1. PRINCE

2. Prince Rogers Nelson
Prince Rogers Nelson was born on the seventh of June in the year of He grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he still lives. Prince was named after his father, Prince Rogers, who was also a musician. Prince's father had said he had named his son after him because he "wanted him to do all the things I wanted to do." He only had one sister, Tika Evene, who also had a very keen interest in music. He actually wrote his first song, "Funk Machine" when he was seven years old. About three years later, his parents had separated, and he had constantly switched homes since.
Prince was born epileptic and frequently had seizures. He said in an interview with PBS that one day he went up to his mother and said, "Mom, I'm not going to be sick anymore." She asked why and he said, "Because an angel told me so."

3. Growing Up…
Growing up, Prince's influences were Jimi Hendrix, Earth, Wind & Fire, James Brown, Carlos Santana, Miles Davis, and I'm sure a few others. It's no wonder why Prince can be confused with other artists such as Jimi Hendrix, and from personal experience, Michael Jackson. When he was in high school, he played basketball, but he also started his first band with his cousin, Charles Smith. The band was called Grand Central, and Smith was later replaced with the well known musician, Morris Day.
With all the musical connections Prince had within his family, he was able to record some guitar parts for a band called 94 East in A year later, Prince had to opportunity to record a demo tape with producer Chris Moon which led to him getting a management contract when he was seventeen. Prince then moved to Sausalito, California and his own, first album "For You" was released on April 7, Ever since then, Prince quickly got bigger and bigger. Only a year later, he was able to come out with a self-titled album which was number four on the Billboard Top R&B/Black Albums. From that album, he two hits came out such as "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". The track, "I Wanna Be Your Lover", sold over a million copies. I'm not surprised at all. That's my favorite song of his.

4. Purple Rain
After all his success in the seventies, Prince formed a band that he referred to as the Revolution. With this band, he wrote an outstanding album called "Purple Rain" which was also the name of his movie which included all the hits from the album. "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Prince was the first person to have the number one album, single, and film in the U.S.

5. Legal Issues
On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue eBay and YouTube because they are "clearly able to filter porn and pedophile material but choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success." He had a very strong opinion about copyrights, especially when it came to music. He eventually changed his name into a symbol, which lead people to call him "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince". Prince shortly took back his old stage name.

6. Love Interests
Prince was romantically involved with celebrities such as Kim Basinger, Vanity, his drummer, Sheila E., Carmen Electra. He was the one to give Carmen her stage name. Prince eventually married his backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia, in 1996 on Valentine's Day. Their son, Boy Gregory, was born on October 16, 1996, but died a week later of Pfeiffer syndrome. In 1999, he and his wife filed for divorce. Since then, he has only been married once to Manuela Testolini, but divorced shortly after. Prince has been in a relationship with a fellow singer named Bria Valente ever since.
Prince has been very successful all his life and never seems to lose his success. He has had the opportunity to play for the 2007 Super Bowl, make three films, tour all over the world, and make amazing albums. Prince is talent.

7. Composition History “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
In 1979, Prince had written the hit song "I Wanna Be Your Lover" which sold over a million copies. It was a part of Prince's self-titled album. The song is exactly two minutes and fifty-eight seconds. It was recorded in Alpha Studios, Burbank California in 1979, somewhere between April and June. This song was one of Prince's first ever hits. It came out on August 24, Pop and Funk music were Prince's two influences when it came to writing this song. Prince actually wrote and produced this song himself. This song is very fitting to the era that in came out in.

8. “Controversy”
The next song, and one of my personal favorites, is "Controversy". It was written in 1981 and is exactly three minutes and thirty nine seconds. It was recorded at Uptown, Sunset Sound, Hollywood Sound in 1981 and published on September 2, Prince has always been politically influenced and you can sense very much of that in his songs. "Controversy" and "Dear Mr. Man" are two amazing songs that have some political messages written in. This song definitely has very strong lyrics.

9. “Purple Rain”
Last, but definitely not least, is the absolutely amazing, tear-jerking song called "Purple Rain". It was the song that got me hooked. Purple Rain was such a deep song, album, and movie. It was written in 1984, just when Prince started to really make it big. It was recorded in Minneapolis, Prince's hometown, on August 31, It was published by Warner Bros and released on September 26, This song has been played on nearly every tour since This song shares the name of Prince's major film. The film came out the same year as the song was released and the sales of the song skyrocketed after the movie. This song is exactly eight minutes and forty-one seconds long because of the intense, long guitar solos at the end. It is a fact that fellow amazing singer and songwriter, Stevie Nicks, was asked by Prince to write the lyrics to "Purple Rain". She turned down Prince's offer and later said that she was glad she did, because that song eventually became "Purple Rain".

10. Listening Guide “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
i. 0:00 Introduction: The melody has a fun, happy sound to it. The rhythm is very consistent. It has a disco feel to it. The quality of the sound is very clear and clean. Perfect amount of vocals and music mixed. The texture is very smooth. It's very upbeat, but all the instruments work well together. It's definitely a light, fun sound because of the major notes. The dynamics of the song are very loud, but with a soft sound. The best part about this intro is the beat. Very hip, and energetic.
ii. 0:15 Verse 1 Begins: Form, rhythm, melody, harmony, dynamics, timbre, texture all stay the same throughout the verse. The vocals are the only things that are added. Prince's voice is very high pitched in this song. His voice goes right along with the melody of the song. It's very fun, and upbeat with positive lyrics.
iii. 0:50 Pre-Chorus: The melody gets just a tad less happy. It tones down a little bit to prepare for the chorus. It has a calmer feel to it before it hypes back up. The beat is a little slower, and it doesn't speed up until the chorus starts.
iv. 0:58 Chorus: The melody builds back up and has the happy sound again. The whole melody and texture sound just like the verse. The only real change is the vocal part. The beat is back up and it has energy again.
v. 1:23 Verse 2 Begins: The music abruptly stops and the verse starts back up, sounding identical to the first verse, just different lyrics. Still the happy, fun vibe that was at the start.
vi. 1:56 Pre-Chorus: Prince starts experimenting more with his voice, not following the melody as much. Kind of the same mellow lead up to the chorus.
vii. 2:03 Chorus: The melody picks up and gets a little more upbeat as the song gets closer to the end. The vocals get a bit higher as he reaches the middle of the chorus. The beat starts to be more emphasized as the chorus fades into the coda.
ix. 2:28 Coda: The bass drum is all you hear after the chorus ends. Then just guitar and synthesized piano comes in to finish off the song. There isn't any more singing. The melody and harmony starts to tone down a bit as the song comes to an end.
x. 2:58 Ends

11. “Controversy”
i. 0:00 Introduction: Starts abruptly. The melody is very low, but upbeat. It has a lot of synthesized noises coming from the keyboard and drums. The quality is very clear, but you can tell it was made in the 80s. The guitar and keyboards come in together. The pitches of the guitar and the keyboard harmonize well together.
ii. 0:24 Verse 1 Begins: There are a bunch of computerized noises in the song that fit well with the tone of the song. Prince's voice is a bit computerized also. It's almost robotic. Same tune and melody as the introduction.
ii. 0:40 Chorus: Very short, but it is a bit lighter than the harsh, robotic, computerized tones in the verse. The melody of the synthesized keyboards are absolutely exact with the singing. It's very repetitive.
iii. 0:48 Verse 2 Begins: The verse starts out sounding exactly like the introduction with Prince saying "controversy" repeatedly. The verse starts back up again sounding like the first verse. The chorus comes in at the same time as the first verse as well.
iv. 1:20 Chorus: Again, it's very short. Repetitive just like the first verse. The only thing that is changed are the lyrics.
v. 1:28 Verse 3 Begins: The same introduction starts up making you think the verse will start again, but it shortly goes back into the chorus once again. Same beat, harmony, melody, form, texture, etc.
vi. 1:44 Chorus: This chorus actually goes on three times, saying different things each time. It's a lot longer than all the other choruses. The synthesized keyboards sound the same as the melody of the singers. There is a lot more freedom on the vocals. It's a little bit more loose.
vii. 2:07 Bridge: The song just follows with the same beat and melody as the introduction with Prince saying "controversy" repetitively again. The guitars kind of go off and play some different riffs. It repeats for awhile. Kind of adding different mini solos into the break.
viii. 2:40 Chorus: The chorus plays one last time. This time it is very similar to the previous chorus, playing three times instead of once. It sounds identical to the last chorus as well, saying the same things.
ix. 3:03 Coda: The song just repeats the introduction part over and over until it fades out while the vocals continue to say "controversy" repeatedly. The tone is a little bit more mellow as it comes to an end.
x. 3:36 Ends

12. “Purple Rain”
i. 0:00 Introduction: The melody starts out with a very smooth, crisp guitar strumming by itself. The timbre is very, very good and clear. The rhythm is a lot slower than the two other songs. The form is absolutely balanced through this whole beginning. It's such an intense beginning, but it's really mellow. Drums come in at the end of the intro, but it's a very slow tempo.
ii. 0:17 Verse: Prince's vocals come in with the same dynamic as the echoing guitar. It's very soft, but it's very loud on the drums. The echoes add to the intensity of the one guitar and drums. The vocals start to pickup as the chorus comes up which adds to the power of the chorus.
iii. 0:47 Chorus: His voice stands out and doesn't really go right with the melody. The guitar does other things as he sings. It's the same beat as the verse. The guitar is a little bit more intense, but it doesn't really have repetitive, consistent strums. It accents the parts where Prince isn't singing. The drums tempo is the same, but there is more going on instead of the basic 4th notes.
iv. 1:24 Verse: The verse is a bit more intense this time. The vocals are not the same as before. It's almost like he's talking instead of singing a consistent part. You can tell the music is going to get a little bit more powerful. The melody and dynamics are the same.
v. 2:00 Chorus: The chorus is just as intense as the previous, but there is just a repetitive "purple rain" being sung. It's more emphasized on the drums and the guitars are riffing a lot more, making the song a bit more interesting than before.
vi. 2:35 Verse: This verse is the most powerful and intense of them all. Prince is no longer singing this part. He is actually shouting a little bit in a grungy, raspy voice. The instruments are a little bit more calm to not take away from the intensity in his voice. It's the strongest part of the song with a lot more soloing.
vii. 3:12 Chorus: This chorus is more intense than the previous one. There is a lot more free vocalizing than before. The instruments are playing the same part as usual. The rhythm and melody are the still the same. Prince is almost singing as if he were in the gospel. There is a lot more hollering and talking. The backup vocals are present a lot more.
viii. 3:46 Coda: The vocalizing stops and intense guitar solos start. There is a lot of harmonizing with the guitars and the piano. There is a lot of reverb in the guitar and it's very strong. The texture of the guitar and the rest of the instruments is absolutely beautiful. It's definitely chilling. It gets very intense and repeats the guitar riffs until the drums do a little fill. Prince continues to vocalize a little bit as the song starts to get a little bit more calm. His voice goes along with the melody exactly. The song starts to die down and the instruments start to fade one by one leaving only the lead guitar and synthesized keyboards at the end. The song ends with slight sounds of the ride cymbals and long keyboard notes, and it ends with clapping.
ix. 8:41 Ends

13. References and Bibliography
"AllMusic." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct
"Prince." Amazon.com: : Songs, Albums, Pictures, Bios. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct
"Prince Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 27 Oct
"Prince." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 27 Oct