News broke yesterday, of the death of Prince. The news hit me. It hit me hard. So far in 2016, we’ve lost (among other great celebrities) three incredible musicians… three music icons… three music legends… David Bowie (Jan. 10), Glenn Frey (Jan. 18), and now Prince (Apr. 21). They were all amazingly talented, though very different, musicians. And each of these deaths has affected me deeply.
RIP David
I was a child when Elvis died, but I remember how people mourned for him, and I didn’t understand it. I was a teen when John Lennon died, and again, I saw how much that affected people, but still, I didn’t understand. I mean, I understood that it’s natural to be a little sad when someone you know, admire, or respect dies, but people cried… they grieved ~ for people they didn’t even know! And that I didn’t get.
Now it’s my turn. Now I’m older, and with the benefit of maturity and wisdom, I get it. More than anything else from our youth, the music stays with us. It is more powerful than anything else from our youth. And while we may like, or even love, other music from before or after our youthful days, it is the music we loved as teens (scientists say 12-22 years) that means the most. It invokes memories and emotions like nothing else.
RIP Glenn
I’m an 80’s girl, a Gen X girl. Growing up in the ’70s, and being a teen throughout the ’80s, is something I love. It’s something I’m proud of. It was a fun, crazy, and wild time of self-discovery, independence, and big hair. It was a time when I felt safe, was less jaded, less cynical, and less hard. It was a time when I was more innocent, and more hopeful, a time when I had big dreams and an even bigger heart.
What I now know, is that when I hear of the passing of one of the musical legends from my youth, it makes me nostalgic. It reminds me of days gone by… It reminds me of who I was and who I hoped to be… It reminds me of the people I loved, the friends I had, and the good times we shared. It also reminds me of loss… the people I’ve lost, sometimes through death, sometimes through life. And it reminds me that life is short and that tomorrow is never guaranteed.
RIP Prince
So it’s okay to mourn. It’s okay to grieve. It’s natural to feel loss when losing the musical greats of our youth because it’s not just the person that we’re losing. We’re losing a small piece of ourselves as well. We’re mourning losing someone we didn’t actually know, because through them, and their words and music, we came to know ourselves. And that is worth mourning.
Being Flawesome 
Good post. I also grew up in the 80s and loved Prince. I did drill team routines to Michael Jackson’s Beat it and Billie Jean, cruised the small town city streets to Scorpion, Heart, Pat Benetar, Def Leppard, and Duran Duran. I went to town dances with music by George Strait and Alabama, and high school dances with music by Devo. But I also loved Elvis. I used to make my mom wake me up in the middle of the night to watch his movies–the only time they were ever on. I was sad when he died, even though I was just a kid, and when John Lennon died too. Maybe it was because my sister and brother were teens when I was born, so I grew up listening to their teen music too. I loved watching American Bandstand with my big brother when he came home from Vietnam. I remember sitting on his lap and asking him what his USMC tattoo stood for, and he said, “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.” The music of his and my sister’s era (CCR, the Beatles and others) is also part of my life story too.
Thank you for your comment, Kelley. I agree, the music from the 60’s was also impactful. I was the oldest child, but I had a young mom, and her music was my music for a very long time. I’m so grateful music transcends generational, social, and genre lines.