The Day the Music Died

Thursday, April 21, 2016.

Where were you when you found out that Prince had died? For many of us, the answer will be somewhere on social media.

I know I was.

It was sometime in the 11:00 hour this morning. I was on Facebook and saw a photo of Prince that someone had posted. Then, I started seeing a few more grumblings that the legendary musician had died.

“WTF!?” I thought to myself and started digging deeper, both on Twitter and Facebook.

Turns out, TMZ had broken the news a few minutes earlier and tweeted that medical emergency personnel were called to Prince’s Chanhassen, MN home, known as Paisley Park, because there was a dead person inside.

That dead person, TMZ said, was Prince.

Shortly after I saw TMZ’s tweet, social media blew up, first with everyone pleading that this news was somehow false (after all, TMZ was the only outlet confirming it).

Finally, though, shortly after noon local time on Thursday, Prince’s publicist reported the news to the media: Prince in fact was dead. 

From that point on, even though no official confirmation had yet been made from the authorities that the body was in fact Prince’s, social media continued to be inundated with tributes to the Purple One.

Facebook posts, tweets, posts on Instagram…they all contained photos and words about Prince; about what a great musician he was, about the way he lived his life, about the impact he had on others.

And it was strangely comforting.

Being from Minneapolis, Prince holds a special place in the hearts of many here. First off, he’s cool as shit. Plus, he helped to put the Minneapolis music scene on the map with his movie, “Purple Rain.” More than that, though, he was an over-all good person, even if he always kept us guessing.

He was a clean-living, reclusive individual who threw secret, hard-to-get-into parties at Paisley Park. He’d appear at Minnesota Timberwolves games dressed in a way that only he could. And he was an amazing musician.

And because he meant so much to so many of us, we rushed to the only platform(s) we could to immediately express our sorrow and our hearts. We had to scream and be heard, if only in words and pictures.

Even if we didn’t have many followers or fans, and even if we were posting the same thing as everyone else, we felt compelled to express our shock, disbelief and sadness. And social media platforms were the most direct, accessible and efficient way for us to do so in that moment. 

For that, I am grateful. 

I was able to share in the emotions of others and feel a part of the greater community, even though I was at my home office with no one around except for our dog, Astro. 

As I write this, it's only been a couple of hours since the news of his death broke and it continues to dominate social media, which is providing an outlet for grief for literally millions of people all around the world. 

That's pretty powerful. 

I admit, however, that I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I love that it connects us in a way unlike any other. I hate the way some people choose to use it. Still, when used for good, it’s a great tool that unites us and brings us closer to each other.

Today's sad news is proving that.