Excellent essay. Most of the music journalists who critique are coming from the same white, middle/upper class, priviledged, eurocentric background. The radio owners/programmers, record company executives and media conglomerate powers come from the same class. If the complexion of the standard bearers and powers-that-be changed, so would the anaylsis of the art form.

And while we're on the subject, don't you hate the term "classic rock" for it's connotations. Compositional music based around the drum or complex rhythmns never get the same respect as the simple rock n roll backbeat (which was also developed by black music forms)- Unless of course, they happen to be Paul Simon, Sting, David Byrne (then it's praised as the intellectual use of "tribal" culture).

Prince confounds them all because there is no denying his massive talent. He can kill em at what they do best while at the same time creating his own genre. Believe me, Bruce, Neil Young, Bono...know they can't get up on the stage with the man.

Most musicians acknowledge the greatness of P, but he won't truly be appreciated by critics until it's all over.

Reading the recent rash of "Prince Has Lost It" threads got me thinking about the exceptional expectations placed on some music artists...After doing a little research I've come to a conclusion:

I believe we are dealing with the "Super Negro Theory"....

After having a long conversation with some Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Bruce Springsteen fans (on various occasions), it's jarringly obvious that there are different standards placed on certain acts across racial lines...But before some of you start accusing me of playing some antiquated race card, hear me out...

This is not a simplistic case of black artists being judged unfairly when it comes to their white counterparts....If you ask me if Justin Timberlake deserves more acclaim, respect, and credit for his art than say an Usher, I would give a resounding YES...Because after all, as annoying as Timberlake can be, he actually proved himself given that he writes, produces, and at times plays on his own material (which is much more nuanced than Usher's work) and gives a more polished and complete live show when Usher still relies heavily on songwriters and producers to make him relevant and keep up with the Tre Songz of the world....

BUT, here's the RUB...THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND WHEN IT COMES TO EXPECTATIONS OF BLACK ARTISTS

Either we are expected to be "entertainers" who rely heavily on the machine or we are expected to be THE SUPER NEGRO...And the crazy part is, we are ALL (black, white, asian, latino ect, ect...) to blame...

So what is the SUPER NEGRO you ask? It's the self-contained artist who is deemed to have otherworldly musical powers...People don't view their art as coming from some intellectual, witty world view (I.E. Bob Dylan or Bowie).....They look at the SUPER NEGRO as being somehow mystical...a talent whose' art cannot be explained without hyperbole...Talent that comes naturally and not from good ol fashioned skill and hard work..

Through the years, there have been many notable SUPER NEGROS: Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, James Brown, Sun-Ra, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rakim....These artists are looked at beyond being "good" musicians or vocalists/performers...In some cases the super negro has to live up to the hype of CHANGING the course of their respective musical genre, not just producing a good song...They can't just create a song to be enjoyed by the masses...They have to write, produce, arrange, play on, and sing on the material in order to be taken seriously as an artist...They can't be Madonna...

So how does the SUPER NEGRO THEORY fit into the recent Prince-Is-Finished threads?...

Just look at the way their EXCEPTIONAL white peers are treated...I recall when Stevie Wonder released Hotter Than July some critics complained that it was not as ambitious as Songs In The Key of Life...They balked at the nerve of Stevie Wonder just releasing an "R&B" album that didn't push the boundaries of music...How dare he!!!...They deemed it a "good' album, and that's as far as they would go.....Now let's flip to when Bruce Springsteen releases Born In The USA...There was no mention of the album being less artistic than Nebraska...In fact critics lauded Bruce for being able to expand his musical base and reach out to the masses with his dignity intact...You gotta love it, huh?

But the Super Negro Theory goes into overdrive once an artist gets past their prime...and here is where Prince fits in....

I will be the first to say that there have been lackluster and suck ass Prince albums (The Symbol album, Chaos & Disorder, New Power Soul, some of Musicology...ect...)...I have not always been happy with the man's work...But my expectations of him have always been reasonable...It's the same reasonable expectations that Bruce Springsteen fans have on the Boss...He can make a back-to-basics, roots-heavy album influnced by Woody Guthrie and no one (not his fans) would ever accuse him of leaning lazily on his influences...Neil Young can make a country-based album and his fans will judge it on the bases of it quality, not whether or not it strikes the same introspective chord as Harvest...

Yet, Prince (The Super Negro) has to keep pushing forward...If he's not re-inventing the musical wheel he is deemed as finished...If he makes music that recalls his own prominent influence (James Brown) he is looked at as being a JB cover band...Remember, the Super Negro cannot simply just make music just 'cause...He/she has to be conceptual, original at all times, and recall the levels of their greatest years.....

But the truth is, we are all accomplices here.......Instead of judging Stevie, Sly, Prince and the like on the same curve as their white counterparts we look at them as being more than human...We hold on dear to the whole "written, produced, performed, composed" tag for dear life, instead appreciating the fact that at the end of it all, these acts are just musicians who happened to get their chance to shine...

Prince's music today reminds us all that we get old...We struggle to re-live our prime years...And for some folks, they have come to terms with this, choosing to connect with him on very specific levels (such as his live show, which is still viewed by many to be pretty damn good) and not just the albums...

Others,however, depend on Prince to make GREAT, challenging music to help them cope with the fact that they are no longer in their own prime years...Thay are not the same person they used to be when Prince could do no wrong in the '80s...Prince's current Golden Years state is a brutal reminder that all of our prime years are behind us....This is a painful realization, ya'll....

In short, Prince fans who find the man unbearable should do their peace of mind a favor and just wait until he passes away and dies.....He's never going to give you what u want at this point...Or, you can pick and choose what you still dig about the man...Or you can go the route of a Bruce Springsteen fan and just enjoy the old man for what he is in 2010 and be thankful that you have had a chance to witness him when he was all that you ever wanted him to be...

Life is more easier that way, right?
[Edited 2/20/10 12:04pm]

Passionate but unoriginal and simplistic. Music journalists and radio programmers = white and privledged standard bearers is just absurd. Do you have any evidence for this or does it just sound good? And, by the way, much of Prince's 1999 era stuff is considered "classic rock."

The Paul Simon and Sting argument was probably right in the late 80's. Why do people always bring these artists up? You forgot Peter Gabriel too. None of them make records anymore, well perhaps one a decade but that's it.

..plus the old "who's better live" nugget. And the endless trotting out of the same names...Bono, Neil Young, Springsteen. In any event, you might wanna check U2's continued arena status because there's a whole bunch of people who disagree with you.

Believe it or not, I'm with Prince but feel I have to rise up against irrational fanatacism.

If only it was that simple....

If only it was that simple....

It is

So the argument is that we expect more from Prince because he's black? Maybe. There are some good points raised. But I think Prince himself is also partly to blame for this 'over-expectation' by continuing to play the 'mythology' game - ie. not doing interviews, talking in riddles, and generally carrying on with a 'holier than thou' attitude. There's always been a wall between himself and his fanbase. Heck, there's even been a wall between himself and his bandmembers a lot of the time as well. He's not the kind of cat who after a show will be happy to stand beside you and have his picture taken. I'm not saying he should do these things, but I do think that it contributes to his 'other-worldly' persona.

When it comes down to it, Prince is a girly-lookin' light-skinned black man bought up in the black suburbs of the whitest city in America during a post-Martin Luthur King, post-'Summer of Love' environment. I'd say it's perfectly normal for him to feel 'other-worldly'. And if you're going to act 'other-worldly' (whether it's natural for him, or an act, or a bit of both), you're going to be treated 'other-worldly' by your fans. Karma y'all .

THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND WHEN IT COMES TO EXPECTATIONS OF BLACK ARTISTS

Karma has nothing to do with it nor does growing up in an all black or white suburb, has anything to do with Prince being a "worldly or international artist". The music an artist creates, and how far it takes him/her depends on the type of music that's created by the artist(s), and the fans that connect/admire/appreciate it/support that music. His creative skills in music apparently was already a gift he gained, from members of his family, i.e., his parents, and he obviously managed to take that gift, maybe beyond his own expectations, and was successful in reaching across racial lines, that's what made him worldly. It has nothing to with the fact that he grew up in the suburbs of America. Take James Brown for example, who did not grow up in the suburbs, but managed to be a worldly artist, and reached across racial lines, with many fans all over the world.

Another thing, according to many sources, Prince was born in 1958, so he was born in the heart of the MLK era and lived through part of the early 60s through 1968, until MLK was murdered. There is no way he did not feel the vibes or the hurt hurt/pain from family members/friends living around him at that time, especially in one of the "whitest cities in the world" you speak of, as a young child, during the MLK era, and not long before MLK was assassinated. If you had listened to some of the interviews his sister Tyka did, where the links to those interviews were posted here in the past, she pretty much explained their childhood growing up in Minnesota. Just my two cents.
[Edited 2/20/10 15:57pm]

It is

Lol before I leave this thread: imo Paul MacCartney was an exceptional brilliant songwriter in The Beatles, better than Prince.

Prince was an excellent songwriter in 1978 to 1995. But talking about songwriting Prince hasn't created half as many classics as Paul MacCartney.

Post the Beatles Paul hasn't delivered anything worthy (not to my knowledge) - like he did in The Beatles, just like Prince post Warner Bros.: Prince hasn't delivered any album truly great since 1995..... sure there are great Prince songs here and there, but not great albums...

this is imo.