This is a rhetorical question. While there’ll be plenty of speculation as to the reasons why, my aim isn’t to provide an answer. Only to invite and encourage discussion. And this discussion goes in a bunch of different directions, as per usual.
The sense I get from the online Prince community…
Their biggest concern regarding internal affairs is when all the music is going to be released from the vault and whether or not the people in charge are running things into the ground.
But externally, there’s always some list of music greats or people who are the best at something and Prince is always overlooked. Which is what brings me to do this post.
A recent list about “best” guitar players from the past 20 years- aka this current century- put Taylor swift in the top 10 and Prince wasn’t mentioned at all.
I only recognized 4 names total so it’s not like I can put together an adequate dispute.
John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, I can testify have a unique style and is part of why I like listening to them. Although John Mayer will always have that caveat of “yeah, but he and Taylor have bad history so I’ll downgrade him out of principle”.
Then there’s Keith urban, who’s great, but I don’t know him well enough to make a proper judgement.
And to be fair, Taylor is probably only on this list cuz she plays guitar- period- and she’s commercially relevant. Even as a HUGE fan I’d never consider her an excellent guitar player. But the fact she plays an instrument and writes her own songs automatically makes her better than a lot of other people in music right now. Not that I know who am of them are but that’s beside the point I’m trying to make.
It’s always going to bother me that Prince is constantly overlooked on these stupid lists, whether it’s the last 20 years or 100.
It’s easy to say anyone who doesn’t recognize his talent by now is a fucking idiot and doesn’t know any better. But that’s not true. It also isn’t fair to the people who outrank Prince. I’m not about to take anything away from them.
The only explanation I really give for why these lists always include the same people… laziness and lack of imagination.
And maybe race has a bit to do with it too.
I don’t read as many “greatest band leaders” or “greatest frontmen” lists but there’s a good chance James Brown (who HUGELY influenced Prince as a band leader) won’t be in the top 10 for that reason alone. The only exception to this is most likely Michael Jackson- for best dancer, performer and all around entertainer.
Another major reason probably comes down to his record label dispute in the 90s. He parted ways with Warner bros and became independent and all the bigwigs running the industry convinced people he was no longer relevant.
So he’d come back into the spotlight and people call it a comeback cuz they don’t know any better. But go to princevault.com and you’ll see that Prince never stopped recording music. Releasing albums is another matter entirely.
At the end of the day, Prince never did all this for awards and rankings. He did it because he always had music in him and he had a multitude of ways to express himself with it.
I also feel like the older I get, the less I really care.
Prince is always going to be undervalued and overlooked. There’s nothing I can do or say I hadn’t already done several times over that’ll change that.
Another thing I also sort of wondered- do any other fans get annoyed about their favorites from being overlooked?
Do Paul McCartney fans care he’s not a top ranked guitar or piano player? Probably not. Or Bon Jovi or Springsteen fans? Probably not.
It’d be funny to think of all the music fans campaigning for their favorite artists getting together to write lists the best album of all time isn’t a Beatles album or that the best guitar player isn’t Jimi Hendrix or best songwriter isn’t Bob Dylan… just to give some rough examples.
But wait for them to compile a “proper” list and they’ll spend ages locked in disputes until THEIR favorite artist ranks number one. It’d be hilarious and would prove these lists aren’t just subjective but they’re stupid. They only serve to stir people and drive them apart instead of bringing them together. And music is a universal medium designed to bring people together.
For me personally, I don’t want to pit my favorite music people against each other. Not to be overdramatic, but I’d give all of myself to stand up for Prince and Taylor because they’ve brought me so much joy. I already went in depth on another post how much the two of them have in common and I still stand by that.
All this nonsense also makes me think of her song “Clara Bow” and how there’s this constant need to bolster up the next great thing in music and comparing artists to each other.
In the end, all of them have their unique place and should be celebrated equally. The worst is when headlines try to create rivalries and we’re all like “dude, they’re friends. Knock it off with the bullshit.” Back in the day it was Prince vs Michael Jackson. Nowadays it’s Taylor and whoever journalists want to throw into the ring- last year it was Beyonce. More recently, Stevie Nicks. Comparing how Taylor writes about her exes and Fleetwood Mac did that with one album. Even so, both are super talented on their own and if anything, that comparison cheapens their efforts. There’s more to both than their most spiteful moments. And seriously, what more does Taylor have to do for people to stop making her entire brand about attacking ex boyfriends? I’m so sick of having to make this point. Maybe that’ll be a future blog post so I can stop bringing it up.
I guess a good way to end things is to mention some names of people in music I consider great.
Taylor swift will probably go down as the best artist from MY generation.
But for the others- these are their most outstanding qualities in my opinion or at least the ones that jump to mind-
Freddie Mercury-songwriter, band leader, vocalist, entertainer
Springsteen- songwriter, band leader
The Beatles- band and all brilliant songwriters
Bob Dylan- songwriter
Jimi Hendrix- guitarist
Eric Clapton- guitarist
Jim Morrison- bandleader
Elvis-entertainer
Michael Jackson- dancer, vocalist, entertainer
Prince- bandleader, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist
Don Henley- songwriter
Phil Collins- songwriter, drummer
James Brown- bandleader
Marvin Gaye- vocalist and songwriter
Stevie wonder- multi-instrumentalist, songwriter
David Bowie- entertainer
Whitney Houston- vocalist
Steve Perry- bandleader, songwriter, vocalist
Carlos Santana- guitarist
Elton John- pianist, songwriter
There’s plenty more but you get the point by now.
Music is a lot of things. Competition shouldn’t be one of them. You’re allowed to love more than one music artist at the same time.
The Musings of DreamyPopRoyalty 