When the news broke that Prince had died, the world was stunned.
Immediately, the media, both traditional and social, was flooded with tributes from shocked fans, who poured out their grief over losing the musical powerhouse. Laura Kennedy talked with GLT culture maven, Shari Zeck about the impact of Prince and his music.
Zeck, the Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts, is a long been a Prince fan.
"Prince has been a figure that has been personally and incredibly important to me, and important to my generation and certainly important to me as a lesbian who came out in 1978 among a lot of gay men on the disco scene," said Zeck. "Prince was very key to us. For many of us, he was more important than David Bowie."
Bowie was more intellectual, more studied, according to Zeck. She said Prince was just fun.
"Prince performed like he was in a post-race and a post-gender world. He wasn't, of course, none of us were. We still aren't," said Zeck. "But we partied like it was 1999, we could pretend that those things were true. To me, that is the core of what Prince's contribution was to the pop life."
Prince's music was very sexually charged, and Zeck said that enhanced the artists' appeal. "The way he played with sex throughout his career, but especially early on, was profoundly liberating for many of us."
How did Prince and his music impact you? Sound off in the comments below.
