he's ok, but what's so special about bowie?

He died

>>61839649
Everything

Basically created the modern pop star image.

decades of good music
>Basically created the modern pop star image
this as well
>inb4 someone says "b-b-but [literally who] was a pop star before Bowie"

He's the thin white douche

>>61839692
so in other words "shitty image"?

>>61839718
>>inb4 someone says "b-b-but [literally who] was a pop star before Bowie"

michael jackson for example

S MH

The most restless star musician there's ever been. I'm sure /mu/ can scrounge up some musician who fluctuated from electronic pop to Tibetan throat singing to some other shit, but no one of Bowie's stature has ever been as willing to just wipe the board clean dive headfirst into new sounds and styles as Bowie was.

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>>61839741
>michael jackson for example

Here is your perfunctory
>(you)

>>61839754
what about fucking Rush?

classic rock -> prog rock -> synth-electronic rock that is unique as shit to them -> altrocky shit -> new wave rock

and i should just praise him, because he was "first"?

He predicted the coming of our lord and savior Kanye West

>>61839692
Bowie created Katy Perry and Justin Bieber?

>>61839741
MJ fans and bowie fans are 2 different crowds sucka

>>61839799
Sure he did.

Why not.

>>61839649
You didn't read any one of the hundreds of essay about why he's so special in the last week?

>>61839754
kid cudi ?

>>61839814
>Why not
nice delusion

>>61839792
I love rush but they aren't pop stars

also Rush had no style. Kimonos? What kind of weeb shit is that?

>>61839754
fetty wap?

>>61839754
You basically described Bjork

>>61839692
Michael Jackson single handedly created the modern pop star image

>b-but my british white man

>>61839754
Zappa.

But Bowie was more pop friendly most of the time.

Because he's david bowie

>>61839886
>single handedly
>the Jackson 5

>>61839874
kimonos where both funny and mystical

they looked fucking unique and dope in those

>>61839908
This.
Plus, I'm pretty sure that Jacskon as an pop star icon, didn't come around before Thriller.

Made god tier albums in his prime ( inspired and launched iggy pop and lou reed's solo careers, co-wrote and produced their masterpieces) that were innovating and both critically acclaimed and successful. Insipired almost every pop artist

Faded more in obscurity but kept changing his style and sound never compromising his artistic integrity ( although he made some bad albums sure)

Came back after 4 decades to release another masterpiece ( a concept album about his own death at that) recorded while terminally ill that was once again critically acclaimed and comercially successful despite staying true to his art. Regained mainstream relevance right before he died, amassed lots of new fans from a newer generation, achieved legendary status. Went out with the biggest bang possible

So yes, he's 'special'

He was more impressive by the fact that he was committed to reinventing himself musically and continued to make decent music decades after his prime than his actually quality of his music which never matched what he did in the 70s.

>>61839927
False.

All of our moms owned(and therefore )schlicked to "Off the wall".

Atleast all the moms I know

>>61840177
Off the Wall is still later than Ziggy Stardust m8.

>>61839649
Bowie was pretty good at finding new trends before they reached pop. He was able to reinvent himself but still did not lose any familiarity from most of his fans. Kinda in a way like the modern pop image, but he dressed up for the role a lot better than today's artist

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>>61839792
You can fuck right off if you think any of those constitutes a chance in direction. Rush was just evolving with the sound, prog rock didn't exist in the same way by the 80's and it didn't exist in the same way by the 90's.

>>61839882

Bjork is weird and experimental but came twenty, thirty years after bowie.


David Bowie wasn't the best musician in the world, but he was unapologetically himself. Every album he wanted to try something a little different or new and he had characters and themes and concepts. In his eccentricity was an artist and in his cunning he was a businessman. And he wasn't always great, lord knows the world pretty much abandoned him in the 90's. But he did practically invent glam rock.

>>61839893
Zappa is technically the better artist, but Zappa was abrasive. There's nothing wrong with that for people who appreciate it, but the mass appeal of David Bowie brings together unlikely people. I couldn't tell you how many times I've been able to make new friends with interesting folk just because we started talking about our favorite era of Bowie.

Prolificity, variety and consistency

>>61839649

He had a long, productive career making above average music during a wide range of periods in pop culture and he had a powerful, charismatic image that people could embrace and reference. He had a huge impact on the world, it would be weird if people weren't still talking about his death a week later. Is that actually hard for you to understand or did you just need attention? There are easier ways, go start a sharethread and talk about some music you really like. Give people a reason to appreciate you rather than baiting them into momentary, impersonal contact.

>>61839908
I'm talking about solo MJ

>>61840208
Your point? He said the modern pop star, and that is modeled after MJ

>>61839649
he makes good music mostly

>>61839649
There's hundreds of articles in the wake of his death explaining his importance. The pithfork "afterword: david bowie" is good

He, in conjunction with the Velvet Underground/Lou Reed and Iggy Pop laid the foundation for too many genres to name and influenced too many artists to name

>>61840834
>pitchfork

He's the biggest art icon of all time.

>>61839649
He was an overrated hack more known for his wild appearance than his (lack of) talent at composing or perfoming. He was a trendhopper who basically ripped off other shit that was going on around him and watered it down for a mainstream audience, his few good albums were collabs with more talented musicians like Mick Ronson and Brian Eno

>>61841211
>more talented musicians
>like Brian Eno
lmao

He's got cinnamon/sugar swirls in every bite

>>61841211
>his few good albums
nice bait

>>61839792
Here's your reply

>>61840471
Funny thing is that most people stopped talking about it 1-2 days after.

>>61841309
he's right tho

except for the berlin trilogy, s2s and ziggy, bowie is pretty mediocre

>>61841271
>the most innovative and forward-thinking electronic musicians of all time
>not more talented than a trendhopping pop singer
wew

>>61841532
>Except for 5 god tier albums, Bowie is pretty mediocre.

Who the fuck has 5 good albums today?

>>61841709
Kanye West has 6

>>61841709
Lots of artists made 5 good albums over the course of their careers, especially decades ago.

I heard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m5ypVZbEIg
i cstart tearing everytime i hear it.

>>61842482
He has one at most

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>>61839649
Bowie was a lot of things to various people throughout the decades. To me, he was a stepping stone out of mainstream music.

He's made good music in a number of different styles.

He's "cool" and people like that.

>>61841532
Hunky Dory, Aladin Sane. And then the good but not great albums like young Americans etc.

>>61839649
Even his bad albums are most artist's average.

>god tier
Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Station to Station, Low, Blackstar
>great tier
Aladdin Sane, Heroes, Lodger, Scary Monsters, Heathen, The Next Day
>good tier
Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, Young Americans, Outside, Reality
>ok tier
Diamond Dogs, Let's Dance, Tonight, Black Tie White Noise, Earthling
>bad tier
David Bowie, Pin Ups, Never Let Me Down, Hours

This is actually a really interesting subject, in terms of popular music history. So excuse me for sperging out a bit, because I think it's cool:

David Bowie was/is great because he made intelligent pop music that synthesized an incredible range of avant-garde influences (classical Japanese theatre, expressionism, krautrock, cabaret, hermetic philosophy, occultism, Weimar performance art, and the aesthetics of fascism to name a few), spoke intelligently and eloquently about those influences and his stylistic choices, and looked cool doing it.

More artistically relevant, though, is that he was basically super calculating and masterful when it came to knowing how his decisions would be perceived. Bowie had an uncanny knack for understanding the exact effect that certain stylistic choices would have, and he used that effect as part of the experience in and of itself.

Blackstar, itself, is actually a great example of this. He wants to restore his legacy, so he releases one last transgressive avant-garde album. And he dies right afterward. Sure, it's conceptually lofty to write an album about your death while you're dying, and the music is pretty good. But think of your emotions with regard to that album. You can't think about it without thinking of his death, and with that grand conceptual masterstroke (that decision to dedicate the last months of your life to making a work of art), he knew the emotional impact of his final effort would be way stronger than if it were just another collection of well-written songs. And it's a reward that he wouldn't even live to receive. His dedication to effect basically outshone his actual life.

Critically speaking, I think that's what's special about David Bowie. That weird, almost supernaturally keen sense of how certain stylistic choices will be perceived, and of the power of effect. I can't think of a pop musician who was more dedicated to effect than he was.

>>61842809
Let's Dance is automatically 'good' tier just for the opening 3 tracks

>>61843339
So basically he made a good image of himself.

AND BOWIE IS NOT AVANT GARDE STOP THIS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>61839649
I don't get why people here hate Freddie Mercury but love David Bowie
>reddit and normies
Redditors and normies both love David Bowie

>>61843434
Did the anon say Bowie is avant garde?

Bowie was a synthesist, and one of the things he pulled from was avant garde.

>>61843451
>people here hate Freddie Mercury
We do?
Maybe it's Queen.

>>61843483
>so he releases one last transgressive avant-garde album

>>61839908
>>the Jackson 5

MJ made the whole band. I mean, Tito was an excellent guitarist, but he still could had gotten some other people to produce and sing with him.

>>61843434
>So basically he made a good image of himself.

Yes. To the point where the music played into the image, which played into the holistic aesthetic experience of what he made. Which is impressive.

>AND BOWIE IS NOT AVANT GARDE STOP THIS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Settle down. During the 70s he cited a veritable fuckton of actual avant-garde influences, even when he was making accessible fairly accessible artpop. Obviously calling Blackstar "avant-garde" is technically a misnomer, but it's easier than saying "experimental fusion of jazz and rock, funk, electronic, and pop that will be considered inaccessible to the typical radio audience."

I never said that Bowie was an avant-garde musician.

>>61843557
Doesn't change that his music is sub-par faux art shit.

>>61843702
>faux art
How is it possible to make faux art? That makes zero sense.

Stop baiting us.

>>61843702
So don't listen to it then. Now fuck off and don't come back.

>>61843702
Back up your claims with evidence from the text.

>>61839886
Bowie was a blackstar

>>61843726
It's just supposed to look deep and stylish.
>>61843764
>>61843804
He just wasn't hat good.

David Bowie has got to be the most overrated pop star of all time
Michael Jackson and Madonna at least earned a lot of their praise

>>61843899
hey

ur a retard

>>61843945
Sure showed me

>>61843872
>He just wasn't hat good.

I can just say "I disagree," and it'll add as much to the discussion as what you're doing. What's more, saying "I disagree" would be backed up by a pretty substantial critical consensus.

So I guess I'll just do that.

>>61840405
why do you give a shit if he invented glam rock, what other glam rock artists do you even like

and you could HARDLY say his music evolved, he just jumped from one dumb gimmick to the next, all the while making the same unforgivably dull and generic pop rock

>>61842809
swap Hunky Dory and Heroes and put Blackstar on good tier

>>61839649

>>61839649
Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust In The Spiders From Mars
Man Who Sold The World

>>61839908
Not to mention Bowie's first album came out before the first Jackson 5 album so.
>Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969)
>David Bowie (1967)

>>61844128
>dull and generic pop rock

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C-T-CPK86w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im3-GF4b-mU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abz0OT60h9k

>generic

Literally how

>dull

Just because it sounds good doesn't mean it lacks substance.

>>61843957
flush yourself

>>61843872
cringe, don't use meaningless terms you don't even understand boyo, makes you look dumb and pretentious

>>61844141
thanks for your contribution

>>61844270
stop giving this retard attention buddy
you can't cure idiocy with arguments

>>61844129
Hunky Dory is his best album dumbass.

david bowie is literally 'marketing man - the singer'

>>61844496
just because he has incredible style doens't mean he lacks substance boyo

I havent been able to listen to anything else but Bowie for the past week /mu/.
I understand there are other albums out there, but I dont really want to listen to anything else.
h-help me....

>>61844518
nah i love him really
he knew it anyway he was sending it up with style

its just funny how you can tweak bowie casuals saying shit like that

>>61839692
He for sure crafted lady gaga

>>61840405
>But he did practically invent glam rock
That'd be Marc Bolan, who was an on-off friend of Bowie's. "Lady Stardust" is a homage to Bolan.

>>61839649
Literally nothing famailia, he's an overrated hack who managed to market himself as a master of the avant-garde but really just produced bland pop music that should have been forgotten long ago.
Make no mistake, Bowie was not a good musician but a good marketer, he's not the heir to The Beatles but the heir to the marketing department of Anheuser-Busch. The musical equivalent of a tasteless fizzy lager marked as the 'king of beers' produced in enormous quantities for mass consumption. Literally the epitome of faux-music masquerading as art.

>>61841211
>>61845389
Scaruffi-lite dilettantes pls go

>2016
>unironically listening to child molesters

>>61839649
He influenced people across 2 generations. Actually 3. Gen X'ers, Gen Y'ers, and Millennials, his music is deliciously groovy bby, his image was insane, he didn't care what anybody thought, he was just...cool.

>>61845702
They're right.

>>61841709
nine inch nails/reznor

Listen to Rise and Fall of Ziggy[...], I underappreciated him too

>>61839692
sounds like something you don't even believe, just heard from a critic and are now repeating mindlessly

>>61839656
This
Nobody was even bothered about Bowie before his death, I've never seen him mentioned on this board.

You're retarded

>>61841211
Not knowing David Bowie was the artist behind the fucking song "Fame".
Not remembering Heroes.
Not remembering Space Oddity.
Not remembering Fascination, or Man who Sold The World. Not even Let's Dance.

wow man

>>61846642
How new are you?

>>61846596
>this projecting projections on projectors
DUDE just shit the fuck down and suck my dick

>>61841439
>Funny thing is that most people stopped talking about it 1-2 days after.
The Twitter effect.

>>61842612
Fuck off. Even if you're not a fan of his work you should at least be able to respect some of his albums.

RESPECT THE ALBUM

>>61846944
Why?

>>61846996
Because as a producer and a writer he's made some fantastic albums. There's a lot of music I don't like, but that doesn't mean I automatically think it's bad music.

>>61847039
>Because as a producer and a writer he's made some fantastic albums.
I don't agree.
>There's a lot of music I don't like, but that doesn't mean I automatically think it's bad music.
You should be more trusting of your own judgement, in that case.

>>61846944
>should
>be able

YAS GIRL TELL EM
fucking autist

>>61847102
At least we can agree upon that. More so what I was getting at was the fact just because you don't like it, does not automatically qualify it as bad. I understand where you're coming from though.

>>61847129
>haha look at me so mature xD

>>61847102
No. There's a very big difference between something being bad and not liking something, i don't like Pearl Jam because i can't stand Vedder's voice, doesn't mean that his voice or the band are bad.

>>61846642
bowie was mentioned all the time br

Anyone feel like Bowie had to have some "REAL RAWK N ROWL" songs on his album to satisfy the label he he was on? I've noticed both diamond dogs and alladin sane start with generic rock and roll sound and then transition into a low key, weird, slow song of completely different genre.

>>61847259
Pretty much what I was trying to get at. I'm just bad at explaining sometimes.

>>61847271
I saw him mentioned a lot, again

>how new are you.

>>61841709
Also Bowie has those god tier albums, but if we count all his good albums he has around 12. I'm not saying he's THE GREATEST MUSICIAN OF ALL TIME, but i don't understand in whose mind an artist with more than 10 good albums is mediocre.

>>61847259
>There's a very big difference between something being bad and not liking something
Only if you choose to draw that distinction. There's no objective standard for what makes something "good" or "bad".

>>61847371
Ignore that faggot. Bowie has a lot of good albums, and even a lot of artists today have more than 5 good albums.

>>61847408
You're a fucking retard. Leave this board and don't fucking come back. People who equate "I like it" with "It's good" should be fucking shot.

>>61839649
He was just cool. Some people have that aura, he was one of them. He was not on a par with Hendrix or The Beatles, but he made some good music. A bit weird and artsy, but not annoying. Would have preferred to hear that Roger Waters or some other super douche had bought it.

>>61847483
what do you think is good about pearl jam?

>>61847483
he's right

music isn't objective

>>61848399
Yes, but you can render a critical assessment of a work of art without your own feelings on it entering into the equation.

It's why people can look at Triumph of the Will and clearly explain how Leni Riefenstahl made a brilliant film, without condoning the hateful garbage her work espoused.

Or how you can listen to a radio pop song and think it's absurdly catchy, while acknowledging that it's completely artistically bankrupt.

>>61848619
You're completely right.

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>>61839874

Hate to break it to you...

>>61846642

I was wearing a Bowie shirt and in the middle of another Bowie phase when I woke up and heard the news of his death. Fuck off.

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>>61839649
The fact he did what he felt like doing but still keeping his fans on check. It's troublesome for artist to risk it and make something their fans will either hate or love. Bowie did this and did it correctly. You can also say he is one of the founder of various genres across music now days and inspired tons of artists whether they were pop artists, rock artists, or whatever genre. Dude was an icon and even if he is considered a hack or just a copy cat by many then fucking hell if he wasn't a god damn good hack/copy cat.