by Rob Jones

Created on: December 16, 2006   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

David Bowie was one of the first people to manipulate the idea of the rock performance, and to use it to his advantage. Besides his unique vocal talents and songwriting abilities, this has been his genius and this ability is played out in at least two ways.

First, Bowie was one of the first people to give a performance "once removed". The obvious example here is the persona of Ziggy Stardust, a character that he played based on a composite of several sources. This brought a level of the theatrical to the world of rock, drawing from Bowie's background which delved into a love for R&B as celebrated by British mod culture, and for theatre. Bringing these together and creating a vehicle to present them was a radical shift in expectations for audiences at the time. Remember, this was the era where earnest singer-songwriters were bearing their souls. Bowie was doing the exact opposite. He was playing a part, keeping his true identity veiled behind the performance. That he appeared on the British program Top of the Pops in full Ziggy regalia, thereby activating an entire subculture was almost secondary to the way he transformed the possibilities of the way rock n roll was presented.

Second to this idea of rock performance manipulation is Bowie's ability to pinpoint key musical interests and then to subsequently find the perfect collaborators to make those styles his own. An early example was his work with guitarist Mick Ronson, who helped Bowie to become a key architect in the creation of the British glam sound. This musical movement would have far reaching influence on the subsequent genres of punk at the end of the 1970s and the new romantic movement in the early 1980s. But it was Ronson's ear for arrangement that helped Bowie get there. Working with Lou Reed on the album "Transformer" further allowed Bowie to become entrenched in a sound that expanded his own musical pallet, as did Bowie's later collaborations with Iggy Pop for whom he produced an album ("The Idiot") and with whom he wrote "China Girl", among other songs on that record. Of course, Bowie would go on to record "China Girl" on his "Let's Dance album, and this recording became the definitive version. Perhaps Bowie's most famous collaboration was with the former keyboardist of Roxy Music and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, who helped Bowie to produce his trilogy of albums known as "The Berlin Trilogy" "Low", "Heroes", and "Lodger" are the albums associated with this period. Many of these artists represent entirely different approaches to songwriting and production. But Bowie took their influences and melded them to his own template, making their sounds his own.

David Bowie's influence on music, particularly in the 1970's, is arguably the most important influence of that decade. It was Bowie's wandering interest, and his keen ear for detail which allowed him to explore new territories while still remaining true to his own artistic muse. His use of personas and his skillful collaborations is what drew so many other artists to realize the possibilities which they may not have otherwise considered.

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