[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyNyjSzxAg%5D]
David Bowie, [ˈboʊi]; pseud. di David Robert Jones (Londra, 8 gennaio 1947), è un cantautore, polistrumentista, attore e compositore britannico.
Attivo dalla metà degli anni sessanta, Bowie ha attraversato cinque decenni della musica rock, reinventando nel tempo il suo stile e la sua immagine e creando alter ego come Ziggy Stardust, Halloween Jack, Nathan Adler, e The Thin White Duke (noto in Italia come il “Duca Bianco”). Dal folk acustico all’elettronica, passando attraverso il glam rock, il soul e il krautrock, David Bowie ha lasciato tracce che hanno influenzato molti artisti.[1]
Come attore, dopo alcune piccole apparizioni ha avuto un ottimo successo nel 1976 come protagonista del film di fantascienza L’uomo che cadde sulla Terra di Nicolas Roeg. Tra le sue interpretazioni più note si ricordano Furyo (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) di Nagisa Oshima del 1983, Absolute Beginners e Labyrinth del 1986 e Basquiat di Julian Schnabel del 1996 nel quale interpreta il ruolo di Andy Warhol.
David Bowie è sposato dal 1992 con la modella somala Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid ed ha due figli, Duncan Zowie Haywood (nato nel 1971 dal precedente matrimonio con Mary Angela Barnett) e Alexandria Zahra (nata nel 2000), oltre a Zulekha, nata dal precedente matrimonio di Iman. Nel 2008 è stato inserito al 23º posto nella lista dei 100 migliori cantanti secondo Rolling Stone[2], e tra le sue migliori “tracce vocali” ci sono Life on Mars?, Space Oddity, Starman ed Heroes[3]. Nel 2007 è secondo la rivista Forbes al quarto posto nell’elenco dei cantanti più ricchi del mondo[4].
Al ritmo di un disco all’anno, Bowie per parecchi anni nel bene e nel male non si è mai limitato a creare un “marchio Bowie” uguale a se stesso e rassicurante: dalle nostalgie beat con Pin Ups, agli incubi orwelliani di Diamond Dogs, al R&B bianco con Station to Station e Young Americans, all’electro pop intellettuale che, secondo molti critici, costituirà la fase più creativa della sua carriera fra il 1977 e il 1979, con la cosiddetta trilogia berlinese di Low, Heroes e Lodger, album in realtà (salvo il secondo) realizzati solo parzialmente a Berlino, ma comunque fortemente influenzati dalle contaminazioni tra rock ed elettronica di cui erano maestri i Kraftwerk e i Neu!, gruppi entrambi tedeschi.
Decisivo l’incontro con Brian Eno, altro reduce dal glam-rock dei primi settanta con i Roxy Music del dandy Bryan Ferry. Altrettanto decisivo un successo ormai consolidato che permette all’artista di sperimentare soluzioni nuove senza inseguire il riscontro commerciale. Nel frattempo il personaggio non è più l’androgino Ziggy Stardust ma un thin white duke (sottile duca bianco) dalle inquietanti suggestioni androgine sotto uno stile musicale esteriormente sempre più virile, colto, e raffinato.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie
David Bowie (/ˈboʊ.i/;[1] born David Robert Jones, 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, and actor. He is also a painter and collector of fine art.[2] Bowie has been a major figure in the world of popular music for over four decades, and is renowned as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive baritone voice as well as the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work. Aside from his musical abilities, he is recognised for his androgynous beauty, which was an iconic element to his image, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4]
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969 when his song “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 with the 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. Bowie’s impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, “challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day” and “created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture.”[5] The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation 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 characterised 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 (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger, the so-called “Berlin Trilogy” albums, all reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single “Ashes to Ashes”, its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and “Under Pressure”, a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with Let’s Dance, which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. He has not toured since the 2003–04 Reality Tour and has not performed live since 2006. Bowie’s latest studio album The Next Day was released in March 2013.
David Buckley says of Bowie: “His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure.”[5] In the BBC’s 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie was placed at number 29. Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140 million albums.[6] In the UK, he has been awarded nine Platinum album certifications, 11 Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, five Platinum and seven Gold certifications. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”, and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all time.
