A tribute to Prince
“He was strange,” as my uncle described him. While many performers were caught up in the glitz and glam of 80’s pop, Prince somehow managed to mix R&B, funk, pop and rock and roll all harmoniously together.
Add a short paragraph here about how we lost such an important icon. Bring up his death earlier on in the article saying when he died.
Prince was a mastermind of music with the ability to play at least 27 instruments. Eric Clapton was once asked how it feels to be the world’s greatest guitar player, and he responded, “I don’t know, ask Prince.”
The film titled Purple Rain which starred Prince was his first acting debut . The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and grossed a total of 80 million worldwide. As stated by Rolling Stone, “It’s impossible to imagine any of today’s modern pop stars playing a role like prince does.”
Purple Rain followed the release of his album, also under the name of Purple Rain, which remained at Billboards number one for a solid 24 weeks.
However, even though Prince was well known for his music, his influence as a sex symbol of the 80’s is undeniable. In a time where sexuality was repressed due to the fear and spike of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, Prince celebrated his sensuality in a way that was provocative and erotic.
In his music video, “Kiss,” Prince aroused the nation clad in black leather and rising into a soft pink background. It is glossy, flirty and unapologetically indecent. Because of the rise of MTV and music video, Prince was able to reach out and touch the nation in a way that started a pop music sexual revolution and immortalize himself as a sexual icon.
Prince was not afraid to be who he wanted to be. He was unconventional and incorporated aspects of both sexes into his life and performance. As told by Rolling Stone, his is blending of sexual-role play is what gained him such a large audience.
It was not uncommon to see him dressed just as feminine as some of his female companions, because prince did not agree with gender biases. When Prince changed his name to “symbol” in protest of the record companies, it was a combination of both the female and male gender symbols.
He shamelessly pushed the boundaries of sexual fluidity by defying societal norms of what was to be expected of a male pop star. The media could simply not categorize Prince in anyway.
Prince had his moment and sometimes his ego outgrew his own fame, but his overall body of work and pure unrelenting search for perfection made him the legend he will be remembered as today. Prince was not afraid to step outside the bounds of traditional mainstream. “What’s missing from pop music is danger,” Prince once commented in an interview with Guardian. “There’s no excitement and mystery.”
Prince brought just that to the front stage of pop culture and even created a bit of mystery surrounding his own death. However, his commitment to his passion and performance proved that Prince had no limit to his creativity. “I don’t have an expiration date,” Prince told The Word in 2004, and in some way he was right.