were a curiosity that to me screamed out "market based research," this one is it!

>

I think you'd be right to acknowledge that not all Prince fans, just those posessing the combinant qualifications of:

a) passion

b) desire to write

c) moxie to deal with resultant internet social attention

would be the population segment you would find on the Prince fansite/message boards.The survey would be biased as such, IMO, in extending a questionairre among only these groups (as you've also suggested).

>

It would probably take serious moola ($) to conduct a proper kind of study of the kind that you may be considering--a large sum that a supportive industry would be able to supply. Of course, the execution of the proper "sociology" interview design would be essential to obtaining the right data for such an initiative.

>

Where there is a will, there is a way! Good luck to you!

This is an interesting topic but I think it will be very difficult for you to find a realistic answer. You mentioned the Japanese fan base, which is in my opinion quite strong but you rarely see them here on the org (maybe it´s because of the language barrier?) , and I think your assumption, or guess, of what you think his fanbase is is rather unrealistic.

What I´ve noticed over the decades is that Prince has a very large and very mixed fanbase that consists of extremely different people but most of them are not really represented here on the org or on Housequake, simply because they don´t even know about these places or they just don´t care.

And the fans I saw at European concerts differed drastically from country to country and from the average American fans. The American fans on the other hand are very mixed, too.

It´s amazing how Prince still managed to attract them all for so many decades.

There are some fan circles that I feel close to whereas others really turn me off and I avoid them.

Well, basically everyone here is using an Avatar & and are anonymous, so why wouldn't they feel O.K. participating?? It's not like you are going to publish their real names and street addresses once you get some numbers and data on them.

Heck, I am American, so we are always crazy enough to do this kind of thing. Maybe some of them would not want to put maybe their age out there, or economic level, and for God sakes, no politics. Other than that...you never know until you ask 'em. Go ahead and make one up, it might turn out to be very interesting.

Hey I'm in India! I would've noticed him!!!

What questions would be on this survey?

Interesting

You site those stats before about the Org and I disagreed. But it seems you were siting your French stats. Which I would replace white with French. In this instance.

I'd be interested for sure.

I just remember that Prince had a substantial fan base in Sheridan Wyoming too:

24.8% were of German, 12.3% English, 10.3% Irish, 6.0% Norwegian and 5.1% Polish ancestry.

It seemed there were just as much or more female fans, rural/farmers and 'lower income' not university educated, probably more openly heterosexual, musical tastes probably country first, but being Prince fans, clearly other genre too

Bobby Z, drummer for Prince's backing band, the Revolution, reflected on the how the Prince premiere was essentially the biggest thing that ever happened to the small farming, ranching and coal-mining town of Sheridan.

"It wouldn't have been the same if it had been in a bigger place — like, say, Duluth — because you really couldn't take over the town like this has," Bobby Z says in a quote attributed to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

One thing I observed about the UTCM premiere in Sheridan is that UPTOWN and Paisley Park are everywhere, and people who have that in their hearts connect with it.

Prince -one the last great Utopians

Strive said:

Japanese fans seem to hang out on their own imageboards but they've mentioned the org before so they know about it.

You can use google translator to read their threads.

https://lavender.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/musice/1593514207/

Ah the link is dead unfortunately.

Germanegro said:

@ databank, I realize that you're approaching your curiosity toward the identity of fans' "sociology" from a passionate fan perspective, but if there ever were a curiosity that to me screamed out "market based research," this one is it!

>

I think you'd be right to acknowledge that not all Prince fans, just those posessing the combinant qualifications of:

a) passion

b) desire to write

c) moxie to deal with resultant internet social attention

would be the population segment you would find on the Prince fansite/message boards.The survey would be biased as such, IMO, in extending a questionairre among only these groups (as you've also suggested).

>

It would probably take serious moola ($) to conduct a proper kind of study of the kind that you may be considering--a large sum that a supportive industry would be able to supply. Of course, the execution of the proper "sociology" interview design would be essential to obtaining the right data for such an initiative.

>

Where there is a will, there is a way! Good luck to you!

I agree, the bias would be too big

onlyforaminute said:

Sounds like you want the demographics more than anything else. I'd imagine the US would poll much differently than France.

Yeah, basically age, gender, income, ethnicity, country, these kind of things.

databank said:

onlyforaminute said:

Sounds like you want the demographics more than anything else. I'd imagine the US would poll much differently than France.

Yeah, basically age, gender, income, ethnicity, country, these kind of things.

And why would you want this data? Are you trying to sell something?

Because, really, who cares and why would it matter?

domainator2010 said:

Hey I'm in India! I would've noticed him!!!

What questions would be on this survey?

Questions about gender, age, country, income, ethnicity, other musical tastes, this kind of basic things. For example I was very surprised to see how many orgers were primarily rock fans, because all the fans I met in France cared very little about rock (and often even looked down on rock fans).

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Could be with you that I discussed India and Prince before. I've spoken with 2 Indians here, one from Chandigarh and one from Kolkata IIRC, but I keep forgetting people's orgnames so my apologies if you're one of the 2.

I kind of regularly surveyed the people I knew in Chennai and I think only 2 of them knew Prince. One was remarkably fluent in all things Western be it movies, TV shows, music, books... She knew about many things the other Indians I knew had never been exposed to. And the other was a musician so even though he was mostly into metal and hard rock, he had spent waaay more time roaming the internet for Western pop than most people there.

When Bowie died, I was still there, and I also came to realize most of my Indian friends and colleagues had never heard of him, or only had vaguely heard his name but couldn't name a single song of his or recognize him on a picture.

Funny thing though is the day after Prince died, I heard Purple Rain blasting out loud from a neighbors' house. IDK if it was from TV or the radio or if they really listened to it, but it was somewhat moving.

As you know India has its own, strong, music and movie industries and I guess until very recently only the upper class and urban hispers in the biggest cities really had access to Western pop culture beyond Michale Jackson and a few things like that. Now of course it's different with the Internet and all these cable TV channels, but one has to remember that when Prince was "universally" famous in the West, roughly from 1982 to 1994, there was no Internet in the world, way fewer TV channels in India, and the world was much less of a global village.

My Indian friends and colleagues would have heard of many Western musical artists and movie stars who became (or remained) very popular since roughly the year 2000, but usually their knowledge of older Western music and movies was very limited.

On the other hand you won't find too many Westerners who can name an Indian musician or actor, so it's fair enough

OldFriends4Sale said:

Interesting

You site those stats before about the Org and I disagreed. But it seems you were siting your French stats. Which I would replace white with French. In this instance.

I'd be interested for sure.

I just remember that Prince had a substantial fan base in Sheridan Wyoming too:

24.8% were of German, 12.3% English, 10.3% Irish, 6.0% Norwegian and 5.1% Polish ancestry.

It seemed there were just as much or more female fans, rural/farmers and 'lower income' not university educated, probably more openly heterosexual, musical tastes probably country first, but being Prince fans, clearly other genre too

Bobby Z, drummer for Prince's backing band, the Revolution, reflected on the how the Prince premiere was essentially the biggest thing that ever happened to the small farming, ranching and coal-mining town of Sheridan.

"It wouldn't have been the same if it had been in a bigger place — like, say, Duluth — because you really couldn't take over the town like this has," Bobby Z says in a quote attributed to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

One thing I observed about the UTCM premiere in Sheridan is that UPTOWN and Paisley Park are everywhere, and people who have that in their hearts connect with it.

Prince -one the last great Utopians

Yeah the white/black thing isn't as important in France as in the US because we have a much smaller Black community. But what I meant by noticing that is that people of color in general (mostly people of North African origin in france) never seemed to care much about Prince while my experience is that funk was quite popular in French 'hoods in the 80's, and rap became a huge thing there after that.

But yes, my observations are mainly about the French fans, I realize now my stats are meaningless when it comes to the Org and probably the rest of the world.

Nonamesfan said:

databank said:

Yeah, basically age, gender, income, ethnicity, country, these kind of things.

And why would you want this data?

Because I don't live in a cave. When you spend so much time, be it virtually, in a community, and when the thing that connects everyone in this community has become, for many of us, such an important part of how we define our identity, I think it's interesting to know more about said community. And I believe what you can learn about a community you belong to is also a way to learn more about yourself. It's also interesting in terms of Prince's goal of achieving what he called "crossover". Clearly, and as Oldfriends4sale said it, the demographics of his fanbase was remarkably diversified.

Are you trying to sell something?

How sad must your life be if you live it in distrust and suspicion, always assuming people have a hidden agenda

Because, really, who cares and why would it matter?

Well, I can't help you with your indifference in regards the world around you. I find your reply a little rude, to be honest, but no hard feelings

databank said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Interesting

You site those stats before about the Org and I disagreed. But it seems you were siting your French stats. Which I would replace white with French. In this instance.

I'd be interested for sure.

I just remember that Prince had a substantial fan base in Sheridan Wyoming too:

24.8% were of German, 12.3% English, 10.3% Irish, 6.0% Norwegian and 5.1% Polish ancestry.

It seemed there were just as much or more female fans, rural/farmers and 'lower income' not university educated, probably more openly heterosexual, musical tastes probably country first, but being Prince fans, clearly other genre too

Bobby Z, drummer for Prince's backing band, the Revolution, reflected on the how the Prince premiere was essentially the biggest thing that ever happened to the small farming, ranching and coal-mining town of Sheridan.

"It wouldn't have been the same if it had been in a bigger place — like, say, Duluth — because you really couldn't take over the town like this has," Bobby Z says in a quote attributed to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

One thing I observed about the UTCM premiere in Sheridan is that UPTOWN and Paisley Park are everywhere, and people who have that in their hearts connect with it.

Prince -one the last great Utopians

Yeah the white/black thing isn't as important in France as in the US because we have a much smaller Black community. But what I meant by noticing that is that people of color in general (mostly people of North African origin in france) never seemed to care much about Prince while my experience is that funk was quite popular in French 'hoods in the 80's, and rap became a huge thing there after that.

But yes, my observations are mainly about the French fans, I realize now my stats are meaningless when it comes to the Org and probably the rest of the world.

Prince's music was never Black or White, he was a sonic example of musical fusion. Sometimes(A lot of times) people cannot deal with that. So I don't think Prince isn't going to draw crowds based on race. But other things. Yet being in a multiracial community for a long time, I noticed a lot of 'mixed' people embrace Prince.

There are people who are hardcore fans of 1 or two particular genre, who may respect Prince and like some songs but not be Prince fans.

People who are turned off by less masculine images, tend to have issues with Prince. So that is a large consideration when it comes to what ethnic groups, regional groups may follow Prince as well.

databank said:

Now of course it's different with the Internet and all these cable TV channels,

We've had satellite TV since '91 - so, not that recent.

databank said:

male, white, middle class, university educated in humanities, heterosexual people with musical tastes more or less focused towards 70's funk and 80's pop

I feel so seen

domainator2010 said:

databank said:

We've had satellite TV since '91 - so, not that recent.

Fair enough. We did at about the same time in France (maybe a coupla years earlier or so) but to be fair satellite and/or cable TV weren't in nearly every household until the early to mid 2000's. Thoughout the 90's it remained kind of a luxury product (so did the internet, we were extremely late with the internet, "do you have the internet?" remained a possible question in France until about 2005, and I'm not even talking about elder people). Now IDK how it developed in India, and how many English speaking channels were there when and what was shown on them. My experiences in hotel rooms from the mid 2000's onwards (I didn't have TV at home in Chennai) was that English movie channels were numerous and loaded with American movies, but music channels were all Bollywood music.

Seahawkeye said:

databank said:

male, white, middle class, university educated in humanities, heterosexual people with musical tastes more or less focused towards 70's funk and 80's pop

I feel so seen

OldFriends4Sale said:

databank said:

Yeah the white/black thing isn't as important in France as in the US because we have a much smaller Black community. But what I meant by noticing that is that people of color in general (mostly people of North African origin in france) never seemed to care much about Prince while my experience is that funk was quite popular in French 'hoods in the 80's, and rap became a huge thing there after that.

But yes, my observations are mainly about the French fans, I realize now my stats are meaningless when it comes to the Org and probably the rest of the world.

Prince's music was never Black or White, he was a sonic example of musical fusion. Sometimes(A lot of times) people cannot deal with that. So I don't think Prince isn't going to draw crowds based on race. But other things. Yet being in a multiracial community for a long time, I noticed a lot of 'mixed' people embrace Prince.

There are people who are hardcore fans of 1 or two particular genre, who may respect Prince and like some songs but not be Prince fans.

People who are turned off by less masculine images, tend to have issues with Prince. So that is a large consideration when it comes to what ethnic groups, regional groups may follow Prince as well.

Agree.

I also wonder why P wasn't more of a gay icon. At least in France he wasn't. Madonna was the gay icon there, P not so much. It's funny, it's like he was too queer for many straight people, but too straight for gays.

databank said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Prince's music was never Black or White, he was a sonic example of musical fusion. Sometimes(A lot of times) people cannot deal with that. So I don't think Prince isn't going to draw crowds based on race. But other things. Yet being in a multiracial community for a long time, I noticed a lot of 'mixed' people embrace Prince.

There are people who are hardcore fans of 1 or two particular genre, who may respect Prince and like some songs but not be Prince fans.

People who are turned off by less masculine images, tend to have issues with Prince. So that is a large consideration when it comes to what ethnic groups, regional groups may follow Prince as well.

Agree.

I also wonder why P wasn't more of a gay icon. At least in France he wasn't. Madonna was the gay icon there, P not so much. It's funny, it's like he was too queer for many straight people, but too straight for gays.

ha that is a good question.

I'm happy to do a survey Databank. I'm curious to know the results myself. To get a better sample size you can reach out beyond the Org. I'm sure many of us here are also in Facebook groups or using Twitter. We can spread the word a bit for you.

databank said:

Nonamesfan said:

And why would you want this data?

Because I don't live in a cave. When you spend so much time, be it virtually, in a community, and when the thing that connects everyone in this community has become, for many of us, such an important part of how we define our identity, I think it's interesting to know more about said community. And I believe what you can learn about a community you belong to is also a way to learn more about yourself. It's also interesting in terms of Prince's goal of achieving what he called "crossover". Clearly, and as Oldfriends4sale said it, the demographics of his fanbase was remarkably diversified.

Are you trying to sell something?

How sad must your life be if you live it in distrust and suspicion, always assuming people have a hidden agenda

Because, really, who cares and why would it matter?

Well, I can't help you with your indifference in regards the world around you. I find your reply a little rude, to be honest, but no hard feelings

Valid points, Mr/Ms Databank. I apologize for being rude. I am a bit suspicious these days having had so much personal information hacked from banks, health insurance companies, etc. But that has nothing to do with your sincere interest in learning about Prince's fan base. I wish you success in your endeavour.

VaultCurator said:

I'm happy to do a survey Databank. I'm curious to know the results myself. To get a better sample size you can reach out beyond the Org. I'm sure many of us here are also in Facebook groups or using Twitter. We can spread the word a bit for you.

Thanks. Thing is I am NOT in any Prince groups or communities on various social medias, or any other message boards. If people would share links to an anonymous survey in the various online communities they belong to, both international and local, maybe we could get something more representative than the 50 to 100 or so, at most, contributions I could get from the Org (I doubt many more people would reply).

Listen, what I could do is try and come up with a survey and post it here just to get people's feedback (are none of the questions offensive? have I forgotten anything important? etc.), then once I can come up with something definitive I can share it here and it's up to everyone else to share it elsewhere if they so wish

Nonamesfan said:

databank said:

Valid points, Mr/Ms Databank. I apologize for being rude. I am a bit suspicious these days having had so much personal information hacked from banks, health insurance companies, etc. But that has nothing to do with your sincere interest in learning about Prince's fan base. I wish you success in your endeavour.

We're cool no worries

Your concerns are of course legit when it comes to confidentiality. I'm sure nowadays there are free online platforms where one can make surveys without any company stealing people's data. I hope, at least. As for the overall results of such a survey, I doubt they'd be of much use to anyone.

Rather curious topic and a hard one to generalize. Only thing I can say for sure is that the majority of his fans are OLD. I mean, if you wanted, you could post a survey with stuff like Age, Race, Sexual Preference, Nationality, Sex, etc. but I'm not sure what the point would be or how useful it might be.


The Prince concerts I went to were notable for how diverse the audience was, at least in terms of race and sex - something I always appreciated and didn't get as much from other acts I saw.

One thing that's always surprised me back when I used to dabble in the dumpster fire that is "Politics and Religion" (which I now ignore) is how many hardcore conservatives, FOX News heads and MAGA's he has as fans. Based on his music, his image and how he lived his life, I would tend to assume that his fan base would be largely liberal, progressive and fairly open minded - even if Prince did sometimes express rather rigid views on certain topics, especially later on in his life.

I don't see how pretty much anyone can conflate concepts like "Uptown", "Paisley Park", "Love 4 one Another", "Don't Play Me" or "Gold" with anything the GOP offers but it happens, man.

databank said:

Nonamesfan said:

Valid points, Mr/Ms Databank. I apologize for being rude. I am a bit suspicious these days having had so much personal information hacked from banks, health insurance companies, etc. But that has nothing to do with your sincere interest in learning about Prince's fan base. I wish you success in your endeavour.

We're cool no worries

Your concerns are of course legit when it comes to confidentiality. I'm sure nowadays there are free online platforms where one can make surveys without any company stealing people's data. I hope, at least. As for the overall results of such a survey, I doubt they'd be of much use to anyone.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/ (no idea about stealing....)