Yandros on 22/4/2016 at 20:16
Quote Posted by Abysmal
sir elton might wanna start sleeping with one eye open
gripping his pillow tight
Renault on 22/4/2016 at 20:35
It's more likely he's biting it.
Fingernail on 23/4/2016 at 17:18
Times.
Kolya on 24/4/2016 at 01:01
I watched the film Purple Rain tonight. Can't really recommend it. The only thing I really liked about it were his clothes. Otherwise it's so entrenched in that false coolness of the 80s, like people wearing shades at a nightclub and all those "cool" looks Prince gives to people, when he's not brooding that is. The female lead has a gig where she sings in lingerie, Prince beats her but she still loves him of course because he's got family issues and a terrible motorcycle. Similarly he treats his bandmates like shit who write Purple Rain's melody when he's not looking. Some cartoon villains make a mockery of every scene they're in. Oh and it never rains. No rain scene in the whole film. But most of all it lacks any sincerity, even Prince's tears are superficial. All around a very bad film.
After watching it I thought that we really had come a long way since this was a lifestyle to admire and emulate. And I wondered if today's stars still embarrassed themselves in films like that. (I might not notice, but I don't think so.) But then I remembered that others had done better, see Annie Lennox collaboration with Sophie Muller on the Savage video album, just three years later, which still feels fresh and avantgarde today. But she was never intent on becoming that godlike figure that was a superstar in the 80s. Prince was all about that. You can see his immense will to be worshipped actually breaking every carefully set up image down to the last one and it doesn't make him sympathetic.
I realise this sounds like a put down, but it's not meant to be one. I love a few of his songs, very few considering his output, but those are great. And I can identify with his outsider status and I would have hoped he had had more time to surprise us like he did with 3121. It's more an observation on the artificial nature of 80s superstars and on seeing someone trying hard to attain that goal.
nickie on 24/4/2016 at 16:56
Quote Posted by Queue
We've lost Prince and Bowie in the same year.
...and it's only April.
A significant increase this year according to (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36108133) this.
Quote:
We are only four months in, but it's already been a dark, dark 2016.
It now seems rare for a week to pass without a significant celebrity death being reported - from David Bowie in the second week of January, to actor Alan Rickman a week later, to comedian Victoria Wood and Prince this week.
"Enough, 2016" and a more vulgar alternative are phrases people are uttering more and more regularly. So is this wave of celebrity deaths the new normal?
The answer is yes, according to the BBC's obituary editor Nick Serpell, who ought to know about such things.
He said that the number of significant deaths this year has been "phenomenal".
bjack on 24/4/2016 at 20:32
Slow hand, Ringo, Paul, and others are all going to die. It will be sad, just as losing Prince is sad. He had a great life in my estimation, and one year of his life had enrichment far beyond my entire life so far. Prince brought us some great music. Remember that and enjoy. Someone new will come along and make great music too, despite the current trend of idiotic robo-shite. There are already hundreds of not thousands of great acts already out there. As Nickie points out with his her reference, we are going to see a lot more of these over the next few years. Some will be surprises and some will be just nostalgic. I already went through this as a kid in the early 70s when the greats of Hollywood were dying off. It is part of being human and mortal. Sad, but natural. RIP Prince.
demagogue on 25/4/2016 at 04:50
They'll exist of course. I'm convinced, just on normal distribution grounds, that every generation has about the same proportion of potential great artists, aptitude-wise. The catch is if the cultural and institutional context nurtures their talent and supports their career (producing great works, as opposed to a career producing fluff).
But I guess your point is the flip side of that. Especially with music, the problem isn't getting talent out, but the fact there's a flood of talent across the whole spectrum gushing out. It's very hard to find the diamonds in the rough, or recognize that they're really diamonds when you find them after surfing dozens of artists in 20 second snippets over 20 minutes. The 70s and 80s brand of universal superstar was made for a world with only +/-3 major networks with a cartel lock on all the media coming through, and now the distribution channels are fragmented and all over the place.
bjack on 25/4/2016 at 05:08
Unless banned, greatness will prevail...
faetal on 25/4/2016 at 05:54
The dynamics of the music industry won't allow for another Bowie or Prince again. Bowie's first 3 or 4 albums were commercial failures.
This is an old article now, but still a very valid description of how the music industry operates: (
http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17)
Bowie and Prince had a lot of say in how they did things. Any major artist these days is considered to be a product and are managed to the Nth degree with teams of PR people, marketing people, producers and managers. If I look around for anyone who has even the slightest potential to have a similar sort of impact, it pains me to say it, but there are only people like Kanye West who operate as producers and have enough personal money to obviate the industry's choke hold.
I should add that I don't think it's impossible, just that the music industry isn't an environment where such a thing can thrive any more. If it happens again, it'll happen by far less conventional means.
heywood on 25/4/2016 at 14:29
Kolya - As far as I recall, nobody thought the film was any good back in the 80s either, just the music. I was a typical American teenager in the 1980s and I don't recall anyone I knew who considered Prince a style icon. Michael Jackson, sure. Prince, no. His style was part of a unique personal brand and if anyone had tried to emulate it they probably would have been mocked. It worked for him though.
faetal - That Big Train sketch is hilarious
As for the music business not producing artists like this anymore, I'm not sure artists like Prince are born very often. The guy was an impressive multi-instrumentalist who could play almost anything. He played pretty much all the instruments on his biggest studio albums. He wrote, composed, and produced all the songs. He crossed different musical styles, and managed to always sound original. And he was extremely prolific, averaging about an album a year right to the end. Aside from the music, he created his own unique personal style to match, and he was quite the stage performer too.
It's a shame I don't like his music more. I appreciate it in the critical sense, but I never really got it. I tend to prefer some of the songs he wrote for others over most of his own hits, e.g. Manic Monday, I Feel For You, Nothing Compares 2U, The Glamorous Life.
