Probably a topic already passed here, but still, time for a new view maybe.

-

How do you define a (true) Prince fan, or a hard core, even die hard Prince fan?
If you have all the official releases, are you a true Prince fan?

And if you have all bootlegs, official store candles, bedsheets, boots, posters, colour vinyl copies of everything official/unofficial, are you then a die-hard?

Perhaps a strange question or thought, but I was thinking about it this morning.

-

Or does it have to do with how much time you spend on it (on a daily basis)

How do y'all see this?

Because I suppose not everyone listens to Prince music every day.

-

And how many are we in total do you think? Worldwide?
I suspect something like 65k to 100k fans. Or am I seeing it too big?
Since some threads here do reach an audience/visit figure of 16k or 20k views, I think there are quite a lot of Prince fans after all.

Knowing that there are many other channels and (closed) groups elsewhere.
The hard core Prince fans, are probably everywhere in these kind of locked-in groups, except here.

Vannormal said:

Probably a topic already passed here, but still, time for a new view maybe.

-

How do you define a (true) Prince fan, or a hard core, even die hard Prince fan?
If you have all the official releases, are you a true Prince fan?

And if you have all bootlegs, official store candles, bedsheets, boots, posters, colour vinyl copies of everything official/unofficial, are you then a die-hard?

Perhaps a strange question or thought, but I was thinking about it this morning.

-

Or does it have to do with how much time you spend on it (on a daily basis)

How do y'all see this?

Because I suppose not everyone listens to Prince music every day.

-

And how many are we in total do you think? Worldwide?
I suspect something like 65k to 100k fans. Or am I seeing it too big?
Since some threads here do reach an audience/visit figure of 16k or 20k views, I think there are quite a lot of Prince fans after all.

Knowing that there are many other channels and (closed) groups elsewhere.
The hard core Prince fans, are probably everywhere in these kind of locked-in groups, except here.

.
I think the number of views of a topic here shows the number of *views*, not the number of users.

If you're going out of your way to get the bootlegs, attended concerts, visit Prince forums all the time, I'd consider you a hardcore fan. A lot of people may enjoy an artist's music but they're not all that invested.

Kares said:

Vannormal said:

(...)

.
I think the number of views of a topic here shows the number of *views*, not the number of users.

Obviously.

It's also not that 1 Prince fans watches the same subject 100 times...

Just sayin'.

What do you considder yourself?

I considder myself (just) a Prince fan.

Vannormal said:

Kares said:

.
I think the number of views of a topic here shows the number of *views*, not the number of users.

Obviously.

It's also not that 1 Prince fans watches the same subject 100 times...

Just sayin'.

What do you considder yourself?

I considder myself (just) a Prince fan.

.

I honestly don't care what label others might stick on me. Most people would probably say I'm a "die hard P fan" yet I just call myself "a P fan" or a "princeologist", as I don't like the word 'fan'. Being called a fan implies a kind of silly, teenage obsession with pop singers, covering your bedroom walls with posters of your objects of desire, being in love with them and screaming of excitement when you meet them. I had none of that. Prince is simply the artist I'm interested in most and whose body of work I study the most as an academic subject and whose creativity continues to amaze me the most.

Kares said:

Vannormal said:

And how many are we in total do you think? Worldwide?
I suspect something like 65k to 100k fans. Or am I seeing it too big?

It's a problem of definitions. What exactly is a casual fan? A regular fan? A hardcore fan? A die-hard fan? Those terms correlate with degrees of enthusiasm (or obsession, even), but it's hard to define them comprehensively.

Is someone who likes "Purple Rain", "When Doves Cry", "1999", "Little Red Corvette", etc. even a fan, if they listen to those songs, but those songs only, regularly?

I'm fine with the label "hardcore fan" being applied to me, but I've never liked the label "die-hard fan", I don't know why. I'm obsessed, that's for sure.

When you say "how many are we", what do you mean by "we" exactly? What would be your criterion?

I've always "felt" intuitively that there are probably not more than 10k/20k fans worldwide interested in studio outtakes, bootlegs, Super Deluxe Editions, and the like.

[Edited 1/25/25 14:29pm]

And then what about the level of being honest, as a fan,or musicologist,

or whatever you'd like to call yourself.

Like, dare to admid something Prince did was not good at all.

Anyways.

I started this thread because someone bluntly asked me that question.

I was not sure what to answer right there.

Actually, I considder myself a Prince fan.

In the word as "fan", for the guy and his music.

Fan in the meaning of curious for every fart, sound, thing he ever put on tape.

But i'm not interested in all his live shows, or video's of every performance for example.

I know what the man was capable of performing live.

A Prince fan, without the posters, bedsheets, candeles, colour vinyls, flyers, badges.

The music obviously, all sorts of studio work, the versions, his mysterious persona.

The weird Prince, not the one he presented all the time.

The locked-in-his-head Prince, the ever-seaker-and-super-religious, and the actually-not-so-big-fuck-machine Prince. The little persona behind the star. The reason why he treated people the way he did, why he pushed people away, why he didn't trust anyone.

So for me, that bloody documentary would be so much "it." Whatever Edelman made of it.

Things like that.

The music and the why.

Kares said:

rockford said:

Kares said:

.

I honestly don't care what label others might stick on me. Most people would probably say I'm a "die hard P fan" yet I just call myself "a P fan" or a "princeologist", as I don't like the word 'fan'. Being called a fan implies a kind of silly, teenage obsession with pop singers, covering your bedroom walls with posters of your objects of desire, being in love with them and screaming of excitement when you meet them. I had none of that. Prince is simply the artist I'm interested in most and whose body of work I study the most as an academic subject and whose creativity continues to amaze me the most.

Words have meaning and fan doesn’t mean fanatic. Just like CONtract doesn’t mean you’re getting screwed. I’m glad Prince dropped that ridiculous nonsense.

Prince was very far away from all reality at that point.

CON, FANatic, The Truth, The Rainbow Children... at least he was about to land back on earth in the last years of his life.

@Kares: you can be a fan of anything, even if you are 90. Nothing wrong with the word, right?
‘Fan’ does not necessarily mean posters and objects of desire.

Is Bart a die-hard fan?

Is Ben a die-hard fan?

Can I considder Duane Tudahl a serious die-hard fan, even more a Princeologist, right?

Like Per Nilsen...

What happened to Per by the way.

Vannormal said:

What happened to Per by the way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Nilsen

https://liu.se/en/employee/perni31

Vannormal said:

And then what about the level of being honest, as a fan,or musicologist,

or whatever you'd like to call yourself.

Like, dare to admid something Prince did was not good at all.

Anyways.

I started this thread because someone bluntly asked me that question.

I was not sure what to answer right there.

Actually, I considder myself a Prince fan.

In the word as "fan", for the guy and his music.

Fan in the meaning of curious for every fart, sound, thing he ever put on tape.

But i'm not interested in all his live shows, or video's of every performance for example.

I know what the man was capable of performing live.

A Prince fan, without the posters, bedsheets, candeles, colour vinyls, flyers, badges.

The music obviously, all sorts of studio work, the versions, his mysterious persona.

The weird Prince, not the one he presented all the time.

The locked-in-his-head Prince, the ever-seaker-and-super-religious, and the actually-not-so-big-fuck-machine Prince. The little persona behind the star. The reason why he treated people the way he did, why he pushed people away, why he didn't trust anyone.

So for me, that bloody documentary would be so much "it." Whatever Edelman made of it.

Things like that.

The music and the why.

I see some people online who have a Prince shrine or a Prince room. It's cool when you're 15 but as an adult it's cringy to me. I only own one Prince shirt and that's it.

Simple. You ain't hardcore unless you saw Prince live at least 50 times. If you were too young to do that, then you ain't hardcore until you can list your favourite 50 live bootlegs.

Damn!

I didn't see Prince 50 times live, but what about more than 25 times?

Plus, I have 2 Prince t-shirts, one black and one white w only the word 'Prince' on it, same on a black sweater. (Never wanted to wear Prince's image on me. Although, I also have a have Gorillas, ACDC, Chet Faker, Motorhead, dEUS and a blur t-shirt, only logo's.)

Never had a 'shrine', but everyone's free to have one.

Vannormal said:

Damn!

I didn't see Prince 50 times live, but what about more than 25 times?

Plus, I have 2 Prince t-shirts, one black and one white w only the word 'Prince' on it, same on a black sweater. (Never wanted to wear Prince's image on me. Although, I also have a have Gorillas, ACDC, Chet Faker, Motorhead, dEUS and a blur t-shirt, only logo's.)

Never had a 'shrine', but everyone's free to have one.

Oh, and I think to be hardcore you have to love 'Purple and Gold' as well.

SquirrelMeat said:

Vannormal said:

Damn!

I didn't see Prince 50 times live, but what about more than 25 times?

Plus, I have 2 Prince t-shirts, one black and one white w only the word 'Prince' on it, same on a black sweater. (Never wanted to wear Prince's image on me. Although, I also have a have Gorillas, ACDC, Chet Faker, Motorhead, dEUS and a blur t-shirt, only logo's.)

Never had a 'shrine', but everyone's free to have one.

Oh, and I think to be hardcore you have to love 'Purple and Gold' as well.

Can't we just create an "insane fan" category instead?

olb99 said:

SquirrelMeat said:

Oh, and I think to be hardcore you have to love 'Purple and Gold' as well.

Can't we just create an "insane fan" category instead?

I agree.

Including "Purple And Gold" love, ànd minimum visit of 50 concerts = "Prinsane" level !

(I know, I'm just bored.)

By the way, that 99problem5 has a few new 1989 AI remixes up, and they sound just great - this for all the AI haters.

What I always wondered is how many poople have the level of knowledge the most hardcore among us have? Like they've been following research, read many books, listened to many podcasts, been through Princevault thoroughly, have all circulating outtakes, at least all soundboard shows and reheasrsals, and nearly all official releases in one format or another, including rarities. I can't imagine more than a few hundred people at best, but maybe I'm wrong and it's many more?

For example I was talking with a friend who I'd consider a hardcore fan the other day, who was a fan even before I was in the mid 80s, and it turned out he'd never heard the remix of James Brown and Aretha Franklin's Gimme Your Love from 89, didn't even know it existed. That surprised me.

If I heard about the "Gimme Your Love" remix years ago, listened to it, but forgot about it, does that count?

Man, I'm grateful for PrinceVault and all the other books/resources around Prince...

I probably don't even meet the criteria you listed. Do I have 95% of all circulating studio outtakes and soundboard recordings? Probably. At this point, I don't really care about the remaining 5%. 20 years ago, it would have been different.

I've become an "obsessed but minimalist" fan, I guess.

So, yeah, "a few hundred people at best" sounds about right.

[Edited 1/29/25 13:26pm]

databank said:

What I always wondered is how many poople have the level of knowledge the most hardcore among us have? Like they've been following research, read many books, listened to many podcasts, been through Princevault thoroughly, have all circulating outtakes, at least all soundboard shows and reheasrsals, and nearly all official releases in one format or another, including rarities. I can't imagine more than a few hundred people at best, but maybe I'm wrong and it's many more?

For example I was talking with a friend who I'd consider a hardcore fan the other day, who was a fan even before I was in the mid 80s, and it turned out he'd never heard the remix of James Brown and Aretha Franklin's Gimme Your Love from 89, didn't even know it existed. That surprised me.

There's also the cathegory of "stepping down fan"

.

I reckon I'm beginning to loose track on certain things. On one hand it's something deliberate -I feel I need to move on a bit and focus on other things. On the other hand, we are all getting older. I used to have an elephant memory on dates, concerts, what's circulating, what's not and of course what I have in my collection. Now I reckon I'm not always sure wether I have some exotic odd pressing of whatever single or an awfully sounding audience recording from the Parade tour on a hard drive.

.

In any case I'm still here and I jump at the chance of purchasing any new bootleg with previously uncirculating stuff or of course any vault material officially released.

.

It's just that I guess I'm not that mad at it anymore.

You're a hardcore fan if you even so much as know about Purple & Gold. Doubly so if you can name the 'fam', who would call it a masterpiece!

olb99 said:

If I heard about the "Gimme Your Love" remix years ago, listened to it, but forgot about it, does that count?

Man, I'm grateful for PrinceVault and all the other books/resources around Prince...

I probably don't even meet the criteria you listed. Do I have 95% of all circulating studio outtakes and soundboard recordings? Probably. At this point, I don't really care about the remaining 5%. 20 years ago, it would have been different.

I've become an "obsessed but minimalist" fan, I guess.

So, yeah, "a few hundred people at best" sounds about right.

[Edited 1/29/25 13:26pm]

This jam is so damn funky I don't think one can listen to it and forget it. My firend hadn't heard it, but admetedly it was easy to overlook, being just a remix, and hard to find online for a long time (I think I only finally grabbed it circa 2010, which is late in the game).

That said, if I'm going to be honest even if I have most, if not all the official online streams from the early to mid 2010s, I barely remember half of what was streamed. And despite having them, I often forgot some outtakes were circulating when it comes to recent leaks. We can't remember everything.

As far as the criteria IDK, but years of discussions with you makesme pretty sure your knowledge of the purple topic is as good as can be, definitely as good as mine.

psyche2 said:

databank said:

What I always wondered is how many poople have the level of knowledge the most hardcore among us have? Like they've been following research, read many books, listened to many podcasts, been through Princevault thoroughly, have all circulating outtakes, at least all soundboard shows and reheasrsals, and nearly all official releases in one format or another, including rarities. I can't imagine more than a few hundred people at best, but maybe I'm wrong and it's many more?

For example I was talking with a friend who I'd consider a hardcore fan the other day, who was a fan even before I was in the mid 80s, and it turned out he'd never heard the remix of James Brown and Aretha Franklin's Gimme Your Love from 89, didn't even know it existed. That surprised me.

There's also the cathegory of "stepping down fan"

.

I reckon I'm beginning to loose track on certain things. On one hand it's something deliberate -I feel I need to move on a bit and focus on other things. On the other hand, we are all getting older. I used to have an elephant memory on dates, concerts, what's circulating, what's not and of course what I have in my collection. Now I reckon I'm not always sure wether I have some exotic odd pressing of whatever single or an awfully sounding audience recording from the Parade tour on a hard drive.

.

In any case I'm still here and I jump at the chance of purchasing any new bootleg with previously uncirculating stuff or of course any vault material officially released.

.

It's just that I guess I'm not that mad at it anymore.

I suspect many of us are "stepping down" fans in our listening habits.

At this stage of my life, I'm discussing Prince much more than I actually listen to his music. If I'm going to be honest, I hardly ever listen to Prince anymore for the simple reason that I know every album (and non-album song) by heart and I need to listen to things that stimulate my curiosity a little more. I'll always love his music and I have phases when I revisit his work a little, but that's here and there.

Strangely enough, that doesn't mean I lost interest in researching and discussing his work or interacting with fellow fans.

So in the end what does make me a fan at this point? Certainly not the amount of time I devote to listening to the music.

[Edited 1/31/25 2:13am]