The Music of David Bowie

For more than thirty years David Bowie has been an iconic artist in the music industry. His popularity was evoked after he reinvented himself by melding different genres together and creating alter egos of himself. His distinct androgynous look and his embodiment of Ziggy Stardust have solidified his career as a superstar of inimitable proportions. He became famous for his chameleon approach of shifting through various genres of music and the many unusual characterizations of himself. Bowie has achieved worldwide success and has had many hit songs because of this. Therefore, David Bowie is an influential artist whose uniqueness is emphasized through the diversity of genres in his music and the various personifications he has assumed. His individuality as an artist is shown through using many different genres to accentuate the messages in the songs. Many of these profound messages are concerning love, human spirit and of warped reality. David Bowie’s use of popular genres in his music helps to keep him in style. This constant reinventing of his music and image is consistent with the different genres Bowie has worked with. His use of alluring sound, his ever-changing image and his androgyny add to his mass appeal. The fact that Bowie has collaborated with famous artists has also helped sustain his popularity. The theme of dystrophic reality has a major role in both Bowie’s music and life. Through many of his songs life is given an introspective look through that of a twisted mind, of a mind trying to find answers. These answers about the human spirit are sought through the keys of drugs and love. This is the distorted truth Bowie shapes for the listener in both the songs “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes.” In the first song, David Bowie sings about an astronaut, Major Tom, which symbolizes the everyday person, who goes to space and decided to disconnect himself