“Honey I know, I know, I know times are changing”

I suppose that everyone in the world knows about the Icon, Prince and his epic soundtrack “Purple Rain”, but I cannot write about Black Music Month without featuring the genius of Prince. Prince was brilliant within every genre he touched. The Purple Rain soundtrack defied genres. If you were a rock fan and listened to this album, it was rock. If you were a fan of funk music, Purple Rain was the funkiest soundtrack you ever heard. Purple Rain was the absolute best of whatever genre the listener (the fan) wanted it to be. Although his roots were in R&B and funk, there were also elements of rock, jazz, psychedelia, heavy metal and more on this album.

Since the album soared beyond genres, and Prince defied categorization the only place to truly file it in record stores was in Soundtracks and Pop. Remember the term pop is just short for POPULAR and…

…in 1984, two black artists ruled the POP CHARTS, Michael Jackson and Prince.

Both artists released their most successful and legendary albums in 1984.

If you go back and listen to every Prince record you will hear him integrate a wide variety of genres and sub-genres on all his recordings. He also had a unique talent and way of mixing the many genres together all on the same album and sometimes even within songs. Prince could go between sexy and gospel flavored songs in the same recording session. His music had something for everyone. Prince was gender-bending, thought provoking….and always SEXY.

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