A short excerpt from a YouTube interview in which Billy Mann and Chris Collins discuss the artist's role: Mann argues that artists articulate feelings people cannot express themselves, helping listeners feel less alone. The exchange specifically praises Prince for his originality and influence on listeners and fellow artists.
I think the job of an artist is to articulate the things that people think or feel in a way that they are not articulating them themselves in an original way or from a personal experience. So you feel less alone. You listen to that song and it's like, oh, if I could.
So that tapped into something in you that you felt more like you fit.
In for whatever reason. The language, the chords, the melodies, the lyrical style. It was like, look, you know, you. If you ask anybody, they start there. You're sort of trying to find yourself in other artists in other places. Prince is just. He's original and was an original from the get go.
