... and in the U.S. Ronald Reagan was president. It was a lavish decade with a booming economy and consumerism was the message of the day. We had Yuppies and Dinks- Young Urban Proffessionals and Dual Income, No Kids. Everywhere you turned there were messages to buy more, travel more, and of course, work more to pay for it all.
It was a plastic decade like Barbie's world on steroids. The Baby Boomers had hit their professional career stride and we had tv shows featuring the angst of the working "thirty somethings". Working mothers who CHOSE to have a career and leave their children in the hands of strangers made us forget how many mothers had no choice just to keep their kids fed.
The music was flashy and colorful and packaged. Even the hard punk of poverty stricken rule breakers was overshadowed by music industry pop idols dabbling in "New Wave" with their exotic costumes and colorful hairstyles adding inches to their height. It was just before the era of boy bands, and the only alternative to these "alternative rockers" was the hair bands. They were the last vestige of true classic rock bands coming out of the 70's with great music that would have to be packaged with slick videos and a "gimmick" to get radio play.
All of this is of course from the 46 year old perspective of someone who came of age in these times. I'm sure many will have differing opinions on the music.
Getting back to our scene... We were the first decade to see children of divorced parents getting public attention and "latchkey kids" like myself became more and more common. We were raised by parents who grew up in the 50's and 60's. Their parents were products of the depression and they were determined to live better. It was a time where people still worked for one job all their lives and retired with a gold watch and a nice pension. The economic heyday made them believe they could afford two homes and tv made them think no one would really be that damaged if they took the leap.
So divorce became more common and as kids we were vividly aware that we were different from our friends with homes still intact. Some moms looked worried when we befriended their children, as if we were carriers of that virus that could potentially hit any safely packaged, emotionally constipated marriage when they weren't looking.
Others would welcome us into their homes like orphans who obviously could never be as perfect as their children with cookie baking moms and corporate working fathers grinding away for that watch. The looks of pity were felt more than seen as they drove us home from every group gathering. Our own parents were too busy working extra jobs to keep us in the lifestyle we were accustomed to before our dads had to get little apartments and eat out of take out containers.
By the time we were teens, we felt fully justified in our adolescent angst. We even had John Hughes movies, like The Breakfast Club, to support our stance. Is it any wonder we were conflicted?
We were raised in a world where nuclear war was a button push away and any egomaniacal leader could get a wild hair and decimate the planet. I remember being thirteen and literally not being able to imagine my life past high school graduation. And if we had no true chance at a future, then what was the point of it all?
It would take a true visionary to bring us any hope. And it would have to be an Artist, someone with a soul filled with Good and Love and Possibility and breaking barriers- someone who had overcome adversity by saying "F You!" to the establishment in ways we never expected. They would have to reject labels and stereotypes and truly live through their Art. They would have to show us that anything truly was possible, and you really could write your own story if you just BELIEVED and never gave up.
And then...
It was 1984.
The movie Purple Rain came to theaters and I was transformed. Love, Life, Struggle and Strife, overcoming, getting the girl/not getting the girl, money versus poverty- it had it all. Every emotion, everything someone could relate to in some way. Thirty two years later, the badass soundtrack still stands alone as one of the greatest records of all time.
Artists of all genres speak of Prince and Purple Rain as a pivotal inspiration in their journey to create. He broke rules, he broke stereotypes, he made music that touches lives and met you in your soul. Prince was a true social revolutionary.
And now he has died. He died very strangely, vary suddenly, and suspiciously quickly after speaking openly and honestly about proven facts that the powers that be do not want the public paying attention to. He left this world as suddenly as he appeared, and his spirit is still inspiring us. His death has led millions to rediscovering his body of work once more. His legacy will live on in our hearts and minds as someone who defied the status quo and made himself successful through his defiance.
From rejecting the West Coast music industry machine, and building his own empire in Minneapolis, to staying true to himself when his fight with Warner Bros. over the right to his own NAME prompted him to become known as a pure symbol, he never gave in. He never compromised what he stood for. He never apologized for who he was.
His passing has deeply affected me in powerful ways. I am inspired like never before to write, create, design, paint, stitch, anything to express my soul's true nature. I can never thank him for his influence on my life. I can only honor his memory by releasing my own soul to guide my own journey of Truth.
Thank you, Prince, for everything you have left for us. We won't forget.
