The Eighties in America Prince 779
Prince also won an Academy Award for the sound
track.Purple Rainofficially marked Prince’s arrival
in the mainstream music scene as one of the top art-
ists of the day, joining the ranks of Michael Jackson,
Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen, but Prince was
much more eccentric than most other popular musi-
cians. Short, thin, and frequently dressed in colorful
clothes, Prince was also soft-spoken and rarely gave
interviews with the press. The Revolution was a dis-
tinctive backing band—a racially mixed group of
men and women, also wearing bright, eye-catching
fashions.
Prince’s notoriety increased further when Tipper
Gore, the wife of U.S. senator Al Gore of Tennessee,
noticed her daughter listening to one of the racier
Purple Rainsongs, “Darling Nikki.” She was disturbed
to discover that the song’s lyrics referred to the title
character masturbating. Gore’s response was to form,
with several other senators’ wives, the Parents’ Music
Resource Center (PMRC). In 1985, the group held a
number of highly publicized, controversial hearings
in Washington, D.C., regarding its concerns about
the explicit content in popular music.
Prince’sPurple Rainmarked the peak of his popu-
larity, but his 1985 releaseAround the World in a Day
yielded two more hits, “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop
Life.” He returned to film in 1986, starring in and di-
recting the filmUnder the Cherr y Moon. The film was a
commercial and critical flop, but its accompanying
sound track album,Parade, was more successful, and
it contained one of his biggest hits, “Kiss.” By this
time, Prince had written or produced hit songs for
Chaka Khan, the Bangles, Sheena Easton, Vanity Six,
Apollonia Six, and the Time. During the recording
sessions for the follow-up toParade, Prince broke up
the Revolution. The resulting double album,Sign o’
the Times(1987) was hailed by many critics as his
masterpiece.Declining Fortunes Prince’s next move confused
many people. At the last minute, he decided not to
release his completed follow-up toSign o’ the Times,
entitledThe Black Album. In its place, he released
Lovesexy(1988). The album was less successful than
his past two releases had been, and his decision to
shelve an entire album confused many fans. (The
Black Albumwas heavily bootlegged. Prince would
eventually release it in 1994.)
In 1989, Prince released his sound track to the
summer blockbusterBatman, although only two of
his contributions were heard in the film. The song
“Batdance” was a number one hit, but as the decade
came to a close, Prince was no longer at the cutting
edge of popular music. Another African American
music form, hip-hop and rap, took Prince’s place in
the vanguard of popular music and upped the ante
on controversial subject matter as well.Impact Prince was one of the most influential and
groundbreaking popular musicians of the 1980’s.
His best songs and albums became classics. He influ-
enced many artists, including his contemporaries,
such as Janet Jackson, George Michael, and Ter-
rence Trent D’Arby, and subsequent music makers
who grew up on his music, such as Outkast, Justin
Timberlake, and D’Angelo.Prince in concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1985.(AP/Wide
World Photos)