{"id":395011,"date":"2026-04-24T06:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/395011\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:35:20","slug":"greatest-pop-stars-podcast-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/395011\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Pop Stars Podcast Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 1984, Prince<\/a> could do no wrong. He had the biggest album, one of the biggest movies, and several of the biggest singles of the year all as part of his Purple Rain era, and he was activley changing the sound and look pop music \u2014 not just with his own work, but with numerous hits written, produced and\/or devised for other artists. But by 1986, he\u2019d not only already shifted course from Purple Rain a number of times, he was more prolific than ever\u00a0\u2014 with a new movie, a new soundtrack, a new tour, more new hits for other artists, and several new albums in the work, most of which would never see the light of day as originally devised. (And oh yeah, also one of the greatest hit singles in pop history.) <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tOn this Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we use the sad occasion of the 10th anniversary of Prince\u2019s tragic passing \u2014\u00a0April 21, 2016, a day none of us will ever forget \u2014\u00a0to dive back into a truly fascinating year in Purple mythology. Jem Aswad, executive director of music at Variety and longtime Prince megafan, joins to remember this extremely busy period of ups and downs for the all-time pop star, encompassing some of the biggest wins, losses and what-ifs of his singular career. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlong the way, we ask all the most pressing questions about Prince\u2019s 1986: Is this the ultimate Prince year for the real heads? Was \u201cKiss\u201d actually his best pop single? Did he do wrong by Mazarati writing it for them and then taking it back (and could anyone else have done it as well)? Was Under the Cherry Moon really that bad, or more misunderstood? Was its soundtrack album Parade just as much of a mess, or a different kind of success? Does \u201cManic Monday\u201d make any sense as a Prince song? Could Prince have kept going with The Revolution for a just a little longer? And perhaps most importantly: Was Prince the greatest living solo artist before his death? <\/p>\n

\n\tCheck it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of Prince\u2019s biggest 1986 moments \u2014 all of which are discussed in the episode \u2014\u00a0and subscribe to the\u00a0Greatest Pop Stars podcast<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0(or wherever you get your\u00a0podcasts<\/a>) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, check out Jem\u2019s awesome Billboard interview with The Revolution<\/a> from 10 years ago, conducted the year of Prince\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts \u2014 if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:<\/p>\n

\n\tTransgender Law Center<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTrans Lifeline<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tDestination Tomorrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHuman Rights Campaign \u2013 In Your Area<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1984, Prince could do no wrong. He had the biggest album, one of the biggest movies, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,119511,157,111,139,69,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-395011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-greatest-pop-stars-podcast","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}