All of my heroes are dying

I'm sure by this point, everybody has heard the sad news. The legendary musical genius Prince has passed at the age of 57. Known as The Purple One, Prince Rogers Nelson was a once in a lifetime artist, an icon in every sense of the word and his influence stretched to nearly every musician that proceeded him.

 "He's somewhere within every song I've ever written." Justin Timberlake - Instagram

I don't need to go about his history, or just how gifted he was, or the amount of hit songs and awards Prince accumulated. There are probably tens of thousands of sites that have analytically recapped his amazing career and his seemingly unending talent. What I do want to do with this entry is address the tragic trend of the deaths of my heroes from the screen, film, music and even pro-wrestling that began at the turn of the year.

Any death is a mournful moment, the death of a beloved celebrity can shock a nation or even the world. We are only in the fourth month of 2016, and so far there has already been a lot of celebrity deaths. If it seems as if it is a higher number of deaths than normal that's because it is, and there is a plausible explanation. Our heroes are getting older.

I am a proud, card-carrying member of generation x. I developed my taste for entertainment as a child and young adult, and what was popular at that time were artists and actors from the previous generation, the baby boomers. I assume this was the normal process for the majority of generation x. The baby boomers are now in their sixties and unfortunately, they are beginning to pass on.

There are also more celebrities now, so logic dictates there would be more celebrity deaths. The spread of cable access and the explosion of channels gave local celebrities, like a young musician named Prince from Minneapolis, a national platform. Eventually as television and then the internet grew, some artists gained worldwide notoriety. This trend will likely continue, and in the future celebrity deaths may become more frequent simply because more platforms have been introduced like Netflix and Youtube, where you can become a celebrity overnight. Will Youtube or reality star celebrity deaths have the heartbreaking impact of Prince's death, I highly doubt it.

Now since I'm talking about this awful trend, I can't fail to mention the other cherished celebrities that have personally affected me who passed in 2016. A few days before Prince passed away, WWE professional wrestler and women's wrestling pioneer Joan "Chyna" Laurer died at the age of 45. A week before that on April 12th, ECW professional wrestler Jonathan Rechner aka Balls Mahoney died at the age of 44. The death of professional wrestlers never get more than a moment of media coverage, and with the passing of Prince, that coverage has already vanished. However, the fans of Chyna and of Balls Mahoney will never forget them.

Skipping back to the beginning of the year, January 14th specifically we lost English actor of stage and screen Alan Rickman. Perhaps the greatest villainous actor ever. Alan Rickman absolutely stole the movie as the conniving terrorist Hans Gruber, in one of his first major roles. He would later portray the dark, conflicted potions master Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. Rickman was so much more than a great villain, but it was because of his portrayal of Hans Gruber that Die Hard is one of my favorite movies. His acting career spanned nearly forty years and multiple genres from drama to comedy to romantic lead, and he always outshined most of the others in the cast. His presence and his voice will be missed.

There are many, many more treasured, influential celebrities that have passed recently that I will briefly mention, in no particular order. Actress Dorris Roberts perhaps best known from Everybody Loves Raymond. To me, she will always remind me of arguably the best Christmas themed movie ever made, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Or one of my personal favorites, the hilarious stoner comedy Grandma's Boy. Speaking of comedy, Garry Shandling has not only influenced hundreds of current actors and stand-up comedians, he changed television with his fourth-wall-breaking, documentary style sitcom It's Garry Shandling's Show. Another notable death would be of country legend Merle Haggard. Haggard was known for his distinctive sound, a mix between traditional acoustic and steel guitars with a rough edge. Perhaps one of last true country music legends, he will be missed. I want to cheat and mention Lemmy Kilmister, known simply as Lemmy who died on Dec 28th, 2015. There are songs that are played fast, played loud, or played with the instruments tuned down to sound heavy. Then there is Motorhead. Motorhead was loud and heavy, but their songs had something other bands are missing, Motorhead had energy and Lemmy's lead vocals had energy. Just looking at Lemmy would make most people throw the traditional rock n roll sign of the horns. They will all be missed.

One final celebrity death of 2016. One that had as much impact as Prince's recent death, at least for me personally. David Bowie was a powerhouse of creativity and charisma. His astonishing musical career began in the 1960s, but remained relevant due to constantly evolving. Adapting different musical styles and literally taking other forms Bowie would transform into Ziggy Stardust for a time in the 1970s. He would reinvent himself and avoid musical stagnation again and again throughout the 80s, 90s and until his tragic passing on January 10th, 2016. David Bowie, was an amazingly talented musician and singer/songwriter who seemed to had been magically imbued with talent at birth. Loosing David Bowie and Prince so close together is devastating.

In the opening paragraph I called Prince a "once in a lifetime artist" well the fact is David Bowie is also a once in a lifetime artist. My lifetime, and I firmly believe that only a small handful of musicians that posses their level of talent, a DaVinci level talent, remain alive. After that, the prefabricated, processed, auto-tuned pop-stars who have a team of people to write songs for them will be all that remain. When that happens, all my heroes will be dead.