With the death of Bowie and Prince, the magical mysteriousness that used to be music is disappearing.

In a world where we know almost everything about our favorite artists, those two represented some of the final moments of when music was filled with enigmas, mysteries, and surprises. I can't name one personal detail about Bowie or Prince. And that was comforting. I'll miss that.

RIP.

Sign o' the times. RIP

a radio station here in boston has been playing his music and taking calls from fans all afternoon. i had it cranked on my way in to work today.

the dj said something that i found very true, and very chilling: for many (especially here in the united states, i guess), his music was the music of a generation. even if you weren't a fan of his music, it was always there. at a club, on the radio, at a wedding, inside a store. and when something like this happens, you can feel and sense your own mortality.

that is exactly right.

RIP, I'll be interested in the autopsy result. Wasn't he in hospital after something happened on his plane on 15 April?

Tragic. I never listened to his music, but I love how he once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol.

Other than that, and that he was a falsetto-loving, bootleg-hating funk artist, I really don't know that much about him. But may he rest in peace.

I was at the last show. By chance, I was in Atlanta on business and bought a last minute ticket - an absolutely amazing seat directly center and in the loge overhanging the stage. I've seen him a few times recently, and he was as masterful that night as any - he was, hands down, the best live artist I've seen ever and a genius on every instrument. I was lucky enough a few years ago to get to see him with less than 100 others - I went to a small surprise concert for 1200. That was great, but then it ended and the lights went up and the security shooed everyone out. I realized they had not turned off the guitar pedals, so I waited. And when we were down to about 80 people, the lights went down and he did another hour or two. And then they told him he had to stop, so he turned on a boombox and led a dance party with his band and us. He was amazing.

I didn't want to say anything, and I may be way off, but my first thought was HIV.

If it was a flu that caused them to land his plane, one of the few things that would cause a flu to be that devastating would be a crashed immune system from HIV.

Also the fact that he checked himself out of the hospital without further evaluation leads me to believe that he already knew what was wrong with him and knew there was nothing they could do to help.

Would also explain him becoming a recluse for a bit, probably around his diagnosis, and then him pulling a Bowie and releasing as much music as possible in the last year.

Haven't been able to post here that much. been super busy, but I'm in legit tears. Like spaneli said, Him and Bowie are just two huge mysterious ARTISTS. They were NEVER about any of the extra BS (sensational media, genre boundaries, gender rules), they were SO powerful in so many ways. I love a lot of music, but its rare to find and discover and artist that just carries that impetuous in their work. As an aspiring musician and as a growing 23 y/o it just puts in perspective the beauty of life and the work of these amazing people.

His gender and genre bending iconic superstardom was the perfect yin to MJ's yang. As a white dude can't really say too much about this, but I imagine he helped breakdown a lot of LGBT/masculinity issues within the black community. That's just an incredible feat in and of itself.

Dude was always the coolest mf in the room. Like Bowie he was just PRINCE, he wasn't a human, he didn't allow anyone or anything to stop him culturally, musically, or personally, and you have to respect and admire that. So many musicians aren't artists. This dude was one through and through.

I'm not gonna say I'm a HUGE fan or anything, I don't know his huge catalog in and out, but his run from 80-87 is INSANE. Sign o' the Times and Purple Rain are legit all time classics.

If you need an introduction to him at all - Watch his Superbowl performance or that George Harrison tribute. The former is the best SB performance of my lifetime and the latter his guitar literally ascends to Heaven. George's son is just grinning through the whole thing. Word gets thrown around way too much, but this dude was a legendary artist and a musical virtuoso.

Bowie, Phife, and Prince. God's taking too many of my personal favorite legends, but damn that's gotta be one hell of a jam session. Prince and Jimi are definitely dueling it out.

Bowie, Lemmy, Glenn Frey, George Martin, Prince.

2016, The year the Music died.