If there was a musical era I could be re-born in, I would have picked the early 70s in a heartbeat and without a second thought. So much groundbreaking changes happening at the same time that have laid the base of music today. And, if musical history was ever created after the 40s, I’d say the 70s was it! Then there was Bowie… the way he was creating radical changes in rock music, it seems impossible to leave out his contributions whenever we are on the subject. Before long, we had a new sub-genre of rock that completely revolutionized stage performances and concept dressing in rock music. It was like adding a third dimension to music. The birth of theatrical rock had commenced and David Bowie had a big hand in it.
Of course, during this time, the fad of adding theatrical elements to music was catching on like wildfire – we had Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, and even The Beatles resorting to concept performance, adopting personas and taking it to the next level. It was almost like giving music a new face – merging the boundaries between performing arts, and it was long overdue in my opinion. Performing arts or arts, for that matter, was never meant to be isolated. But, something about Bowie just stands out – because he would become his characters with such honesty and it was hard to tell them apart. When he was Ziggy Stardust, he’d completely immerse himself in it and the time that his album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust” came out stands proof to it. He’d never shed character and even appear in interviews as Ziggy.
Re-inventions seemed to his beautiful weapon to keep his art relevant. And, he did it with such flair. Soon the world was introduced Thin White Duke, someone we never knew that resided in Bowie or could have ever imagined. While other artists either gave up on character playing after some bit of experimentation or were sticking to one concept – Bowie was determined to stretch every boundary possible. Bowie was the adventurer’s musician and not the boring man’s musician – he always stuck to create diversity even in his musical style and therefore is contributions to music are unforgettable. If we come to think of it, we would never have artists like Madonna or Lady Gaga had Bowie not paved the path of theatrics.
I had discovered Bowie as a high-schooler, and I loved him. Loved his music. But, it took me a while before I started to really grasp his meaning. The meaning that David Bowie was, the concepts that he created and the life that he gave to music! I remember taking an online class by John Covach in the History of Rock major, and that’s when it actually dawn upon me in full force. In fact, this piece is written with the perspectives I had gained from that class and the studies on his musical sensibilities I had done since then. His immense contributions to music, I am actually only beginning to understand. It will probably take me another lifetime to totally uncover the beautiful brain behind the Bowie we knew. And, I’m sure…he’ll never seize to surprise me.
