He was one of the best-selling artists of all time, and showed the way to a transcendent new future for pop music, influencing artists as diverse as Madonna, Bruno Mars and Pharrell.
An obituary acknowledges the loss of our loved one, expresses the pain of their loss and the joy that their presence among us brought.
According to James Loewen in his book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Sasha and Zamani are two aspects of time as expressed in some Eastern and Central African cultures. Sasha are spirits known by someone still alive, while Zamani are spirits not known by anyone currently alive. The recently departed whose time overlapped with people still here are the Sasha, the living dead. They are not wholly dead, for they live on in the memories of the living ... when the last person knowing an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the Sasha for the Zamani, the dead. As generalized ancestors, the Zamani are not forgotten but revered.
Your assignment: write your own Obituary. Follow the steps outlined in the linked article. Assume you live to be at least 80 years old. What will you have accomplished? Who will you leave behind? What will your legacy be?
