10 Bands Who Used Songs To 'One-Up' Rival Artists
5. Prince Changed His Sound For 'Purple Rain' To Beat 'Thriller'
As the 80's were dawning, Prince was on the cusp of something unprecedented. Though he had had success with his groundbreaking albums Dirty Mind and Controversy, he was still missing that X factor to send him over the top. At the same time, rival artist Michael Jackson had just beaten him by coming out with Thriller the year the Purple One's landmark 1999 album was supposed to drop.
Refusing to be satisfied at no. 2, Prince had a meeting with pianist Dr. Fink and discussed songwriting. Prince brought up Bob Seger as an example of an artist whose songwriting confused him. When Fink replied that Seger was just playing commercial rock, it set Prince off to try to write a more straightforward ballad. What manifested was the epic "Purple Rain," whose broad musical landscape became the template for Prince's next album.
Once the idea developed with songs like "Let's Go Crazy," Prince knew he had found what he was looking for. The initial landmark album quickly spawned into an accompanying movie along with some of most indelible material of Prince's career. Though Thriller may have sold more copies on the whole, "Purple Rain" showed the world that Prince was one of the true musical geniuses walking among us mortals.