In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the sex icon Prince Rogers Nelson was born. With a name like Prince, you could almost guess that he was destined for greatness. If you’ve heard of songs like Purple Rain, or When Doves Cry, then you are a witness of his greatness. The name in fact, already had its reputation with the music industry. His parents were formally in a band called Prince Rogers Band. Their names were John Nelson and the mother was the infamous jazz singer who went by the stage name Prince Rogers hence the band name. At an early age, Prince Rogers Nelson was already being exposed to the world of music. He taught himself the piano, guitar and drums. In the year 1978, Prince made his debut with the album, For You and signing with the Warner Bros. Prince played around with a variety of styles such as funk, rock, R&B, new wave, soul, psychedelia pop, etc. Many of his songs were actually recorded with himself playing all the instruments; he wrote his lyrics and played all the instruments while recording. 

“Love Symbol”

Like David Bowie, Prince was not afraid to bend the rules and experiment with fashion. In his early childhood years, Prince had epilepsy which resulted in many seizures. He combatted all the teasing through being as “extra” as possible. He would be loud and as noisy as possible. This would explain a lot about his extreme sexy persona, especially his exotic fashion sense. This sex icon wore articles of clothing such as heels, ruffled blouses, crop tops, bell bottoms, permed bouffets, plunging necklines, and even butt-less pants. Prince was an “iconoclast”, and he refused to conform to the perception of masculinity standards of western society. As his songs are ultimately full of sexual vibes, it allowed others to embrace that side of themselves. His display of freedom onstage encouraged artists to feel comfortable in their skin and with how they identify sexually. 

“He was a straight black man who played his first televised set in bikini bottoms and knee high heeled boots, epic. He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity etc. He moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration — his denial of the prevailing model … His fight for his intellectual property — “SLAVE” written across the forehead, name changed to a symbol…An all out rebellion against exploitation.”

-Frank Ocean

A great example of Prince’s impact is with the R&B and soul artist, Frank Ocean who came out as gay to the public and gave credit to Prince for being an influence on his declaration.

The art of sex was Prince’s main focus if you pay attention to his songs. His songs even celebrated how women have the same sexual urges as men. Other artists like Madonna also became huge influences that carried on the sexual revolution past its era. While Prince was a major male sex icon, Madonna was somewhat of his equivalent.

In 1984, Prince came out with a movie called Purple Rain. This movie is about a young talented musician that comes out from adversity and into the music world to find out that talent alone won’t get him into the spotlight he had expected. 

The castle started spinning
Or maybe it was my brain
I can't tell you what she did to me
But my body will never be the same
Her lovin' will kick your behind
Oh, she'll show you no mercy
But she'll sho' 'nough sho' 'nough show you how to grind
Woke up the next morning
Nikki wasn't there
I looked all over and all I found
Was a phone number on the stairs
It said thank you for a funky time
Call me up whenever you want to grind
Ah!
Nikki!
Oh
Ah!
Come back Nikki! 
Come back!

In 1984, Prince came out with a movie called Purple Rain. This movie is about a young talented musician that comes out from adversity and into the music world to find out that talent alone won’t get him into the spotlight he had expected. The movie features many of his songs; one of them being Darling Nikki. During this clip, you can see how like Elvis Presley, Prince was able to stimulate a sexual vibe in his audience. The song itself is sex focused – no surprise there – and it describes a one night stand. This is truly powerful and resurfaces the sexual power that women felt when the pill was officially approved. That year, females finally felt the power to liberate themselves sexually. They were able to take matters into their own hands as they were 99.9% safe. Darling Nikki illustrates a woman using what her mamma gave her and fulfilling her needs before she disappears. Because of this movie, it was safe to be weird, over the top, and flamboyantly sexy with rock n roll. By this point, lingerie was a type of clothing that was not shocking when worn as outdoor wear. People felt that they could fully express themselves and truly do whatever they wanted with their bodies. Eventually having such a theme linked to his character, in 1993, Prince updated his stage name to the Love Symbol.

Darrius Kee Samaco