DAVID BOWIE
Name: David Bowie
Birth name: David Jones
Born: 8 January 1947 Brixton, England
David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is
an English singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader,
producer, arranger, and audio engineer. Active in five decades of rock music and
frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an
influential innovator, particularly for his work through the 1970s. Bowie has
taken cues from a wide range of fine art, philosophy and literature. He is also
a film and stage actor, music video director, and visual artist.
Although he released an album and numerous singles earlier, David Bowie first
caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when his space-age
mini-melodrama "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK singles chart.
After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the
glam rock era as a flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded
by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomised a
career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention and striking visual
presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the
number-one single "Fame" and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer
identified as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style
that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the
expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording
the minimalist album Low the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno. His
most experimental works to date, the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" nevertheless
produced three UK top-five albums. The anthem-like, towering title track of the
second work "Heroes" (1977) is ranked 46 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500
Greatest Songs of All Time.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with
the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its parent album, Scary Monsters (and Super
Creeps). He paired with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topper "Under Pressure", but
consolidated his commercial and, until then, most profitable sound in 1983
with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "China Girl", "Modern
Love", and most famously, the title track.
In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. Throughout
his career he has sold an estimated 196 million albums, and
ranks among the ten best-selling acts in UK pop history. In 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Name: David Bowie
Birth name: David Jones
Born: 8 January 1947 Brixton, England
David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is
an English singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader,
producer, arranger, and audio engineer. Active in five decades of rock music and
frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an
influential innovator, particularly for his work through the 1970s. Bowie has
taken cues from a wide range of fine art, philosophy and literature. He is also
a film and stage actor, music video director, and visual artist.
Although he released an album and numerous singles earlier, David Bowie first
caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when his space-age
mini-melodrama "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK singles chart.
After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the
glam rock era as a flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded
by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomised a
career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention and striking visual
presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the
number-one single "Fame" and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer
identified as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style
that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the
expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording
the minimalist album Low the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno. His
most experimental works to date, the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" nevertheless
produced three UK top-five albums. The anthem-like, towering title track of the
second work "Heroes" (1977) is ranked 46 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500
Greatest Songs of All Time.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with
the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its parent album, Scary Monsters (and Super
Creeps). He paired with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topper "Under Pressure", but
consolidated his commercial and, until then, most profitable sound in 1983
with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "China Girl", "Modern
Love", and most famously, the title track.
In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. Throughout
his career he has sold an estimated 196 million albums, and
ranks among the ten best-selling acts in UK pop history. In 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.