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Genre : Pop
Latest Release : Greatest Hits Volume 2
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Artist Biography - David Bowie
David Robert Jones was born January 8, 1947, better known as David Bowie, is a profoundly influential British rock and roll musician, artist, and occasional actor, from the 1960s to the present. David Bowie was born in Brixton, an area of London, but grew up in the town of Bromley. In 1966 he changed his name to David Bowie in 1966 after the Monkees' Davy Jones became an international star so he picked Bowie after Jim Bowie.
His first hint of fame came in 1969 when his single Space Oddity was released to coincide with the first moon landing. It was a failure the first time out but it later became a UK hit record. His first notable album, The Man Who Sold The World (1970), mainly had a heavy rock backing provided by long-term collaborator Mick Ronson.
His next record was entitled Hunky Dory in 1971. Hunky Dory sold tremendously well and lifted Bowie into first rank of stars. In an 18 month period in 1972 and '73 he would have four top 10 albums and eight top ten singles in the UK. His next record The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Ziggy Stardust (as it is widely known) was a concept album relating the career of an extraterrestrial rock singer. Bowie took the character to extremes, touring and giving press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt onstage "retirement" in 1973. The record contained some of Bowie's most acclaimed work, much of it a reaction to his own fame and the conflict between his beliefs and the reality of stardom. These themes were further explored, with the same musicians, on 1973's Aladdin Sane, another conceptual work about the disintegration of society. It included the hit "Jean Genie" and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together".
In 1975 came the first of Bowie's re-inventions of his image, having taken the genderless-alien-cum-rock-star to its limit, culminating in the lead role in Nicolas Roeg's film "The Man Who Fell To Earth". He shed the glam rock trappings and, with Young Americans, explored Philadelphia soul with backing from a young Luther Vandross. 1976's Station To Station featured a bleaker version of this soul persona, called "The Thin White Duke". By then Bowie was heavily dependent on drugs, especially cocaine, and had become notorious for a supposed fascist salute given at London's Victoria Station. Many have attributed the chopped rhythms and emotional detachment of the record to the influence of the drug. Bowie's interest in the growing German music scene and the appeal of the nightlife prompted him to move to Berlin, where he produced two more of his own classic albums, and others, notably by Iggy Pop.
The brittle sound of Station to Station was a precursor to that found on Low, the first of three recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno. Heavily influenced by the Krautrock sound of Kraftwerk and others, the new songs were relatively simple, repetitive and stripped a clear and typically perverse reaction to punk rock, with the second side wholly instrumental. The next record, "Heroes", was similar in sound to Low, but more accessible. The mood of these records fit the zeitgeist of the Cold War, symbolized by the divided city that provided inspiration. The title track was a worldwide hit and remains one of Bowie's best known. Lodger (1979) was the final, and least accessible, of his so-called "Berlin Trilogy," although it did feature the hits "D.J.", "Boys Keep Swinging", and "Look Back in Anger".
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David Bowie : Background
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 In the 1980s, Bowie did an about-face and made an unabashed bid for commercial success. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) included the #1 hit "Ashes To Ashes", revisiting the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity". Bowie then scored his first truly commercial blockbuster with Let's Dance (1983), a slick soul/funk album with co-production by Chic's Nile Rodgers. Its title track has become a standard, and the album also featured the singles "Modern Love" and "China Girl", the latter causing something of a stir due to its suggestive promotional video. This album is also notable as a stepping stone for the career of the late Texan guitar virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan, who played on the album and supported Bowie on tour.
The follow-up album Tonight featured collaborations with Tina Turner and a cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows". Critics slammed it as a lazy effort, dashed off by Bowie simply to recapture Let's Dance's chart success. Yet the album bore the minor hit "Blue Jean", whose long-form video, a 15-minute short film directed by Julien Temple, reflected Bowie's long-standing interest in combining music with drama. Never Let Me Down (1987) drew some of the harshest criticism of Bowie's career, condemned by critics as a faceless piece of product and ignored by the public; defenders of the album maintain that many of its songs are underrated and that Bowie at this time was simply facing the inevitable backlash of an overexposed superstar.
In 1989, for the first time since the early 1970s, Bowie formed a regular band, Tin Machine, a hard-rocking quartet that released two studio albums and a live record. The band received mediocre reviews and was ignored by the public, but Tin Machine heralded the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between Bowie and guitarist Reeves Gabrels.
Bowie began the 1990s with a stadium tour in which he played many of his biggest hits for what he said would be the last time. He surprised no one when he later reneged on that promise. But the 90s did show that Bowie had learned some harsh lessons from the previous decade, and was determined to get serious about concentrating on music more so than commercial success.
Undaunted, Bowie explored new directions on albums such as 1993's The Buddha of Suburbia, 1995's ambitious, quasi-industrial Outside, 1997's Earthling, and 1999's Hours, featuring "What's Really Happening", the lyrics for which were written by the winner of an Internet competition. Bowie also performed live again extensively throughout the 90s. The decade also saw him launch a branded ISP (BowieNet) as well as a novel and quite successful fundraising scheme to raise cash on the strength of future royalties, called Bowie Bonds.
The 2002 album Heathen reunited him with Tony Visconti, producer of many of his best 1970s efforts, and won critical acclaim for his best chart performance in years. In 2003, a report in the Sunday Express named Bowie as the second-richest entertainer in the U.K. (behind Paul McCartney). Later that year, Bowie released a new album, Reality, and announced a world tour. Today, living in New York with his second wife, Iman and their daughter, Bowie remains a dynamic, ever-changing artist.
His next record was entitled Hunky Dory in 1971. Hunky Dory sold tremendously well and lifted Bowie into first rank of stars. In an 18 month period in 1972 and '73 he would have four top 10 albums and eight top ten singles in the UK. His next record The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Ziggy Stardust (as it is widely known) was a concept album relating the career of an extraterrestrial rock singer. Bowie took the character to extremes, touring and giving press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt onstage "retirement" in 1973. The record contained some of Bowie's most acclaimed work, much of it a reaction to his own fame and the conflict between his beliefs and the reality of stardom. These themes were further explored, with the same musicians, on 1973's Aladdin Sane, another conceptual work about the disintegration of society. It included the hit "Jean Genie" and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together".
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