Postmodern Artist: David Bowie

Background Information:

David Bowie was born on 8th Janurary 1947 (aged 66) in Brixton, London. Bowie is a internationally successful and critically acclaimed musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and actor and he has been an active musician since 1962. He has released 24 albums within his career and his most recent album 'The Next Day', his 25th album, has been released today (11/03/2013).

Bowie is iconicly associated within the rock, glam rock, art rock and pop genres and has worked with 8 different labels: Deram, RCA, Virgin, EMI, ISO, Columbia, BMG, and Pye.

His success began in July 1969, when he released his second album and his song 'Space Oddity' reached the Top Five in the UK Singles Charts. Then, after a three-year period of experimenting, he emerged in June 1972 during the glam rock era with an alter ego 'Ziggy Stardust' and the album ' The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'. This album combined the hard rock elements from his third album 'The Man Who Stole the World' (1970) and the lighter 'experimental' rock and pop from his fourth album 'Hunky Dory' (1971). It's hit single 'Starman' marked the start to a successful album with a massive impact on rock music of the time, said to have "challenged the core belief of rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture" (David Buckley, biographer). 'Ziggy Stardust' was a relatively short-lived persona, however, it marked the the begining of an incredible career for Bowie, marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.

David Bowie's internation success began in 1975 with his first major American crossover success with the number-one single 'Fame' and the hit album 'Young Americans', Bowie's 10th album with a unique sound, which he characterised as 'plastic soul'. 5 years later, in 1980, Bowie had yet more success with UK number ones for his single 'Ashes to Ashes', it's parent album 'Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)' (his 13th album), and 'Under Pressure', a 1981 collaboration with Queen.

Discography:

David Bowie (1967) Space Oddity (1969) The Man Who Sold the World (1970) Hunky Dory (1971) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) Aladdin Sane (1973) Pin Ups (1973) Diamond Dogs (1974) Young Americans (1975) Station to Station (1976) Low (1977) "Heroes" (1977) Lodger (1979)

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) Let's Dance (1983) Tonight (1984) Never Let Me Down (1987) Black Tie White Noise (1993) The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) Outside (1995) Earthling (1997) 'Hours...' (1999) Heathen (2002) Reality (2003) The Next Day (2013)

Postmodern Credentials:

David Bowie's constant innovation of music, and ability to fearlessly push boundaries, from the very start with 'Ziggy Stardust' imediately shows an underlying factor of postmodern inflence throughout all of his work. His controversial take on music experimented with combinations of genres and created new, soon to be iconic, sounds and albums. This combination of genres played with conventions, challenging his roots within rock music to create a new rock sound, making his music entirely postmodern to begin with. Bowie experimented and challenged genre conventions to the point at which he would name genres himself; for example, 'Young Americans' (1975) his 'plastic soul' album.

Personnas and Alter-Egos:

David Bowie created several alter-egos that characterised his concept albums and provided material based around fictional ideas.

• His first personna was 'Ziggy Stardust', who he created in the early 1970's, his album 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Masrs' a concept album, about the character, that was released in 1972. The album featured Ziggy Stardust as the lead singer and his band 'the spiders from mars'. This alter ego was a character inspired by Japanese theatre 'Kabuki' and the british rock and roll singer 'Vince Taylor'.
• Vince Taylor was successful in the late 1950's and early 1960's, mainly within France and the Continent who then fell into obscurity amidst personal problems and drug abuse and died in the early 1990's aged 52. Bowie was a fan of Taylors work and therefore felt it appropriate to reference him within his own music.
• The Ziggy Stardust album was heavily a glam rock genre album that reflected rock innovation of the time. Popular rock artists started to moved away from the rock style of the 1960's, with long tracks filled with complex guitar solos and keyboard/synth sounds, and progressed into shorter tracks. These sorts of sounds, especially the more experimental ideas within David Bowie's album, appealed greately towards the teenage audiences as well as, in Bowie's case, the gay audience markets. This cross over in appeal was what made Bowie so successful at the time.  
• Later in the 1970's, other personnas were created to reflect yet more experimental sounds as he started to dabble in other genres, such as funk, folk, pop, soul, electronic, ambient and ballad.