Just listening to the radio in Baltimore today. I know I may be getting older and have been a Prince fan since 1987, but I still know good music. The radio these days is for shit.
Hip Hop is stale and repetitious. I miss the days of it actually having something to say or at least being genuine party music. Public Enemy, Ghetto Boys, 2 Short, 2pac, Digital Underground, LL. Cool J, Biggy Small, Junior Mafia, NWA, Ice Cube, Gang Star, Kwame, Heavy D, Big Daddy Kane, The DOC. I miss this so much. I mean Eminem is cool, but isn't he just a one man Beastie Boys without the "Sex Pistols" background music.
The 80's went though a similar time of mediocrity in music coming out of the 70's disco transition. Rap music was infantile then, mostly party music with alot of audience participation ("wave your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care, somebody scream..." yada yada) The other side of the pillow (no pun intended) yielded an overlooked musician who had some success in the late late 70's with his first of many #1 Black tunes called " I wanna BE Your Lover." 1982 was the year that music seemed to turn around. This was the year that introduced the world to the three biggest artist of that decade, a girl (Madonna), a boy (Prince), and a... what category does one put MJ in? Well anyway, the music was great, radio was awesome, and they influenced the other apples in the barrel to be good too, for damn near the entire decade.
The 90's started off pretty nice as well, but the mainstreaming of hip hop took a lot of attention away from ground breaking radio. Okay sure there was a "No Doubt" here and a "Lauren Hill/Fugees" there, but what of it? Those flames to most died out before 1997 was over. The intro of the BackStreet Boys, N'Sync, Britney, and Christina Agu. sealed the music worlds fate for me. I will say I do think Christina Agu. is pretty talented, but who cares about that in GEN Y?
U know what our problem is? U know why we are here? U know why we are always pushing/COMPLAINING for Prince to do better? It's because RADIO SUCKS!!! And we just need a musical savior again and from the current crop of stars, we just can't see any potentials in sight.
Prince reminds me of NEO. We R Morphius and Zion. and the rest of the world is the MATRIX.

(oK I just saw the trailer to "REVOLUTIONS" tonight when I went to see "Run Down")

it has nothing to do with you getting old. I'm 18 and i couldn't agree more. everyone is eating crap. it's like fast food.
i'm glad prince isn't part of it anymore. he doesn't deserve to be and if he was it would just be crap (a bit like rave).

i think this 'crap' is a result of postmodernism. all we are doing now is regurgiation past stuff and nothing new is coming out. i aslo believe the rainbow children is a witness and example to post modernism. not its religious content but the music.
every prince record is an example of the music that was around that year and it would seem like prince has become weak and turned to universal jazz but i wouldn't describe the rainbow children like this. it is a post modern masterpeice. it doesn't fit into one catergory but it still represents its time.

i am 16 and i would rather burn in hell 4 an eternity than listen to the radio 4 an eternity

I am a total 80's fan and a huge prince fan(it runs in my family ). plus his music got more meaning than ANYTHING out there. i mean "when doves cry" whoops eminem's entire album any day...
when doves cry,sign o the times,1999,ect. can still hold up to this day.

though he would have been a living legend now if he didn't screw his career...

prince is a genius...
cuz he writes more in one album then i have in all of middle school...

rock on p !

anything he has is better than anything on pop/urban radio.. especially..


and Prince music lately isnt that great


so it isnt sayin much.. at all

I agree.
Right now music really is in a bad place. But, there's always "stages" where music is sorta blah.
There are some out there that actually have talent i.e. no doubt, outcast, eminem, christina aguilera, liz phair, ect. but they all fly under that radar of what prince is/was.
to me, right now prince isn't the best place he could be but I'd rather listen to TRC or NEWS than what's in the top ten.
Music always has it's "down" periods. Pretty soon all the fads will change and hip hop will eventually take a backseat to something else.
Now it's completely unheard of to be in a boyband, think back three years ago, that certainly wasn't the case. Hip hop will eventually die out.
I remember in 1980 (I think) my father was talking/complaining about music and pop culture in general and then came '83. I remember when Paula Abdul was big and thinking it was the end and then came Mariah Carey.
Music/Pop Culture goes through changes, tons of changes, right now is no different.
I'm confident that one day I'll turn on FM radio and like what I hear. Music has gone through many dull stages--it always bounces back.

And yes, Prince is STILL better than 90% of the mainstream/commercial stuff out there now.

I disagree. What Prince has been playing for the last few years is not really "pop" or "mainstream"; its more jazz fusion. As far as jazz goes, Prince is mediocre at best. I think the real reason is that fans want Prince to do pop. The thing is, like it or not, pop belongs to the current generation and Prince ain't it. People (specifically Prince fans) want Prince to go back to doing what he did to put him on top.
[This message was edited Sun Sep 28 21:50:34 PDT 2003 by BlaqueKnight]

lovebizzare said:

I agree in so many ways. Somebody said that P is not as good as he used to be, that he is weak and now focused a universal music form like jazz. I think this is wrong, with all due respect, the comment about him being weak is wrong that is. Prince has times when he flirts with a musical for of sorts and then moves on. His passion for jazz is not a new one at all. This started almost 18 years ago with him hanging with Miles Davis and the creation of Madhouse. Hell think about UTCM Lp and movie and you will see a the nods to early New York jazz of the depression era.

The many has not just crossed certain bridges he has built them, hell he has designed, engineered, and built them. P has done almost every form of music out there and has seemingly settled for a while with the Jazz roots of R&B. And let's ot 4get that he grew up around the Prince Rogers Jazz players. Credit that to his father.

BlaqueKnight said:

I still don't think Prince was ever Pop. I was there as a pre-teenager and teenager and Prince never seemed like Pop to any one who was listenning. Madonna was Pop, Mj was Pop, Wham and Duran Duran was Pop. Prince was out in left field creating his own way of being that everyone else ended up latching on to and melding into their music. The keyboards, the drumming, the guitar licks, the voice was all copied at one point by almost every major artist of the 80's and early 90's.

Top 40 (POP) Radio back then was like:
Like a Virgin, Hey Jimmie, Wang chung tonite, Notorius, Rebel Yell, Wake Me up B-4.., Cruel Summer, C'est La Vie, and Ghostbuster theme.


And over in left field Prince was kicking: When doves Cry, Rasberry Beret, UNEEDANOTHERLOVER, Lady Cab Driver, and Hot Thing.

sounding like nothing POP at all. and every year they would mimic him, he would come out with something new. Then he hit 30, and like alot of people lost some of his imagination, aged, created his 2nd biggest record (8 Years after the biggest) D&P using an old formula for hits, but his talent still grows to this very day.
[This message was edited Sun Sep 28 22:13:00 PDT 2003 by lmas]

lmas said:

well, to me "pop" has always been just a short version for the word "popular", so in that respect, yes, he was "pop".

but yeah, I've never really seen prince as one specific thing, it's hard to pigeonhole him.
That's why he'll never be a "god" of any genre, he's done so many, some better than others. He's very hard to catagorize, that's why he never stayed at "purple rain" fame. He doesn't stay on top or make "top ten" lists because he changes so much. if you look at all the artists/performers that were around before/after him that get all the praise, you'll notice that they stick to a certain sound/certain genre. I can think of quite a few performers/artists that don't "make it big" simply because they're too hard to catagorize (even his former bandmemebers Wendy & Lisa fell victim to this).
Then, of course, there are the trend chasers (like madonna), which even when he tried to be that he failed.
He's too different/complex for his own (commercial) good.

lmas said:

I don't think Prince is "weak", per se, as others do.
I just don't think he's as good at jazz as he's been at other things, I mean, let's be honest, TRC is no 1999.
I don't think he can master every genre of music there is, but that doesn't mean he can't play it.
I mean, you can learn to play guitar and if you're not as good as hendrix that doesn't mean you shouldn't play it.
As said by many people he's worked with, prince gets bored very easily, he simply got bored with funk or whatever he was doing and went onto something else-jazz.
He'll get tired of this as well. Musically he's chameleon (sp?).
Some people just don't like certain genres of music that prince plays, which is cool.
But I have an answer for those people who constantly complain: go listen to "purple rain", just because you don't like it doesn't mean he shouldn't play it.

yes it could b true.
yes it IS true.

Prince's music IS great right now and is of course a million times better than virtually ANYTHING on the radio.

RADIO died a long time ago, so did MTV.

PRINCE has more talent in his lil' pinky than any of the current generation of pop stars. Even the good ones would have a hard time keeping up.

Craig David who's touring around the same time, sure the teeny bopper girls will flock 2 see Craig, and I ain't got nothin' against the guy, but there's really no comparison, Craig himself, Justin, Usher etc would admit this and would have 2 bow down 2 the master.

No contest.

Ronny.

mrdespues said:

NEWS included?

I went thru high school in the 80's. Prince was about the only thing worth while to come out of that bleak decade.
the 80,s was just dead musically, try listning to anything but prince in more than a nostalgic way.
When I turn on the radio now I feel like we are back in the 80's

RonnyRon2000 said:

welcome to the world wide web

mrdespues said:

Ditto

paintsprayer said:

The 80s was the LAST creative era in pop/rock/r&b music. Prince was FAR from the only thing worthwhile to come from the 80s. Sorry your musical experience was so terrible for you. I think 80s brought forth some great songs and great artists.

mochalox said:

Yeah,P is always better than most of what's on the radio except howradio was inthe 70's.They used to play zep,and stevie and doobie and anybody so itw asn't formatted so much.It was how it should be.The 80's had fun music and the 90's had some cool stuff and LOTS of embarrassing stuff.Now,it's all dead.But,it's mostly record execs and conglamerates.

The RADIO is dead.There are still cool sounds coming out.There is music from all over the world.So,many great sounds.It jus takes more effort.You won't hear it on the radio.

The downloading music thing bothers me by the record companies.I still buy cd's.I read music articles and then download a song or two..then ,I go seek the cd.And the only other things I dload or boots that I can't find or afford.And I know I'm not the only one who works this way.These corporations sapped the life out of radio and then they make record-buying,which has always been a huge hobby for me,something painful...and now,theywant to punish us for just trying to survive as music fanatics.BOLLOCKS,I say!

Stop being greedy and sales will come back,art will flourish,radio will come back to life and thrive,and college grads can have their jobs back and get a place and get laid a little!!Jackasses!

lovebizzare said:

Let's get this out of the way. First of all 1999 was absolutely a great, very influential, trend setting album that did start the revolution I spoke about earlier but it is the past now. TRC is better in a more mature and conceptual form of musical expression. I love TRC and I love 1999, but for different reasons. In my opinion Prince's artistic peaks have come 3 times in his career:

the 1999/Purple Rain concept (same album just different names), the SOTT concept, and the TRC concept