PRINCE
PRINCE
Let me start by saying I've been wanting to do a Prince page for so long, but his career is so extensive that the thought of creating a page was just... tiring!
The first time I heard a Prince song I was in elementary school. I had no idea of what the words meant but I know I loved the beat. When I got to Jr. High School I knew who he was and had bought my first Prince record, 1999.
By the time I reached High School I was a Prince fanatic and my next purchase was bought from my babysitting money and I was so proud when I bought my second Prince record, the Purple Rain soundtrack, with my own money.
Prince is definitely at the top of my list of best entertainers in the world. His music is listened to and loved by all colors, ages and generations. I know so many people who listen to Prince who have no other common interests, not in sports, not in other musical artists, not in education, backgrounds, nothing... but they all like Prince. Read and enjoy.
In the 1980's his "Dirty Mind" album was released and it was then that many started to take notice of the man who could ooze sex and music like no other. His records contained sweet melodies, soulful ballads, and rocking guitar riff, all at once.
"Controversy," showed that he was on a steady road to success but Prince hit brilliance by the time he released "1999," a record that still sells strong to this day. The album was a mega-hit, selling over three million copies worldwide.
But The Purple One was not yet done. When he released the album along with the motion picture, "Purple Rain" in 1984, Prince had become a household name.
"Purple Rain" definitely made Prince a superstar; it eventually sold over ten million copies in the U.S. and spent 24 weeks at number one. The album was partially recorded with his touring band The Revolution, and featured the most pop-oriented music he has ever made. It stepped out of the funk mode, but still was able to maintain that uniqueness that is Prince.
You would wonder what he could do to top that album, but Prince is very unpredictable and instead of continuing in the direction of the music on "Purple Rain", Prince took his own route into a psychedelia sound and in 1985 released "Around the World in a Day." The record sold over two million copies and was followed in 1986 by "Parade" featuring a more rock of the '60s sound.
By 1987, Prince's success was in leaps and bounds, resulting in yet another masterpiece "Sign o' the Times," a record that raised consciousness regarding sex, AIDS and promiscuity. It also featured a #1 hit with "Adore."
Fans were steadily awaiting Prince's next move and were surprised when "The Black Album" was withdrawn by The Purple One just before its release. He stated that the album was produced during a period in his life where he was going through changes and he reasoned that it was "too dark and immoral."
In 1988 he released "Lovesexy", which was actually a bit of a commercial disaster. But he rebounded without a blink when the soundtrack to 1989's "Batman" hit the shelves and he returned to the top of the charts. In 1990, Prince released the sequel to "Purple Rain" by way of "Graffiti Bridge." With the monsterous success of that record and movie, fans were slightly disappointed with "Graffiti Bridge."
Never one to sit around in despair, Prince formed a new band with The New Power Generation in 1991. To date the NPG has been considered the best, most versatile and talented band he has ever assembled. With their first release together they came up with "Diamonds and Pearls." And in doing so, Prince proved that he is also the master of of contemporary R&B (as well as funk, rock & pop. The record was his biggest hit since 1985.
The following year, he released album number 12, which was entitled with a cryptic symbol so strange to fans and media that no one knew quite what to call it. And in 1993, Prince legally changed his name to that symbol and was publicly addressed as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince."
In 1994, after becoming disheartened by contractual disagreements his label, Warner Brother, Prince independently released the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." The song became his biggest hit in years.
Later that summer, in retaliation, Warner Brothers records released the album "Come" under the name of Prince and the record was a moderate success as it went gold.
Prince fulfilled a contractual obligation, in November of 1994, and agreed to the official release of "The Black Album." In early '95, Prince was immersed in yet another legal battle with WB records, proclaiming himself a slave and refusing to deliver his new record, "The Gold Experience." By the end of the summer, a fed-up Warner had negotiated a compromise which guaranteed the album's release, including one final record for the label. The Gold Experience was issued that fall, and although it received good reviews and had a #1 single, it failed to do well (by Prince's normal standards) commercially.
By the summer of '96, Prince released "Chaos & Disorder" and was free to become an independent artist. He quickly up his own label, NPG (which was distributed by EMI), and resurfaced later that year with the three-disc collection, "Emancipation." This record was supposed to spin off singles for several years and was to be supported with several tours. However, even his most devoted fans seemed to be overwhelmed by such an enormous compilation of songs.
Once it was clear that "Emancipation" wasn't the commercial blockbuster he hoped it would be, Prince assembled a long-awaited collection of outtakes and unreleased material called "Crystal Ball" in 1998. With "Crystal Ball," Prince discovered that it's much more difficult to get records to an audience than it seems; some fans who pre-ordered their copies through Prince's website (from which a bonus fifth disc was included) didn't receive them until months after the set began appearing in stores. Prince then released a new one-man album, "New Power Soul," just three months after "Crystal Ball"; even though it was his most straightforward album since "Diamonds and Pearls," it didn't do well on the charts, partly because many listeners didn't realize it had been released.
A year later, Prince issued the remix collection of "1999 (The New Master)." A collection of the Warner Brothers era leftovers. That summer, "Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale," followed and in the fall Prince returned on Arista with the all-star "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic."
In the Fall of 2001 he released the controversial "Rainbow Children," a jazz-infused sound introducing his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that left many long time fans out in the cold. He further confused some fans 2003's release of "N.E.W.S.," a four-song set of instrumental jams that sounded a lot more fun to play than to listen to. But as usual, Prince re-bounded in 2004 with the chart-topping "Musicology," a return to form that found the artist back in the top ten, even garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2005 and sparking off a very successful tour.
|
| 
| 
| 
