FEATURE:
Golden Years and Modern Love
PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita
Why David Bowie Is One of the Most Influential and Important Artists Ever
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I am going to bring together…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jimmy King
a few different articles because, as we mark the fifth anniversary of David Bowie’s death on 10th January, people will be remembering the great man and what he gave to the world. There are certain artists where it is so difficult to narrow things down to the music alone. When we think of David Bowie, the way he changed between albums and could easily adopt different genres and styles and mould them to fit his music is amazing! Whether The Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust or David Bowie, this is a man who has transformed music and inspired so many musicians – not just artists we hear today but many in the 1960s onwards. I think many people think of Bowie’s musical influence in terms of specific artists and the fact that so many people in general cite him as an influence. Do we break things down by genre and consider his impact that way? Because Bowie stepped into so many different genres and made them his own, his influence has spread through the decades and resonated with musicians right across the sonic map. Before I dove deeper, I want to highlight the Los Angeles Times’ article of 2016. They provide us some background to a masterful artist:
“Born David Robert Haywood Jones in Brixton, London, on Jan. 8, 1947, Bowie shared his birthday (albeit 12 years later) with the king of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis Presley, to whom many critics often compared Bowie for his barrier-breaking influence on popular music.
He was a fan of early American rock and R&B performers such as Little Richard, Fats Domino and Frankie Lymon, and he began recording folk music with a range of bands in the 1960s. As his own career began to take off, he changed his surname to Bowie, largely to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.
In 1969 he released the album “Space Oddity,” whose title song became his first British top 10 hit. Under the influence of T-Rex’s Marc Bolan, Bowie formed a short-lived band called Hype with guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Visconti, who became a Grammy-winning producer with Bowie through his final album. A version of that group would evolve into the musicians behind some of Bowie’s groundbreaking work at the beginning of the ‘70s, starting with “The Man Who Sold the World.”
In 1976 he played the alien visitor in Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The same year he released “Station to Station,” which included the top 10 single “Golden Years.” He moved to Berlin and began working with producer-songwriter Brian Eno on a trilogy of albums (“Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger”) that often featured brooding electronics.
In 1977 he appeared in another film, “Just a Gigolo,” alongside Marlene Dietrich and Kim Novak. He also starred with Catherine Deneuve in the 1983 supernatural thriller “The Hunger,” after having starred in a Broadway production of “The Elephant Man” in 1980”.
I want to lean heavily on an article from Billboard. It posits that Bowie influenced more genres than any other Rock artist – even someone as important as Paul McCartney. It is fascinating seeing ways in which David Bowie has put his mark on so many different genres:
“Actually, it's more than formidable. While many late rock stars are rightly saluted for their influence and impact, Bowie occupies a higher historical tier entirely. He's not just an influential rocker. He's not merely one of the most influential rockers. Among rock stars, Bowie influenced more musical genres than anyone else, living or dead. He is, in that respect, the most influential rock star.
Let's run through this. Obviously, no one is going to question how essential he was to glam rock. While The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane ensured his long-term career and infamy, glam rock as a genre owes him just as much. If Bowie hadn't gone glam, history would remember it as a goofy, cute curiosity -- a sub-genre full of wacky fashion and frothy pop songs, but producing no serious content (apart from one or two T. Rex albums, depending on your taste). Most glam rockers are remembered as that -- glam rockers. Bowie, however, produced two albums squarely within the style while simultaneously transcending it. The aforementioned titles aren't simply glam classics -- they're rock classics. They're singer-songwriter classics. They are, simply put, works of art.
And then there's folk. With "Space Oddity" alone, his importance to folk-rock (and what would later be known as freak folk) was forever sealed. But that wasn't it -- songs on Hunky Dory and The Man Who Sold the World only furthered his impact on the folkie singer-songwriter realm.
Bowie's importance to electronic music, however, is far more direct. With Low, Heroes and, to a lesser extent, Lodger, the Berlin Trilogy gave electronic music its first major rock world crossover. No, Bowie didn't invent anything new -- even before Kraftwerk, Silver Apples had been experimenting with synths and electronics in the late '60s, and classically trained composers started recording in that realm as far back as the '50s.
But Bowie took the icy, arty electronics of Kraftwerk and brought them to a comparatively mainstream audience. That's not to say Bowie ripped them off, though -- he and Brian Eno brought a new level of sonic cohesiveness to what Kraftwerk started. Trans-Europe Express is a pioneering classic, but certain songs on side one have dated. On the other hand, there isn't a note on Low that's aged since it dropped in 1977. It's not a timeless record -- it seems to exist almost entirely apart from time. His greatest artistic achievement, Low's impact wouldn't be fully felt for a generation -- it wasn't until Radiohead's Kid A that rock and electronic would once again meet and move forward in such a mature fashion.
But what, you ask, of hip-hop? Surely that's an example of a major genre Bowie had no discernible impact on. As odd as it seems, that's not true. Among rock stars who did impact rap, Bowie is an important name. His post-Ziggy soul/R&B period -- which produced the sax-y white soul LP Young Americans and the super-funky No. 1 single "Fame" -- actually had an immediate impact upon the R&B scene at the time. By 1975, no one was more important to funk music than George Clinton, and on Parliament's immortal Mothership Connection, Bowie not only gets a shout-out, but even served as the inspiration for its centerpiece, "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)."
As for jazz, Bowie did work with Pat Metheny in the '80s, and he recruited a jazz backing band for his final effort, the experimental Blackstar. But even though Bowie dabbled in jazz, he didn't exactly impact new jazz music that came out after him. Then again, he was vital to the progressive expansion of rock in the '70s, which has inspired a number of jazz musicians since then”.
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2006. His stunning 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The icon has sold over one-hundred-million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists. In addition, five of Bowie's albums appear on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; four of Bowie's songs appear on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Not only that, but four of his songs are included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll!
PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita
There seems to be no end to David Bowie’s importance and impact on the music world! I will take from a few more articles before wrapping up, as I was not aware of the sheer breadth of Bowie’s legacy. I know that Kate Bush saw Bowie perform for the last time as Ziggy Stardust in 1973 but, as this article explores, another huge artist got a taste of Bowie at a young age – it also outlines ways in which Bowie influenced wider society:
“David Bowie was the first concert Madonna ever attended. He was a collaborator of the Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. He produced Lou Reed and sang with Bing Crosby. He sang with Queen and composed for The Flaming Lips. In fact, the list of artists Bowie has collaborated with in some form or fashion is hundreds of entries long. It’s a staggering body of work.
Moving away from music though, Bowie is considered a fashion icon and David Bowie’s influence is still being felt. Clothes fit him well and his constantly changing persona allowed him to wear whatever caught his fancy but his style was his own, no matter how many times it changed. People noticed and their work was influenced by him. Go to any fashion show, be it the work of Dries Van Noten, Jean Paul Gaultier, or Emilio Pucci, and you’re bound to see some piece that oozes with Bowie’s style and stature.
Bowie influenced art as well, both as a performer and a visual artist. His appearances always walked the line between a musical concert and a performance art piece featuring pink poodles with TV’s imbedded in their bellies or giant puppet costumes just to name a few. As an artist himself his work has gained quite a bit of attention. His show “David Bowie Is” shattered attendance records at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art”.
Forgive me for going back and forth regarding themes and such but, as there is so much to cover regarding Bowie’s influence on the world, some form of structure may go out of the window! Even though Bowie inspired so many L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists with his different personas and revolutions, he had a hard time convincing people that he was a different person away from the stage. I can imagine it must have been hard for him to get people to see David Jones rather than Ziggy Stardust or one of many different personalities that we saw through music or on the screen. Bowie’s impact on the music world in pure sonic terms is obvious, but I want to quote from an article that shows how his exploration of gender and gender roles influenced culture and is still influencing artists today. In Kirsty Diana Smith’s article of 2018, we learn more:
“Before Bowie’s famous showcase of defying gender norms, Ziggy Stardust, came to be, he was already causing shock with the cover of his third album in 1971, The Man Who Sold the World. Bowie’s long hair and silk dress contradict the typical expression of the rock and roll genre of the album. Due to the controversy it caused this cover was quickly changed, and was never released in the United States. Around this time period, Bowie would also leave the house dressed in women’s clothes (Odhn Rimbaud, online video, 2013) demonstrating how he was unafraid to go against social norms: in fact, he deliberately tried to. In 1972 Bowie released his concept album The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, introducing the world to his creation: the androgynous alien who had come to earth in human form. Ziggy was drawn from Bowie’s time in New York spent with Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Gaga
Bowie’s influence on culture is incomparable when it comes to the advancement of discussions and attitudes towards sexuality and gender. In an era when it was still looked down upon to to come out as gay, Bowie remained unashamed in his exploration of his sexuality: announcing labels to the world; contradicting them; changing them, and taking them back (Bell, website, 2016). His openness to the possibility of not being heterosexual and his eagerness to express himself in unconventional ways impacted on many people’s personal acceptance of themselves.
The influence Bowie, particularly his Ziggy Stardust phenomenon, has had on music can be traced throughout the decades. It is likely a lot of the music released since the 1970s, along with the artist’s performance techniques, would not be the same if it hadn’t been for Bowie (Odhn Rimbaud, online video, 2013). The release of Bowie’s 1980 music video for Ashes to Ashes marked the arrival of new wave and new romanticism where boys could wear make-up and the weirder your clothes were, the better (Fletcher, interview, 2016). The impact of his gender fluid performances on modern day music can be seen perhaps most notably in Lady Gaga.
Although it is impossible to know for sure exactly what art and culture would exist today if the spotlight had never found Bowie, it is clear that a lot of what we know today; stretching from music to fashion to cultural acceptance, would not be the way it is if it were not for the creative bravery of David Bowie”.
It will be sad to celebrate David Bowie’s seventy-fourth birthday on 8th January and then, two days later, mark five years since we lost him. Other people will go into more depth regarding the sheer scope of Bowie’s influence: from his incredible liver work and changing faces, through to his constant musical innovation and curiosity, to his way of being able to predict the future – no less his views (in 1999) of how the Internet would change the world (and not necessarily always for the good). I just want to bring in one more article. This one from The Observer in 2017 argues that David Bowie is the most influential artist ever – something that is hard to argue against! I just want to bring in a few different segments:
“Even when he was charging headlong into the future, Bowie embraced the classic, the traditional, the appeal of history. He wasn’t politicized, although many have co-opted his image and his messages for political purpose, the heavy burden of advocacy was not there. Here was the radical honoring Marlene Dietrich, transforming into the Thin White Duke while wearing her famous tuxedo. Here was the avant-gardist singing a “Little Drummer Boy” medley with Bing Crosby on his “Merrie Olde” Christmas special.
What other rock star could do that without looking like he’d been tamed?
Here was the freaky provocateur turning to big swelling instrumentals at the end of “Life on Mars,” or bluesy jazz at the end of “Changes.”
For those on the fringes he was a standard bearer. He gave the audiophiles a magical complexity. But for the rest of us—or maybe just me—one year later and for always, what matters are the “boring” bits of Bowie. The variety of sound. The act of giving meaning to glamour. The grit amidst the glitter. A black star in the sky shining down on us all”.
On the fifth anniversary of his death, we will remember a legend who left us too soon. Even though he is no longer with us, his influence is everywhere! From mainstream artists through to ordinary teenagers struggling to find themselves and who they are, he has transformed society and music. It is clear that David Bowie has left…
SUCH an untouchable legacy.