(12-30-2016 05:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(12-30-2016 03:44 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  

(12-30-2016 12:56 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Lavell Edwards is a legend. Kitty Kallen was an Icon for her singing during WW2 period.

Carrie Fisher is an Icon because of many teenage boys had a hardon for her as Princess Leia.

George Michael is an Icon better than Prince Be of P.M. Dawn who also died this year.

Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire is an Icon. You do not see many bands that are made up of African Americans and whites.

Betty White is considered an Icon for her body of work.

Harper Lee is an Icon as an author for To Kill A Mockingbird. Even though she only released 1 book until the recent one that turned up. The book made her an icon about the injustice of African Americans in the south when a black man was convicted of rape when he was innocent.

David Bowie is an icon because of all the changes he went through the years.

I think you are over using the term. Many you list were important figures but they don't really rise to the level of being the symbol of a period or movement. Maurice White was the leader of a good band but not really groundbreaking. Bowie you might make a case for being a groundbreaker symbolizing androgynous glam rock. Guy Clark would represent the Texas singer / songwriter movement. Merle Haggard the Bakersfield Sound. How is George Michael iconic? He didn't introduce or change music. He was a popular singer for about a decade. Carrie Fisher was an actress and writer not the leader of a distinctive movement. For an actor to be iconic they need to be someone like Bogart who would represent the film noir genre.

George Michael was a groundbreaker that he was the first white male to reach the R&B and Soul music charts. He paved the way for the likes of Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke.

Another icon would be the country singer Red Simpson who created the movement of the truck driver and Smokey songs. He wrote the Junior Brown's song Highway Patrol. He paved the way for C.W. McCall's Covey and Jerry Reed's theme song for Smokey and The Bandit.

Kitty Kallen would be an icon since she was the first to perform to the troops back in her time of the 1940s and 50s. Her song was You Can't Say No To A Soldier.

Prince was an Icon because he did something different with music videos in the 1980s, and songs like Kiss was something. Plus some of his songs sounded vulgar at times.

Blowfly who also died, had songs that sounded like a porno movie.

Emerson, Lake and Powell or Palmer also were influential with their music.

Country singer Joey Feek and her husband Rory of Joey and Rory had a video diary of her struggles and fight against cancer, and was bringing awareness to cancer. She did, and Rory continued the video diary of the aftermath of the lost of his wife, and their 3 year old down syndrome daughter who would not know what happened to her mother.

Carrie Fisher was working to bring awareness to mental health issues before she died.

Some important accomplishments but the term losses it's meaning when it is applied so liberally. Are you sure about the George Michaels charts thing? There are a lot of blue eyed soul and R & B singers that predate him. It is hard for me to imagine he was the first to chart.