Bowie, flirting with transvestism as Ziggy Stardust, proudly
struts around, enjoying one of his many commercial peaks.
Making consistently good pop records from the 1960s through to the 1990s, David Bowie (b. David Robert Jones, January 8, 1947), has remained entirely credible by continuing to change. His ability to shift genres gave him the nickname “the chameleon of rock.” Bowie’s music covers a huge range: folk-pop, avant-garde rock, soul, electro-rock pop, and drum’n’bass. All have been adopted with originality, indicated by the often-used term “Bowie-esque.”
By 1972 and Bowie’s first successful album Ziggy Stardust, he had been recording for a decade. With fame came a back catalogue including Anthony Newley-inspired songs, and the infamous ’The Laughing Gnome” single. Bowie as Ziggy, with his androgynous stage act, took off, but his first American hit was “Space Oddity,” a re-issued flop from 1969.
Bowie was a hit among critics because he wrote memorable rock songs that were performed superbly by his band and renowned guitarist Mick Ronson. Bowie’s colourful appearance and ambiguous sexuality were also the perfect antidote to dreary late 1960s rock, and helped strengthen the burgeoning “glam rock” phenomenon. He also championed “underground” figures long favoured by critics, including VELVET UNDERGROUND and Iggy Pop, and gave “All The Young Dudes” to the struggling pop group Mott The Hoople.
Bowie, flirting with transvestism as Ziggy Stardust, proudly
struts around, enjoying one of his many commercial peaks.
Through the mid-1970s and early 1980s, Bowie influenced rock and fashion. He also appeared in several films, including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), and Absolute Beginners (1986). In 1980, he starred on Broadway in The Elephant Man, and in 1982 appeared in the BBC adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal.
Following the strong commercial success of 1983’s Let’s Dance, Bowie produced a string of badly received albums, including two from his group Tin Machine, formed in 1989 in an attempt to revisit his live rock’n’roll roots. However, 1993’s Black Tie White Noise still reached No. 1 in the album charts.
As the 1990s close, Bowie has again reinvented himself with two widely praised albums, Outside and Earthling. Composer Phillip GLASS released symphonic versions of the late-1970s Bowie-Eno collaborations, Low and Heroes; and in early 1997, a massive 50th birthday concert, telecast from Madison Square Garden, featured such artists as Lou Reed and the Cure’s Robert Smith. Bowie was one of the first artists to make his music available over the Internet; even more fascinating, he reportedly netted over $50 million when he issued financial market bonds in the future profits of his vast back catalogue. Always a pioneer, David Bowie remains a step ahead of most in pop music.
Dave DiMartino
SEE ALSO:
ELECTRONIC MUSIC; POP MUSIC; ROCK MUSIC; ROCK’N’ROLL.
Gillman, P., and L. Gillman. Alias David Bowie (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1986);
Hopkins, J. Bowie (New York: Macmillan, 1985);
Tremlett, George. David Bowie: Living on the Brink
(London: Century, 1996).
Aladdin Sane; Diamond Dogs; Heroes; Hunky Dory;
Let’s Dance; Low; The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Mars; Scary Monsters;
Station to Station; Young Americans.