DAVID BOWIE

David Robert Jones known by his stage name David

Bowie is an English musician, actor, record

producer, and arranger. Bowie has been a major

figure in the world of popular music for over four

decades and is renowned as an innovator.

He is known or his distinctive voice as well as the

intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.

The cliché about David Bowie says he's a musical

chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion

and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's

no denying that Bowie demonstrated remarkable

skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the

'70s. After spending several years in the late '60s as

a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer,

Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie 

singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972,

he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop/rock 

album, eventually redefining glam rock with his

ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy

made Bowie an international star, yet he wasn't

content to continue to churn out glitter rock. By the

mid-'70s, he developed an effete, sophisticated

version of Philly soul that he dubbed "plastic soul,"

which eventually morphed into the eerie avant-pop

of 1976's Station to Station. Shortly afterward, he

relocated to Berlin, where he recorded three

experimental electronic albums with Brian Eno. At

the dawn of the '80s, Bowie was still at the height of

his powers, yet following his blockbuster dance-pop

album Let's Dance in 1983, he slowly sank into

mediocrity before salvaging his career in the early

'90s. Even when he was out of fashion in the '80s

and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the

most influential musicians in rock, for better and for

worse. Each one of his phases in the '70s sparked a

number of sub-genres, including punk, new wave,

goth rock, the new romantics, and electronica. Few

rockers ever had such lasting impact.

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