RIP Prince, A Legendary Musician With A Complicated Internet History (networkworld.com) 196
alphadogg writes: Reflecting on the popular musician's uneasy relationship with the Internet and social media upon the 57-year-old surprising death. In 2010, Prince "famously shuttered his LotusFlow3r.com website," proclaiming that "The Internet is completely over... All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you." In 2014, The Guardian ran a story titled "Prince quits the Internet," after the singer deleted his social media accounts. He filed a lawsuit against his fans, which was later dropped, for sharing bootlegged copies of his music online. He even banned fans from taking smartphone photos at his concerts in 2013. Prince did seem to open up to the Internet to some degree in the past couple years. Prince's HTNRUN album was posted on Jay Z's Tidal music site last year. In Silicon Valley, Prince is being remembered as a social innovator and a passionate advocate for Black youth," inspiring YesWeCode, Van Jones' initiative to teach 100,000 low-income kids to write code, and hackathons across the country to expose kids in underserved communities to computer science. Bob Brown from Networkworld writes, "News of Prince's death Thursday briefly crashed the TMZ news site. From there, fans flocked to the Internet and social media to mourn this music star who did his darnedest to stay off the grid." RIP Prince.
Good night, sweet Prince. (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I could never get into the guy. He seemed completely full of himself, and I thought his music was overrated. Can't deny he was talented, though, and lots of people liked him.
Re: Good night, sweet Prince. (Score:4, Funny)
He died in poverty because of copyright infringers.
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He died in poverty because of copyright infringers.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
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Yeah, I'd like to see Bieber or Spears riff improvisations on several instruments during one live show, and produce her own albums.
I don't like much of what he put out on record -- there's some lovely ballads -- but in terms of musical talent your're rather wrong.
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Tribute from Bloom County (Score:5, Informative)
Tribute from Bloom County [facebook.com]
Chyna also died (Score:5, Insightful)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Chyna also died (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah I guess Prince really took her death hard.
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Can't anyone just be chill!
We Lost Doris Roberts, Prince and Chyna.
i lost someone too this week. We are all going to croak so get over it!
I will be sad for a bit.
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Cameras (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like I missed a great opportunity to troll Prince by showing up to one of his concerts carrying one of those tripod cameras with the curtain you pull over yourself while holding up a giant exploding bulb.
so let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)
The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince is now "formerly alive"?
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The former artist formerly known as Prince but then later known as Prince.
Re:so let me get this straight (Score:5, Insightful)
It was a stupid trademark fight with his record company fucking him over every time he wanted to use his stage name and the symbol plus "formerly known" was his way of telling them to go fuck themselves.
At the time it just seemed stupid. In hindsight after hearing more about the record industry it actually sounds like it was a good thing to do.
Re:so let me get this straight (Score:5, Informative)
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It wasn't some silly made-up stage name like Madonna or Jon Stewart. It was his real name.
Prince --> Prince Rogers Nelson
Madonna --> Madonna Louise Ciccone
Jon Stewart --> Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz
There's a bit of fiddling with Jon's name; but its hardly a "silly made up name"
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"Are you retarded? His name was Rogers Nelson, you twat."
According to all sources I can find his name was:
Prince Rogers Nelson
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Yes, you are correct! :-)
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He trademarked his "love symbol", refused to be addressed by anything else and thus forced the vampiric over controlling record label to pay him royalties for using it on his albums. The man was brilliant and in my opinion just as much if not more of a cultural influence (through his producing & songwriting) than Michael Jackson was.
Never had the opportunity to see him live. Adding him to the list of lifelong regrets alongside Queen, the Eagles, Amy Winehouse and others
Re:so let me get this straight (Score:5, Informative)
He sidestepped that with the "formerly known as" label.
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From what I've heard (not that I follow this sort of thing closely), you're exactly right on all points. It really was a kind of genius move.
Re:so let me get this straight (Score:4, Interesting)
The record company put restrictions on when and where he could use his stage name of "Prince".
He sidestepped that with the "formerly known as" label.
Close, but what he did is change his name to force the studio into using that instead of his popular name. The point was, they disagreed over the contract, but the studio had the fine print on their side, so he spent about 7 years working against his own marketing, losing money to keep them from earning it off of him, while still complying with the terms so he could eventually pass out the other side and move on.
Some stores weren't able to print the symbol for a few years; they didn't have the font. His music was not even available in many places for a significant time period, or was kept in the back of the store and only available on request.
Some of his early music was very influential, but what he did in fighting for his artistic self-determination is more impressive to me. Although, signing the contract you wanted is also important. The importance for artists is: no, the record company would never sign a "Jefferson Airplane contract" ever again in history. But the artist should also refuse to sign a "Prince contract" that gives them too much control.
TMZ crash (Score:5, Funny)
Every dark cloud has a silver lining.
Re: TMZ crash (Score:5, Funny)
In other tragic news, Kanye West had been found alive in his apartment.
Re: TMZ crash (Score:5, Insightful)
Doubtless, that no-talent hack will go on at length about how he's ten times more talented than Prince.
I can't say I liked everything Prince did, though I was of an age when Purple Rain was one of the seminal records of my generation, but one thing I'll say about him, that I would say about David Bowie as well, is that he didn't really give a damn about genres or musical forms, and even if some of his experiments were failures, you know it was a damned daring person who refused to be typecast and shoved into a box.
Re: TMZ crash (Score:5, Funny)
you know it was a damned daring person who refused to be typecast and shoved into a box.
- but the box always wins at the end. Too soon?
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but the box always wins at the end. Too soon?
Not sure if joke or dark reflection of the ultimate futility of life.
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And you're already modded way up, but that was funny, and sad, and profound.
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The Box [wikipedia.org] is pretty awesome.
But The Box [wikipedia.org] was not well received.
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The world's got a bomb (Score:3)
Growing up in the 70's and 80's....
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Don't give up, I'll still love you
What ya lookin' at, punk?
Look out all you hippies, you ain't as sharp as me
It ain't about the trippin', but the sexuality, turn it up
You can dance if you want to
All the critics love you in New York
All the critics love you in New York
(Yes, we're certain of it, he's definitely masturbating)
All the critics love you in New York
Take a bath, hippies
Read more: Prince - All The Cr
And still ... (Score:2)
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actually... there is a standard way of typing the glyph on a typewriter or in ASCII
O(+>
Numbers are bad? (Score:2)
Kevin Smith (Score:5, Interesting)
Check on Kevin Smith talking about his experience of working with Prince. Weird guy, but definitely left his mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:Kevin Smith (Score:4, Interesting)
At one point in that awesome commentary, Kevin Smith talks about Prince's habitual making of songs and full-on videos that are not released but "put in the vault," as Smith describes what Prince's assistant told him. While Smith makes light of that odd behavior, it makes sense as a long-term strategy to make hay while the sun shines as the colloquial saying goes, assuming Prince was saving these gems for later release as his talent and abilities faded, as an insurance policy to pay for his extravagant lifestyle in his later years.
So, will we now see those compositions released? Did Prince leave instructions in his will?
he was...and more.... (Score:5, Informative)
Saw him live many times and it was always a kick ass show
Compared to the shit today, he truly was a musical genius
Re: he was...and more.... (Score:2)
Compared to the shit today, he truly was a musical genius
Wow, that's high praise indeed. ;)
re: need to know star rm pic (Score:2)
now we'll never know.
And now... (Score:2)
pressure (Score:2)
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Indeed. It's sadly ironic to see how the music industry pretends to be the defender of artists, when its history is filled with usurious contracts, duplicity and out and out theft of royalties.
He had other complicated histories as well (Score:2)
Why this is news for nerds (Score:3, Insightful)
[latimes.com]http://www.latimes.com/enterta... [latimes.com]
Quote:
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
What about his name? (Score:2)
Reminds me of an old German ballad (Score:2, Insightful)
Just like the king in that ballad who killed his troubadour and was cursed for it by being forgotten since no singer would sing his praise and remind later generations of his deeds, fearing that he will suffer the same fate as the hapless one who the king's wife laid eyes on, Prince will probably suffer the same fate for disallowing video pages on the internet to use his music.
Ask anyone younger than 25 who Prince is. Prince? Who, Prince William? Oh, Prince Albert. Yeah, I got one of those.
But music? What's
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May he rest in peace. :-( (Score:2)
http://www.rollingstone.com/ [rollingstone.com]
http://www.rollingstone.com/mu... [rollingstone.com]
http://www.rollingstone.com/mu... [rollingstone.com]
This sucks (Score:2)
I'll have to listen to talk radio for a week or two until they stop playing Prince songs constantly. Prince is OK, but if I hear "Purple Rain" one more time I'll lose it.
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I tend to agree with you.
I never really got the appeal of Prince's music. I certainly appreciate his talent and there are some real devotees, especially here in Minneapolis, but his music was never my cup of tea.
Rest in peace sweet Prince.
Re:Good night, sweet Prince. (Score:4, Funny)
You're confusing sex with masturbation.
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What does an opposite sex clone version of myself counts as?
Depends. Are either of you even slightly attracted to the other?
Re:News for nerds PLEASE! (Score:4, Interesting)
Dear idiot,
It is very difficult to find songs on Youtube to listen to to remember Prince's works by, at the moment, because Prince himself made it difficult. He was not just any musician who had problems with how the internet affected his music, but perhaps the primary one. This site is a site for news for nerds, and Princes death is relevant to those of us who use the internet for music.
Re:News for nerds PLEASE! (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. His war on the Internet makes him the peculiar counterpoint to a man who died a few months ago; David Bowie. Both incredibly talented men, genre-busting artists, but one recognized the Internet for what it was and embraced it, and the other only saw it as a den of thieves and waged war against it.
Re:News for nerds PLEASE! (Score:5, Insightful)
And both end up in the same state, and take just as much of their profits with them to the grave.
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Re:News for nerds PLEASE! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say they both recognized the Internet for what it is.
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Re:News for nerds PLEASE! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Drugs (Score:4, Informative)
The rumors floating around was that it must have had something to do with the flu he was suffering for the last week or two. He was pretty religious (a Jehovah's Witness, as ironic and odd as that may seem), so I have my doubts that he died of drugs. I'm wagering either a misdiagnosis of a more severe ailment, or a flu that went out of control (this can happen, and influenza still is a major killer).
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Is "gay AIDS" different than other kinds of AIDS?
Other things besides AIDS can kill the immune system, like leukemia, and with his JW beliefs, the whole blood transfusion angle could have taken him out.
Re:Drugs (Score:4, Informative)
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I recently battled the flu for six weeks. I don't have AIDS, in fact I have a healthy immune system. Maybe you don't catch anything because your mother cleans the basement regularly.
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With some forms of influenza, a healthy immune system can backfire, as the infection can generate a cytokine storm [wikipedia.org]. It is one of the leading theories of why pandemics so often kill off teenagers and young adults, the people you would think were most likely to fight off an infection.
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The guy had been sick for at least 2 weeks before he died. Drugs probably could have helped save him, actually.
Oh wait, you're not talking about those drugs though, right? You're talking about the things that the government says are bad for you, like weed. Not drugs like caffeine, aspirin, alcohol, penicillin, lipitor, nexium, plavix, abilify, prilosec, amoxicillin, viagra, zoloft, ambien, hydrocodone, oxycontin, you know the completely harmless non-addictive drugs. You're talking about things like plan
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Re:Horrible Music (Score:5, Insightful)
Eric Clapton was once asked how it felt to be the world's greatest guitarist. His response: "I don't know. Ask Prince."
If anything, Prince was the opposite of someone with a "major identity crisis". He knew exactly who he was and did not give one single fuck if you didn't like it. Watch his solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps from his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and tell me if you think he looks like someone who has an identity crisis.
https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y [youtu.be]
He strolls onstage in the middle of the song, at about 3:25 in the video. And all the other rock stars on stage just give him room and watch with their mouths open. He ends his Citizen Kane of guitar solos by doing the guitar equivalent of a mic drop, except instead of dropping the guitar he sort of just flips it up to air and pimp-walks off the stage like he owns the motherfucker. My guess is the guitar ascended directly into heaven, because it knew it could never top that moment.
That my friends, is how a rock star makes an entrance and an exit.
Prince was the ultimate musical nerd. He not only could play every instrument on his records, but could do all of it better than most people who play those instruments. He was five foot goddamn four inches tall and still managed to be the Jesus of scoring hot babes.
Re:Horrible Music (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Horrible Music (Score:4, Informative)
You might also want to look at his live performance at the 2007 Super Bowl. That was the last one, by the way, that did not use any pre-recorded tracks.
As Prince like to say, "When I go on stage, my mike is ON. I'm live, not memorex."
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Thank you for that YouTube link, greatness indeed.
Prince was bored with being a pop star and was determined to push his and our boundaries. It didn't always make for the most popular songs and I find much of it not to my taste but when he wanted to be a pop star, boy oh boy, could he.
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> Watch his solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Wow! I had never seen that before. Thanks for the link.
Re: Horrible Music (Score:2)
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http://www.newser.com/story/22... [newser.com]
http://whnt.com/2016/04/21/cel... [whnt.com]
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bro... [slate.com]
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Well I'll tag in. I never much cared for his records/songs, but the guy was a talented player. The alleged Clapton quote is interesting. The link to the youtube vid with "While My Guitar" is pretty cool. He knew his way around the fretboard. It's pretty damn good. But he does fall into flash a bit much, running through hyper fast scales and that Eddy Van Halen tapping crap. I know they are dead, but "best guitarist in the world" title would have to fall to Rory Buchanan (in the modern rock style), Charlie C
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Those guys were dead at the time of the alleged quote. And of course, if you want to go across styles, you could list Jim Hall, Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie, and a few dozen young players like Julian Lage.
The "While My Guitar" performance was clearly meant to be a shredding display because of the iconic meaning the song has taken on (and because of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame venue). Also, it was a tribute to Georg
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I'm curious, Is offering an opinion on things you don't know about something you often do?
"How do you like spaghetti?"
"I've never eaten it, but it sucks."
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Re:Horrible Music (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that his fame came more from singing and songwriting, but Prince was greatly underappreciated as a guitarist.
Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y [youtube.com]
His solo starts at about 3:26. I recommend watching it from the beginning, because it's a wonderful tribute.
His solo is exquisite, in my opinion, at times at the forefront, extending, expanding upon the lyrics and melody while never overwhelming either, and at times also complementing them, moving back and forth until the end.
No showboating, I think, but verve, gusto, pure enjoyment and musicianship. He was asked there to play, and to solo, and he did both masterfully.
Watch/listen it in its entirety, once. Then just listen to it.
As you watch it, note that Prince is not only soloing GREAT, playing well, he's also engaged with the other musicians. He knows the song, knows that he's playing with some of the best musicians in the rock world and is aware of all of that as he plays.
And you can TELL that he's having a blast being there. He's playing his best, and I think that the others in the band recognize it.
As you just listen, note how well what he plays fits, both solo and together with the rest of the band. Clean, complex, precise, not a missed note, nor a note played that doesn't fit the song overall in some way.
At one point he just vanishes, merges back into the song with the band and then emerges again.
Wonderful!
All that being said, I was never a huge Prince fan over the years, but that video gave me a new appreciation of him, when I first watched it, years ago.
As to whether or not his death deserves to be of note on Slashdot? The most relevant justification would be Prince's stance on digital copyright, and I don't care to discuss that.
I made the mistake of doing that in general here, years ago, and I shan't revisit that here ever again.
All that being said: Say what you will of Prince, but don't ever say he was a "talentless hack".
Regards,
dj
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I find the when my guitar gently weeps video quite awkward. Prince is on stage the whole time but he isn't in the shot until all of the sudden, he steps forward and the spotlight is pointed at him. Also, the contrast between the guitarist soloing in the first half of the song and Prince was too extreme, to the point of being embarrassing. Also, I think, apart from his own awesome work that isn't available on social media, his cover of Radiohead's Creep show of his skills much better:
https://www.youtube.com/ [youtube.com]
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Different strokes for different folks. Don't like his music? Scroll to the next story. I probably click on less than 1/4 of stories on
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I know what you mean.
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Barney Stinson
Who? QED
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Totally messed up and disrespectful. :-9
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Do you mean he's new to Slashdot, or new to the Internet in general?
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Oh shit, we better warn people on Moonbase Alpha! [wikipedia.org]
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