It's hard to explain. As a teenager in the late 80's he was just a force of nature for a lot of us - even those of us who couldn't stand the title track to Purple Rain. :-) For me, it was a couple of things. First, he was just a technically brilliant musician. Eric Clapton was once asked "what's it like being the greatest guitarist in the world?" - he answered "i don't know - ask Prince." (if you don't know who Eric Clapton is, just Google "Clapton is God") Second, again just for me - he brought a level of creativity and innovation to pop music that always seemed ahead of everyone else. Again - its hard to explain because today we have "instant everything" and access to music and artists at an unprecedented level. Back in the 80's we were still dealing with CD's as "this bitchin' new thing." I can't say that I was a huge Prince fan - I was more about the Cult, the Smiths, and Guns n' Roses; but Prince was just so damn good, man. He wrote some other really iconic songs for other artists too. Do yourself a favor: instead of listening to Purple Rain like most folks, just sit down and listen to the album Around the World in a Day. It still holds up today.