In honor of its 40th anniversary, I talk about the 'huge' impact of "Purple Rain" (as good as I can). After the movie and soundtrack/album came out, Prince became a bonafide Superstar and "the MPLS Floodgates" were opened after that and many musicians, artists were coming out from the Minneapolis wood works, some would go on to have big hits, some would have little to one to no hits, but their impact would be felt as well, not just as singers, but also as musicians, songwriters and producers. Let me hear your thoughts about this.

The sky was all purple
There were people runnin' everywhere

shame prince didnt live to see the merch opportunities

https://store.prince.com/product/5QCMPR112/prince-floral-socks?cp=103229_103231_112755

I've always said great artists have their Thriller moment; artists worthy of their ilk. Purple Rain was certainly his Thriller. And what a 1-2 punch for those of us alive at the time, old enough to appreciate both things, one overlapping the other. Madonna's was probably Like A Prayer, arguably. Springsteen's was Born in the USA. Doesn't mean it was their best album (although some were). It means it was that bitch. Something they can never top, supercede, or otherwise conquer.

It's the album that purposely made them steer 90º in another direction to do something entirely different, not repeat the same thing because it's what the public wanted, and maybe actually challenge themselves artistically.

As a Gen X, when younger people ask me about Prince or Purple Rain, I simply tell them, "it was greater than you can even imagine." And leave it at that.

[Edited 1/21/24 11:15am]

JabarR74 said:

In honor of its 40th anniversary, I talk about the 'huge' impact of "Purple Rain" (as good as I can). After the movie and soundtrack/album came out, Prince became a bonafide Superstar and "the MPLS Floodgates" were opened after that and many musicians, artists were coming out from the Minneapolis wood works, some would go on to have big hits, some would have little to one to no hits, but their impact would be felt as well, not just as singers, but also as musicians, songwriters and producers. Let me hear your thoughts about this.

Comment deleted - l'ange vleu, moderator

In 1987, I was a German exchange student in the US. Being a big 16 year old Prince fan, I asked my exchange parents about Prince. And my exchange mom, who was a high school teacher, said that after Purple Rain, Prince was everywhere, he was the cool one (not Michael Jackson anymore), and lots of kids dressed up like him in school. Mind you, this was a suburb in the Seattle area

Purple Rain was a huge game changer for Prince, in more ways than 1. Cause like I said before, after the movie and soundtrack came out 40 years ago, the floodgates were open and he was like "anyone who wants to join me on this journey, feel free to come along" and that's what happened. Many artists wanted 'that Minneapolis Sound' and Prince, along with other artists and producers from MPLS were happy to oblige. Prince already put several albums (ya'll know the names of them) by this time, but it wasn't until "1999" when people finally took notice of his genius, but he became "a self-made man" after Purple Rain.

Krid said:

In 1987, I was a German exchange student in the US. Being a big 16 year old Prince fan, I asked my exchange parents about Prince. And my exchange mom, who was a high school teacher, said that after Purple Rain, Prince was everywhere, he was the cool one (not Michael Jackson anymore), and lots of kids dressed up like him in school. Mind you, this was a suburb in the Seattle area

I was also 16 in 1987 (toward the end of the year).

Prince was, in fact, still everywhere - although I remember a LOT of people falling off the Prince bandwagon when ATWIAD came out (and even Parade afterward). SOTT was a bit of a comeback.

1987 was SOTT for Prince and Bad for MJ. True Blue was still going strong for Madonna, and You Can Dance also came out in '87. George Michael had Faith. It was really a great time for music!