Editorials > Prince

Like Fish In A Barrel…

By Skwerl
Monday, July 5, 2010
 

“The internet’s completely over… [It's] like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good… They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
Prince, speaking to The Daily Mirror, 2010

“Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
– Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

“The radio craze will die out in time.”
– Thomas Edison, 1922

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
– Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977

“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.”
– Mary Somerville, pioneer of educational radio broadcasts, 1948

“Radio has no future.”
– Lord Kelvin, British Royal Society, 1897

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”
– Editor, Prentice Hall, 1957

“No one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam in one hour when he can ride his horse there in one day for free.”
– King William I of Prussia, upon learning of the invention of trains, 1864

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
– Thomas Watson, IBM chairman, 1943

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”
– David Sarnoff, radio pioneer, 1921

“The phonograph has no commercial value at all.”
– Thomas Edison, 1880s

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
– H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

 
 
 

9 Comments

  • I’m not going to try and defend him this time. The interview actually isn’t with the Daily Mail, it was kind of a “canned” interview he literally handed out to several magazines/newspapers. It was first printed in Ebony. The entire interview is ridiculous. He says things like “Eye’ve been reading lots of boox,” boox, of course, being Princebonics for books.

    He needs to stop talking and start writing good music. And believe me, I’m a fan. :)

  • Travis says:

    It funny when he say the internet is like mtv. One of the reason mtv outdated is because of the internet. You can watch and listen whenever you want to.
    I don’t see how anything can be better then internet. The internet is just going to get better and better. He needs to just get with the times.

  • Ryan says:

    “Internet blogs won’t last, who wants to read countless free news, stories, and opinions from real people? We’d rather read something off of a physical paper that gets delivered every morning with yesterday’s news.”
    -A Douchebag, upon learning he was a fucking douchebag.

  • Some of the other quotes are by smart people who happened to be wrong about the future (it happens), while Prince is just a fucking idiot who can’t see what’s slapping him in the face. I mean, we’re not even talking about the ‘future’, we’re talking about RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW.

    • AutumnParanoia says:

      I think this is more a case of showing that history has proven that even ridiculously smart people can make mistakes about these kind of things, and Prince is dumb for not learning that.

  • [...] Related That Skinny Motherfucker With…   A Tribute Album That Probably…   Like Fish In A Barrel…   Have A Hot Summer With Prince     [...]

  • [...] gotten a lifetime achievement award from BET, started a tour in Europe in support of the disc, and declared that the internet is over. This weekend the album finally comes out (legitimately) overseas in many weekly/daily [...]

  • How did I miss this beautiful piece?

    I read somewhere that toilet paper was frowned upon when it was invented, and called a fad.

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