Did he ever actually give us a name for this new character? He

>>61670262
THE
BIG
BLACK
STAR

>>61670406
NO.

>>61670262
Its not a character. Its him.

>>61670262
The dying preacher maybe?

Also perfect symbolism. The bandage as a sign for being wounded and the black buttons which can be read as dead eyes or coins put on his eyes to pay for his voyage.

>>61670443
ALL his characters were always parts of him.

>>61670262
>>61670433

I believe the music video director refers to the character as "button eyes" in a few interviews.

Do you think Bowie will be more strongly associated with the lightning bolt or the star now?

>He was going to be the next Ziggy
Nah, he knew well how it's going to end.

>>61670506
I am sure everyone has his own favorite reincarnation. I bet Ziggy will remain the most iconic in general, though.

>>61670262
The character is him. The entire song is about his death.

>>61670548
Ziggy is the most memorable as a name, but the Aladdin Sane face is more iconic imo

>>61670629
Oh wait, was Aladdin Sane a reincarnation of its own? I always thought it was part of the Ziggy era.

>>61670652
Oh no I guess I read it as character instead of reincarnation

I don't think that was a new character. He had been battling cancer for 18 months, he knew he was going to die.

That character is just him, and blackstar is largely about his death.

>Lazarus video comes out
>Everyone is excited because Bowie has a new character
>There's a few threads getting hype for trippy live shows with crazy ritualistic dancing and stuff when Bowie takes on the button eyes look

I wish we were back two days ago.

>>61670710
It's funny how all the reviews 2 days back just interpreted it as some self reflection about his career and post-modern techinques of self-reference in general.

See also this: >>61670758

>>61670758
>>Everyone is excited because Bowie has a new character
>There's a few threads getting hype for trippy live shows with crazy ritualistic dancing and stuff when Bowie takes on the button eyes look

i think that was what he was trying to do
was dying to do

>>61670814
>>61670758
Watch the last two videos carefully. We have the button eyed characters who suffer and are near death and Bowie without the button eyes performing and posing and doing his great mannerisms. It's like there was still hope he could shake off his button eyed self.... sadly he could not...

>>61670787

Yes. Crafty old fox. He left an easter egg of meaning, which could only be found after his death. That is so intelligent, so sly.

>>61670992
It's pretty obvious in fact, Much more interesting is that really no one thought he is sick and near death. Like we all denied that someone like him could day so suddenly... we all ignored the obvious.

Shit I still feel sad and cold inside.

>>61670924

The playwright who worked on Lazurus with him was being interviewed on the news earlier- he said Bowie wasnt resigned to dying, he wanted to live.

Lazarus is a song about a man trying to dig his way back to life, to overcome Death in the great struggle.

I guess the rhythm of acceptance, and then defiance, and panic is familiar to anyone who has dealt with someone suffering from cancer.

Nobody wants to die.

That said, Lemmy, seemed to be far more prepared to meet the reaper, and maintained his 'No Regrets' demeanor until the end.

Ablaqq Star

>>61671177
True

Well, say what you will, but i'm still hoping that four days from now he will appear alive and announce a world tour.

>>61671229
kek

>>61671312
I understand your feelings but it will never happen.

He is gone.

But his art remains.

You know how I can tell most people on the chans are tweens? All they talk about is "Ziggy," which is the same as saying "zomg guise, i really loved playing Nintendo NES and that game Super Mario Bros. XD ;^)"

You babies don't know shit about anything do you?

>>61672840
Seeing all this Ziggy is getting me mad. He wanted to leave Ziggy in the past.

>>61673211
>>61672840

was the most iconic part of his career. everybody knows ziggy stardust.

Everybody will remember black star though.
This shit will go down in history, the murder of john lennon has nothing on this.

>>61670262
David Jones, I'm guessing. The man beneath the Bowie mask.

>>61673211
but ziggy played guitar

>>61671177
I think that Bowie probably realized that he wasn't going to make it, and accepted death, but kept fighting in spite of it.

Lemmy was more in the devil may care camp.

Ziggy will be remembered as the most memorable character but the Blackstar will be the symbol everyone will automatically think when talking about Bowie.

>>61673501
He played it left hand too

Satanic Bowie is best Bowie

>>61670262
You don't realise a dramatic undercurrent of the video. It's not a character, it's him dying, and all his fictitious characters are put away into the wardrobe when the real, actual Bowie dies.

>>61670705
>>61670652
IIRC didn't Bowie describe Aladdin as Ziggy in America?

>>61670262
It's "mortality and death" Bowie. The towl is like one that is placed on people's eyes in a hospital (like a war one).
He's telling us hes sick.

>>61671113
This. We all knew he didn't look well, but it didn't register. I've cried quite a bit today.

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>>61673709
for real

>>61673750
I'm honestly surprised that people, myself included, didn't cotton on. It's so obvious in retrospect.

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I've been listening to Bowie music all day

I even watched a documentary about Ziggy Stardust on the BBC

Then I started listening to Blackstar and read this thread

All the emotions that had been boiling up finally released.

>>61670262
death? possibly satan?

Do you guys remember when Bowie said he and Mick Jagger used to fuck?

>>61671113
That's the best part of this goddamn ruse.
Everyone's like:
>Well, he sure as hell turned weird again.
>Pretty sinister stuff right there!
>What a disturbing video

Nobody on this entire world would ever have expected that this is some serious shit he's pulling. This album had two release dates.

The character is called Button Eyes.

While Blackstar was obviously about him, I suppose David Bowie was one big character, Iman said she didn't fall in love with Bowie, but David Jones.

>>61673889
Fuck. Imagine losing Bowie AND Jones.

>>61673795
I literally cried once it was confirmed his death wasn't a hoax. I didn't sleep, I just began listening to his albums from beginning to end and I just finished Blackstar and i'm just fucking crying again.

Who is Sue?

>>61670531
This

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>>61673775

>>61673972
The tumor

>>61671177
This. I get this horrible feeling this is the music of a man who did not want to die and I feel like we're listening to him trapped beyond the grave. It's unsettling because he doesn't seem at all at peace. I'm so sorry, David.

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>>61670262
Relevant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFIDXXDsxAo

>>61674138
The whole album is actually his way of completely immortalizing himself through his art. He did not lose in the battle against death. So he was content with dying in that way.

>>61674248
Yes.

The whole death concept record is his way of staying with us. An artist until the end. I'm so fucking sad right now.

>>61670262
The Solitary Candle

>>61673962
I was at work when I heard, and I started listening to "Heroes" because it's my favorite album, and when it got to the "Heroes" song, I had to hold back a little to not cry or anything.

>>61674248
Thank you.

>>61674248
The incredible part is, is that no one really "got" the album totally until he died. People were speculating all sorts. Like anon said up thread:

>all the reviews 2 days back just interpreted it as some self reflection about his career and post-modern techinques of self-reference in general

No one could really understand the album without him dying. His death is part of the experience, part of the art. Fucking mental

>>61674574
I know, I know. That's what fucked me all day. It's unique and unprecedented and doesn't work without him actually not walking this earth anymore. Baffling, really.

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>>61674641
>>61674574

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IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME

>>61674574
;____:

>>61673425
nigger what

he wasn't even relevant anymore

>>61674981
have you not seen the coverage m8?

>>61674981
Well, he's relevant again.

>>61675052
>>61675054
yes, for the moment, because this shit sells and everyone likes an opportunity to do some virtue signalling

anyone remember mj passing away? nope

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>>61674574
>>61674641
And this is exactly what makes Bowie such a fucking genius. His commitment to effect and image has always been part of the holistic experience of his music. But this is totally different. He died in a literally perfect way. Working to achieve an artwork that both recemented him as an avant-garde icon and achieved maximum poignancy by using his own death as a stylistic element. It's so brilliant I want to cry.

And, think about it. The appearance of that is so singular, it's ridiculous. The image of it. The style, if you will. A final image that he knew would look fucking PERFECT, even if he could never reap the benefits. He's a literal Platonic fucking superman.

>>61675103
>muh comparison
Okay you can fuck off now.

>>61674981
>he wasn't even relevant anymore
>entire world has spent the day mourning him

>>61675105
you are an absolute retard

>>61675103
how the fuck do you not remember mj passing away?

>>61675103
>anyone remember mj passing away? nope
that day is burned into my memory forever. fuck you bruh

>>61675155
It's his autism.

>>61675103
MJ dying was fucking huge you mong

>>61675103
Time will tell. I'm with this guy though:

>>61675105

>>61675184
for a day

>>61675105
I'm not crying i swear
;_;

>>61675248
you are not, you don't have to swear

>>61675203
It dominated news for the next few months, anon.

There was a huge tribute concert funeral.

I mean yeah, people always move on and stop obsessing but you can't deny that it was a big thing.

>>61675203
His songs were in the charts for weeks and weeks, his doctor was news months after the fact, the film came months after and that was huge too. Each posthumous release has been big too.

>>61675105
>He died in a literally perfect way
This combined with the constanza made me burst out laughing (in the literally perfect way)

>>61675103
Wow, great point, Bowie definitely did this for money. Bet he's rolling in the dough now.

>>61675284
all opportunities to monetise the man's death, as will be done with Bowie - instead of mourning the man and recognising his art, this shit will be blown out of proportion, equally as hard by the media and the people screaming how PERFECT he and everything he did was, and it will be made another opportunity narcissists to feel good about themselves

create a narrative for virtue signalling, blow it out of proportion and sell some bowie action figures

>>61675133
Why? I just think David Bowie had enough experience with image construction to know exactly how people would view this.

He basically wanted as grand a legacy as possible, and so he did what he made a career out of doing. I'm just saying that's extremely impressive, to have that much control.

>>61675536
He was in no way perfect and a large portion of his discography is not very good. But fuck me did he die creatively.

>>61675595
>a large portion of his discography is not very good
there are - and i'm using this word correctly - LITERALLY no artists with 50 year careers and 25+ albums under their belt for whom this is not true

nor will there ever be

it's a totally redundant statement

>>61675536
The difference is that MJ just died from drug abuse and didn't release a concept album about his own mortality that literally fooled everyone until just a few days after the fact. This has every right to be huge. MJ was a sad death, this is a beautiful one.

>>61675133
Why the hostility

>>61675646
Yeah, I'm not complaining. I just listen to the good stuff.

>>61675680
I'm on 4chan, isn't it sort of the default

>>61670924
>Bowie without the button eyes performing and posing and doing his great mannerisms.
But also remember that in the end he gets in a closet and closes it. It almost seems like he was finally ready to leave his character(s) aside and store them in a place of old memories.

>>61675802
how about you get in the closet and forget yourself there

>>61670262
the video is literally him. he's dying in a hospital, death is under his bed, getting closer and closer. he decides he has to write his last album, which is why you see him writing.

>>61670262
I wonder if this was something he planned years ago in the event that he did get diagnosed with something like cancer or just came up with it after he was. His use of multiple characters throughout his career really helped people not catch onto things like >>61673786 until after his death.

Is it just me or does anyone else think of Big Boss forcing his weak body to salute The Boss' grave in MGS4 when they see the part where Bowie starts singing and dancing without the bandages on? It looks like a man who knows this is it and he's dancing his last dance.

>>61670443
damn..