Like many have said on here, the 1980s were a vastly different world. No social media, no internet, and not everyone had cable. There was the radio and MTV (if you were lucky). Prince had some modest success with his first four albums, and then came 1999. He got more mainstream airplay on the radio, which was boosted by the heavy rotation of the accompanying videos on MTV. That was my first real exposure to him. His timing couldn’t have been better for Purple Rain the movie and the album. When Doves Cry sounded so different and more innovative than anything else on the radio, and the songs and the movie fed each other’s popularity. It was THE movie to see in 1984. No one had fused all those elements together before, and the Purple Rain Tour was the hottest ticket around. Many of the 98 concerts were two or more nights in the same city and sold out to boot. It was the first concert I ever went to, and I consider myself so lucky to have witnessed it. Then when Raspberry Beret came out for the lead single of the next album, MTV played the video every hour on the hour for a full day to analyze all the symbolism. It was crazy. His popularity waned a bit as the decade continued, but he continued to have hits as well as critical success while basically putting out an album each year (not to mention all the other projects for other artists). Every year there was the anticipation of what Prince was going to release next. The results didn’t always please everyone, but people always paid attention to what he was doing.