Cover of Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks

Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks

With a brand-new introduction and chapter that cover the last five year's of Prince's life and work and his untimely death in April 2016.

Read more

In his three decades of recording, Prince had nearly thirty albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since the Beatles to have a number-one song, movie, and single at the same time. Prince's trajectory—from a teenage unknown in Minneapolis to an idol and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer—won him millions of adoring fans the world over.

Prince is the first book to give full treatment to his thirty-five-year career. Acclaimed music journalist Ronin Ro traces Prince's rise from anonymity in the late 70s, to his catapult to stardom in the 80s, to his reemergence in the twenty-first century as an artistic icon. Ro expertly chronicles his music and career, showing how Prince and his albums helped define and inspire a generation. Along the way, Prince confronted labels, fostered other young talents, and took ownership of his music, making a profound mark on the entertainment industry and pop culture.

Subject
biography
Themes
music
Setting
USA
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 384 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Prince Shares music, biography, prince
  2. Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye Shares music, biography, nonfiction
  3. Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain Shares music, biography, prince
  4. Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince Shares music, prince, biography

“People who read Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Stone Roses: War and Peace
  2. Captain Trips: A Biography of Jerry Garcia
  3. Depeche Mode: Black Celebration: The Biography
  4. Never Enough: The Story of the Cure

“If you want more of the same (biography about music), start with these.”

  1. Patti Smith: A Biography
  2. Leonard Bernstein
  3. Jimi Hendrix: A Brother's Story
  4. The Bloody Reign of Slayer

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
  2. Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade
  3. I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon
  4. AC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Kate Bush: The Biography
  2. Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro
  3. Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album
  4. John Prine: In Spite of Himself