{"id":6837,"date":"2025-10-20T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=6837"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:19:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:19:47","slug":"arachnophonia-prince-and-the-revolution-purple-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2025\/10\/arachnophonia-prince-and-the-revolution-purple-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: Prince and the Revolution “Purple Rain”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by student manager Griffin (class of 2027) and features Prince and the Revolution’s classic album Purple Rain<\/strong><\/a> (available on vinyl<\/a> and CD<\/a> at the Music Library). Thanks, Griffin!<\/em><\/p>\n

Prince and the Revolution<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Purple Rain<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Purple<\/p>\n

How did Prince\u2019s legacy we honor today as an international pop superstar begin? For starters, it comes from this record smashing album that is one of the most iconic records from the 80s. Already making quite a significant headway in the music industry from earlier songs like \u201c1999<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLittle Red Corvette<\/a>\u201d that got Prince to the peak of some mountains, this album was the ship that blasted off Prince into the stardom we know today. Earning Prince best album of the year, song of the year, and movie of the year, and awarded 4th place on Apple\u2019s 100 best albums list, Purple Rain<\/a><\/em> brought forth the future of music as we know it.<\/p>\n

Released in 1984, the album broke the rules of the music genre like never before. This is unsurprising for Prince<\/a> who always fought against being bound to any one particular label and its restrictions (literal music labels as well as the metaphoric ones). The album mixed pop, soul, funk, R&B, rock, gospel, and neo-psychedelia into an unpredictable sonic experience. This fusion found new ways of expression through music and sent waves of influence into the present landscape of music.<\/p>\n

As for the content, Prince explores themes of love, lust, identity, alienation, loss and spirituality. Singing with raw emotional depth, the topics give a profound view into the artist\u2019s life and speaks to the human experience. Through \u201cI Would Die 4 U<\/a>\u201d, Prince challenges ideas of masculinity and sexuality, becoming one of the first artists of color to champion gender-fluidity on the global stage. Purple Rain<\/a><\/em> also influenced how albums were sold because of its content. The track \u201cDarling Nikki<\/a>\u201d spurred public backlash for its sexually explicit themes<\/a>, creating the rule in the music industry that albums with child-unfriendly material must have Parental Advisory stickers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Overall, Purple Rain<\/a><\/em> was one of the most culturally significant albums created and the magnum opus of the late artist formerly known as Prince, and you can check out the vinyl<\/a> at the Music Library today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15223,15242],"tags":[61217,232024,231577,61230,61206,92865,231578,92836,53121,227190,232096,231324,231329,230949],"class_list":["post-6837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collection","category-promotional","tag-arachnophonia","tag-arachnophonia-25-26","tag-griffin-m","tag-motion-picture-music","tag-prince","tag-prince-and-the-revolution","tag-prince-rogers-nelson","tag-purple-rain","tag-soundtrack","tag-soundtrack-album","tag-the-revolution","tag-vinyl","tag-vinyl-lp","tag-vinyl-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6837"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6844,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837\/revisions\/6844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}