I was listening to RAVE today and I realized that the good tracks(So Far So Pleased, Sun Moon Stars,Manowar, Baby knows, I Love U But I Dont Trust U, Silly Game, Wherever I Go and Prettyman) were released only on RAVE, it would be better than MUSICOLOGY..actually..Rave has more "commercial" sounding songs. "So Far So Pleased" screams top 10 and "Manowar" would run circles around "Call My Name" and would have made a real dent on the charts. What do yall think...if RAVE was parred down to the aforementioned 8 songs plus 3-4 more good songs(lets use "Avalanche", "Family Name" and "Last December") do you think that it would have had more of an impact of do you think that the reason MUSICOLOGY is selling is based more on promotion and nostalgia moreso than anything else??

DigitalGardin said:

Yes! If the album had come after a kick ass performance at the Grammys and accompanied by a tour promising to include all his hits I think it had the potential to do better than "Musicology". I like "Musicology" but I think Rave had more hits on it. It's really too bad Prince decided to release The Greatest Ro...Bla, Bla, Bla. Just like its title, this song was just too long and boring. I think people just slept on the album after that. If he had got together with Gwen and made a hot ass video, I think So Far, So Pleased would have screamed to the top of the charts and sat there for awhile. Gwen was hot and people were begging him to play 1999. The timing was right for big Prince success. He missed a big opportunity.IMO Baby Knows and Hot With U could have been great follow ups.

YES!!!! sometimes it's scary how promotion is more important than the quality of a record (and with that I'm not saying musicology is a bad album, because I think is great).

Also, is very strange how many people thinks of Rave while talking of Musicology, I did too the first time I heard musicology

They're the same kind of record. Both are Prince's attempt at commercial sounds gone terribly wrong.

Not in a squillion years. Rave isn't a patch on musicology. Rave has two or three great tracks and a lot of duff. Musicology is much more consistent. I see Rave and Musicology both being overtly attempting to be commercial, but the latter is waaaaay more successful than the former. IMO.

Yes!! I was listenin' to Rave today also!!
Prince could have been as successful with this album as he is now with Musicology. But some of the songs on the Rave Un2 the joy Fantastic album are just sorry as hell..

TheFrog said:

I don't know any of these fancy emoticons, but can I just say, amen!l Yeah, Manowar vs. Call My Name? No comparison. I dont' think either album has a lot of "hit" singles on it, they're both totally out of sync with modern "Hot 100" radio. But, that said, Call My Name is about 10 times the song of Manowar, and it boils down to one simple thing: heart.

EvilWhiteMale said:

I agree, although I think Rave sounded like a more desparate attempt. Musicology doesn't sound desparate, but definitely sounds more contrived.

I don't agree on the "terribly wrong" part, though, concerning Musicology.
[This message was edited Sat May 22 17:11:48 2004 by TheBigBang]

TheBigBang said:

I say terribly wrong because most people really aren't diggin Prince's sound these days. A commercial success would be an album that not just makes the charts, but is remembered. No one will remember Musicology.

I agree, it could've gon farther than it did, but I play on my stereo anyway time to time, I really like this one...

musicology is a deperately average prince album, rave wasnt great but it was better.

danielboon said:

Well I agree that Musicology and Rave both arent good Prince albums BUT Rave has much stronger and more commercial songs. Now I dint give a happy about the charts but the some of the songs on Rave actually seem as if Prince put a bit of effort and emotion into them i.e. "I Love U But I Dont Trust U Anymore"..now Rave does have more "filler" than Musicology but I think that if u would get rid of the filler from Rave, the remaining songs would be better than the whole of Musicology

EvilWhiteMale said:

Forget a commercial success..that means nothing musically. "Dirty Mind" wasnt a commercial success and if you ask the average Joe on the street to name their favorite or most memorable Prince album, I doubt if "Dirty Mind" is mentioned but that doesnt take away from the fact that "Dirty Mind" is a musical toure de force...one day people will cease being defined by Billboard and what people "remember."

EvilWhiteMale said:

Who besides Prince fans remembers "Lovesexy"???? Aside from the naked cover???

With the right push Rave could have appealed BIG TIME to the masses. Not a fan favorite but who cares? I LOVE it mostly, there's some crap on it but it's still something I listen to and I think Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic would have been a great show opener.

skywalker said:

They remember Alphabet St.

DigitalGardin said:

Dirty Mind was still an underground album. It's not like it was getting mad play and being ignored. Musicology got its share of play, but who cares? No one is getting this song stuck in their head. The general public will remember songs from 1982 to 1994, nothing before or after that.

Probably ,yes with More Promotion. I was out of the picture concerning Prince back then .. I feel sooo Sorry I missed Those Years Especially since they were Wasted on Ungrateful Beings but whatever.??? I'm Back and well I will Never lose Touch with MR Man . com Stud again.. Gorgeous Superfly Man ! Makes ya Growl a Wildcat in Heat Cry....Meow, MEOW, MEoWW!!!!Me.....OoooWWW!!! Nuzzle,Nuzzle....Purr,PURR!

I think Rave could have done much better....much better.

But even still...I think Musicology will die soon if it doesn't get some major airplay. The majority of the country still doesn't hear this stuff on the radio...if he could get that done, it has some staying power. IMO.

The success of Musicology has practically nothing at all to do with the quality of music on the record, he could have had similar success with any record from 1994-2004 had all the pieces fit in place like they have with Musicology.

can you imagine if The Gold Experience came out this year instead of in 1995..with all the hype right now that album would have had many hits

Mazerati said:

For real.

I've always said TGE could have been bigger than Diamonds & Pearls as a commercial Prince record.

I think Prince has had better albums than Musicology which if they had come out today would make an even bigger impact.

It's something to do with the timing, the synchronicity. Not only all the promotion he's had this year, but the fact he's been 'away' from the public gaze for a while, the fact it's the anniversary of his greatest album, and also because pop music and the industry seems to be in the doldrums at the moment and Prince has burst back on the scene saying all the right things about getting back to real musicianship. People really are bored of all this producer created, plastic pop, mimed rubbish, that's why they're not buying albums in as huge quantities.

NouveauDance said:

yea and Prince even stated that TGE would be bigger than Purple Rain

let me correct that last statement Prince said the song "Gold" will be bigger than "Purple Rain"

As I said before, it's all about promotion, the case of the gold experience proves it as well.

It just wasn't a very good album, and Musicology is.

EvilWhiteMale said:

U need help! If u pick 10 people off the street and asked them to name 5 Prince songs that they have heard, they aint gonna say no dayum "Alphabet St." and U know that!

DigitalGardin said:

I know quite a few non-fans who know and like Alphabet St.

The promotion of Rave was a complete shambles. I remember him playing 'Baby Knows' on TFI Friday and TOTP but was it available as a single the following Monday?

Erm... no.

And when The Greatest Romance failed to chart Prince spat his purple dummy and stopped promoting the record. The proposed next single Man O War then quickly failed to appear and Rave quietly died a death.

Properly promoted Rave could have been a success. There's a smattering of good tunes on there and a lot of radio friendly stuff. Musicology remains the better album IMO though.