The Symbol in More Ways that One

I’ll never forget my first introduction to Prince.  At Central Michigan, I had a roommate named Keene who prided himself on his exceptional music taste.  His music collection was filled with Motown classics, Neil Young and other bands from the 60’s with a few exceptions.  The one artist that didn’t seem to fit was a few CDs with a purple clad musician on the cover.  I asked him how he could have such a fantastic music collection and then have so much Prince, an artist I viewed as simple pop music.

“Are you kidding?” he responded.  “He deserves to be here as much as any of them.”

As I thought about that moment, and how I’ve come to see the error of my ways since, I realized that the death of Prince was more than the loss of one of America’s most talented musicians.  It’s the loss of a time and a cultural connection.  While Keene and I may have had different opinions on Prince back then, we knew who he was.  We could talk about the same issue from different sides.

The Internet has launched a great many things, but it also launched the generation of “My Media.”  Today, it is harder to understand what everyone is watching because they are all watching somethings different.  Every now and then, something or someone breaks through with a YouTube video or blog that attracts a million followers.  But gone are the days when different generations could enjoy the same music and television shows.  Music sales and television ratings have dropped significantly since the 80s.  Movies have the luxury of common theaters, so they’ve managed to adapt.  But everything else is being delivered to you personally wherever and whenever you need it.

See, Prince was one of the artists “born” during the MTV Generation.  Born at a time when everyone was watching the same media and commenting on the same content.  Born at a time when MTV had 24 hours of content to fill, so they packed it with hundreds of new artists that spanned the genre of rock music.  Artists as different as the Police, Motley Crue and Huey Lewis and the News could thrive in the same media environment.

No artist proved this inter-generational connection more than Michael Jackson.  I remember when “Thriller” came out in 1982.  Everyone had to have it.  It was popular with teens and their grandparents.  It was popular across races.  It was popular across genders.  Everyone loved it.  I dare you to find anything that has scored anything close to that type of universal appeal in the last 20 years.

I know what some of you are thinking.  So what.  Diversity is good.  Everyone should be able to enjoy their own media in their own way.  All of which is true… from a personal perspective.  But what about the good of the nation.  Common cultural connections are what bind societies together.  In Detroit, it is hard to hate someone who is suffering a Tigers’ loss with you.  All you need are a few examples of a race or creed that defy your preconceptions to nudge those preconceptions toward change.  Then you can feel your mind opening and you wonder what other preconceptions are based in fiction and not fact.

None of that happens when we lock ourselves in our own media world.  When we surround ourselves with like-minded people with like-minded tastes.  It becomes much easier to live in a “us vs. them” world.  It becomes much easier to believe stereotypes presented in the media.  It becomes easier to believe in Social Darwinism and dismiss an entire gender, race or creed as unworthy.

And it becomes easier to stop governing and stop compromising because you have no basis to change your existing opinions.  It becomes easier to stop listening and start yelling.  It becomes easier to lock down your position because you have no reason to do otherwise.  A friend of mine stated this perfectly when she was living in D.C.  After George W. Bush won his second term, she declared that she was shocked because she saw far more lawn signs for John Kerry than for Bush.

So I hope that the death of Prince causes a national appreciation of his music.  I hope sales spike across all demographics.  I hope media outlets from NBC to Netflix run programs about him and his music.

Then, at last, it might give us something we can all talk about for a few days…