Revolution said:

you right- especially our youth- if they hear a guitar rift- they screaming "uhuuhh turn that off- what we listening to?"

they think it's "white" music and "we don't suppose to listen" to it

The same reasons why White People seem to prefer Michael Jackson over Prince.

-They watched him grow up in the J5, so he's more familiar

-Michael's music is more "family friendly"

-People assume that Prince is gay

I think Prince was just plain scary to a lot of folks, because he challenged a lot of norms.

Race has nothing to do with people's perceptions.

[quote]

krayzie said:

And I was simply saying that maybe black people in this generation prefer Michael over Prince, but most black people in my generation didn't and Michael Jackson wasn't even in consideration to be compared or be preferred over Prince until white people discovered Prince.

Also, artists back then made an album every single year. Prince made one over year, so did Rick James, so did The Barkays, so did everyone. Everyone that is, except Michael Jackson who made one every five years. Radio stations back then didn't drag out albums for two and three years like they do now. By the time an artist came out with a new album the very next year, their current album had already been out of style for months. Even if someone wanted to prefer Michael over Prince back then, they would have had a hard time because Michael was completely forgotten by the time his new album came out....except for the pop world and video channels which drug the shit out for years.

Yeah, that age group was both Prince and Michael's fanbase before "Thriller". However, after "Thriller", Michael's fanbase dropped as low as 5 and 6 years old.

Paris9748430 said:

Exactly, MJ is just plain more popular. It's not a race thing.

Bishop31 said:

FWIW, I can't remember BET playing a guitar-driven song since "Dirty Diana" and "Black Cat."

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I think all of this is bs. I know too many black folks that are into lenny, prince,etc.

Just because black folks aren't at the concerts doesn't mean they aren't listening to music.

AlexdeParis said:

Not even En Vogue's Free Your Mind? I remember seeing the Benjamin's remix featuring Foo Fighters and Lil Kim on BET and laughing my ass off at the time, cause the WHITE foo fighters were on BET, but I wasn't like that once I got more educated on music.

People have already given reasons, he is pop friendly more than prince, although I remember loving both as a baby (maybe prince a teeny bit more for some time) though once I got exposed to both of their music more at an older age, it was michael all the way for me.
[Edited 4/21/08 16:45pm]

alphastreet said:

You're right, I vividly remember both of them. As a huge En Vogue fan, I can't believe I forgot "Free Your Mind."

BTW, wasn't that Fuzzbubble and not the Foo Fighters?
[Edited 4/21/08 16:45pm]

that song kicks ass, I'm sure black or white was also on BET

and it was foo fighters
[Edited 4/21/08 16:46pm]

alphastreet said:

It was.


No, it wasn't. According to Wikipedia, I'm right and you're basically right:

Puffy also released a rock version of the song, "It's All about the Benjamins (Rock Remix)". This collaboration, also known as "Shot-Caller Rock Remix" and "Rock Remix I", featured Perfect, Fuzzbubble, Rob Zombie and Dave Grohl on drums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._Benjamins

AlexdeParis said:

oh ok, but BET credited the foo fighters too back then, I'm so sure of that

about prince, I was under the impression that black people still liked him in the late 90's. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold and New Power Soul were on BET and very smooth, I would have thought people knew those.

vainandy said:

Nope.... Again you invent shit , Michael Jackson has always been more popular than Prince...
And when he was black he was even more popular... And it has nothing to do with generation...

vainandy said:

Wait a minute, you are confusing everything...
what's the point with the fact that Prince made one album every year and this thread...
Second thing MJ only started to wait years to release a new album only after Thriller...
And when you said " Radio stations back then didn't drag out albums", actually MJ has always been successful to drag out albums because each of his album constantly produced 4 or 5 top 10 hits... Off The wall was the first album ever to produce 4 top 10 hits... Off the wall was made between Destiny and Triumph...

Eevrything you said is total bullshit...

Maybe what vainandy meant is that black radio was not embracing Bad and he was a mainstream artist by then. But that doesn't mean everyone who is black ignored the Bad album, even if plenty were turned off by the changes then.

Paris9748430 said:

White people and black people don't like MJ for the same reasons
[Edited 4/21/08 17:19pm]

Black folk pretty much feel the same way about MJ and Prince. They liked them "when they were black."

They created the blueprint for damn near all black pop artists that came after them. How many cheap versions of P, Mike, and elements of their work and persona are floating around?

qvgangsta18 said:

If we're talking about Prince BEFORE the 1990's, I'll have to agree. Prince used to play the news media for stupid back in the days with the biracial stories (including within a movie like Purple Rain). But for everyone else in MPLS, they knew good and well that Prince was (and STILL is) a black man.

Timmy84 said:

I have to keep reminding myself that I'm a little older than some of these 50 Cent fans that are ignorant about FM radio in the 80's or early 90's. Some of Madonna's songs did crossover to black radio before.

2freaky4church1 said:

Exactly. And people in general are suffering because of a lack of knowledge of their music history.

vainandy said:

In another choice of words, Prince was The Playboy Channel & Michael Jackson was The Disney Channel.

Where are your numbers/stats that support this either way?

And it would seem that Blacks would actually prefer P over MJ simply because MJ has tried his best to look as NON-BLACK as possible and to add to that, Blacks would prefer P because of his recent stance as a Black man as witnessed through his music.

First off, it's true that MJ is more popular than Prince worldwide and amongst all races. He's always been more accessible both musically and personally than P. His music is less adventurous/threatening, very catchy and not too complicated. He's also much more accomodating as a person. Many times people can literally walk up to Mike, shake his hand, chat and even get an autograph or picture without much hassle, my son did.

As for African Americans specifically, it's many reasons rather than just one. A lot of them have been given already. There's definitely a perception that he plays mostly white music because of the rock guitar elements and his eclecticism. I know a lot of people who stuck it out with him even through 1999 and Purple Rain but ATWIAD was a deal breaker and those folks never came back.

Mike's roots go deeper in people's minds all the way back to his childhood when R&B was still called Soul music. Prince by comparison, crossed over earlier in his career, but while crossing over musically is one thing, black folks were not amused when he made confusing statements about his heritage.To this day a lot of people still don't think he's black. Running around in thongs, lace and heels didn't help either.

The wierd/wanna be white label wasn't attatched to MJ until much later in his career after he further mutilated his face and the reports of inappropriate behavior with kids started to surface. Black folks gave him a lot more leeway than they gave Prince because by then MJ was already more entrenched in black culture.

Another reason is the whole WB/slave/symbol period. Most people are not into music or Prince as intensely as the people on this board. They want things kept simple. They couldn't care less about the backstory taking place with Prince at that time, they just know that he dropped off the popular radar for a long while, Remember, Prince was practically blackballed in the biz for a time even though he never stopped touring and making music. Even today you seldom hear his post WB music on any commercial radio stations. There was a time when a couple of people have even asked me if he was still alive.

krayzie said:

Actually, when Rick's debut album Come And Get It was release, he was age 30

Black people like Michael Jackson because he was THE biggest Black superstar to ever rule the mainstream. White folks used to love Michael Jackson, and he was truly the first Black global phenomenon.

Many would argue that in his prime, Michael Jackson was the biggest superstar celebrity of all time, regardless of his racial background. Black people had not before been treated like Michael Jackson was treated in mainstream pop culture, and Black people have not been treated like this since.

Michael Jackson gave hope to a new acceptance of Black artists in show business.

This has all been forgotten since he his reputation has diminished.

Dance said:

That's harsh! But it true.

jn2 said:

Um, I think me, BlackguitaristZ, BlaqueKnight, Spyzfan, The Audience and MILLIONS of other Black Rockers here would beg to differ.

vainandy said:

There were exceptions though. Since my mother loved Prince so much, she raised her 2 sons into his music almost like a religion. She was pretty liberal about music though, unlike other parents. She knew that we were into the music first and the lyrical content was secondary.

alphastreet said:

Very true because I remember when Bad came out, Black folks were still bumping MJ's music. I didn't matter that his sound was diversified by then. I can still remember back in kindergarten when me and all the other kids were getting down to that record. Unfortunately I was probably the only one that was still fanatical about my purple hero. By then he kinda fell out of favor with the pop audiences. But that didn't take away from the fact that he was still the fucking man!