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Why ‘Purple Rain’ Led Prince to Turn His Back on the Superstardom He’d Manifested
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music After your masterplan succeeds and so many of your dreams come true… then what? That is a question a 26-year-old Prince may well have been asking himself after “Purple Rain” transformed him into a global superstar virtually overnight (or whatever passed for “overnight” in 1984). While his rise was gradual — “Purple Rain,” released on this day 40 years ago, was Prince’s sixth album — there’s no disputing the remarkable speed with which his fame skyrocketed during the summer of “Ghostbusters,” the Los Angeles Olympics and “Born in the U.S.A.” Granted, musical careers, like nearly everything else, moved more gradually back then.