Do you think Prince has at times, attempted at having hit songs and albums? If so, how do you think he has fared? And, how has it affected the quality of the music?

I think 'I wanna be your lover' and 'I feel for you' were definite attempts at writing radio-friendly songs. Not that there is anything wrong with that. He wanted to be put on the map.
I'm not sure if the '1999' and 'Purple Rain' albums were attempts to be a superstar, or just an attempt to create amazing music. However 'Little red corvette' does seem a little contrived.
'The most beautiful girl' was definitely Prince seeking revenge on the executives and record-buyers, who wrote him off. I wish he'd do this again!

Basically, with the execption of 'Rave Fantastic', which sounded very tired, I don't think writing a "hit" has done any harm to the standard to the music.

I've always thought of 'diamonds & pearls' as an attempt at being commercial

see my post above!.

he tried (and pretty much succeeded) the commercial route waaay before the aforementioned albums. p's 2nd album wuz the first stab at commerciality he ever did. also, i wouldn't wanna see 'im try his hand at it again, he don't need to imho.



commercial edit
[This message was edited Fri Jun 20 5:32:25 PDT 2003 by Handclapsfingasnapz]

I don't think he needs this anymore, he already had his share as far as I'm concern but if he made another attempt then why the hell not? I neva looked at "being commercial" as bad thang at all.

He did this just about the entire 90's.