Purple Rain Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

Looking Back On Prince's Influential Masterpiece

Jun 22, 2009

Purple Rain isn't just an award-winning movie soundtrack, it is musical history. Prince is one of the most influential artists of the last 30 years whose opus turns 25.

One would be hard pressed to find anyone who was alive during the 1980s that does not know who Prince is. All though this multi-faceted artist has remained more than relevant to this day - releasing his latest work LOtUSFLOW3R in March 2009 - the release and mega success of the thirteen times over platinum Purple Rain made Prince a world-wide superstar.

His popularity was rivaled in the 80s only by the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Purple Rain catapulted the Minnesota born singer/song writer to the highest rungs of music royalty and made both him and his music permanent figures in popular culture.

Before Purple Rain

Prince Rogers Nelson broke onto the professional music scene in 1978 with his self-produced album For You. Though it did receive critical acclaim, this was to be Prince’s only album to not at least go gold, only selling around 150,000 copies.

After enjoying success with his self titled second album Prince the very next year (1979), the controversial artist carved out his own psychedelic, funk, rock and R&B-fused, sexually charged niche in the music world with Dirty Minds and Controversy in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The breakthrough 1999 album - with hits such as "Little Red Corvette" and the unofficial doomsday party anthem "1999" - was released in 1982 to both critical and commercial acclaim.

Purple Rain Thrusts Prince into Super-Stardom

In the summer of 1984, June 25, to be exact, Warner Brothers released what is by many considered to be one of the most influential albums of all time, Purple Rain. The album’s U.S. sales topped 11 million and the movie made $70 million in domestic ticket grosses.

It not only won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, but it also took the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The effortless melding of musical genres solidified the cross-over effect and ensured his place as a song writer and as a performer in music history.

Purple Rain produced multiple hits. “When Doves Cry” became Prince’s first song to hit number one on the Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart. The synthesizer -laden song spent five weeks atop not just the Hot 100, but also the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and Hot Dance Music/Club Play Billboard lists. "When Doves Cry" has been referred to as pop at its most avant garde in large part due to its lack of bass line and to the fact that Prince played every instrument on the track.

Other notable chart toppers from the soundtrack include the title track, “Purple Rain” – which cracked the Top 20 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks, “Let’s Go Crazy”, “Take Me With U” and "I Would Die 4 U".

Prince Inspires Warning Labels

With the success of Purple Rain came closer scrutiny on Prince’s sexually explicit lyrics. If one were to judge the lyrical content of “Darling Nikki” against some of his earlier songs such as "Let's Pretend We're Married", the song might not have seemed quite as shocking, as overt as it was. But neither Dirty Minds nor 1999 had the exposure or the broad appeal that Purple Rain garnered.

It was "Darling Nikki" that inspired the creation of Parent's Music Resource Center (PMRC), led in part by former Vice President Al Gore’s wife Tipper. Mrs. Gore became outraged when she heard her then 11 year old daughter listening to the song and decided to do something about it. The PMRC chose “Darling Nikki” to top their “Filthy 15” list of explicit songs and was partly responsible for the record industry's voluntary usage of Parental Warning Labels on explicit music.

True Art Stands the Test of Time

Regardless of how his musical creations may be received, Prince wrote and recorded music that remained true to himself as an artist. 25 years is a long time and many pop culture things that were all the rage back then tend to seem more than a little dated and at times, even plain silly (leg-warmers ring a bell). Yet the artistry and creativity with which Prince infused every single one of the songs on the Purple Rain soundtrack ensured that the unique album would indeed stand the test of time.

The copyright of the article Purple Rain Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary in 80s Pop Music is owned by Elvira Nieto. Permission to republish Purple Rain Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.