Quote:
Originally Posted by tmdiva
I loved both Prince and Bowie, and listened to both lots in HS. Prince's death has hit me harder, I think mostly because he was younger. Also, although Bowie was actively recording during my HS years, his most ground-breaking work was recorded in the 1970s. 1999 and Purple Rain were right smack in the middle of HS for me. While the "edgy" theater kids were listening to a lot of (old, pre-MTV) Bowie on their own time, Prince was the soundtrack for school dances, cruising around listening to the radio, etc., and was therefore more of a collective experience.
tm
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Bingo, tm (and hi!) - that is exactly my take. The Bowie new releases I heard in my early to mid teens were from his avant garde Berlin/kicking heroin phase ("we know Major Tom's a junkie") and the suit-wearing crooner of "Let's Dance." Some really good songs, but not quite as important as the Ziggy/Aladdin stuff from a decade earlier.
In contrast, when the Punk Rock Girl played "Controversy" for me for the first time, and we cruised around Podunkville in her dad's RX-7 with "Sexuality" blaring from the tape deck, I felt like that British dude in the 1920s who caught the first glimpse of King Tut's tomb.
And GGG, Prince may sound like pop to you, but that's only because "Controversy," "1999," and "Purple Rain" had a radical impact on 1980s pop music. I can assure you that while there were some very good pop songs in 1979, they were very different from most pop in say 1988. (Yes, let's not forget Michael Jackson, but still.)
