[contour5]

The "no disrespect intended" comments are rather curious. Sorta like stopping in at a random funeral to talk some trash about the dearly departed in front of their grieving friends and family. I don't really get what the point is. I'm not a huge fan of modern R'n'B Dance Music or Commercial Funk/Soul Pop, but I find it enjoyable enough to listen to, particularly at work where the alternative is usually "classic" rock that I've heard 200,000 times already. Usually they'll allow me an hour of screaming gutbucket blues guitar or thumping, bass-heavy 70s roots reggae once in a while, so it all kind of balances out in the end. I've got ear plugs I can use when the Bee Gees or Hall and Oats start causing my stomach to churn. Prince wrote so many hit songs that he ended up giving about half of them away to other musicians in exchange for writer's credit; often under ridiculous made-up names like "Alexander Nevermind" or "Azifwekare ". I suppose it's easy to be generous like that after you've sold over 100 million records under your own name.

[Bedivere]

^^ ^^ I'll admit that Prince's music isn't really my cup of tea for daily listening, but I recognize musical genius when I see it, and losing a talent like his makes the world a poorer place. Maybe you don't "get" his music, but the fact that he was so respected by other musicians and so highly regarded in his community speaks volumes to the kind of person, and talent, he was. Prince wrote this:

And this is a pretty epic performance that showcases his skill on the guitar, though he could play many, many other instruments (wait for it)

[Slugman]

This is one reason I never liked him, apart from the ridiculous clothes and the stupid symbol instead of a name: that his sycophantic followers attacked anyone who didn't love him. It is OK not to like Prince. Maybe he did lots of great music that I never heard, but what I did hear, I didn't like. Bubblegum pop like Manic Monday? Fingernails on a chalkboard like Nothing Compares to You? Dreary tedious crap like Purple Rain? No thanks. The '80s was a cultural and musical desert. No doubt a large factor in my opinion is my age. I never liked pop music back in the day either, I preferred songs with a strong social content, not crybabies whining over losing some girl or some boy. One last point: it is just as much of a complete waste of time to go and on about how great he was as it is to say "meh". It is all totally pointless opinion.

[Bedivere]

Sluggo - the point I'm trying to make is that while you may not find a musician's (or any artist, really) particular style of music to your taste, it is still possible to recognize their talent and realize that the loss of that person represents a loss to the community of artists and musicians worldwide. I'm not a Sinead O'connor fan and while that song is not something that is in my musical collection, I can recognize the talent it took to compose it, as opposed to anything formulaic and generic like pretty much anything Justin Bieber has done. The second video showcases how his talent is not limited to just the kind of music he's known best for. Coming into a thread where people are lamenting the loss of a favorite artist and throwing out the "I didnt' like him/her so I don't really care" bomb serves what purpose, exactly?

[contour5]

[NacMacFeegle]

In general I'm not too fond of 80s culture. The best I can say for the time is that it produced a few really stellar action movies. When it comes to music I have a hard time finding much in the way of positives about the decade; most of my favorite bands had their hay-days either before 1980 or after 1990. If it wasn't for independent artists making their careers on Youtube I would consider the past 10 years to be almost as bad as the 80s - if not worse! I guess one thing I could say for Prince is that he didn't use auto-tune and could actually play an instrument unlike so many of todays talentless pop stars.

[contour5]

[Bedivere]

I graduated HS in '86 so that was a very influential period for me. I was a metalhead back then and still like a lot of what was produced back then - early Judas Priest, Accept, early Metallica, Pantera, Accept, etc. Back then my musical focus was very narrow but grew much broader as I aged and I can look back and listen to a lot of other bands from that era now like Dire Straights, U2, The Cure, INXS, Devo, The Clash, etc. I dunno, it just seems strange to me that people bother talking trash about what other people like when it's such a subjective matter of taste. why waste the energy? It's like "thumbs down" on Youtube for music videos. if you don't like it, why bother voting on it - spend your time and energy on stuff you do like.

[Malachai Constant]

As Wolf Blitzer said, "All of us remember Purple Haze and what that did for the world of music" and who can forget Raspberry Bidet