The Endless Purple Reign
We take for granted the greatness that surrounds us. We don’t always appreciate the talent that entertains us, the artists that are our close but distant companions throughout our lives.
Part of me is hollow on the news that Prince is no longer with us. I regret that I never saw one of his live shows in full, but I appreciate the opportunity to grow up with his music. I’m thankful that I watched him grow and develop into one of the greatest artists of our time.
Life is just a party, and parties weren’t meant to last
I don’t know him for the shade king aspect, I know him for challenging normality, for introducing me to different styles of music. He defied race, gender, genre, and tradition. Prince was everything that we value today way back when. He was a creative visionary, an entrepreneur, a futurist, a philanthropist, and a multitalented artist that could play any instrument and arrange, compose, produce, write, and engineer all his music. He said things people dare not say, he surpassed any kind of creative limit.
He fought the practices of the music industry when no other artist dared to, and today most artists and the actual industry benefit from his fight for creative expression. It was no surprise that he would form a significant partnership with Jay-Z on his Tidal wave, fighting the new fight on the digital battlefield of streaming.
It’s sad that Prince is no longer with us, but we should appreciate his dedication to us and his artistry. We got to witness and experience some of the greatest moments in the history of music.
On ‘ 1999’ he said, “Life is just a party, and parties weren’t meant to last.” He wasn’t referring to his music, just days after his passing he sold over 1 million singles and 234,000 albums. When you consider that most avid Prince fans only listened to him in his prime or absorbed 8 or 9 of his key albums (which is an entire career for lesser artists), fans old and new have only heard a fraction of his work.
Prince released 39 studio albums, 5 soundtracks, multiple live albums, compilations, then there are the countless unreleased bodies of work that will no doubt be released at some point. We have enough Prince music to last us several life times, we have so much more of his music to discover. After we get over the pain of loosing him we will come to terms with the realisation that he is still with us, we may actually have a chance to catch up with his creativity. Forever in our hearts, Prince and his music lives on.
