The Beautiful Ones

About the author:

Prince Rogers Nelson was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor.

According to Robert Larsen in his book, History of Rock and Roll, Prince is "one of the most talented and commercially successful pop musicians of the last twenty years", producing ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label, writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E, Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, as well as writing songs that became hits for other artists including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, and Sinéad O'Connor, making him one of the most successful artists in music history.

Prince was reported to have written more than one thousand songs, some of which have been released by Prince under pseudonyms or recorded and released by other artists. Prince also has hundreds of unreleased songs in his "vault". He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year he was eligible.

In that same year Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In a poll by BBC 6Music listeners in April 2010, Prince was ranked the 8th best guitarist of the previous 30 years.

Prince's music has been influenced by R&B, soul, funk, rock, blues, New Wave, psychedelia, folk, jazz and hip hop. His artistic influences include Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder. Prince pioneered the "Minneapolis sound", a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that influenced other musicians.