Thanks, sis.

My undying love of Prince, specifically Purple Rain, and, to a slightly lesser extent, 1999, comes from my big sister. I was fourteen years old when I found those two records on her shelf, and the music has stayed with me ever since. No matter how goth I’d ever gotten, I always maintained a fundamental appreciation of funk, RnB, and pop music. Whenever I talk about music with friends of mine who have older brothers or sisters, it always, always, comes up that they got that one mixtape or record from their older sibling, and that seriously influenced their musical taste from that point on. When you think about it, that’s huge. There should be a globally recognized day for all us younger siblings to thank our big brothers and sisters for giving us that music that means so much to us. My oldest niece is like, 13 years old now and I want to tell her “You have a very important responsibility to your little sister and brother, it will affect them for the rest of their lives, take it seriously: Listen to good music, and pass it on.”