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New Prince Music Has His Gen X Fans Talking
The 10-track collection reaches from Prince’s teenage sessions through the years that made him a defining Gen X artist
Prince performs during the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 4, 2007, in Miami. Ten years after his death, Prince’s estate has released new music.
Theo Wargo/WireImage/Getty Images
Key takeaways
- Prince’s estate released Timeless on Aug. 28, featuring 10 rare and previously unreleased recordings.
- The collection includes music recorded during the 1980s and ’90s, when Prince became a defining musician for Gen X.
- Building a playlist around favorite songs can help lift mood, ease stress and encourage movement, according to AARP-cited research.
Ten years after Prince’s death, Gen X fans have new music from one of the artists who helped define their generation.
The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings released Timeless on Aug. 28, a 10-track collection of rare and previously unreleased recordings drawn from Prince’s vault. The songs span nearly 40 years, from a 1977 studio recording made when Prince was 19 to a live performance recorded in 2016, weeks before his April 21 death at 57.
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Prince changed the boundaries of pop music while much of Gen X was coming of age. He could write a pop hit, rip through a rock guitar solo and build a funk groove, often on the same record. He also expanded the image of what a Black male pop performer could look and sound like, using fashion, sexuality and theatricality as deliberately as he used music.
Prince won seven Grammys, controlled much of the writing, arranging and production of his work and later fought publicly for ownership and artistic control. Gen X watched that happen in real time, as records such as 1999, Purple Rain and Sign O’ the Times became part of the culture. The singer and songwriter was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Timeless reaches across that career without turning into another greatest-hits collection. It opens with “I Am You,” recorded in Minneapolis in 1977, and includes music from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s before closing with a live version of “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?” recorded in 2016.
Charles F. Spicer Jr., a producer of Timeless, said the collection captures Prince at opposite ends of his career.
“From one of the earliest recordings of his career to one of his final live tour performances, these 10 songs reveal Prince as an artist who was always fearless, innovative and creative on his own terms,” he said in a statement.
Not every Prince fan is thrilled with what came out of the vault. The Root reported that fans were underwhelmed by the 10-track set, while a widely discussed post in the Prince subreddit called it “second-tier vault material” and argued that the estate had released stronger archival projects in the past. Other fans in the same discussion defended the music and said they were simply glad to hear more unreleased music by Prince.
For listeners who grew up with Prince, putting those songs on can do more than bring back memories. AARP’s Music and Memory project has explored how music can support health and well-being. Julene Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, told AARP about some of the ways music can fit into daily life.
“People don’t think about music helping with these activities or with sleep. But it does,” Johnson said. “Dancing with music will improve physical function. That’s a link people don’t make. And our research shows singing in a choir eases loneliness and improves self-esteem.”
Building a playlist is one easy way to use music more deliberately. AARP recommends choosing songs around what you need at the moment, whether that is relaxing, getting moving or improving your mood. Research cited by the Global Council on Brain Health suggests music stimulates multiple areas of the brain and may help ease stress, support well-being and improve mood.
For Gen X Prince fans, that playlist can now include something they never had before: new music from an artist they have been listening to for more than four decades.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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