On the tenth of January it will mark two years since the death of David Robert Jones, more notoriously known by his stage name David Bowie. Since the beginning of his career in 1967 to the final album in 2016, David Bowie goes down in history for the way he broke barriers and shifted his sound and style to change with every decade. Only the greats have album swhich go down as iconic, but Bowie has managed four in his career- and maybe even more! Here is a list of the four most iconic David Bowie albums in Bowie History.
Hunky Dory came out in 1971 and is home of two well known David Bowie songs. The first song, "Changes" which is about artist "compulsive reinvention" . The second of which, "Life on Mars", which looks to reflect modern culture and leniency to media and entertainment. Both songs have been featured on TV, "Life on Mars" having been in American horror Story: Freak Show and performed by Jessica Lange and "Changes" in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen performed by Lindsey Lohan. The whole album is the type of record you put on a record player and just does not sound the same played elsewhere. If you haven't heard it on vinyl, you haven't heard it.
While not many songs are referenced from this album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is truly a testament to David Bowie’s creative adaptability from the 70s to the 80s in his genre, despite being let out at the very beginning of the decade in 1980. It’s far from the acoustic and mellow sound of Hunky Dory, but still true to the Bowie Brand. If I’m going to be honest, first hearing the title track to Scary Monsters, I had assumed it came out at the same time his nineties era had started due to the sound that resonates through the album. I guess it just goes to show Bowie truly was ahead of his time.
Not only is the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust iconic, but the whole premise of it is iconic. Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie's first persona, noted for his sexual liberation and performance art. David Bowie had created and "killed off" the persona by announcing their last show would be the "last show ever" for Ziggy, and thus the title of the album "the rise and fall". Rise and Fall is noted arguably as one of the most iconic Bowie eras in history, and for good reason. The album consists of multiple iconic songs, such as "Moonage Daydream", which was featured in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, "Ziggy Stardust", and "Starman" which played worldwide surrounding his death.
The final album to grace this list of the four most iconic albums is none other than his final album, Blackstar. Featured in the number 2 slot of Rolling Stones “best albums of 2016” list, Blackstar is labeled a one of a kind musical farewell- released on his birthday, January 8th, just two days prior to his death. It is near impossible to compare Blackstar’s soothing jazz sound to the earlier and “dizzyingly adventurous albums”. Blackstar is home to metaphors only fully appreciated after his death, such as the title “blackstar” being the name for “transitional state between a collapsed star and a state of infinite value in physics”. Such analogy is easy to connect to the Starman himself. Truly historic, and while much different, two years later it is still certainly worth the purchase and listen.
