A friend wrote this to me recently. I've always wondered about what Prince attracts and found this commentary a good starting point for a discussion.Does anyone else wonder how they manage to associate with the mentality of a community such as this? We should be able to discuss this sensibly.

"They sold the public a vapid, sex-obsessed pop star and they got a fan base of people who are vapid, mostly sex-obsessed morons. "

Not all fans fit that mold.

One of the few people who I share org notes with sent me a similar message a month ago.I started to repond to more posts because of it.

Prince's fan base that is as old as myself do not post or even come to fansites, so there is a silent group of people out there that you will never hear from.

Fact is Prince is 40+ years old with a rapidly ageing fan base.Consider,the last major hit for Prince was 1994(TMBGITW).If you were in the prime music buying demographic (14-24) you are 9 years older and may not be buying music anymore.Younger fans may have had older brothers & sisters to introduce Prince music to them.Others may have stumbled across him on MTV2 or unknown reasons.

Prince still has a diehard fan base of 1-2 million worldwide.So fansites such as this will continue to pop up.

As for the general vibe on the Org,I think that it will change in the next couple of months.If not???

I will be here still.

Peace to Ben & the rest of the Org !

[This message was edited Thu Jul 3 13:24:30 PDT 2003 by chickengrease]

starr said:

thank you. the folks your friend forgot to mention, anji, were the fans/friends/freex/fams/whoever who are like me: were either too young in p's heyday to know anything or picked up on stuff super-late. those of us who are lookin amongst the ruins of what once wuz and what there is, listenin to all of the old-skoolers' testimonials on how stuff went down, all of that.

i'm still learnin about prince, for the most part. i know a helluva lot more at the present than what i did know when i started gettin into his music 8 years ago but there's still a lot more that i'm findin out. don't pigeonhole me with whoever else....i can most certainly tell ya that ya honestly can't be a "moron" to understand p's work.


mine!!!






don't need no reefer, don't need cocaine...purple edits do the same 2 my brain...
[This message was edited Tue Jul 1 19:28:36 PDT 2003 by Handclapsfingasnapz]

I may be vapid, but... uh... what?

starr said:

Thank you :nod;
There are very different types of Prince fans:

1."The old-schoolers"

2.The ones that are over-sexed and seem to only care about him because of his sex appeal and are longing for him to back to those days (*coughNATASHAcough*)

3.The ones who think he sold out in the 90s and don't listen to him that much/at all anymore

4.The ones who jumped on the bandwagon in the 1999/Purple Rain days, and fail to relaize that he has made great music/albums since that time period

5.The ones who dig and pry into his personal life and then cop an attitude about it

6.The ones who only like The Revolution years and feel that Wendy & Lisa "made" him

7.The ones who bitch about everything he does

8.The ones who appreciate his music and take him (the person) for what he is

9.The snobby ones who think they know everything there is to know about him and look down on others

10.The ones who think he's God and that he can do no wrong

See, so there's 10 different types of fans right there, and I'm sure there's much more. I think it's unfair to assume that evrey Prince fan is that certain way. Prince has very diffrent types of fans and sure, some of them are annoying, or snobby, or just plain dumb, but you can't just lump all of us into one category.

IMHO.
[This message was edited Tue Jul 1 19:44:12 PDT 2003 by lovebizzare]

I'd respond to this thread but the original post had too many big words and didn't talk about sex enough for me to bother reading all of it.

SnowQueen said:

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Co-sign and well said!

D You are awsome!

Anji, I disagree, the fans that I have met at all the celebrations and many concerts that I attended, seemed to be level headed, friendly and friendly towards Prince. Of course there were some that I wanted to keep my distance but that's the way it is in any crowd.

Sounds pretty pathetic. Is your friend scared to state his own opinion here or did you just post it without his permission? Or is it just you trying to stiffle the comments by fans that Prince is not himself anymore, but instead a brainwashed religious zealot who negates his own past?
Anyway this piece of drivel sucks IMHO.

"vapid, mostly sex-obsessed morons"



Most of the fans I come across are just ordinary nice folk, if a little geeky (in the Prince sense, not the Star Trek sense!).

Online, there seems to be two distinct main groups, the ordinary nice people, and the wierd talking-in-riddles, pseudo-religious-babble type fan.

I wouldn't say sex-obsessed comes into it.

As for my own opinion, what really infuriates me are some people's inability to see outside of their own understanding and beliefs. I have no issues whatsoever with alternate viewpoints, even if they don't make sense to me. If anything, that's what I enjoy - the full spectrum. However, I have to admit my enjoyment turns into frustration when it's clear that minds are simply not open to change. I think what it really comes down to is an underlying level of respect for others and the intelligence to know when those others make sense. Some people here though are simply too fucking dumb.

I've had this problem since the beginning of time...don't need a cure I need a final solution.

Anji said:

So very true...

Anybody that lets what somebody posts on a website fuck with them in real life is a moron. I have posted this on Prince's site and I will say it here: The Prince fans that make me not want to hang around with them are the ones I have met in real life. The ones who have a desire to touch him, or allow their friends to cut in line in front of you, or the ones who try to run you over at the soundchecks to get closer to the stage than you. I have seen some real assholes. People really should stop letting the perceived negativity of this site bother them. If you look around, I'm sure that you can find the positive. As far as your own personal comment Anji, first of all, it is one of the first that I didn't have to try to decipher(teehee!) and I respect it but folks have got to also realize Prince was doing the sexual thing for twenty years. It took him a long time to change and it is going to take time for his fans to change as well. Hell, I personally had not heard some of the things on those records before Prince said them. Me personally: yeah I was slow to accept change but I have accepted it in order to remain a Prince fan. I have an open mind, but that doesn't mean that I am gonna like some of the new stuff anyway.

Well, I actually fit into two of the categories: Category 1 as an "old-timer" and Category 8 as "one who loves Prince the Musician, the Artist, and just accepts Prince the Human as he is...a human!

The only true thing that bothers me about the org is that people don't understand human nature. There's some people who are rude and careless. There's others who are sensitive. There's yet others who are thoughtful, kind and so on...

The point is that I'm sure that most artists who have websites or fans who create webboard discussions have fans of ALL categories.

Case in point: I'm a huge Depeche Mode fan. Like Prince, DM is often teased, disrespected, etc. by most people in the world and the music industry because they tend to go against the grain---they have always had an unconventional approach to music (sound familiar?). They've been around for almost 23 years; yet, their fanbase is derived from a range of dispositions, from rude and insensitive to kind and almost accommodating...

Just my 2-cents...

Anji said:

Yeah,but being sex-obsessed doesn't have to always be a bad
thing.

starr said:

Co-sign. At varying times in my life, I was 1, 3, 8, 9, and 10, or a combination of some or all. Now I'm starting to feel more like a 1 and an 8 combined(after becoming an orger it was impossible for me to be a 9 because several others know a bit more Prince than I), although I do think he intentionally watered down some of his later stuff.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 2 13:38:59 PDT 2003 by namepeace]
[This message was edited Wed Jul 2 13:40:11 PDT 2003 by namepeace]

muleFunk said:

1-2 million, yes...in 1985 maybe. Nowadays his hardcore fan numbers are very much less.

Probably around the Alex Hahn figure of 100,000 - tops!

A

friend wrote:

Who are you calling vapid?

lovebizzare said:

You missed many off...

11. The ones who consider the post Warner material actually contained quality control.

12. The ones who think the 90's material is progression.

13. The ones who think news is not elvevator music, but some new direction in music.

14. The ones who run to the NPGMC to see what page has updated every second, as if it means something.

15. The ones that post on NPGMC and want a NEWS tour!?

16. The ones that pretend it would be better to hear Courtin Time live, rather than old rubbish like The Ladder.

17. The ones who think NPGMC is a good business.

18. The ones who recommend the new site, but cannot make a list of worthwhile content.

19. The ones who insisted Prince didn't promise 4 albums last year.

20. The ones who hate "oldies" harping on about the good old days, even though most people think it totally eclipsed the output of the last 7 years.

The list could go on!

stymie said:

I couldn't have said it better

SquirrelMeat said:

please, please, please don't tell me that there are actual folks really wantin this...

this is from a thread I posted earlier and I thought it would fit good 4 this discussion:

Even though I believe I shouldn't have to explan my fanscination of Prince to anybody, I will anyway just to clear a few things up . Yes I am a fan, I have been so since I was 14 and now I'm 23. My collection went from Just buying purple rain as christmas gift for a friend to become larger then my original music library (all other artist). It's been so long since I been a fan, I don't remember the orginanl reason why I became a fan in the first place, but all I know is I'm stuck and I'm here to stay. I have to honestly say, although I though Prince was sexy I look more up to Prince for a musicial talents more so then his looks. I am a musician also and there has been plenty of times I felt like giving up my music, cuz nobody else understood it, but every time I pop in a Prince CD, it just made hold on 2 my dream a little longer.When people asked me why I like Prince, I would never say because he's a cute or he's a hottie, it always be, because he's the baddest musician there is, can't nobody top Prince (then there would be a argument)

But Listen the other thing I liked about Prince was, he wasn't like this young cats out 2day, who tries to hard 2 be a musician and have people take them serious all at the same time. Prince was a serious musician, but he also knew how to entertain. The only problem I have with some of the older fans is, they tend to look down on a lot of younger fans who obviously just want to have fun. I'm sure when some of you became a Prince fan in the beginning,you where sex obsessed also who try 2 make it appear as if u where.

I mean if you been a fan since Prince music career begin, you shouldn't look down on those who later on in the mix became fan. We all have are reason why we like Prince and draws us to his music.

Later on in the years I see myself being one of those older fans talking about the highlights and the down falls of Prince career, I almost postive Prince music will still be around atracting new people to the sound... but you see I will be the type 2 try to broden the young folks mind and show them Prince is not just about sex, but he got skillz to... even though I'm sure they would already know that

Just keep in my mind before judging someone on their likes and dislik, u should get the broader picture... I don't care how long you been a fan or how many bootlegs you may have ... we all in this for the same reason and that's 2 enjoy Prince music from all pausible aspect he introduces us to....

nuff said


[This message was edited Wed Jul 2 18:10:00 PDT 2003 by DigitalLisa]

I just want my CD...and I have friends here.

..

i dont know if it has anything to do with prince

shit james brown got some dumb ass fans as well

and i aint even gonna talk about some p funkateers i seen

the deal here is

that some ppl take this shit too seriously and live on this mf

this lack of interaction with the outside world breeds some

closed, narrow visioned, insecure mf's

that need to take they asses out into the real world

every once in a while

its was supposed to be about the music but some one lost

the message some where along the way

..

oh by the way, prince aint gonna marry none of y'all neither

..

youngsoulrebel said:

you gon' disappoint the fammies, now...