From the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s there was such fierce competition in the music scene from Rick James, Michael Jackson, Earth Wind and Fire, Duran Duran, Madonna, Van Halen, and countless of artist and real bands pushing the limit to star on MTV and the radio waves. With such talent, Prince was forced to be at the top of his game from his second album to 1990.

At that point, there was a definite shift in the music scene where manufactured boy bands became the norm. Gone were the metal hair bands, no more actual classic rock like Zeppelin or AeroSmith (Save for Metallica/Nirvana).

Now all we have are a small few singers but no real groups that actually play music. With that being said, I find that Prince had no one on his level to push him hard like in the 80s. Yes his music was great from beginning to end, but damn, the 80s was a golden age where Prince was straight fire.

I could only imagine what Prince's output would have been like had the music scene stayed like it was in the 80s.

Do you believe the lack of competition later in Prince's career drove him less to craft consistant master works?

You can't mention the 80s without also mentioning The Fall, The Smiths, REM.

But yeah, P was the golden nugget in the sea of pearls. Allahu Akbar!

You have a good point, and maybe it contributed. But maybe in the 80s it was more natural that the music he was creating was more enjoyed. After hip hop came, everything changed and it must have been hard for guys like Prince to think ´ok, should I embrace it, should I do my own thing?´

The eighties brought an expolosion of more pop than rock music in all it's forms,

due to more radio staions and of course the video age with MTV.

Didn't most (60's 70's 80's) pop music genres, styles and inventions came from the UK ?

In the 90's the industrial made boy- and girl bands came along, made for numbers and sales only and very few thorough quality other than ultra-light (sing-a-long) teen pop.

The nillies brought some Indie pop/rock styles.

And what's left of it now is Adele, Dua Lippa, etc... Plus some TV format results from (Dutch invention) The Voice.

Damn I wish for a serious pop revival from the UK. They were so good at it in the eighties.

British rap isn't all that imho.

So there ya go for the later decades where Prince needed to craft a consistent master work.

Not easy. He did what he wanted, stayed respectfully known and appreciated.

And didn't had equals when playing live till the very end.

There were more genres invented in the 80s than any other decade. By far. And a lot of it was underground. Genres like goth, shoegaze, thrash metal, industrial, house, techno, hiphop, different subgenres of soul. Prince also accidentally invented 3 genres by himself with 3 different songs. They are The Cocoa Boys, Joy in Repetition, Pink Cashmere. Amazing.

GustavoRibas said:

You have a good point, and maybe it contributed. But maybe in the 80s it was more natural that the music he was creating was more enjoyed. After hip hop came, everything changed and it must have been hard for guys like Prince to think ´ok, should I embrace it, should I do my own thing?´

Prince always embraced everything around him. His music was a synthesis of what was happening in the popular culture at any given time. When the tools were more limited (or very new), it was easier to stand out, but this was primarily in arrangements and sounds. For example, Prince had several Rockabilly-type songs. Delirious is one. What made it sound so unique? The LM-1 drum machine and synths. The Stray Cats were doing the same thing, only they did it using the more traditional guitar/bass/drum arrangements. Remeber when Prince said in some years before his that there weren't any current artists that inspired him? That implies that there were some, presumably in the 80s and perhaps 90s. It also implies that the inspiration was also a motivator. Prince was only good relative to his competition, which he saw as top 40 mainstream music for a long time. If his competition was uninspiring then what motivated him? Perhaps this explains why a lot of folks think his later material was lackluster.