I know we've had more than enough threads about MJ lately
but this is something that's been really pissing me off,
and I just had to get it off my chest.

I don't know exactly why this is happening, but to me at
least, it seems like measuring with 2 different scales:

When Prince changed his name back in 1993 and declared he
felt himself being "disowned" from the "Prince" persona
through commercialism and contractual obligations, there
was a huge media lashback.

It took a little while and gradually, yet consistantly,
the man was banned from radio and television.

More severely so than Madonna's slight excommunication
after the "Sex" book and certainly more severe than any
fallout MJ got after either the early 90's alligations
or these recent ones.

How come recordcompanies as well as the major public took
so much offense to Prince writing "Slave" on his face in
a way to adress how he felt under his current contract
with Warners and the recordingindustry in particular.

I mean, he explained it time and time again, how it should
be seen. Yet everyone just screamed "Oh the fallacy of a
black man comparing himself to the slaves of before when
he makes $ 10 mil per album!".

After the hype and the bitchin' calmed down, Prince was
just ushered off the stage and swept off the board.

In recent years, -mind you, it's been a decade!- it seems
some of them are peddling back on some of the shit they
poured out over lil man. But all still seem reluctant to
really restore the man to his rightfull position.

It's as if he's tainted goods. You just don't hail Prince
anymore. He's a curiosity at most. Admitting, a good and
perhaps even outstanding musician.

The Grammy nomination and the HOF induction are healthy
signs of people finally getting over it and recognising
Prince again.

Now, I could understand all of that, if the treatments
were the same for an artist of MJ's stature.

But somehow it isn't. MJ is accused of childmolesting,
wages his own war on his label by outright calling Motolla
"The Devil", and still, all of that is glossed over.

"MJ called Motolla The Devil!" Here, let us air a two hour
special of all his video's and trumpet his celebrated
carreer and his outstanding musicianship once again.

Get the man on Larry King. Scrap the documentary about the
Iraque people and schedule a new 1 hour interview with MJ
per direct. Let's release another greatest hits album.

And the people just buy into all of it. The album reaches
#1 in no time.

Since these recent aligations, I can't turn on the radio
anymore without hearing old and new MJ songs everywhere.

Even artists from all fields hurry to his rescue and can
be seen on television proclaiming that "Mike would never
do shit like that". Bla bla bla.

It's all rather sickening to me. It seems unfair to hail
and keep hailing a man like MJ who's accomplishments pail
in comparison to Prince's as the "King Of Pop". A title
he gave himself no less.

What on earth is this guy's appeal to people? What makes
people want to know?

Five years since his last release, the dude releases one
new song and all of a sudden every tv station on earth is
doing a one hour special on MJ which will premiere the
new single. Everybody holler, the prodigy returns. The
maestro, the enigma, the best musician in the world has
come up with another song. It only took him five years!!

Meanwhile Prince released 75 odd songs and the single
was nicely placed on rotation twice, at 03:15 AM on an
obscure R&B station.

Admitting, Prince doesn't play the game anymore like MJ
does and he doesn't seem to care about all the attention
and airplay and such. But I just don't believe that he
wouldn't be happy if they played his new songs. Every
artist makes music first and foremost to reach some kind
of audience. Esepcially with Prince and his new way of
trying to "teach" his audience something, I bet he would
love to be able to preach to a larger crowd.

And even if he doesn't spend millions to get coverage,
even obscure bands on small labels get their own "The
Story Of..." on MTV. Just look at those kind of Weekend
Specials where they have "The Story Of..." on about 50
bands in one weekend, and every name, big to smallest is
paraded on your screen. Yet Prince is always omitted.

How can you make a 1 hour special on Craig David and yet
somehow make it seem like it wouldn't be possible to do
the same for Prince? You could do at least a 4 hour show
on his last decade and it wouldn't be boring for one
single minute. There's so much to tell and so much music
to pick from. Even if it isn't all well known.

Bitch bitch bitch. I know. But you have to admit, that it
is rather unfair.

:combust:

If people would have really LISTENED to some of his 92+ output... It's not all that bad as people are made to believe!
But most of my friends didn't know Prince is still making music. So I decided to take them with me to some ONA shows. That made them listen again

Since when did the music really matter? Michael J. hasn't been in the news for his music since a looong time...

Why care whether Prince's music is on Mtv or the radio alot etc,people who like him will listen to his music anyway regardless of his general public popularity,what the general public like is generally shit anyway.

richierich said:

Yeah, that's true. And I don't really care, it's just that
I see the difference in treatment and it's almost beyond
comprehension at times how different these two are treated
by the media.

IstenSzek said:

Why worry about it? Prince doesn't want what MJ's got. I'm sure Mike deep down would like some obscurity, on face value though MJ is shallow and unable to let go of his superstar status.

He does sell millions of albums still though (it's been an eternity since Prince did), perhaps this plays a part in how the media treats them differently.

I can understand your annoyance,its just that Mtv and other music stations play what is deemed trendy,so you get the likes of the darkness etc played non stop until something new comes along.Like you've already mentioned M.J plays to the media and Prince dont,take Elton John he will do almost anything to sell records and he's crap in my opinion, but he's friends with the Beckhams,sings his old songs with blue and realeses his old hits with a trendy disco beat over them.I'm sure Prince could do the same as others and become trendy but he aint a publicity hoar.

let's rather compare P to Bruce Springsteen: Bruce still is very popular but he's not a media whore à la elton john, gives terrific concerts, has released great music recently ( 41 shots!) , had problems with his record compagny in the past but has a solid management, didn't sue his fans..

Simple, Prince no longer makes commercial music.

I get into this discussion once a week with people. I totally agree. The problem is, radio and TV are pathetic. Take pride in yourself for listening to something the rest of the world doesnt get. Let them have their Child Molesting freak.. If you listen to radio, its all about the mighty dollar. Its not about the art of music. Last year one saturday night, a nationally syndicated R&B program had an entire night dedicated to Prince and MJ, playing each artists songs. Had a call in to see who was better... MJ won by a landslide Had to smile..The rest of the world just doesnt get it, and the never will...

Wrong. It's the Prince fans that don't get it. I think it has something to do with the fact that Prince's output is much more erratic in quality because of the amount of work that he releases. It's no wonder that he lost a lot of public support as he's released a lot of mediocre music in the last decade.

I just think that Princes music now aint suited to the mainstream and most people prefer his 80s output,but that still shouldnt put the general public off,MJs music is hardly fantastic nowadays and Elton's never has been but they are livin off there past.I personally dont care if Prince dosent get on the radio or tv ,Robbie Williams is on tv and radio alot and he is complete and utter shit.

I glad you started this thread.

My sister told me that that the other day 98.7 Kiss FM (NYC) did a MJ vs. Prince set. The first time they did this a few months ago, more callers voted for Prince. But, the second time around MJ won. Even the DJ said Michael got the "sympathy" vote. He also said something to the effect that if Prince wants to get back on top he needs to put out a killer track.

I'm sick of people on here using Prince's shortcomings to beat MJ with.

it's ridiculous.

Prince is where he's at now because of Prince, nobody else.

At least Prince doesn't actually desperately try to get the media's attention the way MJ does.

Sure, Prince is somewhat forgotten amongst musically ignorant ppl, but that's better than becoming a total and utter joke like Michael is.

Let's face it, it simply doesn't matter how great a musician you are if you don't play the game the record industry wants you to play.

Prince challenged the way things are done, the shallow average music fan and media outlets couldn't accept it, and now he's completely lost interest in that game, and I respect him for it.

He seems pretty happy for a guy not in the spotlight, so why should us fans care when even he doesn't?

jn2 said:

I think this has some truth in it. Bruce is loveable as a guy - when're you gonna see Prince in your local pub?

IstenSzek said:

I think you answered your own question.

If you want media coverage, you have to play the media game. You have to make yourself accessible via interviews, Behind the Music shows, MTV Cribs...whatever. You have to attend the parties, be on the scene to be seen. Prince chose to divorce himself from all of this, keeps a low profile and doesn't pay much (if any!) attentiobn to marketing. Without a team of PR folks responsible for getting your name in the papers, it's not gonna happen on its own...unless there's some terrible scandal and then the media will beat its own path to your door. Even those "small bands" have a machine behind them to ensure they get exposure. Part of what the label does to promote their act. Since Prince is independent, he doesn't have the machine behind him anymore.

i thought the thread was morew about why the hell is MJ still played. i mean, if prince was accused of child molesting in the early 90s surely his songs would have been dropped and he'd have been ostracised far quicker than he was cos of the slave thing. i dont know why and i dont like playing a "race" card. but maybes its cos people see MJ as more black than prince (umm...yeah i know MJ is white now but he has vitaligo, thats the truth) so maybe tehy didnt drop MJ cos they didnt want a big race thing bringing up, whereas prince was more of an antagonist? thats just one idea not necessarily my own ok!

i think its about money too, music channelsgets money and MJ is still at a record label, at the same time however he himself claims motella or whatever his name is is a devil,w hich prince never did,, at least if you listened to what prince was saying he said its not with WB personally, its just his contract, now he may and probably did at some point say something to contradict that but anyway, thats what he went on record saying several times.

as for why prince isnt played, cos people can only remember about 4 of his hits, sad but true, especially in the UK. even though, ironically, everyone still knows manic monday and nothing compares 2 U! lol. prince songs seem to be coming back, and we'll see what next year brings, but radios do have to try play what people want to hear, and MJ has never really been out of the spotlight or went away.

as to MJ seeking publicity...i dont see how him being accused to paedophilia (or ebophilia or whatever it is when its an underage teenager) is him seeking publicity. that notion is ridiculous. as ofr all the tv specials, ithink hes justa naive man who thinks that tv specials will show people the real him, or the real him as to hwo he wnts to be presented.