Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson after his father’s stage name, grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Both musicians themselves, Prince’s parents John Lewis Nelson and Mattie Della Shaw raised Prince and his sister in an environment centered around music. Therefore, Prince was interested in creating music from a very young age. He taught himself how to play guitar, piano, and drums before the age of 10 years old. In high school, Prince formed his own band named Grand Central (which would later be known as Champagne) with André Anderson. Grand Central experienced great success in the Minneapolis area within schools and community centers. Immediately after high school, Prince decided to embark on his own musical journey and quickly signed a music label with Warner Bros., where he would stay for 19 years. Prince’s first album, For You, was released in 1978 and is composed of vocals and instrumentals entirely produced by Prince himself. He continued to craft unique and boundary-pushing art until his death in 2016. Prince aimed to produce music that transcended genre and harsh categorization by following his intuition and personal preferences. He hoped to bridge the racial segregation within music and the music industry by creating art that spoke to all individuals, regardless of background.
Prince was well known for crafting complex lyrics and melodies in merely a few hours. He almost consistently produced one album a year throughout the 1980s and 1990s before then producing two or three albums a year in the early 2000s. Prince would immerse himself in a creative headspace, and he would not leave this mental state until his work, whether it be a song or an album, was finished. In class, we learned about the flow state, or a period of intense productivity from which creativity often results. Dopamine is a major catalyst for the creative process, and Prince often finished his work very quickly because he would work off the high of dopamine associated with the flow state. Similarly, Prince would produce a bit of art everyday to ensure that he would never completely leave the creative mindset. This is known by many creatives as “exercising the creative muscle” or practicing how to think creatively.
Throughout his musical career, Prince took many risks that launched his works into creative genius. He strived to break the norms of what existed in the musical industry by creating music that fused classic rock with soul and blues. His music also explored sexuality and “flamboyant” musical aesthetics, which was drastically unique from rock stars from the past. Prince even changed his name to a symbol which combined the male and female gender sign. Agustín Fuentes explains in The Creative Spark that gender and sex have greatly evolved from our human ancestors. Gender did not always exist in the human species but was instead crafted by humans as a method of identifying and labeling individuals. However, these strict boundaries that the humans have placed onto themselves, though originally an act of creativity, only limits new ways of thinking. Individuals today have started to push past these limitations, and innovation has largely resulted. I believe that Prince was a key figure in this movement to break gender boundaries, and he has proved that massive creativity can come from disregarding the made-up idea of gender.
Prince is known today as an icon of rock-like music who challenged the social barriers within race, sexuality, and gender. His willingness to take risks has allowed him to explore new avenues that musicians have never dared to pursue, making him one of the most influential artists to date.
This was super interesting to read! I've noticed that many art forms - drag for example - gender is a very central theme. I had not thought of gender roles as a sort of constraint to creativity itself, but that makes a ton of sense. Prince is definitely a good example of transcending that.
ReplyDeleteHi Mia! I really enjoyed learning more about Prince and his creative process as I have listened to his music since I was a young kid (inspired by my parents of course). I always remember how he would use a high pitched voice that really set him apart but also made him seem more "feminine" compared to all the other male artists. I feel like that would fit in well with another way that he transcended gender norms while still becoming one of the most famous artists in history. His style also reminds me of the blog post that I wrote on Elton John and his outfits that were flamboyant and larger than life. Both Prince and Elton John were both breaking gender norms through their style around the same time (although Elton John came a bit earlier I think).
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