Prince's Purple Reign
I remember clearly the first time I heard about Prince. Every girl in my class was totally in love with this cute guy that sang in a breathy, sexy falsetto. But it wasn’t immediately clear that he would kick down so many barriers with his stiletto-clad feet and permanently tattoo his mark on music, when Prince arrived on the scene in 1978. His lush afro and bedroom eyes captured the imaginations of teen girls who helped make his first release, ‘Soft & Wet,” a minor R&B hit from his debut album, “ For You” . Filled with sexual references and coos and moans, it was a telling indicator of the musician’s future status as a sex symbol and provocateur but nothing more. The fact that the 19-year-old had produced, arranged and played every instrument on every song should have been a clue to his greatness but it was the end of the '70s. Music genres were strictly defined and its stars neatly boxed in. But things were shifting. Rock was embracing elements of new wave , funk was bl...