I think the argument the last 10 years or so has been that Prince is not commercial, hes not doing his best to get on the charts or the radio. Or that the music he makes doesnt fit the radio standards. Well its simple Prince will never again fit that category, his commercial appeal to the masses is gone, Im not saying that one day he wont maybe have a charted single or album, but the days of the Top 10 singles and MTV play and multiplatnum albums are done. Every artist hits their "commercial Peak", some have a longer stay than others, its all about how much they grow, but the more an artist grows and challenges radio and mtv etc. the quicker their commercial appeal dies off. I mean lets look at Prince's career so far, the first few albums were a slow build to commercial success, but they werent considered "commercial successes", then came 1999, and suddenly Prince was approaching his peak, and obviously Purple Rain was that. But something happend right after that PRINCE kept growing and challenging, where other artists my have just put out another album that sounded the same as their "peak". Prince's challenges led to a drop in "commercial" success, sure he still continued to have hits here and there but it was only a matter of time before that would not be the case. Prince of today is not that "kid" that moved a crowd to "purple rain", he has grown as an artist and a musician, sure some of us may not like the direction but thats not the point, the point is that he is a "success" because he still creates and challenges. But i think now PRINCE is creating for him and for his band and where he is as a person now, kind of like we do in everyday life, I mean we dont still act the way we were 20 years ago we live to please ourselves first and that is the way it should be and thats the way PRINCE is to, so take it or leave it, its not gonna change.

lastdecember said:[quote]

Co-sign

The High album could have put Prince back on the charts, but he decided not to release it.

Vavoom could have been a hit too.

Rave would ahve been a better seller had he not listend to Clive - the original track list was a stronger album.

What ultimately will decide if Prince is "commercial" again is if he wants to be. I have no doubt he could go in the studio and create a top 10 hit. There are two questions

1 - does he even care about the charts? the High project shows he at least thinks about it.
2 - would he spend the money it takes to promote a top 10 hit?

And ultimately, what does it really matter? Prince hasn't had a top 10 hit since the most beautiful girl in the world, yet his recent music and tours have generated rave reviews.

Hmmm...

By your logic MC Hammer grew extremely quick. After all, he lasted a couple of months before no longer getting radio play.



I'm just kidding. I don't care if P's commercial. I'd prefer he wasn't, actually. I think he gets just the right amount of comfort for my tastes.

Anecdote time:

I called my local music store. It's part of a chain that covers Western Canada. It's big too, it has an entire floor for Classical and Jazz, and then another floor for Pop and R&B, another floor DVDs, etc..

So I called them, and said "Hi, I was wondering if you guys stocked a certain album. It's called NEWS, it's by Prince."

"ok, hang on."

"It's his newest album, he just released it today"

"What? You're kidding!"

"No"

"Prince released a new album! That's incredible! No, we don't have it"



she was so shocked.

The other day, a cousin of mine was looking at my DVDs. She came across Rave 2000. She said "what's this?". I said, "It's a concert DVD by Prince."

She says: "Oh, I thought he was dead"



Cruel world for me.

Okay. Juist hope prince can deal with further loss of a fan base.

P is a pop artist , maybe the greatest musician ever in the history of pop, we all know that the system suck and that's not new, even if it's worse now but without selling his soul he could be "commercial" again, with a good management team and a few concessions
Think about all these songs that deserved to be hits:
Love Sign
Days Of Wild - still unreleased
Gold
Now
Acknowledge Me
...
lot's of Emancipation's titles like Sex In THe Summer, My Computer, The Human Body ..
Im sure that When U Love Somebody would have done well in the charts
...
So Far So Pleased
The Sun, The Moon and Stars
Baby Knows
Supercute ( with a kick ass video!), I don't know the others titles of NPGMC year 1
..
She Loves Me 4 Me

first there was the Warner feud
the Emancipation fiasco, it's true that at that time there was a dramatic event in his life but there were still video for songs that I've almost never heard on radio ( Betcha By Golly Wow , Holy River, a beautiful song but a ballad after a first one, Somebody' Somebody ) because there wasn't promo at all, I didn't even find them in the stores
there were the mistakes for Rave
and now he's into the "if you love me follow me blindly" cultish trend

sure he still continued to have hits here and there but it was only a matter of time before that would not be the case
I disagree Around The World In A Day & Parade made him more popular in Europe than Purple Rain and we can't say that those were "easy" commercial records n'est ce pas?
If he has released The Truth alone with a simple beautiful video à la 4 The Tears In Your Eyes for Dionne, a normal distribution deal, a little promotion like an Unpplugged on Mtv, this album could have been easily platinium imo
-

alandail said:

That's true. TMBGITW was a huge hit because Prince wanted it to be. I think he proved a point with that one song, and he doesn't have any need to prove it again. Personally, I would like him to be in the charts now and then and for the whole world to think he's great... but I can deal with it that doesn't happen.

I think he lost his commercial appeal when he continued on his "POP" track. Lots of slow love songs made to appeal to the flop 40 etc. It finally played out with his last big deal Rave Unto the Joy Fantastic. He started chart chasing instead of being innovative like he started.

Same thing happened to Lionel Richie and Kool and the Gang. R&B ---crossed over had major pop hits then fizzled.

Thumparello said:

The mistake was to listen to Clive Davis and change rave. The initial track list was better, then Clive told him to add certain kinds of songs - one result was the Greatest Romance Ever Sold. SO I guess I agree that chart chasing was the problem, but it was more of a problem of letting someone else dictate what kind of music he made.

And I still think if he really cared about the charts, he could have a hit album again. The High album could have been a hit album - My Medallion could have been a hit single. The DJs would have said "Prince is back".

Next year we find out if Prince cares to ever have a hit again. He should be inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. It'll be the 20th annivesary of Purple Rain. Can he leverage the attention into a hit - the Bee Gees pulled it off and got a hit when they were inducted. And they recovered from I think lower depths than Prince has sank to have multiple consecutive platinum albums.

alandail said:

True, but the Bee Gees only lost their audience in America anyway. They'd continued to have platinum albums everywhere else in the world during the 80's & 90's.

Unfortunately for Prince, he doesn't seem to be selling well anywhere in the world these days. I'd love to see him recover and get his ass back in the charts and be a commercial success again. Never say never.

Yeah, and U're pretty late, honey...

Prince hasn't been Commercial since the album before TRC...