Others Here with Us: Prince’s Relationship with His Black Audience

Kamilah Cummings
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Abstract

During the mid-1980s, as Prince cemented his position among the biggest pop stars of all time, some critics bandied about an unsubstantiated theory that once he achieved crossover fame, Prince abandoned his Black audience. However, Prince’s presence in Black media, his performance on Billboard charts, and his own words refute this misconception. It is impossible to fully understand or appreciate the legendary first decade of Prince’s career without acknowledging the importance of his Black audience. Yet, his relationship with this audience remains largely ignored by the white critical and scholarly establishments as well as the Prince Estate. Therefore, this article argues that while the massive crossover success of 1999 and Purple Rain allowed Prince to expand his audience, his reign would have been impossible without the ardent support of his Black audience—his first and most loyal audience.
《其他人和我们在一起:王子与黑人观众的关系
在20世纪80年代中期,当普林斯巩固了他作为有史以来最伟大的流行歌手的地位时,一些评论家提出了一个未经证实的理论,即普林斯一旦获得跨界名声,就抛弃了他的黑人听众。然而,普林斯在黑人媒体上的出现,他在公告牌排行榜上的表现,以及他自己的话驳斥了这种误解。如果不承认黑人听众的重要性,就不可能完全理解或欣赏普林斯传奇生涯的头十年。然而,他与这些观众的关系在很大程度上被白人批评家和学术机构以及王子庄园所忽视。因此,本文认为,尽管《1999》和《紫雨》的巨大跨界成功让普林斯扩大了他的听众,但如果没有黑人听众的热情支持,他的统治是不可能实现的——黑人听众是他的第一批也是最忠实的听众。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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