Andy Warhol once said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. While that statement generally seems to be true, he didn't foresee 500 TV channels, thousands of movie multiplexes, the internet, MySpace, and YouTube. Thanks to all this new media, people who wouldn't even have conceived of becoming famous 25 years ago are now stars in some niche form. At that time, old washed up stars or wannbe starlets had to hustle to get guest roles on The Love Boat or Fantasy Island or were banished to game shows like Password, Match Game, or The $20,000 Pyramid. These were the B-listers of their time.

These days, being a B-list star is quite respectable. At least that means you're a big character actor on the big screen, the star of a mid-grade network TV show, an all-star (but not necessarily Hall of Fame) athlete, or a person who sells at least a million albums and has a few top ten hits on the Billboard charts. Thanks to zillions of cable channels, reality TV shows, the rise of alternative sports like NASCAR, the X-Games and professional wrestling, and the Internet, you have a number of people who are superstars in their particular field. At the same time, while a large number of people idolize these new found superstars, an even larger number of people look at these people and wonder what the whole fuss is about these new stars. According to some people, we have entered a media phenomenon called "the long rail", where more fame and money can be found in the niches, and what was considered to be the best of the best is ever shrinking.

Here are a few people who I would consider to be Long Tail superstars that couldn't get arrested 25 years ago.


Paris Hilton


Nicole Richie


Tony Hawk


Rachael Ray


Gordon Ramsay


Stephen Colbert


Holly Madison, Bridget Marquadt, and Kendra Wilkinson (The Girls Next Door)


Kim Kardashian


Andy Samberg

damn tony hawk looks like shit

id do andy samberg though

When Prince wrote is post-apocolyptic Rock Opus, it was never meant to be a statement of religiosity or a call to arms, but a generation x inspired gender bending homage to the female vagina. Almost all of Prince's 80's material is concerned with vaginas, God, or dehydrogen monoxide. However, during the 1999 albulm, though the theme of dehydrogenated monoxide was prevalent (see 'Something in the Water (does not compute)', the title track itself was concerned mainly with vaginas alone.

A minor hit at first, this song coasted on the success of the more melodic track "Little Red Corvette" which propelled Prince into Pop Superstardum. It essentially set the stage for Purple Rain which made him a global phenomenon.

As for the lyrical content in the song itself, one can not critique that without a thorough understanding of Prince's psychological state of mind during that period of his life. What little we do know has come from speculation or a combination of certain assertions based on a whole collection of later works. For example, In 1999, Prince says "I got a lion in my pocket, and baby he's ready to roar!", this is assumed to be a reference to his penis. But when you compare that statement to future still captures of his penis , which can be clearly seen in the famous yellow "camel toe" picture from the gold experience, the penis in question is more of a minx, or at very most, a bob-tale mountain cat--but certainly no lion. This either can be attributed to early 20's male bravado, which in present day can be witnessed in the general discussion forum as "the internet Penis" size, or it could be that Prince, the true visionary, meant something else when he said that he had a lion in his pocket. I generally like to think it was the later.
One need only look at his most recent effort, Planet Earth, to the song 'Lion of Judah'. " Like the Lion of Judah, I strike my enemies down" Prince proclaims, as if he's confronted with his own personal jihad, which of course is a direct contradiction, or very least, contrast to the overall 'love for one another, and ecological responsibility ' theme of Planet Earth . But if we take this translation of the word 'Lion' and compare it to his use of it in the song 1999, we can see where it all comes together. In 1999, Prince sings that we woke up swearing it must of been judgement day , and that he wants to party like its 1999 (remember it was 1982/1983 at that time), so essentially he's saying that the world outside is a chaotic mess, and we can't let this get us down--we must overcome this and have some fun before day of judgement comes.
And ultimately, we know what Prince's idea of fun was back in 1983--yup, vaginas. Prince was as obsessed with vaginas as he was with Dihydrogenated monoxide at that time, though the later works would reveal the scales being tipped towards the later. So we know that the fun Prince wishes to have is centered around vaginas, and we know that he wants to have this fun despite some upheaval. All we have to piece together now is what he means by 'Lion' which becomes very obvious during his symbol years and in the song Lion of Judah. What does Prince strike his enemies down with? A sword? A knife? No!!! He uses his gun-mic, a weapon that has horrified fans besieged with such lyrics as those on 'The Flow', "Jugehead", and "Sexy MF"--a weapon that has laid waste many of his critiques own previous judgements of his material, as well as his fans expectations of his previous and current output. A symbol of not only his powers as a singer, rapper, and street prophet--but of his libido and control over his sexual partners.

He was saying "give me your vagina, or I'll unleash this lion in my pocket", or more clearly stated, "Bitch, don't try anything funny with your vagina, or I'll clock your ass with this weapon." And the woman he is threatening this to, is the 'little red corvette', or the prostitute that he sings about in the song after this. So essentially, Prince is telling all the prostitutes of the world, that when you give him head, or fuck him, don't try anything funny, or you'll get 'The Lion'.

The brilliance behind all of this is that Prince is reflecting much of the urban machismo that would eventually find it's way into Heavy Metal, Ganster Rap, and even Hollywood films. But he was using his own imagery to do that--imagery that over the years, has been immitated, but never duplicated.

Prince proved in 1999, his rock opus, that now and forever, he would carve a unique niche into Pop music.



Thank you.