And don't give me no bullshit about them being old songs because they have never been released until now so that makes them brand new. As far as them not sounding like other current music of today, that's no excuse for not playing them either. In 1982, a radio DJ started playing an old Charlene song from 1977 called "I've Never Been To Me" that had originally been a flop. But when he started playing it in 1982, it caught on so much they had to reissue it so people could buy it and it became a hit. Also, in 1984, Motown released an old Michael Jackson song from 1973 called "Farewell My Summer Love" and I remember it being played in heavy rotation on the radio right alongside the current songs back then and it did fairly well. Did these songs sound like the other songs from the 1980s? Hell no. But radio at least gave them a chance.

.

And as for Prince, there's enough newly released vault tracks that something might could possibly be done to finally give music in general a complete style change. It's damn ridiculous that music in the 2020s sounds like the same dull bullshit of the 1990s. Start playing those Prince tracks in heavy rotation. And don't pick out the slow ones either. Play the fastest, funkiest, ass shaking ones that sound unmistakingly 1980s and also sound the furthest from today's music in general. If one song doesn't catch on, play another one....and another one.....and another one. Hell, flood the airwaves with them until these dead asses of today finally get some rhythm in their bones....if that's possible because they have grown up their entire lifetimes on rhythmless music. I have been waiting for the sound of the 1990s to end since the year 2000 arrived and it's damn ridiculous that it never ended. The same foolishness that dominated then, still dominates now. This could finally be a chance to attempt to influence people to make complete different sound so we can finally move on and make the 1990s just a horrible memory.

.

.

.

[Edited 12/16/20 9:36am]

I admire your goal here and I am all for it, but unfortunately 80's Prince music "doesn't fit the format". Modern listeners (on average) wouldn't like it (immediately) because they are just not used to that type of music.

"music in the 2020s sounds like the same dull bullshit of the 1990s"

Huh? Music right now sounds nothing like 1990's stuff to me.

ufoclub said:

"music in the 2020s sounds like the same dull bullshit of the 1990s"

Huh? Music right now sounds nothing like 1990's stuff to me.

I don't know about the pop/rock side of the fence, but on the R&B side of the fence, everything I hear when I dare to go over to one of the stations these days is almost exactly the same as it was in the 1990s. I hear a few little slight changes in it the sound but it still fits the definition of shit hop which is something either slow to midtempo, stripped down to nothing but a Fisher Price sounding drum machine beat that just barely taps, with some foolish talking over it. And then there's some ballads that don't sound seductive or after midnight-ish but sound more adult contemporary. Actually, the ballads these days are even worse than the 1990s because they've also started using the Fisher Price sounding drum machines. The sounds are slightly different but the dominating genres are the same two from the 1990s.....shit hop and adult contemporary.

simple answer...radio playlists have long been influenced and in some cases directly programmed by distributors and labels... meaning that the station execs and station programmers are well compensated for playing certain artists' records... Prince's music no longer has that mighty WB behind it...there's no one there to take care of the station programmers... its a dirty game

RJOrion said:

simple answer...radio playlists have long been influenced and in some cases directly programmed by distributors and labels... meaning that the station execs and station programmers are well compensated for playing certain artists' records... Prince's music no longer has that mighty WB behind it...there's no one there to take care of the station programmers... its a dirty game

Well said. I couldn't have said it better myself.

This is a cute thread.

The newly released vault tracks have been played on BBC 6 music quite a few times, the re-release had loads of coverage on their also. They had loads of interviews with people who were involved with the album. They played Sign o the times from begining to end before it was released. The songs are attached to a massive body of work, and for me, I would have prefered for them to sit down and put down 10 of the best songs from the whole lot, and release a structured album, if that was possible. Just my opinion. Take care all

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Wolfie87 said:

TwiliteKid said:

Wolfie87 said:

Adonis And Bethsheba Crucial The Ball In A Large Room With No Light All My Dreams When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes Sounds FRESH!

Are you kidding?

They just need to be over auto-tuned on all vocal lines, and then they will be ready!

The fact is, radio hardly ever plays post-humours releases from famous artists. Part of it is that they don't fit in current trends, but I don't really think that the radio programmers have any interested in playing a "new" Prince, Tom Petty, or Jimmy Hendrix song. They also rarely play songs from re-released albums with new tracks. I guess they mostly want to be current or if it is an oldies station play established hits from the past.

For the same reason Top 40 didn't play Elvis songs in the 80s. Did you wanna hear that when you were a teenager? Nope. And teens now don't want to hear Prince (not that teens listen to the radio now anyway, it's all streaming for them). When modern radio wanted an 80s funk sounding song in the 2010s they just had Bruno Mars do it. Radio hasn't checked for new Prince songs since 1994.

If Prince is going to have a hit again it would have to be featured on some other current act's release. Let Drake have the vocal stems if that's what you're looking for. That's how Michael Jackson got a top ten hit in 2018 with "Don't Matter". Otherwise the best we can hope for is a viral TikTok video getting "Little Red Corvette" back on the charts for a few weeks, like what happened with Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" recently.

There are hundreds and hundred of legacy albums by scores of artists being rereleased now with previously unreleased vault content.... name any one of them that gets played on mainstream radio...

It's none, right? Why should Prince be any different?

and it's not bullshit to say it's old music, it is old music, no one believes that just because it's been released this year, that it's 'new music', that's ridiculous.

Can you imagine the DJ? 'Here's a brand new Prince song - from, uh, 1987....'

Prince is never going to have a hit single again. It's totally irrelevant. It's unimportant for him to have a hit again. He's a legacy artist now, with posthumous releases, as long as those releases at least break even and/or make even a little profit, they will continue to be released.

But hits? No chance. Meaningless.

They have been played on radio, I've seen several times where new tracks have been reported as played on say BBC Radio 2 or 6 in the UK - which are stations aimed at adults and music fans respectively. I think these are the kinds of stations you should be looking to play any new Prince music not top 40 stations - does top 40 even exist any more? Would kids give a shit if their favourite pop star got to #1 or is all about clicks on Spotify and how many times they appear in their Instagram stories?

.

.

[Edited 12/17/20 1:49am]

Wolfie87 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Lol. I love the idea of these tracks starting a revolution in modern music. Until you remember people making music now already have access to all of princes other music and other 80s artists! Nothing on these vault discs is THAT ahead of its time to start a whole new movement

Adonis And Bethsheba Crucial The Ball In A Large Room With No Light All My Dreams When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes Sounds FRESH!

I say we give them something even harder to get the asses shaking. That is, if their rhythmless asses are capable of shaking asses because they've never been exposed to ass shaking music. Something along the lines of Feel U Up, Don't Let Him Fool Ya, Do Yourself A Favor, Possessed, Love And Sex (from Purple Rain deluxe), Rearrange, Purple Music, etc.

What is "radio" and does it have a Spotify playlist?

renfield said:

For the same reason Top 40 didn't play Elvis songs in the 80s. Did you wanna hear that when you were a teenager? Nope. And teens now don't want to hear Prince (not that teens listen to the radio now anyway, it's all streaming for them). When modern radio wanted an 80s funk sounding song in the 2010s they just had Bruno Mars do it. Radio hasn't checked for new Prince songs since 1994.

If Prince is going to have a hit again it would have to be featured on some other current act's release. Let Drake have the vocal stems if that's what you're looking for. That's how Michael Jackson got a top ten hit in 2018 with "Don't Matter". Otherwise the best we can hope for is a viral TikTok video getting "Little Red Corvette" back on the charts for a few weeks, like what happened with Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" recently.

Oh hell naw! Keep people like that as far away from the vault as possible and sue them into the fires of hell if they even attempt to use his music in samples.

Rimshottbob said:

There are hundreds and hundred of legacy albums by scores of artists being rereleased now with previously unreleased vault content.... name any one of them that gets played on mainstream radio...

It's none, right? Why should Prince be any different?

and it's not bullshit to say it's old music, it is old music, no one believes that just because it's been released this year, that it's 'new music', that's ridiculous.

Can you imagine the DJ? 'Here's a brand new Prince song - from, uh, 1987....'

Prince is never going to have a hit single again. It's totally irrelevant. It's unimportant for him to have a hit again. He's a legacy artist now, with posthumous releases, as long as those releases at least break even and/or make even a little profit, they will continue to be released.

But hits? No chance. Meaningless.

It's not unimaginable for a DJ to say that. DJs were saying something very similar in 1984.... "Brand new from me to you. Here's a never before heard of blast from the past from Michael Jackson from 1973 and it's called Farewell My Summer Love. And remember, you heard it here, first.".... And they continued playing it in heavy rotation for months.

.

You are right, none of them are being played on mainstream radio nowadays but they used to. That is, if they fit the format of that station. And by format, I mean genre, not the majority of the "sound" of the station. If a never before heard of Kenny Rogers track surfaced, it would be ridiculous for an R&B station to play it, but it wouldn't be ridiculous for a country/western station to play it. Now, as far as country/western goes, I actually think they probably would play it, even today. They aren't my taste at all but they do seem to be the only genre left that still supports their veteran artists. R&B used to though. In the 1980s, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Tops, The Chi-Lites, all were played right alongside the new artists when they released a new album and they were still loved and some of them even had hits. Radio wasn't always fucked up like it is nowadays. Now, if a station calls their format R&B, then yes, by all means, a new Prince release or any other veteran R&B artist deserves a place on there because they are R&B artists and R&B covers a lot more ground than just shit hop. If a station calls their format shit hop, then that's another story and veteran artists have no place on there. But most of those stations still call themselves R&B.

.

You're missing my point though. The goal isn't for Prince, or anybody else for that matter, to have another "hit" these days. I'm a fan, not a "fam". I could care less if Prince ever has another hit again. The point is, for the songs to be played in heavy rotation on the stations, like "Farewell My Summer Love" used to, not for the purpose of becoming a hit, but for the purpose of possibly making an influence. Complete style changes used to occur every decade because there was always various styles of R&B all over the radio. But a complete style change will never occur if the only thing all over the radio is shit hop. It dominated the 1990s, it dominated the 2000s, it dominated the 2010s, and now it is 2020 and it still dominates. Things didn't used to be like this. We always had our various styles and then moved on within five or ten years to something else.

.

.

.

[Edited 12/17/20 5:18am]

renfield said:

If Prince is going to have a hit again it would have to be featured on some other current act's release. Let Drake have the vocal stems if that's what you're looking for. That's how Michael Jackson got a top ten hit in 2018 with "Don't Matter"

Possibly the most offensive thing I've ever read on this site!

vainandy said:

In 1982, a radio DJ started playing an old Charlene song from 1977 called "I've Never Been To Me" that had originally been a flop. But when he started playing it in 1982, it caught on so much they had to reissue it so people could buy it and it became a hit.

.

A five year old song vs 35 year old songs. Plus you cite a single exception. They're called exceptions for a reason.

.

RJOrion said:

simple answer...radio playlists have long been influenced and in some cases directly programmed by distributors and labels... meaning that the station execs and station programmers are well compensated for playing certain artists' records... Prince's music no longer has that mighty WB behind it...there's no one there to take care of the station programmers... its a dirty game

.

Sweet jebus, this old bullshit again.

vainandy said:

And don't give me no bullshit

.

- No money to be earned from playing

- No promotion

- old skool

- no 'recent' pop-personality present

- ...

BartVanHemelen said:

vainandy said:

In 1982, a radio DJ started playing an old Charlene song from 1977 called "I've Never Been To Me" that had originally been a flop. But when he started playing it in 1982, it caught on so much they had to reissue it so people could buy it and it became a hit.

.

A five year old song vs 35 year old songs. Plus you cite a single exception. They're called exceptions for a reason.

.

Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures such as pulling out every little example you can think of no matter how rare it may be. After 30 years of no rhythm on the radio, these no rhythm motherfuckers show no signs of ever jamming again so somebody needs to break the ice and try to jump start their dead batteries. Hell, I'm tired of sitting home every weekend because most people nowadays are so dull. If I were to put a Lawrence Welk record on one turntable and attempt to mix it with a number of these current R&B songs on another turntable, I would have to actually speed up the current R&B record to the point that the vocals sound like chipmunks to match the Lawrence Welk tempo. Hell, I'm too young for these dull motherfuckers these days who have gotten old before their time.

They don't even play it on Sirius XM I don't know how much freedom satellite is given or if they have to stick with a format, but you'd think they'd play singles as well as deep cutz.

[Edited 12/17/20 12:55pm]

sulls said:

They don't even play it on Sirius XM I don't know how much freedom satellite is given or if they have to stick with a format, but you'd think they'd play singles as well as deep cutz.

-

If that's the case, I find it very strange...

-

I heard ''Big Tall Wall'' twice in a few days here on a radio station in Brussels when it was released.

But mostly they played the known tracks from the 1987 remastered album, announcing there is a boxset out.

-

Radio sucks anyway.