FuNkeNsteiN said:

SoulAlive said:

Oh tell me about it! And even The WB Music Group would still post Madonna videos from time to time.

After Prince runs everybody away with his latest fiasco, the only ones that are going to remain are those type of fans. Then Prince is going to gather them all up and they are going to move to South America. They will give up all their money and possessions to Prince, build their own buildings to live in, live off the land, and call it Princetown.

They will have fellowships every night and gather around and listen to Prince preach. When someone finally gets tired of it and wants to leave, Prince will force them to stay. When the authorities step in and expose the place, then Prince will convince them to drink purple koolaid with poison in it. It will be mass suicide.
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VoicesCarry said:

That's the Prince-era that I miss the most musically. IMO, Emancipation was the final chapter of that timeline.

TonyVanDam said:

Big fat co-sign. I have to say though, there were about 3 or 4 songs on "The Truth" album in 1998 that were brilliant as well, but they were the last embers of a dying fire. I haven't bought a Prince album since the shitfest known as NPS, but the man is still kicking it live.

As for his attempts to control his online profile, I have to say, whether we like it or not, it is his right to do so. It's his music, not ours. It's his image, not ours. As much as I'd love to see more of him on Youtube, I can't condemn him for wanting to control his own work. Fans need to grow up. We are not entitled to have everything he ever did by divine right. Prince is Prince. It's not like we just found out he's a control freak. He's always been that way. I can think of far worse traits and MJ fans should remember that when trying to score cheap points.

Isel said:

That is par for the course for any record label. Warner has done it on behalf of Madonna as well.



If my memory serves me correctly, Janet-Friends and Janet-Xone were asked by Virgin to not post high-quality copies of the first two Damita Jo singles when they were leaked. I've never heard of Virgin or Universal (which owns Janet's A&M material) giving Janet Media ANY problems, and that is the major media site offering performances, rare music and other stuff.

Miss-Janet was fan-run for 10 years, but eventually Louisa had enough with Virgin and Janet's lack of involvement, and so the fan club closed. That's pretty much the whole story there. Louisa was upset with Janet because she felt Janet didn't seem to care about the club's demise or the hard work Louisa and the others put into the club. But, it needs to be said that while the fan club was active, those running it had really close personal interaction with Janet (ie. Louisa had Janet's personal phone number, Janet arranged dinners, meet-and-greets etc. for them...and these were FANS running the club, not business managers). The fact that Janet let fans run her club in the first place is great, because they actually had an investment in Janet's work and not simply her bank account. When Janet was personally involved, Miss-Janet was a great club. It should also be noted that the others involved with the running of the club don't feel the same as Louisa. And a lot of fans were upset with the way the fan club was run in its last few years (ie. unprofessionally) and wanted a properly run venture like Friends of Janet was. Janet will probably have that again with Island/Def Jam.

Back during the Velvet Rope era, Janet and Rene would have random web chats with those who used to hang out in the Miss Janet chat room (my boyfriend still has the transcripts). Rene and Janet used to call up fans, go on webcam at home, everything. It's not surprising to me that Janet withdrew somewhat from her fans after stalkers started popping out of the woodwork, especially during the All For You era.
[Edited 11/6/07 6:39am]

TonyVanDam said:

YouTube is the future of the Internet and artists should be embracing it.Fans are getting sick and tired of artists' "official" sites that don't really have anything worth seeing.I'd rather spend my time on Youtube,seeing music videos and rare footage.

SoulAlive said:

It's also an opportunity for some of us who never got to see our favorite artists live to see concert footage from our favorite artists.
Prince should rethink his position because before 2003 no one was even
thinking about prince before he relaunched his career.

VoicesCarry said:

the whole "Miss-Janet" thing is done? fucking nazis over there on that mailing list.

midnightmover said:

I have no problem with Prince wanting to control HIS music, HIS video, or HIS image.

My only real issue with Prince is when he's trying to prevent people from going to different fan sites to talk about HIM & being free to talk about his professional career and personal life. He's a Celebrity. He should be use to this after more than 3 decades of being in the music industry.

IMHO, Mayte was the best girlfriend/wife that Prince ever had in his life. But if Prince has his way, The Org would be shut down because of my opinion, MY freedom of speech.

midnightmover said:

I hear what you're saying about freedom of speech, but I wonder if you would have such a laisez faire attitude if it was you being talked about.

Yeah, he's been a celebrity for 3 decades but back then no-one could have ever imagined the internet. That was never part of the deal. Maybe he visited one of these forums and read some of the disrespectful things being said, and just had a human reaction.

Now we all know you can't fight something as big as the internet, but that just makes it more impressive that Prince is stepping up to Goliath. It takes balls to bitch-slap your own fanbase and huge websites like Youtube when they need to be bitch-slapped. He's always swam against the tide. Sometimes I get the feeling Prince enjoys fighting big opponents.

TonyVanDam said:

I don't even keep track of all this stuff. I have no interest in it. I just visited the P:M&M Forum and it's all they're talking about. Some of the fools are saying they can't listen to his music anymore because of it. I hear what you're saying about freedom of speech, but I wonder if you would have such a laisez faire attitude if it was you being talked about. Yeah, he's been a celebrity for 3 decades but back then no-one could have ever imagined the internet. That was never part of the deal. Maybe he visited one of these forums and read some of the disrespectful things being said, and just had a human reaction. Now we all know you can't fight something as big as the internet, but that just makes it more impressive that Prince is stepping up to Goliath. It takes balls to bitch-slap your own fanbase and huge websites like Youtube when they need to be bitch-slapped. He's always swam against the tide. Sometimes I get the feeling Prince enjoys fighting big opponents.

Isel said:

That is par for the course for any record label. Warner has done it on behalf of Madonna as well.

SoulAlive said:

All artists and celebrities get dissed on Internet.

TonyVanDam said:

I don't even keep track of all this stuff. I have no interest in it. I just visited the P:M&M Forum and it's all they're talking about. Some of the fools are saying they can't listen to his music anymore because of it. I hear what you're saying about freedom of speech, but I wonder if you would have such a laisez faire attitude if it was you being talked about. Yeah, he's been a celebrity for 3 decades but back then no-one could have ever imagined the internet. That was never part of the deal. Maybe he visited one of these forums and read some of the disrespectful things being said, and just had a human reaction. Now we all know you can't fight something as big as the internet, but that just makes it more impressive that Prince is stepping up to Goliath. It takes balls to bitch-slap your own fanbase and huge websites like Youtube when they need to be bitch-slapped. He's always swam against the tide. Sometimes I get the feeling Prince enjoys fighting big opponents.

As a gay man and someone who has dated interacially since the early 1980s, believe me, I know what it feels like to be talked about. No, it doesn't feel good at all.

However, if you stop the world from being free to speak their mind, whether good or bad, then no one can ever fight for their rights and change things when they are being screwed over. Freedom of speech is much bigger than Prince shutting up fans on a website. If he gets his way, the doors will be open for much more important things like people's jobs or the government shutting people up. And even more importantly, someone might be able to make me stop saying the words "Shitney Houston" or "shit hop".




Being talked about goes with the territory of being a celebrity or a public figure. Actually, it goes with the territory of being a human being. We all have been talked about at some time or another. That's just life.




I'm all for fighting big opponents. Actually, I love it. I wish he would go after Clear Channel. If he wants to fight youtube, fine, go ahead. It's his music, he's free to fight to keep it on or off. Even if he's wrong about his choice, he can still fight to keep it off if he thinks he can. However, he does not have the right to stop people from saying what they want to say. That's when the issue becomes bigger than a Prince issue. That's when even non-Prince fans need to step in and stop him because the world could get bad without freedom of speech. Not just a few fansites.
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[Edited 11/8/07 6:56am]

midnightmover said:

All artists and celebrities get dissed on Internet.It's not a big deal and I don't think most of them are concerned one bit.I don't think there's anything "impressive" about going after something that you can't control.It's a waste of time and it's gonna get him alot of bad press,which he doesn't need right now.