An Extraordinary Life: David Bowie

As the world mourns an icon, it’s becoming apparent that David Bowie carefully planned his departure from this world. Peacefully and surrounded by those he loved, but also leaving a parting gift for his worldwide fan base. Bowie’s final album ‘Blackstar’ was released on his 69th birthday – just days before – and contains the haunting ‘Lazarus’. Was this his epitaph?

“Look up here, I’m in heaven… ” By the time we all read the opening line to Lazarus, released on 7th January, it was probably already too late. David Bowie had departed from this world, taking lift-off from his extraordinary life and leaving us earthlings with the fantastical memories left behind.

Bowie was not just an artist. He was a fashion icon, a genius songwriter, a dynamic actor, an individual unafraid to blur sexuality, and thus a visionary who saw a musical future and used his talent to transform the scene forever. It is important to remember that Bowie was not just gifted musically; he had the ability to channel the world around him and materialise songs that fixated listeners. Bowie penned the cosmonautic journey of ‘Space Oddity’ at a time when the public were transfixed by space travel. Bowie captured this condition and moulded it into a musical document of worldly wonder. The unknown was something that Bowie was particularly skilled at exploring. He used theatrics to spellbind his audience with characters that had never been seen before in mainstream pop. My most notable favourite is Ziggy Stardust.

Inventively chimeric, Ziggy shocked and excited audiences with an androgynous costume and outlandish make-up. Ziggy Stardust is not just a character, but also a mind state; he made it possible for Bowie to revel in a character so completely outrageous that anything and everything he did was either horrifying or stupefying. The songs seem simple, but the concept was so much more: Ziggy anointed the album with the starpower of a spaceman infinite. Bowie’s choice to assume the Ziggy Stardust guise fuelled the success of ‘The Spiders from Mars’, and undoubtedly astonished audiences at every gig and every interview from thereon until the birth of Aladdin Sane.

Bowie, an extraordinary man, re-invented himself continuously, and each re-invention was heralded as a success. Even taking a step back from music during the last decade, his work persistently reaches across generations. It is a true honour to know that we lived during his musical reign. We can now not only celebrate his life, but pass his phenomenal influence on.

And one think I know for sure… This was a man who has left his mark on this world: a man whose music will be played forever!

Words by Alicia Carpenter

First published on The-HypeMedia: http://the-hypemedia.co.uk/wordpress/?p=60