Must Haves. Music Edition. David Bowie.

BACKGROUND HISTORY

Active1960s - 2010s

BornJanuary 8, 1947 in London, England

DiedJanuary 10, 2016 in New York City, NY

Genre

Pop/Rock

Styles

Album Rock

Art Rock

Contemporary Pop/Rock

Experimental Rock

Glam Rock

Hard Rock

Proto-Punk

Blue-Eyed Soul

Dance-Rock

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS

Startion to station, the man who sold the world, changes, heroes, hunky dory, lodger

HITS

Lets dance, space oddity, rebel rebel, heroes, ashes to ashes, changes, life on mars?

CULTURAL IMPACT

One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, David Bowie evaded easy categorization throughout his career, operating as the artiest rocker within the mainstream and the most accessible musician on the fringe. Bowie may have trafficked in ideas cultivated in the underground, but he was never quite an outsider as far as rock & roll was concerned. From the outset of his career in the 1960s, he attempted to break into the Top 40, playing British blues, mod rock & roll, and ornate pop before finally hitting paydirt as a hippie singer/songwriter. "Space Oddity" gave Bowie his breakthrough in the U.K., reaching the Top Ten in the summer of 1969 -- the summer of Apollo 11 -- and it belatedly performed a similar feat in America, giving him his first Top 20 hit early in 1973. By that point, Bowie had traded his folkie persona for the glam-rock alien Ziggy Stardust, one of the many shifts of sound and image that came to define his career. Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars were a sensation in Britain and a cult phenomenon in the U.S., the foundation of a decade that would see Bowie attempting blue-eyed soul, avant-pop, and experimental electronic rock recorded with Brian Eno. He had hits during this period -- the sleek disco-rock of "Fame" gave him his first American number one in 1975 -- but he didn't become a superstar until Let's Dance, a stylish dance-rock album recorded with Nile Rodgers and designed with MTV in mind. Stardom achieved, Bowie entered a period of uncertainty, righting himself in the 1990s by reconnecting with his hard rock and art roots. As the 21st century arrived, he had settled into a comfortable schedule of touring and recording, a routine that ended in 2003 as he retreated from public view. After a decade of silence, he re-emerged in 2013, beginning a final act that culminated with Blackstar, an album released on his January 8 birthday in 2016. He designed Blackstar as a farewell to an audience who didn't realize he was dying of liver cancer. Two days after its release, Bowie died, leaving Blackstar as his final grand theatrical gesture.