For any of you other SiriusXM listeners out there, has anyone noticed a strange total lack of Prince's music on the 1st Wave station? Maybe I'm just tuning in at all the wrong times but I can't recall a single time I've ever heard him when listening. He absolutely falls under the New Wave umbrella and they constantly play synth-pop bands who did a second or third rate version of what Prince did. I can't help but I think it's the same segregational mentality that kept MTV from giving fair airplay to black artists in the early 80s, like the people in charge of station content dismiss Prince as an R&B artist or something. I genuinely can't think of another reason for his absence.

Agreed. "When You Were Mine" would fit in with any of the Elvis Costello they play.

But, let's be honest, that station is as segregated as early 80s radio was.

I don't understand why rock radio still doesn't play Prince.

I listen to a station out of White Plains, north of NYC. One time they played Raspberry Beret and it was so refreshing. How much of Prince's catalog would fit on various rock formats?

Note that it was the only time that happened. (Also, I don't do Spotify etc.)

Remember those exciting couple months in 1984 when every station was playing something from Purple Rain? Even the rockingest rock stations? Good times.

I mean, I understand why, of course.

I listen to a lot of 1st Wave and I don't now... I really don't think it's a very Prince sound.... at all...maybe the song Dirty Mind....

And as far as no play on rock stations... I'm not sure about this either...
I mean, it's just not the same sound the rock stations play... It just isn't

Maybe PR, LGC, LRC but to me - even those are a stretch (to me)

And all of these stations are very 'segregated' - for better or worse

I mean, there no difference when true 'rock' or 'alternative' don't play Prince and when RnB stations don't play songs that could legitimately go as RnB/Soul whatever it's called by white artists

It's definitley weird, it seems like the opposite of what we want the world to be like - but I am not sure if it is 'wrong'?

[Edited 5/31/23 21:48pm]

DotsofU said:

I listen to a lot of 1st Wave and I don't now... I really don't think it's a very Prince sound.... at all...maybe the song Dirty Mind....

And as far as no play on rock stations... I'm not sure about this either...
I mean, it's just not the same sound the rock stations play... It just isn't

Maybe PR, LGC, LRC but to me - even those are a stretch (to me)

And all of these stations are very 'segregated' - for better or worse

I mean, there no difference when true 'rock' or 'alternative' don't play Prince and when RnB stations don't play songs that could legitimately go as RnB/Soul whatever it's called by white artists

It's definitley weird, it seems like the opposite of what we want the world to be like - but I am not sure if it is 'wrong'?

[Edited 5/31/23 21:48pm]

Gotta disagree with that, Prince has several songs from the early 80s that could fit in perfectly on that channel: Annie Christian, Sexuality, Ronnie Talk To Russia, When You Were Mine, All The Critics Love U In New York, Vagina, Horny Toad, etc. And that's just counting deep tracks, some of his bigger hits would honestly fit in too, but those get enough airplay on the 80s station as it is.

It just seems like arbitrary genre gatekeeping to me, and hell, I'd go as far as to call it racist. Maybe not maliciously so, but at least subconsciously. Prince covered so much musical ground but everyone wants to reduce him to just being an R&B/funk artist because he was black. And speaking of R&B and funk, I hear all kinds of bands like Duran Duran doing a piss-poor watered down version of funk pop on 1st Wave all the time, yet they can't be bothered to play Prince even though he did that sound way better? It's bullshit.

bozojones said:

DotsofU said:

I listen to a lot of 1st Wave and I don't now... I really don't think it's a very Prince sound.... at all...maybe the song Dirty Mind....

And as far as no play on rock stations... I'm not sure about this either...
I mean, it's just not the same sound the rock stations play... It just isn't

Maybe PR, LGC, LRC but to me - even those are a stretch (to me)

And all of these stations are very 'segregated' - for better or worse

I mean, there no difference when true 'rock' or 'alternative' don't play Prince and when RnB stations don't play songs that could legitimately go as RnB/Soul whatever it's called by white artists

It's definitley weird, it seems like the opposite of what we want the world to be like - but I am not sure if it is 'wrong'?

[Edited 5/31/23 21:48pm]

Gotta disagree with that, Prince has several songs from the early 80s that could fit in perfectly on that channel: Annie Christian, Sexuality, Ronnie Talk To Russia, When You Were Mine, All The Critics Love U In New York, Vagina, Horny Toad, etc. And that's just counting deep tracks, some of his bigger hits would honestly fit in too, but those get enough airplay on the 80s station as it is.

It just seems like arbitrary genre gatekeeping to me, and hell, I'd go as far as to call it racist. Maybe not maliciously so, but at least subconsciously. Prince covered so much musical ground but everyone wants to reduce him to just being an R&B/funk artist because he was black. And speaking of R&B and funk, I hear all kinds of bands like Duran Duran doing a piss-poor watered down version of funk pop on 1st Wave all the time, yet they can't be bothered to play Prince even though he did that sound way better? It's bullshit.

sure but none of those are hits.. they only play hits on that channel... The Groove doesn't even play anything except Controversy - do we really expect 1st Wave to play these deep cuts by an artist that isn't squarely in the genre

As far as racist... I still say it works both ways

DotsofU said:

bozojones said:

Gotta disagree with that, Prince has several songs from the early 80s that could fit in perfectly on that channel: Annie Christian, Sexuality, Ronnie Talk To Russia, When You Were Mine, All The Critics Love U In New York, Vagina, Horny Toad, etc. And that's just counting deep tracks, some of his bigger hits would honestly fit in too, but those get enough airplay on the 80s station as it is.

It just seems like arbitrary genre gatekeeping to me, and hell, I'd go as far as to call it racist. Maybe not maliciously so, but at least subconsciously. Prince covered so much musical ground but everyone wants to reduce him to just being an R&B/funk artist because he was black. And speaking of R&B and funk, I hear all kinds of bands like Duran Duran doing a piss-poor watered down version of funk pop on 1st Wave all the time, yet they can't be bothered to play Prince even though he did that sound way better? It's bullshit.

sure but none of those are hits.. they only play hits on that channel... The Groove doesn't even play anything except Controversy - do we really expect 1st Wave to play these deep cuts by an artist that isn't squarely in the genre

As far as racist... I still say it works both ways

They don't exclusively play hits on 1st Wave.

bozojones said:

DotsofU said:

sure but none of those are hits.. they only play hits on that channel... The Groove doesn't even play anything except Controversy - do we really expect 1st Wave to play these deep cuts by an artist that isn't squarely in the genre

As far as racist... I still say it works both ways

They don't exclusively play hits on 1st Wave.

By 'hit', I don't mean a top 40 hit

I mean songs from this genre that everyone knows and are played to death "Lips Like Sugar", "Bizarre Love Triangle", "Wild Wild Life" for example..

All great, but all straight down the middle

Once in a while they will play a random Adam Ant song... some program director probably got bored

But in general, it is a safe playlist.

I mean, they barely play bands like Husker Du or Jesus and Mary Chain on 1st Wave, we think they are gonna play Prince?

That would be like Heart&Soul playing Take a Bow

1st Wave is a playlist of softball basics

Fortunately, they started 1st Wave deep cuts...

A clear acknowledgement that the regular 1st Wave plays alternative music's version of hits

[Edited 6/1/23 22:00pm]