The Purple Revolution is Over

I'm not hugely attached to how the music industry evolved, to put it bluntly, I'm one of those older Millennials who believes the 1980s was the golden age of music. So when I found out Prince died, I was surprised. I typed into google "how did____." Google knew what I wanted to ask, how did he die. 

Prince represented along with Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper and Madonna a time when we were innocent and yet hungry for more. Prince had that, he was sensual, androgynous and so original, it made us question our own capacity for emotion. #prince

The diversity in this man's music was profound, to marry ethnicity, soul, funk, the blues, rock and pop in one sound. It's not even the point that he had $100 million in sales, it's the effect he had over people and the sensation that he was true to his craft, cared about art, over profit. 

He was a prolific writer, deeply private and a mythical musician who embodied some of the best of his zeitgeist.  Some of his iconic lyrics now stand out, which seemed just really "different" at the time, yet lingers in our psyche like the memory of the songs we grew up with. Words that are mantric and have an imagination that can captivate a generation if impressionable minds and hearts. 

This is what it sounds like when doves cry....

Prince encapsulated sensuality and eroticism in a time when it was not cheapened by culture, music videos or bling. This was before the descent of music culture into irrelevance, pop-noise and hip-hop discourse. Not as profound as MJ, nor as sentimental as Madonna, Prince was still iconoclastic, a savory dish of musical non-conformity who blended genres in a feast to the senses. 

Prince was like the spirit of music experiment at play in human form. He was that prolific and even wrote countless songs that others performed to critical acclaim. Who could forget the song Nothing Compares to You. These are Prince's biggest hits. 

Prince had an aura, he had a subjective passion that few performers today can embody and equal. He wasn't just a persona where the music was secondary, you felt this was a musician with a soul born of his own intensity to create. For me Prince also embodies something I know well, if you write enough music or create enough, 1% of what you do will truly be extraordinary. So in this sense, we have to do what we love, a lot, to become truly good at it. 

If we were born on Earth for a purpose, it doesn't matter if we become Princes or not. More so than many celebrities past or present, this was a man who brought the world in touch with its own authenticity, and that's a legacy that goes beyond music, goes beyond celebrity or popularity. Acclaim, influence and even good music is passing, but Prince taught us how to be ourselves. Because, he was good at being himself, standing by how own convictions and creating music that defied categorization and ushered in a realm of surreal possibility. 

What is your favorite lyrical sentence of Prince?